Email a friendPerfection
Julie Metz had seemingly the perfect life—an adoring husband, a happy, spirited daughter, a lovely old house in a quaint suburban town—but it was all a lie.
Julie Metz’s life changed forever on one ordinary January afternoon when her husband, Henry, collapsed on the kitchen floor and died in her arms. Suddenly, this mother of a six-year-old became the young widow in her bucolic small town. But that was only the beginning. Seven months after Henry’s death, just when Julie thought she was emerging from the worst of it, came the rest of it: She discovered that what had appeared to be the reality of her marriage was but a half-truth. Henry had hidden another life from her.
Perfection is the story of Metz’s journey through chaos and transformation as she creates a different life for herself and for her young daughter. It is the story of rebuilding both a life and an identity after betrayal and widowhood, of rebirth and happiness—if not perfection.
Julie Metz had seemingly the perfect life
Praise for Perfection
“Lyrical, haunting, and utterly gripping.”
—Redbook
“[Metz’s] memoir of the year after her husband abruptly died is poignant, powerful, and absolutely riveting.”
—Chris Bohjalian, author of Midwives and The Double Bind
“[Metz] brings refreshing candor to a startling, painful tale.”
—The New York Times
“I read Perfection breathlessly, grateful to its author for these unvarnished truths about her late husband's infidelities. Julie Metz gives us a brave and fascinating postmortem on a seemingly happy marriage, creating an emotional detective story that is unforgettable.”
—Elinor Lipman, author of My Latest Grievance
“Heart-wrenching but triumphant.”
—Glamour
“A dark, evocative memoir from a woman forced to come to terms with her husband’s death and the revelation of his infidelity.”
—Shelf Awareness
“A fascinating memoir.”
—People
“A delectable summer read.”
—USA Today
“A riveting memoir.”
—Real Simple
“…lyrical, moving prose.”
—Working Mother
“Metz’s Perfection chronicles with lapidary precision one woman’s climb back to happiness after not just a spouse’s death, but also the shocking recognition that her life before that death was not what she had thought it was. The journey is a painful one, but Ms. Metz is much the stronger for having survived to recount it.”
—Julie Powell, author of Julie & Julia
“Julie Metz’s memoir of how her marriage unraveled after her mate’s death is piercingly honest, haunting, and heartbreaking. Anyone who has ever been in a bad relationship will over-identify.”
—Susan Shapiro, author of Five Men Who Broke My Heart and Lighting Up
“It is impossible to put Perfection down as we follow Julie Metz through her true story of love, lies, loss, and moving forward. Her raw and brave writing makes you want to cheer Metz on as she pieces her life back together, one beautiful sentence at a time.”
—Marian Fontana, author of A Widow’s Walk
“This aching memoir of love, loss, and deception is candid and compelling. I found myself rooting for Julie Metz in her search for a happy ‘second life.’”
—Hilma Wolitzer, author of The Doctor’s Daughter and Hearts
“Perfection: A Memoir of Betrayal and Renewal by Julie Metz was somewhat difficult for me to read. Not because she lacks anything in story or style. Not because I did not feel her pain. The problem is that I re-felt my own. Our circumstances were so different that they were very much alike. A closed group of friends in any circle will certainly rally around the story on their side of the fence. Whether the what people knew was an adulterous affair or an intense emotional alliance, the when they tell you is after the fact. In many cases, you are not sure what is behind the telling. Be it true caring, pure delight, or just to have something to say in the face of your anger. The only thing lacking in Metz’s story (when compared to mine and many others) is the hysterical and angry diatribe against her spouse that often lasts months or years. This was not an oversight. He was dead.”
“This memoir unfolds in first-person anguish as Julie’s husband has a heart attack and dies. In the midst of her own pain, Julie hears another female's cry in her own house and wonders who could be as upset as she was? It seems it was one of many women who cried because their current or previous lover was gone. We follow Julie as she heals. I found myself hoping she and her daughter would mend, would find love again. When she went on her first post-traumatic stress date, I cheered. The guy wasn’t the right one. When her friends tried to help her and then turned away from her pain, I understood. Anguish and rebuilding take a lot out of a person and it is sometimes hard to sit back and watch it muck along. I looked forward to the end of the book because I could only assume that it would end well or the book would have been a very different one. When it ended, I was sad because I wanted to know how my friend was doing, how her daughter was adapting. ”
—Reader dfluharty
"I read through 200 pages in three hours and couldn't stop. I loved it. A thought provoking story that kept my emotions for both main characters bouncing back and forth like ball in a tennis match, sympathasizing with one and empathizing withthe other throughout the book. I was happy she find herself and peace for the future. Highly recommended reading."
—Reader discomommy
"There have been times we all thought we could write a book. The problem is writing is not as simple as it seems, it is rather complex, requiring all the key components of Freytag’s pyramid. Perfection, while a heartening account of Julie Metz husband’s death and the aftermath of that, fails to establish a plot. Most of the book was spent retelling of her husbands salacious encounters in order to instill rage or maybe an understanding for the humility that she must have felt. However, the lack of character development of herself and even her husband’s suitors left me wondering what was the purpose of all these characters entering and exiting the narrative. Especially given that after the big reveal of his indecencies she herself discloses that her past relationships have lacked the very morality she questions in her husband. It is unclear the intention, beyond self-cleansing or personal reflection, of this story. What is the reader suppose to walk away with? All I walked away with was a story that is probably reminiscent of many modern day relationships. Unfortunate that it is, our society is full of stories such as this, not to minimize her pain, but why do readers need to know about hers any more than another woman’s or for that matter man’s experience.
In the end the reader is happy to learn, especially for her daughter, that she is able to move into a new stable relationship. Through it all she was finally able to do what she knew she needed to do the entire time, pack up and leave that town. Why she stayed so long would be one question I would want to ask. Julie had to know the whole time that her life would be much happier and she would be able to move on sooner with life if she transporter herself back to Brooklyn. It just took her too many years to get there, which took us through too many chapters of stories lacking purpose. This book would have been much improved if it had been 100 pages shorter.
I have to admit I have read other reviews of this book that found it “riveting” or “fascinating” maybe I am just a cynic or not in the right place in life to grasp the full aim. What I do know is I myself am in a loving relationship that if I were to learn was a falsity, I know that I would be heartbroken and not sure how I would react. I very well may end up down the same road as her, using a plethora of sexual encounters to try to learn where things had gone wrong."
—Reader Laura Reimers
