Wife 22 by Melanie Gideon

Wife 22

by Melanie Gideon

If you like Modern Family, you'll love this

Maybe it was because I was about to turn the same age my mother was when I lost her. Maybe it was because my husband and I were running out of things to say to each other.

But when the online study called "Marriage in the 21st Century" showed up in my inbox, I had no idea it would change my life. It wasn't long before I was assigned both a pseudonym (Wife 22) and a caseworker (Researcher 101).

And, just like that, I found myself answering questions.

Before the study, I was Alice Buckle: wife and mother, drama teacher and Facebook chatter, downloader of memories and Googler of solutions.

But these days, I'm also Wife 22. And somehow, my correspondence with Researcher 101 has taken an unexpectedly personal turn. Soon, I'll have to make a decision-one that will affect my family, my marriage, my whole life. But at the moment, I'm too busy answering questions.

As it turns out, confession can be a very powerful aphrodisiac.

Reviewed by elvinagb on

4 of 5 stars

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Alice Buckle is questioning her 20 year marriage to the love of her life, William. She thinks her 12 year old son is gay and that her 15 year old daughter has an eating disorder. Her part time job as a school drama teacher is creating drama among the stage-mother parents and she has reached the age (45) that her mother was when she died. While searching "drooping eyelids" on Google she comes across a company doing a marriage and love survey and signs up as "Wife 22" with "Researcher 101" asking her a series of questions.
Through the series of survey questions, Facebook updates, emails, and flashbacks to her single days, we watch as Alice questions whether her marriage can be saved while trying to deal with all that is happening in her life and not confront or talk directly to her husband and children. For anyone married with children reaching an age of greater independence and facing and empty nest this is an easy story to relate to.
Gideon's humor is engaging and this would make a great summer beach read.

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  • Started reading
  • 12 June, 2012: Finished reading
  • 12 June, 2012: Reviewed