With her skillful storytelling and pitch-perfect observations, Wolitzer has crafted a wise and candid look at the choices all men and women make - in marriage, work, and life.
About the Author
Meg Wolitzer is the New York Times bestselling author of The Female Persuasion, The Interestings, The Uncoupling, The Ten-Year Nap, The Position, and other novels. Wolitzer lives in New York City.
Review
In 2018, I saw the trailer for the movie, starring Glenn Close and Jonathan Pryce, and was sufficiently interested to seek out the book. I wasn't familiar with Wolitzer's work prior to this. The mention of air marshals on the plane and references to terrorism within the story prompted me to check the original publication date, which was 2003, that very strange and troubling post-9/11 era. The cover is basically the movie poster with the actors' faces. The title and author text are done in a typewriter-looking font. Sadly, the e-book was far more expensive than the paperback at the time so paperback it was. It was a fairly quick read since it's not a very long book.
If this book was an AITA (Am I The Asshole) post, I would vote ESH (Everyone Sucks Here). It has its funny moments but mostly it's a mildly infuriating read. Anyone who has done any sort of research on male authors or artists will quickly realize there's usually a talented and skilled woman in the background helping so I was really wondering what would be different here. The answer is not much. The ending was also not particularly satisfying.
The bit that stayed with me:
Everyone liked me because I was not only a wife, I was the alpha wife, the spouse of the alpha dog. The alpha dog who, everyone knew, was blithely cheating on me, fucking himself dizzy in Birchbark, separated from Peachtree only by Wildwood and Silverspruce and by the great wooden dining hall, with its summer-camp smells and fresh-out-of-the-dishwasher glasses that warmed my orange juice each morning to approximately the temperature of the bath I took each night. (Wolitzer, 2018, p. 171)
It sums up Joan's unhappy situation in a very long, rambling way but the real reason I like it is the part about the orange juice, which I had a very strong reaction to. I could smell and taste it. We've all had that steamy glass of too-warm juice. Those are the bits of Wolitzer's writing that I liked.
While I didn't hate the book and there were good parts, I don't want to keep it on my shelf. It would have been fine as an e-book.
Verdict: Donate
* Spoilers *