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Summary: good book
Review: I thought this book was great. This book inspired me to read more. It has a lot of suspense and an unbelievable ending. I thought it was very intriguing.
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Summary: A Made For TV Movie
Review: The writing is painfully ordinary and slow. Human curiosity made me want to find out the ending. Nothing more.
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Summary: I lived this
Review: The unfolding story line of "The Pilot's Wife", is not at all unfathomable to me. I lived this story. I was the "second" wife, the one who knew of the other wife and children. I found this story verbalized much of what I felt after my discovery. . .any woman who has lived through the experience of discovering her lover has another life apart from her, will see herself, her emotions, her actions on the pages of this book. In one respect it was un-nerving to me, in another it was healing. An overall good read.
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Summary: Kept me reading, intriguing and suspenseful
Review: This was my second Anita Shreve novel, and I picked it up immediately after I finished her latest (The Last Time They Met). I was so engrossed by that book that I had to have more. I was not disappointed with The Pilot's Wife.The suspense that Shreve generates is magnificent, and the book does make one wonder "do we really know a person?". The "pilot's wife", Kathryn, makes a wonderful central character, and Shreve develops her wonderfully. The tragedy that Kathryn encounters is felt by the reader all the way through the novel, especially within the first couple of chapters. Shreve's description of the grief and dispair Kathryn encounters is right-on.
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Summary: The Piolet's Wife
Review: I think that this book is a fairly good read;and very emotional/touching.It's a bit depressing in parts though.I felt the feelings of Katherine and thought about the issues raised.I would recommend this book to people with a good understanding of words or literature.
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Summary: Vastly overrated
Review: One of the most hokey, fakey books I have ever read. Melodramatic. Unrealistic. Contrived. NO ONE seemed like a real person. I finished it mainly because the first 2/3rds of the book are an elaborate delaying tactic; by the time I got that far, and the book really started to go off the deep end, I read quickly to the last page just to see how Shreve tied things up. Kathryn, the protagonist, figures the whole "mystery" out in about two seconds 2/3rds of the way through and then there's a flurry of action in the last 1/3rd. A complete waste of time. There should be a "no star at all" option. Oprah is out of her mind.
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Summary: A good read that rises above the soap opera genre
Review: This 1998 novel by Anita Shreve opens when Kathryn, the lead character, discovers that her pilot husband has been killed in plane crash. What follows is a detailed exploration of grief as she has to cope with some startling revelations about him and discovers that she never really knew him at all. The reader follows her inner anguish as she copes with betrayal and loss. It's hard to put my finger on exactly why the book rises above the soap opera genre. The writing is clear and fast paced but yet sometimes repetitive. The characters are well drawn but Kathryn is too good to be true. And as the mystery surrounding the pilot's death unfolds, it is not quite believable. But why did I go right past my bus stop while I was reading the book? Why did I think about the book all day, barely looking at my e-mail and forgoing television in order to continue reading it last night? Why did it keep me up well past my usual bedtime in order to finish it? Essentially, in spite of the faults of the book, Ms. Shreve is a great story teller. I just kept reading. This book is not for everyone as it deals with the what could be called sentimental inner feelings and the thought patterns in Kathryrn's mind. Considering that it's about a plane crash, there is not much action. And it makes no earth-shattering revelations other than reinforce the concept of how hard it is to really know a person. But a book that can keep me so intrigued must be given a high recommendation. After all, Isn't that what the pleasure of a good read is all about?
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Summary: No easy answers.
Review: Anita Shreve has written a spare, clean book that tackles two difficult questions: "Do you ever know anyone completely?" and "Is the purpose of life learning to deal with loss?" The answers are, at least for Kathryn Lyons, the book's main character, "Yes" and "No" respectively. But then there is the knock on the door in the middle of the night, the knock that every pilot's spouse fears. Her husband has died in an airline accident. There are incidents surrounding the circumstances that don't make sense. Not to Kathryn. Not unless she changes her mind about those two answers. This book is not really a mystery, although it contains the suspense and slow revelations of a mystery book. The book is best when it is less of a mystery and more of a coming-to-grips with life. The book falters when it reaches too far. Some questions don't have tidy answers, some situations are wrenching and won't be survived easily. Most people past the age of 21 are damaged by life, with our without a convenient terrorist connection. Kathryn Lyons must step out of her comfortable existence and begin to examine the core of what she has known to be the truth of her life. And almost none of it remains true. As one discovery leads to another, Kathryn must decide how she will react, who she will become, what she will and will not tell her 15-year old daughter. The question is less of "what really happened?" and more "Do I have control over these emotional earthquakes?" As a suddenly single parent, it would be easy for Kathryn to become self-absorbed, to feel that as a widow she has the right to become angry and resentful. And for a while, she indulges in those feelings. And then she moves through them. There is the heart of the success of Shreve's story--the struggle to overcome one's natural inclinations to selfishness, to grow in the face of pain and loss, not seeking "closure" but learning to live with disaster. The book is never cloying or indulgent. It could easily have fallen into that rut, but it does not. It remains true to human emotion, betrayal, love, lies and fabrication. There are some places that could have used a little more credible explanations, and a few that could have been edited out. But all in all, a good read, that can be read in small bits and pieces or in one long delightful slide.
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Summary: BETRAYED!!
Review: I enjoyed "The Pilot's Wife" only moderately as I found it a bit hard to cope with the almost saintly attitude of Kathryn. If I found myself in the same position as she,I'm sure that I'd become an Othello-like female,full of bitterness and thoughts of revenge(even though it would be too late to wreak revenge on my lying,cheating husband!)She appears to be a rather wooden person,who allowed herself to be patronised by her older husband,as does often happen.The first thing that annoyed me was that her husband conspired with her mother to buy their house without even consulting her--what woman would like that?And-couldn't she,or rather would any normal woman,realise that something was drastically wrong with their marriage when the sex stops for no apparent reason?We wouldn't buy that tiredness bit either! As for Mattie the teenage daughter-if she's mature enough to be having sex,she's mature enough to help support her mother through a really traumatic time,and if I had a daughter of that age who sulked,shrugged her shoulders at me and was generally a pain,it could only be concluded that she was very badly brought up ,spoiled rotten and should have had the benefit of the occasional slap around the back of the legs!!! I'm sick to death of teenagers being taught that they are the centre of the universe and that everything revolves around their demands!O.K. of course she's devastated by the death of her father with whom she had a very close relationship,but at 15,she's old enough to understand what the loss of her husband means to her mother. The rest of the plot was pretty far-fetched with a most unsatisfactory ending.
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Summary: Too many questions left unanswered
Review: I am going through books deciding which ones to discard and skimmed through this one yesterday. I bought it in June, 1998, and reviewed it here on 3 September, 1998. As a pilot's ex-wife a lot of things were familiar, but a lot was odd. Most pilots' families travel as often as they can on passes. Kathryn didn't seem to. She seemed detached from Jack's life. I wasn't surprised at the double life he was leading (personal experience). He was sending out all sorts of signals. I agree with a reviewer, Maureen Earl, that the second marriage probably came out during the trial in England. Wouldn't that be in the news? And, yes, I wondered if a page or something was missing from the abrupt ending. I skimmed through the reviews and think it is interesting to notice that readers either hated or loved this book. There wasn't much in between! I read the author's book "Resistance" which I enjoyed much more than "The Pilot's Wife".
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