Overview

An Imperfect Life is a tender, honest, insightful, and sometimes laugh-out-loud exploration of how a flawed family can still be a gem. The child of alcoholic parents, Christine Macabee should have known better than to marry a man who drank too much. It's a good thing she has her irrepressible older sister Louise to lean on. After a fatal accident alters the family forever, Christine devises a plan to raise her three children on a steady diet of home cooked meals, inspiring poetry, and the silly addition of a imaginary husband, the singer-songwriter, John Denver. Her plan works, until it doesn't. The kids grow up, fall in and out of love and in and out of trouble-some troubles more serious than others. Christine and Louise provide practical support and sometimes wacky advice to a younger generation facing lost jobs, broken hearts, homophobia, and yet another iteration of alcoholism. And just when it looks like everything back on track, Christine faces a crisis of her own. Can Christine Macabee have her own happy ending? Maybe. But not before she's forced to reexamine her version of a perfect life.

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Reviews

""You know how sometimes you pick up a book, and you just can't put it down and you find yourself wondering why this one? For me, Imperfect Life started slowly, but then suddenly I was swept up into Christine's world. She grows up in a tragic, dysfunctional home and encounters even more dysfunction in love and life. Yet beneath all the hardship and loss, spanning decades, there's heart and soul, and a belief that Christine and her family will somehow find their way back to joy. So you keep reading. You ride the waves of this mixed-up but loving family. The two sisters, in particular, are the fortress that somehow holds everything steady. So much of the story resonated with me because it unfolds during the exact era in which I grew up; he music, the food, the blue-collar life, the Catholic Church. In many ways, it felt like my own story reflected back at me. I wept at the end. It was that good."" Ann Louise P. ""What a fabulous book! I could barely put the book down; by the end of the book, I felt like I knew almost all of the characters. And I certainly did not want the book to end. I plan to ask my book club to make it one of our 2026 selections."" Rebecca H. ""Karen created a wonderful novel about an imperfect family that is connected by love and loyalty. Their flaws were seen as challenges that interfered with life but their family never gave up on them and gave them every opportunity to succeed. The plot line moved in a clear manner and the connections between the characters were well-created and believable. As a New England and Cape Cod resident, / enjoyed the local themes and references that were part of the story line. I did not want the book to end as I was interested in what would happen next for these wonderful characters."" Linda R.

Author Information

Karen Jasper is a Master's trained counselor, psychotherapist, and writer. Her most recent work includes general fiction and poetry, with an emphasis on families and overcoming challenges.

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