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19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wise and weary: must-read for writers, August 19, 2004
This review is from: The Wife: A Novel (Paperback)
This is an excellent novel, well-paced, sharply observed, witty, bitter, sad-- and also forgiving.
It's true as other readers have noted that the subject is not 100% original. But in my view it's the best execution of a story about a literary wife-- and isn't it the execution that matters? This book is a joy to read; the prose is elegant and economic. Yes it is a portrait of the changing times, but there is a central "story question"-- what is the final thing prompting Joan to divorce her famous husband, Joe Castleman, after a lifetime of marriage? Is it just bitterness that she never pursued her own talent, anger over his cheating and taking her for granted, self-actualization?
There is a twist in the book-- I didn't see it coming at all, but when it did, like the movie Sixth Sense, everything else fell into place. This is a must-read for anyone with literary aspirations or for anyone in a long-term relationship. I only knew Wolitzer as a comic writer before, and there are some comic scenes, but in this book she equals Gail Godwin and Philip Roth (who had to have been part of the inspiration for charismatic, crude Joe). This is as palatable as any beach novel but is so much more substantial!
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31 of 36 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Score Settled, May 28, 2003
The WIFE surely contains some of the most delectable prose to be seen in print in recent years; but it is not because of the wonderful writing that this novel demands a second reading. No, it is that the surprise ending of the book needs to spend its awesome power in order to set us free to thoroughly enjoy the subtext and underlying structures of the book; for these can only be seen and felt once we know how the novel ends. A second reading is just as delightful, and perhaps more rewarding, than the first one. The book's layering of thought and emotion is so deftly rendered that on its surface it appears to be another in the genre that deals with the tensions between an older, prestigious, male and the younger pretty female dilettante, who in time becomes an acolyte to the man's talent; but all along we sense that under the surface there is much more than that, as, indeed, there certainly is. The author is an irrepressible humorist of the type that is funny especially when she is trying not to be. It is a book about the sweet and deadly revenge of the weak against an oppressor; it is a sociology about how a human relationship can evolve from symbiosis to parasitic exploitation, from sharing to taking to grabbing; and if Meg Wolitzer borrows some of the techniques of police novels, she rewards the reader by serving up the Holy Grail of detective books: a truly perfect crime. An extraordinary book that is likely to become a minor classic.
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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Marriage Gone Bad, August 22, 2004
Once I started The Wife, I could not put it down thanks to Meg Wolitzer's ability to draw me into the world of spineless Joan Castleman and her husband Joe Castleman, a major cad. They have a marriage that I won't soon forget: he is a misery you would not want to know however many successful novels he publishes and prizes he wins, and she is a female nonentity willing to compromise herself shamelessly as she puts up with this misfit of a husband and father of her children. While they appear on the surface to be upright, educated, hardworking, and successful; they are, in fact, a mess. The saddest proof of their failures is their son, David, who is on the brink of either joining the homeless or folks stuck in some institution.
The ending of the book is a bit of a surprise, but remains (to me) unsatisfying. It seems to be an easy, somewhat contrived way out of the complexity of the end of the book.
What is most noteworthy and memorable, is Wolitzer's daring to protray the cunning, deceptive traits and characteristics of an egocentric male who, despite his pronouncements and credentials, cares about nothing but himself. I wonder why he had to be Jewish. I also wonder whether there are still women around today who fall for a con artist such as a Joe Castleman.
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