
Audio Book Release Date: April 26, 2022
About The Book:
Paris. Tokyo. Shanghai. Seoul. Em’s Awful Good Fortune is part global romp, part dysfunctional marriage. Em is not simply married – it’s more like she’s handcuffed to her husband’s international career. Sure, they might be velvet cuffs, but still…cuffed. What else can she do but stomp her way through global capitals in search of her own identity?
Part dysfunctional marriage, part global romp, this is not your typical expat story. Em’s Awful Good Fortune is a deeply personal, marriage coming-apart-at-the-seams look at the struggle between a woman’s desire for partnership and her need for identity. Fueled by twin demons, love and rage, Em stomps her way around the world coming to terms with the fantasy of having it all: husband, kids, and a career. Em is not just married; it’s more like being handcuffed to her husband’s international career. Her life reads like a fantasy, bouncing between Los Angeles, Paris, Tokyo, Shanghai, and Seoul. But – the good fortune is all her husband’s: Em is just the tagalong wife.
Maxfield’s compelling, nonlinear story explores the expatriate lifestyle through the lens of a crumbling marriage, while at the same time tracing the lasting impact of sexual assault and PTSD. Em’s journey exposes the dark corners of this seemingly privileged world: loneliness, depression, infidelity, and loss of career. An empowering, uncomfortably funny narrative about compromise that every woman should hear. As Em begins to value her needs before those of her husband’s career, she stops letting herself be dragged along for the ride – and ultimately emerges triumphant.
Author:
Marcie Maxfield’s voice is fierce, authentic, and personal. Her debut novel, Em’s Awful Good Fortune, is based on her experiences living overseas as a tagalong wife. Her play Girls Together Always—a collection of coming-of-age stories about “growing up girl”—won the ENCORE! Producer’s Award at the Hollywood Fringe Festival. Maxfield lives in Los Angeles where she volunteers for WriteGirl, a non-profit organization that mentors underserved youth through creative writing. She is married with two kids, a French bulldog, and two rescue cats named Hunky and Dory. Marcie is available for readings and book clubs. For more information or to join her mailing list, please visit her website: www.marciemaxfield.com
Social Media:
Instagram : https://instagram.com/marcie.b.max
Twitter: @marciemaxfield
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/m2mktg/
SPOTIFY: Em’s Playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1M7QBnaqo948EVouz23Iu
Book Blurbs:
“Em’s Awful Good Fortune takes its reader across the world and deep into the heart of its trapped, privileged, suffering, and, ultimately, invincible narrator. Equally funny and brutal, this novel breathes vivid life into a much maligned and little understood “type”—the expat wife. Maxfield poured her heart into the writing, and it shows: the pages crackle.”
—Junot Diaz, Pulitzer Prize winning author of The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Drown and This Is How You Lose Her
“Em’s Awful Good Fortune brilliantly skewers the rarified life of the overly precious ‘tagalong’ expat life. The novel reads like your best friend’s blisteringly funny diary, especially if your best friend happens to be a stand-up comic with a knife’s-edge wit who can make mincemeat out of any philandering husband. . . . Find a chair, open the first page of this sizzling story, and fly around the world on that trip you’ve been itching to take all year.” —Susan Conley, author of Landslide and The Foremost Good Fortune
“With wit, wisdom and remarkable candor, Marcie Maxfield shines a light on a secret side of the jet-set world. As a fellow expat, she had me nodding and laughing—and sometimes groaning—in recognition of her experiences. Marcie describes so accurately the free-falling feeling of arriving in a new country. Any woman who has ever sacrificed something of herself for her family will empathize with the good fortune that comes with a hidden cost.”—Jo Furniss, author of The Trailing Spouse, The Last To Know, and Amazon Charts bestseller All the Little Children
“Maxfield calls Em’s problems those of ‘tagalong wife privilege,’ but the novel isn’t just about that; there’s something here that’s more universal, which women in different circumstances are sure to find familiar: the notion of abandoning the care of one’s own health and happiness in the name of love of family and marriage.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“A fast-paced, blink-and-you’ll-miss-it whirlwind of a book capturing the good, the bad, and the ugly of being a ‘tagalong’ expat wife. Marcie Maxfield will take you on a global ride—and personal journey—in this funny, poignant novel.” —Stephanie Suga Chen, author of The Straits Times bestseller Travails of a Trailing Spouse and Disunited Nations: International School Mums at War
“Em’s Awful Good Fortune is ferocious and hilarious, with a writing voice so unique it will knock your socks off. This breathless story of a woman’s attempt at balancing love with self-love as she navigates the few joys and many pitfalls of the tagalong life will keep you reading until the wee hours, and might even change the way you view marriage, travel, and feminism.” —Corine Gantz, author of Hidden in Paris and the trilogy The Curator of Broken Things.
“Maxfield’s Em is the feminist response to Dangerfield’s ‘I don’t get no respect.’ A character you want to meet in a lost bar in a lost town and spend the evening laughing with. Ironic, poignant, and downright funny, this is a great novel to take on the road . . .” —Andrew Fierberg, producer of Secretary and My Art
“Em’s Awful Good Fortune is an intense look at what it means to stay in a rocky marriage and persevere. By turns funny and heartbreaking, it addresses the ups and downs of being alternatively assertive and submissive and challenges readers to assess how much sacrifice makes sense in a particular relationship. The book is a forthright examination of love and a deeply felt examination of love’s limitations.” —Eleanor J. Bader, award-winning freelance journalist
“With one foot in the past and one in the present, Marcie Maxfield compiled a stunner of a novel.” —Mel Rosenthal, The Book Slut
“This is not just a woman’s book; it’s a universal lesson, the ‘medicine’ of which doesn’t come with a spoonful of sugar. The writing is hardheaded, honest, and direct. Em is a flawed and therefore endearingly human character. Maxfield is like a great comic actor, improvising, free-associating, seducing us to ride along on the riff that is Em’s Awful Good Fortune.” —Rick Lenz, award-winning author of North of Hollywood and The Alexandrite
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