Unliving the Dream
4.5/5
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About this ebook
Things are darn near perfect for Alex Fisher: she runs a successful business with the love of her life, her husband and the father of her two great kids. She’s managed to sail through nearly forty years without so much as a hiccup. That is, until the night her husband announces he’d like to make a change—a change that has apparently been going on for months without Alex’s knowledge. Yes, he’s been having an affair with her office assistant, aka Alex’s friend.
Suddenly Alex is bouncing through divorce, through her daughter’s subsequent rebellion, and through the big questions of who Alex herself really is and what she really wants.
No longer living the dream, Alex uses her calm logic, internal dialogue, and sizzling wit—not to mention her friends—to turn the shock of a lifetime into an adventure of self-discovery that takes her from the tropical waters of the Caribbean Sea, to the Utah wilderness, and, finally, along the impoverished streets of Peru.
In this universal tale told through a unique voice, Alex finds that no one escapes unscathed—but we can all have a good laugh and some major personal growth along the way. A humorous, compassionate, and honest look at how the worst time in one’s life ultimately leads to unexpected fulfillment and authenticity.
Sandra Vischer
I grew up in Palatine, Illinois, a northwest suburb of Chicago, the second of four daughters to loving parents, Trudi and Bill, who provided me with an idyllic childhood. While attending Southern Illinois University as an English Lit major, I was also a member of the Famous Writer’s School of Westport, Connecticut, a correspondence school whose faculty included Rod Serling, Bennett Cerf, Max Shulman, and Faith Baldwin. After my junior year and two months abroad, I married my college sweetheart and started working for IBM in the Chicago area. A year later, we decided to make a change and moved to Portland, Oregon, a place where natural beauty abounds. I continued with IBM for another five years until I decided to be a stay-at-home mom to our son and daughter. Some years later when my kids were in school, my husband and I started a business that created exhibits for museums. Within a year of its beginnings, we were a huge success with prestigious clients like the John Steinbeck Museum in Salinas California, The Lincoln Museum in Fort Wayne, Indiana, the Warm Springs Museum in Warm Springs, Oregon, and the Academy of Achievement in Washington, DC. While I’ve wanted to write a novel since I was a teenager, life led me into the business world, which was satisfying for my analytical mind, but my dream never died. In my twenties, I’d read a couple of Shirley MacLaine’s books, Don’t Fall Off the Mountain and Out On a Limb (where she’d journeyed to Peru). A long-time admirer of her and her life of adventure and search for spirituality, I felt a kinship with her and her way of being. Back then, many people thought Shirley was a little out there in her beliefs, and yet I totally related! My discovery has continued with writers like James Redfield, Eckhart Tolle, Brené Brown, and for a good laugh, Nancy Meyers! At the age of 39, I found myself divorced and single parenting. Eventually, with my children grown, I sold my share of the exhibit business and spent my time traveling and writing, just like I’d imagined so many years before. After a devastating 2004 tsunami hit Thailand, I wanted to go there to help. I checked with several organizations and they said what they really needed was money not more people. It was then I decided to merge my desire to follow Shirley’s Peruvian journey of self-discovery with my need to volunteer. I found a New York City based group called Cross Cultural Solutions to facilitate my adventure. In the spring of 2005, I made it happen. When I returned, I began writing Unliving the Dream. I still live in Portland, still love to travel and spend time with my family, and look forward to life’s next divine lesson.
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Reviews for Unliving the Dream
3 ratings1 review
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Unliving the Dream is the grown-up version of Eat, Pray, Love with a feel much like Carol Wall’s Mr. Owita’s Guide to Gardening. What happens when life gets ripped apart at the seams and you’ve not only got to heal yourself but you’ve also got two of your pre-teen babies to take care of? And not just in feed and house but to nurture their soul and guard their happiness against the two-timing low down dirty scoundrel that’s your ex AND current business partner? Sandra Vischer shows us with emotional clarity, humor and compassionate vulnerability just how hard and rewarding that journey can be. We follow Alex’s story as she tackles each of the hurdles of unliving the American dream with the aplomb and lady-like demeanor of Alicia Florrick in CBS’s The Good Wife, while keeping humor and hope close by. A definite read for any ex, but a real soul shaking reminder for any of our sex to not take life too seriously, accept help where you can and remember to nurture your own soul. Five stars.