Rating: 
Summary: Elegant Brevity
Review: "The Wife" is the first selection of my bookclub, and a fine choice it was. This slim novel is one of the finest examples of literary fiction available. Ms. Wolitzer's prose is spare, clean and elegant. She doesn't employ gimmicks such as incomprehensible syntax or run-on sentences. She has no need to imitate Jonathan Franzen and give us an encyclopedic novel. While the subjects of marriage, gender, ambition and art loom large, the author packages them tidily into the voice of Joan Castleman, the protagonist and narrator. Ms. Wolitzer imbues the 64-year-old Joan with a quiet intelligence, a refreshing feminist heroine who doesn't spew trite feminist messages. Her life is believable to the very end. (One reviewer found the "unexpected" ending anything but. I think most readers of literary fiction are prepared for the possibility of this particular conclusion.) The only cavil with this novel is the repetition in some paragraphs. "Woman in a man's world" appears in variations throughout the work, but is fitting for a character not versed in feminist lexicon. This aside, I truly enjoyed this novel.
Rating:
Summary: Wit, warmth, and wisdom
Review: A marriage based on a secret does not bode well for longevity, but this one lasted long enough for Joan, the wife of a successful writer and her former married, creative-writing professor, to sit back in her first-class airline seat and take a good long look at just what she traded for when she married the man.
This diabolically funny and wicked book is a rant of sorts against the literary establishment, gender, status, and fame. Excellent summer read - also excellent for autumn, winter, and spring reading, as well.
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful prose, disturbing ending
Review: Joan is a dutiful, honorable, and faithful wife. Her husband, we learn, is a pampered, ego-driven novelist who depends on his wife for support that goes beyond the call of "wifely" duty. The scene is Helsinki, where Joe is going to receive the prestigious Helsinki Prize. As always, Joan is accompanying him and through their trans-Atlantic journey, we journey through the marriage that is Joan and Joe. Their marriage is filled with typical ups and downs, but so much is never explained. As expected, Joe is a philanderer and makes no apologies for it. Joan isn't outraged--She is hurt, but that's as much as we know. So much is missing here that sometimes the character seems too distant. Still, Wolitzer's prose is incredibly brilliant and a wonderful departure from the adolescent sounding narratives that have flooded bookstores as of late. Of course, the "surprise" ending didn't surprise me at all. I have to admit that I was a bit angered after putting the book down. Without wanting to give too much away, my opinion of Joan was taken down a notch. I don't feel she was redeemed at all. But perhaps this is what life is really like. Whatever your opinion of the events of the plot, this is a 4 star book. Wolitzer's simple, straightforward style appeals to me. I will definitely read her next novel.
Rating:
Summary: period piece
Review: Joan is a product of her time - those glorius 1950's when women went to college to get their MRS degree. Ther are some stereotypes that we've seen before - Joan meets Joe when she is his English student at Smith - but there is a lot of original and beautiful writing about the two main characters. Joe is a novelist who has achieved a certain amount of fame and the resulting adoration of his fans. These two made their bargain early on in their marriage and the story takes us through decades of the consequences. The author had some marvelous phrases and vivid imagery. While taking the journey through Joan and Joe's imperfect marriage over decades, we learn about their relationships with their children - let's just say that neither Joan nor Joe would probably win a Parent of the Year award. While I wasn't crazy about the ending, it certainly could be true to the characters and the time.
Rating: 
Summary: Anyone who has taken Women's Studies 101 will be quite bored
Review: Meg Wolitzer writes a mighty fine sentence, and while I found her plotting predictable, it is certainly competent. But the book bored me almost to tears. It's a slim novel, but at least a third of it repeats--sometimes in different words, but not always--the following sentiment: women have it tough, especially creative women. I agree that creative women do have it tough, tougher than creative men. In fact, I agree so wholeheartedly that I didn't need to hear it on every other page. The cast of characters includes:
-the woman who kills herself because she can't express herself
-the woman who writes well but can't get any respect
-the woman who writes well and does get respect, but only because of her famous husband
-the woman who writes well and does get respect, but only because she's crazy
-the woman who writes well but can only do it under cover of her husband
-the woman who can't write well but does get respect because she's hot
-the woman who can write well and does get respect, but who hates all other women If you want to read a book that's trying to raise consciousness about the issues of second-wave feminism, I recommend Marilyn French's The Women's Room, a book that sounds dated because it is dated, and that has more complicated and interesting characters.
Rating:
Summary: Anyone who has taken Women's Studies 101 will be quite bored
Review: Meg Wolitzer writes a mighty fine sentence, and while I found her plotting predictable, it is certainly competent. But the book bored me almost to tears. It's a slim novel, but at least a third of it repeats--sometimes in different words, but not always--the following sentiment: women have it tough, especially creative women. I agree that creative women do have it tough, tougher than creative men. In fact, I agree so wholeheartedly that I didn't need to hear it on every other page. The cast of characters includes:
-the woman who kills herself because she can't express herself
-the woman who writes well but can't get any respect
-the woman who writes well and does get respect, but only because of her famous husband
-the woman who writes well and does get respect, but only because she's crazy
-the woman who writes well but can only do it under cover of her husband
-the woman who can't write well but does get respect because she's hot
-the woman who can write well and does get respect, but who hates all other women If you want to read a book that's trying to raise consciousness about the issues of second-wave feminism, I recommend Marilyn French's The Women's Room, a book that sounds dated because it is dated, and that has more complicated and interesting characters.
Rating:
Summary: Marriage Gone Bad
Review: Once I started The Wife, I could not put it down thanks to Meg Wolitzer's ability to draw me into the world of spineless Joan Castleman and her husband Joe Castleman, a major cad. They have a marriage that I won't soon forget: he is a misery you would not want to know however many successful novels he publishes and prizes he wins, and she is a female nonentity willing to compromise herself shamelessly as she puts up with this misfit of a husband and father of her children. While they appear on the surface to be upright, educated, hardworking, and successful; they are, in fact, a mess. The saddest proof of their failures is their son, David, who is on the brink of either joining the homeless or folks stuck in some institution.
The ending of the book is a bit of a surprise, but remains (to me) unsatisfying. It seems to be an easy, somewhat contrived way out of the complexity of the end of the book.
What is most noteworthy and memorable, is Wolitzer's daring to protray the cunning, deceptive traits and characteristics of an egocentric male who, despite his pronouncements and credentials, cares about nothing but himself. I wonder why he had to be Jewish. I also wonder whether there are still women around today who fall for a con artist such as a Joe Castleman.
Rating: 
Summary: Just another peeved off wife!
Review: So like many books, this is just another peeved off wife and their lacking, boring relationship where everything is the man's fault etc etc. The ending left me saying, "That's it?!?!". I hope to try another book from the author and have a better review.
Rating:
Summary: A Surprisingly Perceptive Story
Review: Stereotypes often make life easier to navigate. Upon second glance, however, they are inherently flawed. No one person fits the same mold as another. Yet in THE WIFE, a novel by Meg Wolitzer, readers buy into the stereotype of a young co-ed who falls in love with her accomplished writing instructor, marries him, has a family and lives a successful life. Buying into this myth, this picture-perfect scenario, readers trick themselves into believing that things are as they seem. What they discover, however, is exactly the opposite. After reading the first few pages, readers understand that "happily ever after" is not part of this story. But most will not grasp the full extent of this one wife's reality until the very end of the story. It is a surprise ending that will startle the most intuitive readers. Wolitzer proves herself a crafty and deft author with her ability to distract her reader from the core of this story: the real reason Joan stays married to a notorious womanizer and famous novelist by tempting him/her with tasty morsels, why she quit her job at a publishing house that launched his career and shelved the impressive writing talent that drew him to her in the first place. Joan, who speaks clearly to readers as the narrator, is a mildly embittered woman who has come to resent the very existence she created. As a freshman at Smith College, a published female author warned Joan, a promising creative writing student, about the fraternity of the publishing world and urged her to apply her talents elsewhere. Seemingly Joan took that advice. She raised three children and nurtured her husband's successful literary career. She attended literary events and research meetings, from interviews with prostitutes to tours of war-torn Vietnam. Joan details the intricacies of her life, her compromises both small and large, and at times the litany seems self-indulgent and repetitive. It is not until the end of the story when readers fully comprehend the depth of her sacrifice that her tirade seems justified, even perhaps understated. On a larger scale the story will prompt readers to evaluate their own roles in relationships and question the exceptions they have made to their own rules. Because the hardcover edition of this book followed hot on the heels of THE SINGLE WIFE by Nina Solomon, I found myself contemplating the meaning of the word wife. "I'd been a good wife, most of the time. Joe had been comfortable and safe and surrounded, always off somewhere talking, gesturing, doing unspeakable things with women, eating rich foods, drinking, reading, leaving books scattered around the house facedown, their spines broken from too much love," says Joan. "Joe once told me he felt sorry for women, who only got husbands ... But wives, oh wives, when they weren't being bitter or melancholy or counting the beads on their abacus of disappointment, they could take care of you with delicate and effortless ease." THE WIFE is a surprisingly perceptive story about a man and a woman whose union seems to allow them to live the lives they want. A strong undercurrent of this story is a message to women who avoid future disappointments by compromising in the short run. What readers learn from Joan is that, in retrospect, possible disappointments pale in comparison to those realized along the safer road. --- Reviewed by Heather Grimshaw
Rating:
Summary: This book is cooked
Review: There is something very dishonest and disingenuous about this book; there is no "devastating message about the price of love and fame." I can't say more without giving away the "surprise" ending, which is as abrupt and arbitrary as a heart attack. Meg Wolitzer is a fine writer, but let's just say that if I knew how pathetic and dysfunctional the main characters, Joe and Joan, were, I would not have read the book.
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