The Imaginary Life of Abigail Jones – a Review

The Imaginary Life of Abigail Jones is a captivating read, and the things that took place in Abigail’s life made me look forward to turning each page. The author’s vivid descriptions of seemingly insignificant details brought them to vibrant life.

Literary fiction is not my favorite genre. Some of the literary fiction I’ve read didn’t seem to have a plot or even a reason for being written. Many of the books I’ve read from this genre were downright depressing but not The Imaginary Life of Abigail Jones; this could easily be one of my favorite books.

This book could also be considered a memoir—an autobiography or written account of one’s memory of certain events or people—but it is a fictional one. I used to dread reading autobiographies or biographies when I went to school because I didn’t consider them very interesting, but that certainly cannot be said about The Imaginary Life of Abigail Jones.

Abigail Jones’s life had been very interesting. She now had a loving and supportive husband, but that hadn’t always been the case.

A memoir class isn’t something that I would think of as exciting but taking it along with Abigail Jones proved me wrong. She really had something to write about. With the realistic descriptions of her classmates and teacher, it is almost like we are taking the memoir class with her. What she had experienced in her life unfolded in front of my eyes, and I began to understand why her therapist recommended this class.

In addition to everything else that happened to her, just one wrong decision leads to an unplanned pregnancy. That definitely put a speed bump in her life and plans. I loved the way she managed to hide, or thought she managed to hide, the pregnancy from her parents even when she went to see them before her “trip.” It’s a good thing she had friends helping her out.

Abigail Jones became a real person to me. Everything that happened in Abigail’s life might have been imaginary, but I could really see those things happening to someone. I was worried about how everything was going to turn out for her even though I knew she ended up happily married. But the unplanned pregnancy, her hiding it from her parents and classmates, having to let go of her baby to give it up for adoption, her first marriage—well, that one you’ll just have to read to believe—and the tragic death of her first husband.

Abigail learns about life, love, and how people really are—some are honest and some set out to deceive, while others do everything they can to help you. Those are lessons we all learn though.

Did I enjoy this book? Yes, very much so. If you like reading a good well-written book that you can’t stop thinking about, you would enjoy it too.

Amazon Link: The Imaginary Life of Abigail Jones

Recommended Article: Writing a Fictional Memoir – Guest Post by J. Schlenker

New Words Learned:

bindi – a decorative dot worn in the middle of the forehead, esp. by Hindu women

esoteric – private; secret; confidential

grosgrain – a heavy, corded ribbon or cloth of silk or rayon

impertinent – intrusive or presumptuous, as persons or their actions; insolently rude; uncivil

nepotism – patronage bestowed or favoritism shown on the basis of family relationship, as in business and politics

profundity – depth

serendipity – good fortune; luck

ubiquitous – existing or being everywhere, especially at the same time; omnipresent

Favorite Sentences:

“I enjoy being a hermit,” I reply. “Hermits have no peer pressure.”

It’s amazing how intricate the details are in this matrix of imagination.

Years later, I see The Scream by Edvard Munch and say, “Yes, that was my mom that day.”

It’s both our tortured souls and our art that bind us together.

About the Author

J. Schlenker, a late-blooming author, lives with her husband out in the splendid center of nowhere in the Kentucky foothills of Appalachia where the only thing to disturb her writing is croaking frogs and the occasional sounds of hay being cut in the fields.

Maybe it was fitting after retiring as a weaver of textiles, operating The Loom Room for many years and participating in art/craft shows such as the Kentucky Guild shows in Berea, the Woodland Arts Fair in Lexington, and the Kentucky Craft Market, she should turn to weaving stories in her retirement.