The Wife

This book by Meg Wolitzer had a weird affect on me. I visualized the characters in my mind as the story unfolded. That itself is not the weird part, as I usually visualize the characters ( then I’m surprised at who the casting director chooses for the role when it goes to film, but that’s a whole other issue). The weird part is that it was coming through like an old black and white. You know, the ones where everyone seems just a little flat and the emotions just a little off? Where you know you should be feeling something, but you’re not sure what or just don’t care? I tried to shake it off as the story wound through the decades. I tried to put them in the psychedelic colors of the 70’s with the “Jewish afros”, but it didn’t work for me. My mind kept slapping them back in the Leave it to Beaver era pearls and ties. And just so you know, I love many many black and white movies, especially Bette Davis, so I’m not trying to put them down in any way.

The book starts on an airplane with The Wife deciding she is finally going to leave her husband,the great American novelist. I thought, okay, this is going to be a story about a wife flinging off the restraints of her failing marriage and finding freedom for the first time in decades. I was so mistaken. She flings nothing, we plod through life with her and Joe and their kids. I did feel sorry for the kids, they were such a small small part of life in the story, yet we are let to believe that she sacrificed her life and kept her big secret because of them. Didn’t buy it. There is one scene with the son and Joe where the son figures out the secret and threatens to kill Joe. I think I even whispered”do it”, because how could they not be better without this self-centered, narcissistic caricature in their lives. Wow, that sounds harsh doesn’t it?

Like I said, the book starts in an airplane with the wife thinking about finally leaving her husband. It ends with her actually leaving him, or is it him leaving her, in a way neither of them anticipated. Would I recommend this book? No. If a friend gave me another Meg Wolitzer book would I read it? Probably, I would want to find out if it was just this story that I didn’t like or if it was the style of the storyteller herself.