BOOK OF THE MONTH
Recipe for a Perfect Wife: A Novel
In this captivating dual narrative novel, a modern-day woman discovers remarkable parallels between her own life and her home’s previous owner, a quintessential 1950s housewife whose hidden notes inspire her to discover what it means to be a wife fighting for her place in a patriarchal society.
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Community Reviews
Alice and her husband Nate have just left NYC for life in the suburbs. Alice is very unsure about leaving the big city, but they think they're ready to start a family, and she's just left her high-powered PR job, and really she can't think of a reason to say no. So off they go, moving in to Nellie's house. Of course, Alice and Nellie will never meet, since Nellie's been dead for a year, but Alice will come to feel like she knows Nellie, after discovering a cache of letters and old magazines that Nellie left behind.
What follows is a not-unpredictable, but still satisfying, alternating of chapters. Nellie and Alice are both keeping secrets from their husbands, but what are they and whose secrets will be found out and whose secrets may prove deadly? The tension ramps up deliciously through the middle of the book, although Brown is a little heavy-handed with some of the clues. Put together, the stories form two different, yet not altogether dissimilar looks at the inside of marriage, that though they may be 50+ years apart, may send that message that plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.
What follows is a not-unpredictable, but still satisfying, alternating of chapters. Nellie and Alice are both keeping secrets from their husbands, but what are they and whose secrets will be found out and whose secrets may prove deadly? The tension ramps up deliciously through the middle of the book, although Brown is a little heavy-handed with some of the clues. Put together, the stories form two different, yet not altogether dissimilar looks at the inside of marriage, that though they may be 50+ years apart, may send that message that plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.
Love how it goes back and forth from the 50s to current times. Very good read and nothing like I would normally pick up but decided to buy it on a whim and not disappointed at all.
I'm giving this one a 7 because it was so engrossing...I figured out what was happening early on, but I had to be sure. Switching back and forth in time between two housewives (living in the same house), 2018 Unlikable Dishonest Wife learns the secrets of 1955 Creepy Wife, inspired to turn the story into a best-selling novel.
Trigger warnings: domestic violence; miscarriage; abortion; a couple of sex scenes.
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