People make decisions at points in their lives that require that
they leave old friends and ways behind in order to make a new
start. That is one of the prerogatives of human existence. It can
also bring about life's most painful dealings. In THE LANGUAGE OF
GOOD-BYE, Maribeth Fischer explores the ways in which words help us
through painful times and absolve past difficulties as well as
break through barriers and help new beginnings to find foot.

Annie and Will have come together to start a new life as a couple,
but in doing so, Annie must let go of her best friend, the man she
married long ago, and Will must endure a separation from his
five-year-old daughter, the real love of his life. What compels
them to be together when the stakes of what they lose are so high?
What can they do to make a clean break and have a chance at being
happy together? Fischer examines their affairs against the backdrop
of a young immigrant woman named Sungae, who has left Korea to come
to the United States, ending up as one of Annie's English students.
For Sungae, what she has left behind is also considerable --- and,
in order to make a new start, she must have Annie's help and the
stalwart companionship of a new language to put her old life into
the proper perspective.

Fischer, who has been bestowed with some of the most notable of
short fiction prizes, seems very comfortable with the length of the
novel format. However, THE LANGUAGE OF GOOD-BYE is like watching a
good Hollywood film starring capable actors --- it reaches for the
easy emotional buttons and pushes, but somehow doesn't stick with
you. The story of Sungae is the most engaging of the two plots, and
I found that I really wanted Annie and Will to take a back seat to
this more interesting character. Annie and Will could have been
plucked from the subplots of a "Once and Again" script, while
Sungae has been etched from the true depths of literary examination
of the heart.

THE LANGUAGE OF GOOD-BYE is a skewed portrait of new lives. If only
Annie and Will (as well as Carter, Annie's ex) did not say
everything they felt so clearly, as if they had all been in therapy
for a really long time and knew exactly how to express themselves,
perhaps we would have more empathy for them. Instead, they sound
like whiners, which is fine part of the time but wears thin after
many pages.

It's not perfect, but THE LANGUAGE OF GOOD-BYE shows that Fischer
may, in subsequent novels, be able to tell which of her stories
demands the front row attention and give it just that. Although the
personal breakups here are expressed with the proper messiness,
Fischer never quite makes the struggles for new romance and
opportunity as convincing or interesting as the struggle for a new
language to express the hopes and pains of a past life.