Rosie is a woman happy in her own skin: good job, great friends, enjoyable lifestyle filled with sports, dance, music. She's even managed to buy her own home before turning thirty, an uncommon feat for single women in the 1970's. In short, Rosie's a pretty good package. She meets Carl, whose charms, wit and dynamism appear the perfect wrapping, the crowning touch to the life that she's built so far. Within months of their wedding, Rosie realizes she's entangled with a frequently unemployed, dishonest, alcoholic, ultimately violent conman. By subtle and calculated design, Carl manages to rip Rosie's package apart: he cuts her off from friends and family, he curtails her usual lifestyle, he manages to lose her house, and he changes Rosie from a vivacious, confident woman to a sniveling, vacillating doormat. Rosie knows she must extricate herself from his control--something, Rosie finds out, is far easier said than done. This cautionary tale should especially appeal to the 20— or 30-something woman (although anyone involved in a toxic relationship can relate). In this memoir, told from forty years of retrospect, the author shares her own version of “Sleeping with the Enemy” with self-deprecation, exasperation, terror, and compassion.
