Recalculating (Kindle Single): An eShort Story

On the surface, Maureen’s life appears no different from any other stereotypical 54-year-old housewife's: a suburban home in a small Pennsylvania town, two loving kids, grandchildren, and a husband to dote on at the end of the day with a home-cooked meal and a crisp martini. Fat bitch, dumb bunny, slut, tramp: these are just a few of the cruel words that echo in Maureen’s ears every day and define the harsh reality she actually lives in. For years, Maureen has harbored a dark secret known by only one other person: her husband, Tommy.After Tommy dies, Maureen imagines that the years of physical and mental abuse are over. But just six months later, while looking for the Halloween decorations in the attic, Maureen finds a gift-wrapped GPS with her name on the box: an early birthday present from her late husband. When the voice from the machine starts giving her sinister directions, she learns that sometimes the dead are restless... and she's locked in a battle not just for her life, but for her soul.

Amazon.com Review

Jennifer Weiner has a particular gift for breezy storytelling. It's that breeziness, in part, that's helped to brand her insightful, funny work about suburban women as "chick lit," a term she both embraces and resents. While Recalculating moves by as effortlessly as her other writing, this chilling modern-day ghost story is anything but breezy. Weiner has created yet another identifiable character in Maureen, a middle-aged woman haunted by a husband whose controlling grip remains tight around her even after his death. Drawing on Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart," Weiner's experiments with the paranormal achieve spooky effect. But the true horror of this story lies in the ordinary, the quiet, cruel everyday that happens behind suburbia's closed doors. Deftly structured, Recalculating covers both the terrain of a hellish marriage and the emotional revolution of one woman's trying to find her way to freedom. Even in Maureen's darkest moments, the reader can't help but root for her. --Simone Gorrindo

About the Author

Jennifer Weiner is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of seventeen books, including Big Summer, Mrs. Everything, the children’s book The Littlest Bigfoot, and an essay collection, Hungry Heart: Adventures in Life, Love, and Writing. A graduate of Princeton University and contributor to the New York Times Opinion section, Jennifer lives with her family in Philadelphia. Visit her online at JenniferWeiner.com.

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