His Secret Little Wife: A Novel [Hardcover]

Fredrica Wagman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 3, 2006

His Secret Little Wife is the story of a brilliant young cellist and her sexual affair with the famous composer and conductor who created her.
It is a story of seduction, of hope, of obsession and triumph. It is also the story of a supremely narcissistic man of genius and insatiable appetites whose magnetic appeal is irresistible, even to those he would use, discard, and even destroy; a bold man with a horrendous sense of entitlement who takes what he wants to take, dumps whom he wants to dump, and never looks back; a man incapable of sorrow, of grieving; a man who destroys everything in his wake. Told through the eyes of a child – as if Lolita had narrated her tale rather than Humbert Humbert – the narrator doesn’t understand the darker side of her relationship with The Maestro as she blossoms within a world that lacks all boundaries. Employing a beautiful and unique style, Fredrica Wagman makes the reader privvy to the thoughts and emotions of a young girl caught in the throes of a relationship beyond her own comprehension.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This breathless, elliptical little novel from Wagman (Mrs. Hornstein) pursues the shocking affair between Otto Von Ochsenstein, brilliant pianist and conductor of the Philadelphia Philharmonic, and his pre-teen neighbor. A Lolita at 11, with a pillowy lower lip that resembles "a tiny little behind," Hannah Elizabeth Gold is keenly aware of her effect on the illustrious patriarch whose family moves into the white stucco mansion next door. Otto is married to Charlotte Hec, a former ballerina of unparalleled beauty, and the two have a daughter, Juliet, who attends the local Catholic school with Hannah. None of it prevents Otto from training his binoculars on Hannah's window ("This is what everything in the universe hungers for," proclaims Otto). Smitten and slavish, Hannah performs nightly for him in front of her bedroom window and bends her talent at the cello to the whims of the maestro. Otto nurses Hannah's nascent genius, frees her from filial and school constraints, and utterly destroys her innocence and ability to feel for others. Hannah's acuity injects a cutting bitterness to this sharp little Nietzschean parable, marred egregiously by the relentless use of ellipses. (Oct.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

"Don't be deceived by the simplicity, innocence and passion of His Secret Little Wife. In fact it is the consciousness of this book, the voice of an adult memory fused with the awe of a child singing with breathless momentum, almost as if she can't believe what happened to her meant so much, and still does. . . . Once you start listening you can't stop." Stephen Berg, author of The Elegy of Hats and editor of The American Poetry Review.

"Frederica Wagman's erotically disturbing fifth novel is 'Lolita' told from the nymphet's point of view. . . . It exerts a tenacious hold on the reader, never relaxing its grip . . . Wagman deftly explores the young girl's sexuality, exposing her adolescent urges without the faintest of apologies. It's a brave and long overdue rendition, also, of the Pygmalion myth, told with elegance and sensuality reminiscent of Marguerite Duras." — San Diego Union-Tribune

"A brutally candid tale that traces the precarious boundaries between love, longing, sex and abuse. . . . This psychological and emotional novel is haunting in its brazen treatment of taboo and beautiful in its lyrical observation of childhood." — The Brooklyn Rail

"We are used to these tales of illicit desire told from a male viewpoint -- Humbert Humbert and his obsession with Lolita. It's uncomfortable to have it switched: a young voice speaking of such intense longing… Her viewpoint is one that Western civilization doesn't like to acknowledge. Female lust, so baldly stated, has always made people -- no matter their gender — squirm… [a] distinctive, compulsive story."
– The Philadelphia Jewish Exponent

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 160 pages
• Publisher: Steerforth (October 3, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1586421166
• ISBN-13: 978-1586421168
• Product Dimensions: 5.3 x 0.7 x 7.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,506,981 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

My name is Fredrica Wagman, but it wasn't always. I started out as Riki Barris, "Riki" being short for Rita Fredrica, born in Philadelphia where I spent the first four years of my life in my grandparents home with my mother and father and my older brother. It was a great sprawling place where there were maids and my baby-nurse, big cars, a devoted chauffer by the name of I.J. Duckett, and the warmth of aunts and uncles and my grandparents all around us all the time whom I adored.

When I was four we moved into our own small house which was very hard on my mother who was used to all the space and all the help that everyone there could provide. My mother became quite depressed when we moved away from my grandparents and a hard time ensued after that for my brother and me. My father was a dentist, an oral surgeon who specialized in extracting teeth which was a kind of speciality in those days, although barbers were proported to have been doing it for years without all the training and all the honors my father collected at the University of Pennsylvania's dental school.

I attended schools first in the suburbs of Philadelphia and then in the city which was where we moved when I was eleven years old. I was married at a very early age, shamefully early, to Howard Wagman. Had five children, lost one, attended the University of Pennsylvania and Bryn Mawr College after the children were born, and was writing fiction and poetry for as long as I can remember.

Fredrica Wagman is the author of six novels -- Playing House, His Secret Little Wife, Mrs. Hornstien, Peachy, and Magic Man, Magic Man --and The Lie, just released in April 2009

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Horrifically Good: Not a Book for Light Reading!, March 25, 2007

By 

Hannah Bochart "The Vermillion Monkey" (Haines, AK USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: His Secret Little Wife: A Novel (Hardcover)

I can honestly say that I have never read a book like this. This novel is written in almost a stream of consciousness style that forces the reader to pay close attention to every word: the copious amounts of ellipses gives one the feeling of being trapped inside the speaker's mind.

The story follows a Hannah Gold, a child 11-13 years old, who becomes enraptured with the elderly, pedophiliac composer/conductor who lives next door. She becomes close to his daughter, partially as a means to get closer to the renowned conductor. When he begins to watch her in her bedroom through binoculars, she's thrilled, and therefore begins to behave coquettishly. Soon the two are engaged in a sexual affair that Hannah subconsciously hopes will fill the void where her parents' love should be.

This story is one of debauchery and loneliness, and leaves the reader with a delightfully stale taste in their mouth. The ending seemed inconclusive to me, however. A few more sentences would have helped me to see where the characters are left. As it is, the ending feels a bit to open to possibilities.

Despite this, however, this novel is one of a kind, and definitely deserves some shelf space.

4.0 out of 5 stars From The Forbidden Fruit's Eyes..., May 1, 2008

By 

J. Giermann "[e11even]" (somewhere...) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: His Secret Little Wife: A Novel (Hardcover)

This book sadly seems to not have a lot of love...
I'm hoping that someone will see it in my profile & check it out.
I purchased this book for half price & after reading it I can thoroughly say I would have paid its whole price.

The story is of 11-year-old Hannah, a Jewish girl who holds a fondness for reptiles & plastic pearl jewelry along with a quiet pride in the pretty lower-lip that decorates her face. & yet she finds herself distant & detached, humiliated at her Catholic school for `killing Christ' & ignored by her passive parents. That is until the von Ochsenstein family moves in next door. & when the head of the family, the famous Otto von Ochsenstein, world-renowned conductor of the world-renowned Philadelphia Philharmonic, begins to notice Hannah, she finds herself swept up into ribbons of lust, awe, & seduction.

The story oozes elegance as words smear across the pages like silk butter.
There is virtually no dialog & run-on sentences fill the chapters just as thoughts pour out of the head, meaning this isn't something that will satisfy every reader's taste. It's disjointed & naive like a child's mind yet poetic & graceful like an adult's.

Hannah is not in love with Otto von Ochsenstein, but in awe. That a man whose attention is so highly craved & whose soul is so ingenious & beautiful would have an interest in her. & Hannah's silent low self-esteem & desire for attention draw her towards him in return.
The story never paints over the harsh reality of this situation though, & His Secret Little Wife never feels like a simple adolescent fantasy. Nor is Otto portrayed as an evil monster who is out to ruin this young girl's life. It's all in fact rather believable.

I haven't read `Lolita' yet--I plan to this summer once I no longer have my studies in the way--& I'm not going to make some precocious comparison of His Secret Little Wife to this timeless masterpiece.
Nonetheless this is a wonderful read. If you are mature enough to handle its subject matter & are not burdened by run-on sentences, I highly recommend this book.