The Wife
Discover the critically acclaimed novel behind Glenn Close’s Oscar nominated performance
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4.3 • 23 Ratings
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- £6.99
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- £6.99
Publisher Description
NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE STARRING GLENN CLOSE
A husband. A wife. A secret. Behind any great man, there’s always a greater woman.
Joe and Joan Castleman are on an aeroplane, 35,000 feet above the ocean. Joe is thinking about the prestigious literary prize he is about to receive and Joan is plotting how to leave him. For too long Joan has played the role of supportive wife, turning a blind eye to his misdemeanours, subjugating her own talents and quietly being the keystone of his success.
The Wife is an acerbic and astonishing take on a marriage from its public face to the private world behind closed doors. Wolitzer has masterfully created an expose of lives lived in partnership and the truth that behind the compromises, dedication and promise inherent in marriage there so often lies a secret...
‘A triumph of tone and observation, The Wife is a blithe, brilliant take on sexual politics’ Lorrie Moore
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Meg Wolitzer is peerless in her examination of how marriages work—and The Wife is one of her funniest and most fearless novels. En route to a ceremony for a prestigious literary prize, 64-year-old Joan Castleman takes stock of her withering, emotionally abusive marriage to a superstar novelist with a taste for younger women. Wolitzer’s heroine ponders whether she should reveal the secret that would ruin Joe’s reputation; her mounting anger and frustration take the shape of deadly sardonic arrows that never miss their targets. Don’t miss Glenn Close’s amazing performance as Joan in the movie adaptation.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A starred or boxed review indicates a book of outstanding quality. A review with a blue-tinted title indicates a book of exceptional importance that hasn't received a starred or boxed review.THE WIFEMeg Wolitzer. Scribner, $23 (224p) 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.
