Review and Giveaway: A Small Indiscretion by Jan Ellison

My Review:
Annie Black has been married to the same man for 20 years, they have 3 happy and healthy children together and she owns her own business.  So why in the world would she do anything to jeopardize the happy life she has worked so hard to build?

A SMALL INDESCRETION is written as a letter from Annie to her oldest son Robbie who has just spent the last year recovering from a horrible car accident.  In order to fully explain to her son and the rest of her family why she has so disrupted their lives, she must start by telling them about the 6 months she spent in London when she was 20 years old.

In 1989 Annie is feeling restless and wants to travel and have new adventures in Europe.  When she reaches England she begins working as an office manager for a man named Malcolm who is a wealthy builder.  I was riveted for the first half of the book while Annie tells us about her time in London and the impulsive mistakes she makes that involve alcohol and sex.  She is young, naïve, and compulsive and her inexperience goes a long way towards understanding her indiscretions.

Fast forward 20 years and what Annie calls a “small indiscretion” cannot be explained away by the stupidity of youth.  I felt that her mistake, which becomes fairly obvious about half way through the book, was more stupid than small.  Annie spends a lot of time feeling sorry for herself when her husband moves out and she has to share custody of her children with him.  She is lonely and lost.  But she is an experienced adult who should have known better and it is hard to feel any sympathy for her and the awful circumstances which she has created.

A SMALL INDISCRETION is an interesting read about which I have mixed feelings.  I had more interest in Annie’s story as a young woman, but the second part of the story which describes grown-up, adult Annie felt anticlimactic.  Scroll down to the end of my post to enter to win your own copy of the book.  I would love to know what others think about the plot of this novel.

About The Author:
Jan Ellison lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband of twenty years and their four children. Jan’s first published short story won a 2007 O. Henry Prize. Her work has also been short-listed for the Best American Short Stories and the Pushcart Prize. After her children were born, she spent seven years taking classes at San Francisco State and finally earned her MFA.

Jan had a brief career in her twenties at a Silicon Valley startup, marketing risk management software to derivatives traders. The company went public, Jan became a mother, and instead of leaning in she leaned out, became a stay-at-home mom, and began to write.

Before that, Jan abandoned a job in investment banking before she even started it to spend two years waitressing in Hawaii, temping in Australia, and backpacking through Southeast Asia. Her college days were spent at Stanford, where she earned a degree in History, but wishes it was in English. She left Stanford for a year at nineteen to live on a shoe-string in Paris and work in an office in London. She scribbled notes on yellow legal pads, and years later those notes provided the inspiration for her debut novel, A Small Indiscretion, published this January by Random House.

Giveaway:
I am giving away one paperback copy of A Small Indiscretion to one reader in the U.S.  Just leave me a comment below and let me know that you want to win!  The winner will be notified via e-mail and will have 48 hours to respond.  Giveaway ends 2/26.

The Winner is: Suanne L.  Thanks to everyone that entered!