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Title: Single Wife: A Novel by Nina Solomon ISBN: 1-56512-382-4 Publisher: Algonquin Books Pub. Date: June, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $23.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.19 (27 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Not too heavy, not too light--A great first novel
Comment: Nina Solomon's book is full of some of the freshest writing I have read in quite a while. This particular story has a few holes and a couple of paths that lead to dead ends, but the characters are so real and interesting that I still really liked it. And once again, the writing is great. Solomon never seems to run out of new ways to describe things that a less artful writer would probably ignore just to avoid using cliches. (Or worse, would use cliches, which would sink this story with banality.)
Oh, and I love the ending which you'll just have to read yourself. Knowing how and when to stop writing takes enormous skill. Kudos to Solomon and her editor just for that.
Nina Solomon is definitely on my list of writers to watch. I can't wait to see what she does next.
Rating: 5
Summary: A Fun Book --- Readers Will Be Hoping for a Sequel
Comment: For most people, marriage is a partnership that evolves over time. For Grace Brookman, the main character in THE SINGLE WIFE by Nina Solomon, the union is more like a game of smoke and mirrors. But the object of the illusion is not only her elusive husband but herself as well.
In her new novel Solomon addresses a question that partners of both sexes will recognize: How does a person hold on to her or his identity after finding a mate and joining two lives?
Grace is a woman who defines herself through her roles as daughter, wife and friend. But when Laz, her journalist husband, disappears for more than a month, it sets her on her own course of self-discovery. And after five months of lying to friends and family about the whereabouts of her Pulitzer Prize-winning husband, Grace begins to question not only his presence in her life but the shape of her life on its own. Early on in their marriage she shelved her ambitions as a book restorer and artist, accepted Laz's decision to not have children, and busied herself with errands and volunteer work.
Yet Laz made none of those compromises. A man who freezes a key to his own apartment (which he keeps on the other side of town), disappears for weeks at a time and maintains a full and separate social schedule, Laz has always had a life of his own. But as weeks stretch into months, and a birthday, Thanksgiving and Christmas pass without a word from Laz, Grace realizes how little she knows of that life.
A character with whom readers feel at ease and at home, Grace volunteers her time, pacifies a difficult mother-in-law, and dresses to please her self-consumed husband. When she finally sheds her pink cashmere princess coat for a faux fur hand-me-down, the reflection in the mirror is one that Grace recognizes and can call her own. What leads her to that point is an entertaining tale that volleys heavy issues at readers with a lighthearted swing.
It is a simple story of a woman who covers up her husband's disappearance in an attempt to allow him his freedom and subconsciously protect a fragile marriage. As she protects that bubble more, buffering it from the realities of her own life with fibs, Grace begins to realize how little her closest friends and family know her husband and require his presence in their lives.
With several twists and turns, Solomon leads readers on an entertaining and compelling goose chase to find out where Laz has gone and whether he will ever return. She weaves elements of mystery, love story and comedy into this hodgepodge of a novel, the author's first, that prompts readers to stop and think: Would a few tossed socks, a rumpled bed sheet, and some well-planned excuses substitute for a spouse over a five-month span? And if so, how eager would you be for his or her return?
SINGLE WIFE is a fun book that will leave readers hoping for a sequel.
--- Reviewed by Heather Grimshaw
Rating: 5
Summary: reminiscent of a modern-day Betty Smith
Comment: This book takes a theme from author Betty Smith's novel "Maggie Now" where the husband repeatedly disappears without saying where and why, but the wife always retains faith that he will come back and indeed he does. Here, Grace faces the same situation with her husband Laz -- he is already gone at the start of the book. He has done it before, but this is a long one. In fact, he leaves shortly before the Thanksgiving holiday, which is the same weekend as their anniversary and close to Grace's birthday.
Grace instantly starts leading both her and Laz's life -- Laz was once upset with her when she told others he was gone, and so she won't do it again. She hides it from her own parents, Laz's mother Nancy and his best friend Kane, their housekeeper and the doorman. Meanwhile, through a series of coincidences, people from Laz's past start popping up and Grace deals with it and her own life -- which involves her favorite lipstick being discontinued and learning to crochet.
This book is well-written and the author does not try to impress the reader with how very fabulous and quirky her heroine is. In fact, this woman could well be anyone, and it plays on the secret fear every woman has that her spouse/significant other will disappear and she will be left to explain everything, pick up the mess, and ultimately be alone.
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Title: Liars and Saints by Maile Meloy ISBN: 0743244354 Publisher: Scribner Pub. Date: June, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.00 |
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Title: Revenge of the Middle-Aged Woman by Elizabeth Buchan ISBN: 0670032069 Publisher: Viking Press Pub. Date: 10 February, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: The Pursuit of Alice Thrift by Elinor Lipman ISBN: 0679463135 Publisher: Random House Pub. Date: 17 June, 2003 List Price(USD): $23.95 |
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Title: The Dogs of Babel (Today Show Book Club #12) by Carolyn Parkhurst ISBN: 0316168688 Publisher: Little Brown & Company Pub. Date: 13 June, 2003 List Price(USD): $21.95 |
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Title: Breaking Her Fall by Stephen Goodwin ISBN: 015100806X Publisher: Harcourt Pub. Date: 01 August, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.00 |
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