I am trying to clean out my bookshelf by reading the books I haven’t yet read. Mostly, I’m doing this so I can give some back to the library before I buy more later this year. It’s important to have priorities, right? This next read is one of those books - I purchased it at the library’s book sale last summer. I needed to decide if it would stay or go back to the library.
Book Read: The Wife
Author: Meg Wolitzer
2020 Book Count: 4
Joan Castleman has stood by her novelist husband through every rejection and success over the last forty years. As they fly across the Atlantic so Joseph can receive a prestigious award, Joan makes a decision. She will leave her husband after the award ceremony.
Told through flashbacks from when they met until present day, Joan tells her side of the story. She talks of meeting Joseph when he was her professor at Smith, and how they ran away to New York together, Joseph leaving his first wife and daughter behind. She then tells their life story from then until Joseph’s award ceremony.
Together, Joan and Joseph Castleman have been through a lot, from their living out of a motel to Joseph’s big break to many affairs (on Joseph’s part), to health issues. But, thirty-five thousand feet in the air, Joan has made up her mind and is determined to stick to it.
There is nothing more to say about this book, except that I disliked it. One hundred percent disliked it. It’s going back to the library for some other poor soul. I am not sure if it was the plot, the fifty-ish page long chapters. It was probably both, or the fact that it took me nine days to read 288 boring pages. That is why the recap above was so short and vague (I’m sorry for that).
The Wife seemed to drag on and on. While I did enjoy some of the flashbacks, those moments were few and far between. The big “revelation” is easily predicted early on. Joseph was, frankly, a jerk and a half, who thought he ruled the world (false). Joan was unlikable. It’s hard to enjoy a book where the storyteller is so unbearable. Most importantly, Wolitzer never gave readers a good reason for why Joan acted the way she did. Something was missing throughout the story.
The Wife has already made its way into the donation box, where it will remain until the summer. I’ll even avoid the movie adaptation (Glenn Close beat out Lady Gaga for the Golden Globe so I assume it’s decent), that’s how much I disliked this one. Do yourself a favor… skip this one.
Next Read: The Cactus by Sarah Haywood
