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 really enjoyed this novel - it's definitely a literary read and the language and writing structure steals the show; BUT, it doesn't lack characterization or development. Wolitzer deftly weaves the struggles of women being submissive in a marriage through the story of Joe and and Joan Castleman. Sadly, the marriage begins with an affair, and that becomes a thread throughout. I'm not sure if Wolitzer was making this a direct point, but for me reading this as a marriage beginning painted women AND men in an unfavorable light. It showed not only the weakness of men motivated by sexual favors, but also the disrespectful nature of women towards other woman as Joe Castleman is a married man when Joan sets her sights on him. Throughout their marriage and rise to fame as a writer, he engages in several elicit affairs and she is hurt by this - why? This is how you got him and what's the old adage about that??? It made my sympathy for Joan lack as a character when she violated the sanctity of marriage just as much as Joe, she was a willing participant in the deal.
Now, the other element developed by Wolitzer is the "battle of the sexes" in the professional field. Joe Castleman is a writer, but is he really? It's Joan that sparks the fire of his works, it's Joan that serves as his "muse," and in the end, it's Joan who really deserves the accolades. However, in the publishing industry, especially during the pivotal 1950s and forward as women entered a "man's world," women struggled to be taken seriously in the publishing industry. Of course this has been going on for decades...the famous Fitzgeralds come to mine because we all know Zelda was a writer, too but certainly not recognized. Wolitzer certainly captures the hardships women faced to be taken seriously and for their writing to be considered "on par" with the men being published at the time.
This novel receives an enthusiastic 🍷🍷🍷🍷from me. The fifth wine glass is held back because I found myself so frustrated with Joan's character. She allows herself to be used and discarded and while I know this happened, it seems that in some ways, by being a mistress first, she invited this into her life. I couldn't elicit sympathy for a self-imposed situation.
The Wife is being made into a film - it's how I learned about the novel - starring Glenn Close and Jonathan Pryce (Game of Thrones the High Sparrow). It takes some liberties with the plot such as in the film he wins the Nobel Prize and they are off to Stockholm while in the book they are off to Helsiniki to claim a Finnish literary prize. But nevertheless, I'm excited to view the film. It premiers 3 August 2018.
Now, the other element developed by Wolitzer is the "battle of the sexes" in the professional field. Joe Castleman is a writer, but is he really? It's Joan that sparks the fire of his works, it's Joan that serves as his "muse," and in the end, it's Joan who really deserves the accolades. However, in the publishing industry, especially during the pivotal 1950s and forward as women entered a "man's world," women struggled to be taken seriously in the publishing industry. Of course this has been going on for decades...the famous Fitzgeralds come to mine because we all know Zelda was a writer, too but certainly not recognized. Wolitzer certainly captures the hardships women faced to be taken seriously and for their writing to be considered "on par" with the men being published at the time.
This novel receives an enthusiastic 🍷🍷🍷🍷from me. The fifth wine glass is held back because I found myself so frustrated with Joan's character. She allows herself to be used and discarded and while I know this happened, it seems that in some ways, by being a mistress first, she invited this into her life. I couldn't elicit sympathy for a self-imposed situation.
The Wife is being made into a film - it's how I learned about the novel - starring Glenn Close and Jonathan Pryce (Game of Thrones the High Sparrow). It takes some liberties with the plot such as in the film he wins the Nobel Prize and they are off to Stockholm while in the book they are off to Helsiniki to claim a Finnish literary prize. But nevertheless, I'm excited to view the film. It premiers 3 August 2018.
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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