“Joe once told me he felt a little sorry for women, who only got husbands. Husbands tried to help by giving answers, being logical, stubbornly applying force as though it were a glue gun. Or else they didn’t try to help at all, for they were somewhere else entirely, out walking in the world by themselves. But wives, oh wives, when they weren’t being bitter or melancholy or counting the beads on their abacus of disappointment, they could take care of you with delicate and effortless ease.”
What would a woman sacrifice for her husband? or better, what would a woman sacrifice to ensure the image she builds about her husband remains intact?
A beautifully written prose, it took me a while to get into the plot and the story to be honest, but then I was hooked to it, to the unusual relationship between Joan and Joe, her being a step behind him in his literary success, without ever leaving his side. Her bearing his unfaithfulness, his detached ways with their children.
A novel that it is not easy to digest and to agree on Joan's behavior, but surely a book that make you reflect on marriages and their peculiar dynamics.
“Maybe she had "no more books left inside her," as people often sorrowfully say about writers, envisioning the imagination as a big pantry, either well stocked with goods or else wartime-empty.”
Overall rating: Abandoned Plot: 6 Writing style: 5 Cover: 7
Title: The wife
The Plot:
Joe and Joan Castleman are en route to Helsinki. Joe is thinking about the prestigious literary prize he will receive there, while Joan is plotting how to leave him. For too long she has played the role of supportive wife, turning a blind eye to his misdemeanours, whilst quietly being the keystone of his success. But behind the compromises, the disappointment and disillusionment there lies a secret…
The Author:
Meg Wolitzer is the New York Times–bestselling author of The Interestings, The Uncoupling, The Ten-Year Nap, The Position, The Wife, and Sleepwalking. She is also the author of the young adult novel Belzhar. Wolitzer lives in New York City.
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