Customer Reviews

Honor Thy Wife

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

50 pages in I was still scratching my head hoping for this story to pick up. I can see the foundation of a story, but not one that would hold my interest. The relationship between Allison and Terry feels forced and contrite- the lawyer is going "slumming" and just enjoys the naughtiness of it. I'd love to be able to stay with it longer to see what the other reviewers are seeing, but I can only see the whole thing dragging on like this, a 150 page story drawn out into 443.

My copy is going back to the library.

This is definitely an interesting book. A man who loves two women and has two families and is leading a double life. Many twists and turns. Enjoyable reading.

I thought the jacket cover revealed it all, but considered it would be an interesting journey. However, I was surprised by the events, the choices the main character made and unable to put this book down. A must read.

A fascinating, haunting story that pulled me in on the first page and didn't let me go until the last line. On one level it is a love story spanning three decades. On another level it is a study of the nature of love - of passionate love that brings dissimilar people together, of a father's tough love that banishes his son's lover for his own good, creating misunderstanding and misery, of compassionate love and of a ruinous father/daughter relationship. Bogner writes in an engaging, optimistic style that makes the book hard to put down.

-- Gisela H.

As I read this book I kept telling my husband that it's written for men who like soap operas. The best thing about this novel is that I never became entirely sympathetic to any of its characters so there wasn't that "worry" that a favorite would come to a disasterous ending. At times, I wished they all would. And yet, I kept reading... The book held my attention and not once did I check out how many more pages I had to read until the ending, which is my own ratings system for evaluating a book.

A richly woven tapestry of plot, character, and setting. I stumbled upon Norman Bogner's previous book by accident and liked it so much that I scrambled to get the new one as soon as I heard it was out. What a surprise. Honor Thy Wife is very different from To Die in Provence: no detective, no lurid crimes, and a strictly American setting. But it wasn't a disappointment. It is as rich in characterization and intrigue, though on a quieter and more familiar scale. I also felt I got a good sense of what life was like in the 1960s for the regular people who lived through a decade that's often portrayed as nothing but sex and drugs and student protests. I can't wait to see what this obviously versatile writer will come up with next. --

What a wonderful read! Mr. Bogner invents people that are altogether real. I spent a weekend getting to know and getting totally involved with an interesting new community of characters. I really feel that Mr. B writes from experience...and he does it so well. What's next?

I almost passed over this novel because of the religious overtones of the title. But the book turns out to be something more subtle, its implicit morality hidden under a very hard shell. This is an original blend of hard-boiled, tough writing structured within a compelling romantic plot: daisy white F. Scott Fitzgerald swirled into a fudgy vat of James M. Cain. In Bogner's rough-talking, high-spending world, strong characters clash in strong language. Yet at bottom, one senses that a good heart drives the story. After one gets into it, after meeting the strong flawed men and the stronger heroic women, so expertly depicted, it is hard to put the book down. The plot is complex and magnetic. Loving two women, Terry Brett finds himself in a conflict many men surely have experienced, if only emotionally. The language is inventive, the sentences packed with meaty metaphor, lexicon full of surprising new tastes. This novel is a gourmet meal which both men and women will enjoy. It has been prepared with consummate skill by a master chef of fiction whose name should be better known.

A delicious read. Bogner once again proves he can turn out a rich full-bodied and literate tale that is quirky yet familiar. We know these characters. How can this happen??? A unique twist on love and family life.

as always the richness of normans characters amaze me. I may not like them or love them, but because of normans skills I always understand them and their actions. Norman Bogner writes about life as it is! Not as we wish it to be. A great read! What is next? and when?