The Wife: A Novel
Now a major motion picture starring Glenn Close in her Golden Globe–winning role!
One of bestselling author Meg Wolitzer’s most beloved books—an “acerbically funny” (Entertainment Weekly) and “intelligent…portrait of deception” (The New York Times).
The Wife is the story of the long and stormy marriage between a world-famous novelist, Joe Castleman, and his wife Joan, and the secret they’ve kept for decades. The novel opens just as Joe is about to receive a prestigious international award, The Helsinki Prize, to honor his career as one of America’s preeminent novelists. Joan, who has spent forty years subjugating her own literary talents to fan the flames of his career, finally decides to stop.
Important and ambitious, The Wife is a sharp-eyed and compulsively readable story about a woman forced to confront the sacrifices she’s made in order to achieve the life she thought she wanted. “A rollicking, perfectly pitched triumph…Wolitzer’s talent for comedy of manners reaches a heady high” (Los Angeles Times), in this wise and candid look at the choices all men and women make—in marriage, work, and life.
One of bestselling author Meg Wolitzer’s most beloved books—an “acerbically funny” (Entertainment Weekly) and “intelligent…portrait of deception” (The New York Times).
The Wife is the story of the long and stormy marriage between a world-famous novelist, Joe Castleman, and his wife Joan, and the secret they’ve kept for decades. The novel opens just as Joe is about to receive a prestigious international award, The Helsinki Prize, to honor his career as one of America’s preeminent novelists. Joan, who has spent forty years subjugating her own literary talents to fan the flames of his career, finally decides to stop.
Important and ambitious, The Wife is a sharp-eyed and compulsively readable story about a woman forced to confront the sacrifices she’s made in order to achieve the life she thought she wanted. “A rollicking, perfectly pitched triumph…Wolitzer’s talent for comedy of manners reaches a heady high” (Los Angeles Times), in this wise and candid look at the choices all men and women make—in marriage, work, and life.
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Community Reviews
I like the psychology of this book. Right away you know the wife thinks her husband is an asshole, but you're not certain of all the dimensions of her distaste for him. By the end, I'd come to see it as more of a dance between the two of them. She is far from blameless in their arrangement, she gets something from it too, even if she chooses to blame her husband for it completely and not take much responsibility for what she chooses to do and what she chooses to allow.
Bit of a spoiler alert- don't read if you haven't read the book!:
I noticed one of the reviews said that the book leaves things somewhat unresolved but to me it seems the opposite. Everything is completely resolved. The main character- the wife, Joan Castleman - is also the author of the tale. (I am not saying that Meg Wolitzer is Joan Castleman, I'm saying that the internal fiction is that you are reading Joan's finished novel.)
Bit of a spoiler alert- don't read if you haven't read the book!:
I noticed one of the reviews said that the book leaves things somewhat unresolved but to me it seems the opposite. Everything is completely resolved. The main character- the wife, Joan Castleman - is also the author of the tale. (I am not saying that Meg Wolitzer is Joan Castleman, I'm saying that the internal fiction is that you are reading Joan's finished novel.)
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