I read this many years ago and have never forgotten it.

books:


	• Leave Her to Heaven Ben Ames Williams Chicago Review Press, 2007 - 432 pages average customer review:based on 7 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Still Current in Modern Times

Leave Her to Heaven is a difficult book to categorize. It is mostly from the male character's point of view. Richard Harland is a bachelor taking a train out west. He runs into Ellen, who at first seems a relatively innocent, minor character. However, in short time, Ellen is shown to be a great manipulator, an extremely jealous, possessive woman who plots and schemes to get whatever she wants. In this case, what she wants is Richard.

Usually the book would be all about how Ellen twists and turns to get her hands on him, and how either he manages to escape from her or how together they realize they are great together and end up happy. However, this book - written in the early 1940s - will have none of that. Instead, the author allows Ellen to grab Richard pretty much immediately, and whisk him away into her self-centered world. Harland, a patient, drifting sort, does not really protest much. He allows her to control and order his life.

It's hard to review this book fully without giving away any of the spoilers. Ellen's behavior is just so outrageous that you are never quite sure what she is going to do next. Harland is very caring about his younger brother who cannot walk properly. Ellen is, of course, jealous. Is she going to be able to keep up her veneer of caring? Will she crack? How about Ellen's sweet younger (adopted) sister who is as patient and gentle as Harlan. Will she ever escape from the world she's in? Or is this book all about how nice people are doomed and how grabby people get the biggest piece of pie?

I initially picked up this book because I was reading the diary of my great-grandmother, and back in 1945 she mentioned having read this book. Those days were long before the wild twisted-relationship books of the 70s and 80s, but this book is certainly not staid and boring. You might think that this book would seem dated and "old". Really, though, many of the places they go are rustic and remote - and probably are just the way now as they were then. The descriptions of locations are lush and vivid. With a few minor changes - like telegrams turning into cell phones - the story could take place today.

Still, I found it not fun to read about such a nasty, self-centered person as a main character. I kept wanting something to happen to her to shake her out of her way of life. I understand that stories should be about all types of characters of all flavors, but if I'm going to spend a few hours immersing myself in a fictional world, I don't want it to be one of despair, cruel behavior and downtrodden people. There is enough of that in the real world, and if I'm going to put myself through that, I'd rather read of real situations and get some sense of how I might help improve things.

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Enjoyable book of the 40s era

This is the tale of the ultimate femme fatale. Meet Ellen. She is completely selfish and her only form of love is total posession. This book is the noirish tale of her marriage.

Richard Harland happens upon Ellen while riding a train and she seems just a little too perfect to be real. Ellen eventually marries him but her desperate posessiveness grows worse. She will stop and nothing, even murder, to see to it that Richard is hers alone.

The book gets into the heads of all the major characters and I was impressed at how well the author writes from the female viewpoint. While Ellen is quite insane, it is still clear what makes her tick.

This book has much to offer: romance, mysteries, drama and finally an intense courtroom scene. Highly enjoyable and has the true flavor of the 40s.

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I read this many years ago and have never forgotten it.

This book will draw you in from the first and will not relinquish its hold on you for a long time.

I read it while still a teenager, many years ago, and have never forgotten its story of possessive love (or obsession)and the tragedy of the tale. I, unfortunately, lost my copy and am now searching for another so that my 15 year old daughter might experience it.

The author is very adept at bringing life to the characters and the events that unfold around and because of them. I would recommend this book to anyone.

I started a book club a couple of years ago....the discussion on this book was one of the very best our group has ever had.

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Possessive devotion

Erotomania is still an enigma, but I do so love books written about it. This book is lush with descriptions of all the characters and surroundings. New Mexico, Back of the Moon, Bar Harbor all become very very real.
Ellen becomes a living breathing woman, alive with passion and possesiveness. We are able to see her and hear her thoughts, Richard becomes the unwitting object of her affection and everyone else is a threat to their love.
Her evil isn't truly revealed until you think moments of true happiness have been reached, only to have it all ripped away.

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Amazing novel

Over the past year, I've been reading the "greatest suspense novels of all time". I decided to take a break from the list and just happened on this book. I liked the cover art and according to the back cover, this book was the basis of the Tierney movie of the same title.

After reading this novel, I highly recommend it to any fan of suspense fiction.

I think there as been at least 6 Lifetime movies, and numerous episodes of Law and Order, based on the plot points of this book.

I will not provide spoilers but I will say that there were times when the tension was too much to bear and I had momentarily put the book aside to let some of the actions of Ellen (that heiferwhorebitch) sink in.

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reviews: page 1, 2

This classic bestselling novel about a man who encounters a woman whose power to destroy is as strong as her power to love evokes Hemingway in its naturalistic portrayal of elemental forces in both nature and humanity. Ellen?s beauty was radiant, and Harland had been so struck with her personality and the strength of her character that he knew he could never leave her. When he found that she returned his adoration, he could marry her with joy, bothered just momentarily by a strange premonition. It was only later, when the premonition became a horrifying reality, that he realized the glowing loveliness of the woman he had married was the true face of evil.

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