Product Description

After sixteen years of marriage, Mattie Hart discovers that her husband, Jake -- a high-profile Chicago attorney -- is involved in yet another love affair. But a far greater crisis descends upon the Hart family after Jake leaves home: Mattie receives devastating news that will alter their lives. Wracked by guilt, Jake returns to the wife he has never really loved and the teenage daughter who wants nothing to do with him. Here, in a novel bearing all the distinctive qualities of a contemporary classic, Joy Fielding deftly ushers her characters through a poignant drama about love's astonishing power to heal the deepest wounds. The First Time is a dazzling illumination of a marriage at the crossroads, where a long-estranged husband and wife discover, for the first time, what love really means.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #83999 in Books
• Published on: 2009-06-09
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 400 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781439108987
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Publishers Weekly
Terminal illness becomes a catalyst for change in this generally affecting if sometimes maudlin drama by the bestselling author of Missing Pieces and See Jane Run. At 36, art dealer Mattie Hart seems to be enjoying a perfect life. Her husband, Jake, is a brilliant criminal defense lawyer; her teenage daughter, Kim, is lovely and affectionate; and the Harts have a gorgeous home in the Chicago suburbs. But ever since their hasty marriage 16 years agoAMattie got pregnant on their first dateAJake has been chafing at the bit, sleeping around and neglecting his wife. Until now, Mattie has managed to ignore his infidelities. But his most recent affair, with freelance writer Honey Novak, is more serious, and Jake plots to leave Mattie just as she plans to confront him. Matters come to crisis when Mattie is found to have debilitating Lou Gehrig's disease, with the prognosis of only a short time to live. Jake is guilt-ridden; though he has already moved out, he returns home to care for Mattie, meanwhile continuing his liaison with Honey. The complicated emotional situation hurts Kim, who is already struggling with the onset of maturity and the pressures of social popularity. Fielding is good at chronicling the messy tangle of family relationships, delving into Jake's childhood memories of abuse and Mattie's recollections of marital neglect. As the end approaches for Mattie, all three are forced to examine what love really means. None too subtle, the novel nevertheless wins points for honesty and forthrightness, tackling complex issues and gearing readers up for a three-tissue finale. Regional author tour. (Sept.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Mattie Hart has spent the past 16 years destroying the evidence of an unfaithful husband: she has brushed aside countless scraps of scribbled phone numbers, thrown away hotel receipts she finds in her husband's coat pockets, and ripped up love notes. Finally, with the recent discovery of yet another indiscretion, she realizes that shredding physical evidence has done nothing to prevent her emotional fraying. Yet before Mattie can confront Jake, a high-profile defense lawyer, and come to grips with the fact that he has never loved her, he moves out of their beautiful suburban Chicago home and into his latest young paramour's apartment. And then Mattie receives some devastating news from her doctor: she has Lou Gehrig's disease. Struggling with a guilty conscience, Jake moves back home to care for his wife and repair relations with their angry teenage daughter, Kim. After a bout of furious denial, Mattie finds herself in the compromising position of depending upon a man whom she has never fully trusted. She also must convince Kim that her previously absent father will be there for her in the future. This is rich stuff. While skimping on plot, Fielding has created an adept study of three flawed characters who, after years of playing head games, must learn how to communicate. Despite such heavy psychological drama, the tone lightens as together these three vanquish inner demons. In the end, even as the novel races toward tragedy, Mattie prevails. Fielding has again pushed a seemingly fragile heroine to the brink, only to have her fight back, tooth and nail. This time, though, death is not the greatest threat. Kristin Kloberdanz
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

From Kirkus Reviews
Fielding forgoes the criminal emphasis of her recent soccer-mom thrillers (Missing Pieces, 1997, etc.) to focus on the greatest noncriminal peril of all: an early death sentence.It hasn't all been roses for Mattie Hart. She's never felt close to her mother or the husband who married her because she was pregnant. Now that Jake Hart is making a name in Chicago law circles, the problems continue. He can't stop chasing skirts, and his daughter Kim wants even less to do with him than most 15-year-olds. It all seems to come to a head when Jake announces that he's moving in with his latest lover, novelist Honey Novak. But Jake's desertion is only a warm-up for a far more momentous ordeal: the news that Mattie's been falling down, laughing uncontrollably, and feeling her foot go to sleep recently because she's in the early stages of ALS, the disease that struck down Lou Gehrig in his prime. What can Mattie do with the year (or, if she's lucky, two or three) she has left? Fielding acutely traces her early alternation of impulsive self-indulgence (going on a shopping spree, buying a sports car she soon won't be able to drive, arranging a fling of her own) and dull despair (the most routine tasks take longer, the simplest decisions become monstrously complicated). Along with the annoyingly banal problems she'd have to cope with even if she weren't dying, Mattie now feels a new urgency in her attempts to understand her estranged husband, whose childhood had been even more traumatic than hers. Predictably but magically, the challenge of Mattie's physical degeneration rekindles her love of life and laughter and her errant spouse. It's only in the final stages of the illness, when Mattie's state seems to require some deeper insight, that Fielding comes up short.For the most part, though, a tonic account of how one woman discovers her truest self in the face of supreme disaster. -- Copyright © 2000 Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Customer Reviews

A Moving and Wonderful Read
I have only read one other of Joy Fielding's works. This novel has convinced me I must try all of them. I read a lot of books, and this one was the best I've read all year.

There are moments of stunning and surprising pure beauty. Many times, I had to stop reading, put the book down and take a breather. Other times I had to go back and re-read a scene several times, unable to absorb it all the first time, or maybe just reluctant to let the moment pass. This book is "that" good.

The story revolves around the family of Mattie, Jake and Kim; their laughter, tears and fear. You fall in love with them, follow all of their daily actions and thoughts, never becoming bored or uninterested in a single detail. Mattie is in a seemingly unhappy and trapped marriage, her husband seeks comfort in other women, and their daughter Kim is struggling with being 15 and growing up. When Mattie finds she is stricken with ALS, a fatal disease, it changes everyone's perspective and lives. Somehow, they must figure out all their feelings for one another while time is running out.

I must say this is the best book I've read in a long time, and I don't imagine another one to take its place for awhile. This book is powerful, graceful, touching and real. I can't give it high enough marks. It is a novel that must be read. I couldn't put it down until I reached the last page, late into the evening. Read it now, and you won't be disappointed.

Fielding's Bittersweet Story of Life and Love Is Awesome
Having enjoyed Joy Fielding's GRAND AVENUE so much, I was anxious to read another by this author. I secretly doubted she could duplicate the magic of the aforementioned book, but she did! The story is completely different, but the same compelling style of writing reels you in and makes you never want to put the book down.

You will be completely involved in Mattie Hart's life from the opening line when she is thinking of ways to kill her philandering husband to the unthinkable request she makes of her mother. You will be struck by the inner strength this woman brings to her life as well as to that of her family and deeply touched by the graphic description of a terminal illness.

Jake Hart, her husband, is an interesting creation. He doesn't love his wife, never has. He only married her because she was pregnant and Jake always likes to do the right thing. He constantly cheats on Mattie throughout their sixteen years of marriage and has never said "I love you" to her. So what's to like about a man like this? Amazingly, Fielding is able to present a side of Jake that touches every emotional note and leaves you rooting for this multi-faceted character.

From a comical steak-throwing spree in a Chicago grocery store to a wildly romantic chase through a Paris airport, Mattie and Jake's story will leave you breathless. Add to the mix their daughter Kim who is experiencing her first sexual misadventure and Mattie's mother who could never love her daughter like she needed to be loved.

THE FIRST TIME explores the ties that bind and the power of love to overcome the deepest wounds people can inflict upon one another. Inspiring and highly emotional, this book is one that touches the heart with its realism and poignant moments.

Fielding didn't disappoint!
It was her most recent novel, Grand Avenue, that got me interested in reading more of Fielding's books. And this one didn't disappoint at all!! It is refreshingly honest, gripping and delved into the myriads of familial relationships even before diaster strikes!

Mattie Hart has spent almost 16 years playing wife to hot-shot defense attorney Jake Hart ~~ quietly ignoring the signs of his numerous affairs. She raised their daughter, the reason why they got married, Kim as best as she could. Not saying that Mattie is the perfect wife or mother ~~ she has made some mistakes in her lifetime as well ~~ but when she found out she was stricken with ASL or Lou Gehrig's disease, her whole world tumbled. Jake had already moved out and started living with his newest paramour ~~ only to move home to take care of Mattie. And this is their story. Theirs and Kim's.

Families aren't always strong as it appears to the public ~~ Jake Hart's glowing image got tarnished throughout the story as he struggled with issues related to his marriage and childhood. Ultimately, he decided on one course and saw it to the end ~~ much to Mattie's great surprise. Kim, usually the perfect beautiful daughter, gets in trouble constantly at school or at home ~~ unable to totally understand what is really going on in her life and with her mother. She comes to realization later on as well ~~ accepting the fact that they all are human. Mattie ~~ the star of this book manages to live her life and lies gracefully ~~ though the disease ravaged her body. Some of the dreams she had never known she had held managed to come to the surface ~~ and she learns to deal with them as well as the fact that she is dying.

This book strikes a chord in this reader's heart. Family relationships aren't always easy but if you stick them out, they turn out to be the greatest blessings. Fielding does a wonderful job of sharing her characters' thoughts and views as life they know it tumbles around them. And they manage to deal with Mattie's dying with grace and humor ~~ after a long, bitter fight.

I have to admit, this is another book you can't just put down and forget about for a few days. You'll be grabbed by the characters' voices and dreams ~~ you'll know them as intimately as you know a friend or even yourself. And be prepared to have kleenexes nearby. It's a book you won't quickly forget!

5-20-02