Helpful Score: 3
A beautifully written examination of a marriage and a wife's decision to leave her author husband. Although the "twist" at the end is apparent early on, knowing that didn't detract from my enjoyment of the book. This might also be a good book-club book, leading to an in-depth discussion about ethics and how far one should go to help one's mate. Recommended.
Helpful Score: 1
I tried to read it but it bored me. It was just too wordy and took too much time to get to the point of the story, which I never got to.
Helpful Score: 1
Not chick lit despite the intriguing hot pink cover.
Helpful Score: 1
I wasn't sure about this book in the beginning. Somehow it overcomes your initial impressions that it's another middleage woman's quest to free herself from a long unsatisfying marriage. It catches your attention and you comes to a shocking conclusion.
Helpful Score: 1
Enjoyable ascerbic wit of Meg Wolitzer, filled with her type of engrossing, funny, humor and pathos. She is a one in a million author.
Helpful Score: 1
I wasn't sure I liked this book. The book is told from the point of view of a whinny ,feel-sorry-for-myself, wife. It does have an interesting twist toward the end. It's quick, easy reading.
Joseph Castleman is a well-known novelist married to Joan Castleman. Joan has been with her husband since leaving college for the love of her professor. He is a literature professor and has told her that she has a lot of talent.
They get together, which undoes Joe's marriage to his wife. They also have a small daughter.
Joan goes through her life being Joe's right hand. She watches as he writes, wins awards, gets full of himself, etc.
You will be drawn right in with the first sentence of the book.
They get together, which undoes Joe's marriage to his wife. They also have a small daughter.
Joan goes through her life being Joe's right hand. She watches as he writes, wins awards, gets full of himself, etc.
You will be drawn right in with the first sentence of the book.
Wonderful quick read. The ending was a bit predictable but it was great food for thought. I read it on 1 day.
The Wife is a sad chronicle of a woman's life from her early college years to the end of her marriage. Her insecurities and doubts allowed her to feed the enormous appetite of a narcissistic, self-absorbed man. She chose to subjugate her talents, her self respect and her instincts as a mother to a man whose selfish egotism knew no bounds. He was despicable and she enabled him. The ending is a fitting tribute to their fifty-year marriage.
writing this review several months after reading. this book was not what I thought it was going to be. could be considered early feminist writing. it is the unravelling of a marriage and we see a couple go through 50 years together from a time when wives were more willing to put their husbands and their careers first. The wife sacrifices her own self for her husband and finally has enough. You wish she would have had enough sooner and asserted herself earlier. You also wish at the end that she receives some recognition for work that all along was hers and not her husbands (he is a famous writer but she was the one really doing the writing). She chooses not to though and keeps the secret that he was truly the writer. this is something you don't know until the end. well written.
