Undoing the devastation of divorce

November 8, 2007

BY SARA BURROWS Staff Writer

First, it was a safety valve. Some 15 years ago, Anastasia Royal of Wilmette began recording what she'd felt, thought, done as "a way to stay sane during my own divorce."

It worked. She stayed healthy and went on to turn those first writings into Undoing I Do, a novel just published by St. Martin's Press. While it takes on the heavily burdened subject of divorce, the book is a not a he-said, she-said "Jerry Springer Show"-style soul ripper.

On the contrary, says Royal, "It's really a book about love. And the loss of love. That is one of the biggest tragedies we all have to live through."

As such, says Royal's friend, John Callaway, host of WTTW's "Chicago Stories," the book could be helpful. "For those going through this, those who have experienced it or fear they will, this is a powerful story of 'You're not alone.'"

Which is one of the things the author meant it to be. "Divorce is complicated. Everyone has his or her own way of getting through it," says Royal, who, in the spirit of full disclosure, is now happily married to Pioneer Press film critic Bruce Ingram. "There are happy parts, painful parts, meditative parts, boring parts. I wanted to write about what it's really like to go through all that and come out on top."

Claire, Royal's free-spirited, sharply observant heroine offers highly personal analysis of the demise of her marriage, her romantic idealism and the illusions of youth and her eventual better understanding of what it all meant.

Callaway calls the woman "a profile in controlled hysteria. There are a million laughs in the midst of despair as her world crumbles around her."

Royal sees Claire as a woman who values life and works to make the world enjoyable for those she loves. She turns poverty into an adventure in self-resilience as she and her children visit the school's Lost and Found to "find" sweaters, gloves and hats that she could never afford to buy them, or ride bikes through the snow because the ex took the car.