Still Life with Husband (Hardcover)

by Lauren Fox (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Yes, it's an affair novel, but file this adroit but placid debut under chick lit for early marrieds—the ones who are not sure they want to be on the baby-house-'burbs track. At 30, Emily Ross is a Milwaukee freelance writer with a part-time job as assistant editor at a medical journal called Male Reproduction and a marriage to "steady, staid" Kevin, a technical writer she met in college. Kevin, "innocent and intolerable," wants a baby and a house. Emily is ambivalent and bored. A few pages in, Emily meets David Keller, a dark, good-looking writer/editor at the local alternative newspaper, and starts an affair. Things, as expected, do not go well, but Fox's voice is steady, moving easily between comedy and drama. Her emotionally literate delineation of character and relationship give the book texture, with Emily's relationship with her best friend, Meg, emerging as the book's most resonant. Fox draws just the right tension out of Emily's mix of honesty and self-delusion, reflection and romance, with an undercurrent of a sort of left-handed hope. For anyone who's lived through a relationship drama, though, Emily will have a decidedly entitled, gee-whiz quality that's hard to take. (Feb. 7)
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From Booklist
In Fox's debut novel about the constraints of marriage and the lure of infidelity, Emily Ross, married for nine years to the kind and decent Kevin, is feeling suffocated by her husband's desire to buy a house in the suburbs and start a family. When she meets a handsome newspaper editor in the local Starbucks, she's so busy cracking jokes, she forgets to mention one small detail--she's married. Two dates later, she finally admits her marital status, but, after expressing the requisite misgivings, the two engage in an intense affair. Then the lovers' remorse and guilt start to kick in, and Fox's narrative starts to drag as page after page is given over to the angst-ridden details. Fox covers familiar ground that has been done better by, for example, Tom Perrotta in Little Children (2004) and Lolly Winston in Happiness Sold Separately (2006). Still, there seems to be a strong demand for fiction dealing with the vicissitudes of marriage, and Fox has a particularly engaging sense of humor. Joanne Wilkinson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Knopf; First Edition. states edition (February 6, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0307264912
• ISBN-13: 978-0307264916
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #679,401 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An ironic, moving, laugh-out-loud funny take on marriage and fidelity..., August 31, 2007

By	Cassie W. (Ohio) - See all my reviews

STILL LIFE WITH HUSBAND, the debut novel by Milwaukeean Lauren Fox, introduces readers to Emily Ross, 30-year-old freelance writer, assistant editor of a male reproduction journal (her boss, amusingly, is named Dick), and discontented wife. Her husband is Kevin, a sweet, boring technical writer who is desperate to move to the suburbs and have a baby. Emily's not sure she's ready for such a big step -- and when she meets handsome writer David Keller, she starts to think she may never be ready for that kind of life with Kevin. Inevitably, and predictably, Emily and David embark on an illicit affair.

STILL LIFE WITH HUSBAND is a novel about one woman's choices, and the lasting effects those choices have on the people who love her. Emily Ross is, as one of the previous reviewers mentioned, one of the most engaging chick lit heroines since Bridget Jones. The whole novel is written from her first-person perspective, and the voice Fox gives to her is ironic, self-reflective, and incredibly witty. You will respond to Emily in some way -- either positively or negatively, but you WILL respond to her. Look at the other reviews here if you don't believe me! Yes, Emily is selfish and adulterous; but she's also a good, generous friend and smart enough to know that she very well could be screwing up her life. That's precisely what makes her such a believable character -- the balance of darkness and light in her psyche. None of us are purely good or bad, and Emily reflects that utterly human quality brilliantly. A 30-year-old woman whose dream is to write love poems for fish (and yes, there are a couple of poems in the text for your pure reading enjoyment)? I mean, how could you not love her, at least a little bit, despite her disloyalty to her husband?

Emily is backed up by an endearing cast of characters, most notably her best friend Meg and her boss, Dick. A couple of the characters late in the novel seem a little cartoonish, but Fox manages to make even those seem believable. The relationships portrayed in the novel really ring true -- they are sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes euphoric, but always reflecting real life. A couple of the events in the book left me unhappy and wishing for a different result for the characters, but I think that's just a sign of a really talented writer.

What I liked most about the book was its overall light-heartedness and unexpected sense of hope. I can't believe how hard I laughed in many parts of this book! The ending was somewhat frustrating, but it also made perfect, inevitable sense. I hope Lauren Fox has done enough with STILL LIFE WITH HUSBAND to distinguish herself from the multitudes of chick lit writers out there -- she's definitely got something special and wonderfully different to offer.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars entertaining but insubstantial, May 22, 2008

By	cocktail sage "cocktail sage" (Oakland, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Still Life with Husband (Vintage Contemporaries) (Paperback)

This was a great airplane / airport read. "Chick lit lite"

Emily's husband doesn't listen to her about the future and wants them to follow his plan - baby & house in the 'burbs. Rather than face this difficult thing - turn up the volume - "suburban house and baby, go ahead, have a good life", she avoids fighting the hard fight and goes off and has an affair, telling herself every step of the way how bad the consequences will be. Unfortunately the author presents Emily over and over as a victim, when in fact her actions are the consequences of her own choices and actions, and at the end of the novel Emily is incredibly mean to her sister and family.

Still, I found the novel very entertaining to read, and wonder how much of the exquisite detail came from the author's own life. I did feel that the author exaggerated the boorishness of Emily's husband a bit too much. FWIW my girlfriend was far more critical of Emily's behavior than I am.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very well-written, good storyline, September 20, 2007

By	Janice (Arlington, VA) - See all my reviews

In Lauren Fox's "Still Life with Husband," Emily, a married freelance writer was not satisfied with how her relationship with her husband, Kevin was going. Even though Kevin was stable, predictable, and defintiely reliable, Emily felt that she was not connected to Kevin as she should be and one day, she met David, another writer at a coffee shop. They had a great rapport and from there began Emily's affair with David. A majority of the book focused on Emily's struggle and how she had to juggle her guilt of cheating with another man and at the same time, finding fulfillment and satisfaction with him.

This was a very well-written book as the writing was clear, concise, and very conversational. This was written strictly from Emily's perspective and he author was able to really illustrate Emily's conflicted feelings towards her own infidelity. In addition, I like that the author touched on another sticky issue in a marriage - for instance, Emily's best friend, Meg who had been trying to conceive and her struggles with it. I think this was a better than average novel in this genre. The way the book ended gives me the impression that the author could possibly write a sequel. Highly recommended!