The Wife and the Widow
by Christian White
Blurb:
My Reaction:
Set against the backdrop of an eerie island town in the dead of winter, The Wife and The Widow is an unsettling thriller told from two perspectives: Kate, a widow whose grief is compounded by what she learns about her dead husband’s secret life; and Abby, an island local whose world is turned upside when she’s forced to confront the evidence of her husband’s guilt. But nothing on this island is quite as it seems, and only when these women come together can they discover the whole story about the men in their lives. Brilliant and beguiling, The Wife and The Widow takes you to a cliff edge and asks the question: how well do we really know the people we love?
My Reaction:
I chose this novel after reading that it had an amazing, unusual twist. Well, who doesn't love a good twist?! (...pointedly ignoring people who claim not to love twists...)
To give credit where it's due, there is a surprising twist. Unlike the person who recommended this book, I don't know that I'd go so far as to say that I've never seen that type of twist before, but it was still unexpected.
The problem is that I didn't enjoy most of the book. It was difficult to care much about most of these bland characters, and while I understood their motivations, I found those motivations irritating and unsympathetic, and the whole thing left me cold. Slightly annoyed, mostly cold.
SPOILER-Filled Tidbits:
To give credit where it's due, there is a surprising twist. Unlike the person who recommended this book, I don't know that I'd go so far as to say that I've never seen that type of twist before, but it was still unexpected.
The problem is that I didn't enjoy most of the book. It was difficult to care much about most of these bland characters, and while I understood their motivations, I found those motivations irritating and unsympathetic, and the whole thing left me cold. Slightly annoyed, mostly cold.
SPOILER-Filled Tidbits:
-- The scene between the two teens in the old ferry terminal... Sorry, not what I want to read. Not by a long shot.
-- John is an idiot. Why go back and speak to Abby and Eddie about his decision to come forward? He says he's already decided what he's going to do, with or without them. He had to know that there was some risk involved. Abby practically threatened him, even back when he was a teenager. Did he really think it was a good idea to tell her his intentions and then meet the two of them (as he thought he was doing) in an isolated spot? What real difference would it have made, talking to them first? If he'd made up his mind to go to the police, he should've just done it! But you know what? Who cares?! Does any reader honestly care that John was killed?
-- Never heard of a "she-oak" before this. Sounds kind of funny, like a folksy way of saying a female oak, if some oaks were male and others female (which apparently they aren't). "Observe the maternal instinct at work as this she-oak provides a sheltering canopy to protect her precious saplings..."
-- Abby and Ray's discussion just prior to his "confession"... First, she tells him why she can't believe he killed someone, and her reasons include such gems as "because I once saw you weep without shame during an airline ad" and "I've seen you add lavender oil to your bathwater". Oh, and the dude has been known to laugh insanely at Funniest Home Videos. (Well, he's human, isn't he?!) So someone who enjoys the scent of lavender can't possibly be a killer, I guess. (Again, doesn't almost everyone like lavender?) To tell the truth, if I see someone weeping without shame during an airline ad, that might be enough to make me doubt their emotional stability! I'm not saying it's a red flag for murdering tendencies, but it certainly would raise an eyebrow.
-- During the same conversation as above, Ray admits that he's been worrying that he's unable to provide enough for his family, feels that he's barely keeping his head above water, and sometimes fantasizes about escaping to a different life. Relatable enough. Abby asks why he hasn't ever talked to her about those feelings, and he replies, "Come on, Abby, I'm not one of your girlfriends. ... Men aren't like that." UGH. (eyeroll, etc., etc.) Good grief. I'm really struggling to reconcile Manly-Man Ray who can't talk to his own wife and Touchy-Feeling Ray who enjoys a lavender bath and weeps at sappy commercials.
-- I'm not a parent, and some people insist that anyone who isn't a parent is incapable of using imagination or the powers of observation to get even the faintest grasp of what it is to be a parent, but working with just the feeble understanding I do possess (another eyeroll for you, here), I can't agree with Ray and Abby's decision to protect their creepy son Eddie from the repercussions of his actions. Eddie was young. He was scared. There was a witness (John) who would have testified to the fact that that man had come in and basically threatened them. The victim wasn't entirely innocent, and as a minor, Eddie could have been okay. It's not as though he went on to live a rich, fulfilling life with the knowledge of his guilt hanging over his head, anyway. Imagine knowing that your parent took the fall for you, at the cost of decades of freedom... It would be crushing. How could you live with that guilt, even aside from the guilt of the crime you committed?
(Interesting that both this book and the one I last read involved an adult character taking the fall for a crime committed by a younger relative...)
-- John is an idiot. Why go back and speak to Abby and Eddie about his decision to come forward? He says he's already decided what he's going to do, with or without them. He had to know that there was some risk involved. Abby practically threatened him, even back when he was a teenager. Did he really think it was a good idea to tell her his intentions and then meet the two of them (as he thought he was doing) in an isolated spot? What real difference would it have made, talking to them first? If he'd made up his mind to go to the police, he should've just done it! But you know what? Who cares?! Does any reader honestly care that John was killed?
-- Never heard of a "she-oak" before this. Sounds kind of funny, like a folksy way of saying a female oak, if some oaks were male and others female (which apparently they aren't). "Observe the maternal instinct at work as this she-oak provides a sheltering canopy to protect her precious saplings..."
-- Abby and Ray's discussion just prior to his "confession"... First, she tells him why she can't believe he killed someone, and her reasons include such gems as "because I once saw you weep without shame during an airline ad" and "I've seen you add lavender oil to your bathwater". Oh, and the dude has been known to laugh insanely at Funniest Home Videos. (Well, he's human, isn't he?!) So someone who enjoys the scent of lavender can't possibly be a killer, I guess. (Again, doesn't almost everyone like lavender?) To tell the truth, if I see someone weeping without shame during an airline ad, that might be enough to make me doubt their emotional stability! I'm not saying it's a red flag for murdering tendencies, but it certainly would raise an eyebrow.
-- During the same conversation as above, Ray admits that he's been worrying that he's unable to provide enough for his family, feels that he's barely keeping his head above water, and sometimes fantasizes about escaping to a different life. Relatable enough. Abby asks why he hasn't ever talked to her about those feelings, and he replies, "Come on, Abby, I'm not one of your girlfriends. ... Men aren't like that." UGH. (eyeroll, etc., etc.) Good grief. I'm really struggling to reconcile Manly-Man Ray who can't talk to his own wife and Touchy-Feeling Ray who enjoys a lavender bath and weeps at sappy commercials.
-- I'm not a parent, and some people insist that anyone who isn't a parent is incapable of using imagination or the powers of observation to get even the faintest grasp of what it is to be a parent, but working with just the feeble understanding I do possess (another eyeroll for you, here), I can't agree with Ray and Abby's decision to protect their creepy son Eddie from the repercussions of his actions. Eddie was young. He was scared. There was a witness (John) who would have testified to the fact that that man had come in and basically threatened them. The victim wasn't entirely innocent, and as a minor, Eddie could have been okay. It's not as though he went on to live a rich, fulfilling life with the knowledge of his guilt hanging over his head, anyway. Imagine knowing that your parent took the fall for you, at the cost of decades of freedom... It would be crushing. How could you live with that guilt, even aside from the guilt of the crime you committed?
(Interesting that both this book and the one I last read involved an adult character taking the fall for a crime committed by a younger relative...)
