The Wife: A Novel (Hardcover)

by Meg Wolitzer (Author) "THE MOMENT I decided to leave him, the moment I thought, enough, we were thirty-five thousand feet above the ocean, hurtling forward but giving the..." (more)
Key Phrases: slush pile, New York, Nathaniel Bone, Elaine Mozell (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Wolitzer (Sleepwalking) opens her latest tale in the first-class cabin of an airplane. Joan, a still-striking 64-year-old woman, observes her husband, the "short, wound-up, slack-bellied" famous novelist Joe Castleman, as he lolls in his seat and accepts the treats and attention offered him by the flight attendants. The couple are on their way to Finland, where Joe will receive the fictional Helsinki Prize, not quite as prestigious as the Nobel, but worth a small fortune-the crown jewel in a spectacular career. Yet as the once blonde Smith College co-ed looks over at the once handsome creative writing teacher who seduced her, she realizes that she must end this marriage. The reader is prepared for a tale of witty disillusionment. Here is Joan on the literary fame game: "You might even envy us-him for all the power vacuum-packed within his bulky, shopworn body, and me for my twenty-four-hour-access to it, as though a famous and brilliant writer-husband is a convenience store for his wife, a place she can dip into anytime for a Big Gulp of astonishing intellect and wit and excitement." As the narrative flows from the glamorous present back to the past, tracing the bohemian Greenwich Village beginnings of the couple's relationship and Joe's skyrocketing success and compulsive philandering, an almost subliminal psychological horror tale begins to unfold. Wolitzer delicately chips away at this seemingly confident and detached narrator and her swaggering "genius" husband, inserting a sly clue here and there, until the extent of Joan's sacrifice is made clear. There is no cheap, gratifying Hollywood ending to make it all better. Instead, Wolitzer's crisp pacing and dry wit carry us headlong into a devastating message about the price of love and fame. If it's a story we've heard before, the tale is as resonant as ever in Wolitzer's hands.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From The New Yorker
On the way to a big literary-award ceremony, the wife of a famous New York Jewish novelist—sick of his philandering, his self-importance, and his limited talent—decides on divorce. Her stingingly comic story of their marriage shows why. They met in 1956, when she was his writing student at Smith and he was the author of one very bad published story. Only after running off with his talented and self-effacing pupil does he burst into literary stardom. Although they have three (variously unhappy) children, he has always been the real child in the family, dragging her along to the fêtes at which he is flattered and flirted with while she drinks her jealousy away. Wolitzer never really develops her characters and savvy readers will guess her surprise ending quite early on, but she has great fun satirizing an all too recognizable stratum of literary life.
Copyright © 2005 The New Yorker --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Scribner (March 25, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684869403
• ISBN-13: 978-0684869407
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (64 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #115,862 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wise and weary: must-read for writers, August 19, 2004

By	Gwen A Orel (Millburn, New Jersey United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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!

29 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Score Settled, May 28, 2003

By	Fernando Melendez "fermed" (San Diego, California USA) - See all my reviews

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.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very Well Written, August 19, 2005

By	Leigh A. Taft (Mobile, AL United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is my first time to read Wolitzer & I must say, her talent is apparent. I really rate this 3.5 stars, only because the novel surrounds the life of writers, and frankly, they bore me. They ramble incessantly, are full of ego, and whine, whine, whine. (NOTE: Obviously I am referring to the typical, stereotype & realize that there are many writers who are exceptions to this.) Where was I? Oh- whining. Hence Joe Castleman, whom I almost immediately despised from the first few pages. He takes & takes & takes from anyone he can, including his wife, the quarterback of never-ending gifts to him. I really enjoyed Wolitzer's portrayal of their marriage & family life. She's got a knack for really humanizing these characters, rendering them touchingly fallible.
I did like the ending, too. It takes a little turn, reminding me of our real lives. It wasn't an ideal ending for me though; I wanted some healing or solace for Joan, the wife. Somehow though, the book suggests that she'll be fine on her own as she always was.
Yes, the book was enjoyable truly. I just wish there wasn't so much "blah blahs" about writers & their worlds. Then again, I suspect Wolitzer couldn't have gotten her story across. I hope to read more of her, where her characters hopefully choose different career paths. :)