The Wife: A Novel

by Meg Wolitzer

"The moment I decided to leave him, the moment I thought, enough, we were thirty-five thousand feet above the ocean, hurtling forward but giving the illusion of stillness and tranquility. "Just like our marriage."" So opens Meg Wolitzer's compelling and provocative novel "The Wife," as Joan Castleman sits beside her husband on their flight to Helsinki. Joan's husband, Joseph Castleman, is "one of those men who own the world...who has no idea how to take care of himself or anyone else, and who derives much of his style from the Dylan Thomas Handbook of Personal Hygiene and Etiquette." He is also one of America's preeminent novelists, about to receive a prestigious international award to honor his accomplishments, and Joan, who has spent forty years subjugating her own literary talents to fan the flames of his career, has finally decided to stop.

From this gripping opening, Wolitzer flashes back fifty years to 1950s Smith College and Greenwich Village -- the beginning of the Castleman relationship -- and follows the course of the famous marriage that has brought them to this breaking point, culminating in a shocking ending that outs a carefully kept secret.

Wolitzer's most important and ambitious book to date, "The Wife" is a wise, sharp-eyed, compulsively readable story about a woman forced to confront the sacrifices she's made in order to achieve the life she thought she wanted. But it's also an unusually candid look at the choices all men and women make for themselves, in marriage, work, and life. With her skillful storytelling and pitch-perfect observations, Wolitzer invites intriguing questions about the nature of partnership and the precarious position of an ambitious woman ina man's world.

• ISBN10: 0684869403
• ISBN13: 9780684869407
• Publish Date: 16 February 2004 (first published 1 August 2003)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 1 December 2011
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Ltd
• Imprint: Scribner
• Pages: 224
• Language: English

Reviews

[clementine]

3.5 stars

There is something quite enjoyable about this incisive, unflinching novel despite its flaws. The chief problem is that I figured out the much-hyped twist within the first quarter of the book. While Wolitzer's writing is generally strong, there were some sections that felt awkward and forced, and I never quite shed the consciousness that I was Reading the Work of a Serious Writer. In terms of the theme of gender dynamics within heterosexual relationships and women compromising their desires and creative and intellectual powers because of patriarchy, it's been done before and done better. (The third book in Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan series is like... the absolute best for this. The series as a whole does this brilliantly, but the third shines particularly.) But the sheer force and anger of Joan's narration, the clarity with which she discussed these themes, was compelling, and ultimately this is a quick, enjoyable, well-crafted read. The ending was equal parts frustrating and satisfying, and pitch-perfect, I thought.

[lovelybookshelf]

The Wife is one of those reads that I can’t say I fully enjoyed while I was reading it, but I absolutely cannot brush it aside because I’ve been mulling over it ever since I finished. It touches on deep issues concerning how (and for whom) we live our lives, how we find fulfillment, and how we balance our choices with our responsibilities. All packaged in Wolitzer’s ravishing narrative style. More of my thoughts on this title can be found on my blog at A Lovely Bookshelf on the Wall.