Four Wives [Hardcover]

Wendy Walker (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 19, 2008

In Wendy Walker’s brilliant debut, the lives of four wives and mothers intertwine and collide in a tale of suburban angst among outrageous wealth.
On the outside, it appears as though Love Welsh, Marie Passetti, Gayle Beck and Janie Kirk lead enviable lives, with marriages to handsome, successful men; bright, happy children; and homes right out of Architectural Digest. But in the wealthy suburb of Hunting Ridge, appearances mask a deeper truth: These four wives are anything but perfect. As they try to maintain a façade of bliss, behind closed doors they each face their own crises—infidelity, dissatisfaction, self-doubt. As springtime draws to an end, doors are both opened and closed and the women come face to face with the most difficult and heartbreaking challenge of their lives—to reconcile their innermost desires with the lives that each of them has chosen.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A klatch of wealthy suburban women become deeply entangled in one another's lives while planning a public health clinic benefit in Walker's uninspired first novel. Housewife Janie is having a heated affair she can't give up; lawyer Marie is trying to balance her law practice, family obligations and loafing husband when a hot summer intern arrives; heiress Gayle has turned to pills to numb her to the treatment of her abusive husband; and Love, a doctor's wife, receives a letter from her estranged father that dredges up a painful past. As the women's personal struggles invade their other, pedestrian pursuits, Love's struggle with the demands of motherhood and family forces Marie, Janie and Gayle to get more involved in the lives of their friends and neighbors. Unfortunately, Walker doesn't do much to bring life to her typecast characters, and the narrative wobbles wildly as the subplots barrel toward a big revelation. The ending is mostly happy, which will please some, but the novel's phoned-in feeling prevents readers from connecting with the characters.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

“Four Wives is a brilliantly clever and accurate study in domestic discontentment. Acutely well-observed and suspenseful, it's a stunning reflection of life in an affluent American suburb, where the women seem to have everything...except happiness. A great read.”
–Jane Green, author of Swapping Lives

 

“A cleverly woven, sexy debut that is a fascinating peek inside the gilded cages of suburban matrimony....A true page-turner treat.”
–Jill Kargman, author of Momzillas and co-author of The Right Address

 

“A fascinating read. Wendy Walker delivers a blistering dissection of modern suburban marriage. I couldn't put it down.”
–Danielle Ganek, author of Lulu Meets God and Doubts Him

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press; First Edition edition (February 19, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312367716
• ISBN-13: 978-0312367718
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,474,025 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Wendy Walker has been a stay-home mom for the past eleven years. She began writing about the world around her and is now the author of two novels, Four Wives and Social Lives, both published by St. Martin's Press. Wendy is a former attorney and investment banker and graduated magna cum laude from Brown University and Georgetown University Law Center. Wendy occasionally edits for Chicken Soup for the Soul Publishing (Power Moms, Thanks Mom, Thanks Dad), and she is currently working on her third novel.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Bla..., May 27, 2008

By 

Nanja G. Stevens "EchoSeen" (Connecticut) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Four Wives (Hardcover)

I should have listened to the reviewer who wrote "meh" as the title of her review. Instead I went with the other reviewer. I agree, "meh" On the surface it seems as if it's a great book with lots of interesting characters. It is not. Toward the end of the book I seriously cared very little for any of them. I wouldn't waste my time.

8 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Meh..., February 25, 2008

By 

G. Recipient - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Four Wives (Hardcover)

Four Wives is not a bad book, but it's a pretty forgettable one. Wendy Walker is an OK writer, but the characters she gives us are not interesting enough to hold the reader's attention for 300-plus pages. What begins as an interesting look into the lives of four frustrated housewives eventually loses its appeal, and the end is quite disappointing.

One caveat: I'm probably not the target reader for this novel, as I find the idea of living in the suburbs preferable only to jail -- and not by much. Perhaps if you live in the suburbs, or are planning to do so at some point, you might enjoy Four Wives more than I did.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars 3.5 Stars -- Accurate, but not too real, June 23, 2009

By 

Jennifer Donovan "5minutesforbooks" (Houston, TX) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Four Wives (Paperback)

Life complicates marriage and a woman's self-esteem. That's the truth. The problem with reading these types of novels is that we want the characters to be real, yet not so real that we lose the escapism of a good story because they remind us too much of our own less-than-storybook real lives. Wendy Walker does this well in Four Wives . These are women that could be your friends, your sisters. They support each other in the way that only women can -- with childcare help, a listening ear, or a good vanilla latte.

Love is a former child prodigy suffering with the invisible woman/Mommy syndrome.

Gayle is old money in the midst of the new money in her area, but she knows that money can't buy happiness, as she turns to prescription pills to help her cope.

Marie is a part-time working mother and resents the Stepford wives and is quickly realizing that she can't stand the suburbs.

Janie is impossibly beautiful (impossible because she's surgically enhanced and spends more time in the gym than most of us have to spare), and though she might appear to have it all, she's not happy.

It's a diverse group, and while none are completely likable, I found myself liking almost all of them -- just as we do our own friends and family -- warts and all.