Thomas J. Hubschman

This is the story of Deidre ending her abusive, violent marriage and reclaiming her life. She has to sneak her belongings out of the house, bag by bag, keeping them at work so as not to alert her controling husband (whom she always calls by his full name, Tim Davis) to her planned escape. But he still turns up at her workplace, threatening by his mere presence. Deidre has a fractured and co-dependent relationship with her schizoprhenic son, both blaming him for not leaving her marriage show more sooner, and using his mental instability as an excuse for staying.

Having witnessed my mother leave a violent relationship and her very real and justified fears about the consequences of doing so, I can testify to the verisimilitude of Deidre's situation; I found her a very real and engaging character in an extremely well written book. Highly recommended. show less

I didn't have high expectations of this book - from the blurb, it looked a bit mawkish - but I was very pleasantly surprised. This is a very well-told tale of a woman trying to escape a life-long abusive marriage, one she has been tied into since becoming pregnant aged fifteen.

I thought the description of the husband's abusive behaviour, both towards the protagonist, Deirdre, and her schizophrenic son, was very well handled. He is not described as being physically abusive, but extremely show more mentally and emotionally abusive. The main interest in the story came, for me, from seeing how marriage to this domineering bully had affected Deirdre long-term.

I really liked the character of Deirdre - she was not always likeable, but always believable. Her relationship with her mother - a cold, distant woman - is also well drawn, as is the deterioration of her new relationship with a man she'd thought of as her salvation.

My main quibble with the book - which cost it half a star in my review - is that the ending is very contrived. I'd wanted to see more of how Deirdre managed to escape her ex-husbands influence, but what actually happens (without wanting to give any spoilers here!) feels like a cop-out.

Overall, a very enjoyable, well-written novel. I'll be looking up more of Thomas J. Hubschman's work. show less

Told in diary form, "Look at Me Now" is a contemporary novel about a woman, Deirdre Davis, who after 23 years of marriage to a domineering verbally abusive man is determined to break away and start a new life. Deirdre so strongly fears his power over her that the opening scene is her final day of gradually sneaking her most precious personal belongings out of their home so when she breaks the news to her husband she won’t have to face him again for a very long time.

Contrary to the show more testimonial on the back cover, I strongly disagree that Mr. Hubschman wrote the book from the perspective of a woman. I may be naïve but I have never heard of a woman tormented throughout her entire life by such uncontrollable sexual urges. If women like this exist I would categorize them as nymphomaniacs and Mr. Hubschman tells the story as though Dierdre is a normal ordinary woman. This obsession with sex dominates the story to the point where it affects the outcome of the plot. The only thing Deirdre seemed to love was sex, and I don’t think most women see sexual gratification as their primary objective in life. Please don’t misunderstand. There are no steamy sex scenes, just this troubled woman’s description of her struggles to build a future. There is nothing authentic, or believable about her diary entries. She does not confront any of her own flawed personality traits: anger issues, lack of respect for authority (especially anyone in uniform: doctors, nurses, and policemen.), lack of empathy, disdain for all young pretty women, and dislike for all men (even though she claims to love men). Her personality traits are sometimes contradictory to her actions. For example she writes about having been intimidated and bullied by her husband but there is no evidence that she is ever afraid of anything. In fact, she is quite aggressive and verbally abusive herself. She writes that her husband held her back from having a good career, but she got both bachelors and masters degrees during her marriage, and proves to have a poor work ethic. Her actions were not appropriate for the personality Mr. Hubschman gave her.

In addition, the plot is just a little too convenient. Having the strong virile unwanted husband suddenly get a mysterious virus and die gave Hubschman a way to end the book with a touch of melodrama, and avoid ever dealing with the real issues. Although the subject matter of spousal abuse and oppression is timeless and relevant, I found the story to be unnatural, condescending, shallow, and a waste of time. show less

Deirdre Davis leaves her husband after 20 years of marriage to start a new life in her late 30s. Can she leave the past behind and escape the hold he has on her.

I thought this book was a bit strange. I wasn't at all sure I wanted to read it when it arrived, but once I opened it, it held my interest and I finished this short novel very quickly.

The writing was good enough to make me want to keep turning the pages, although I was most struck by the early remembered scenes in which Deirdre show more remembers being expelled from school for being pregnant. She got married because of the baby, who is now grown up and has left home.

As the story developed though, I didn't find her a very likeable person. I sympathised with her leaving her husband, but she was very down on everything in her life - her job didn't seem as bad as she thought it was.

I was also put off by the inclusion of a lot of masturbation scenes, not because I'm prudish but they just seemed a bit superfluous.

I wondered if the book had had a proper editor or someone with some critical distance to suggest improvements to the manuscript - I think there was potential in this novel which isn't realised. show less