Do You like book The Good Wife Strikes Back (2004)?
It was particularly interesting to read this book concurrently with "Diary of a Mad Housewife." Both are exceptionally well written and both have fascinating subjects. "Mad" and "Good Wife" both have similar concepts and similar temptations in them... although "Mad" shows the anxiety attacks which drive the protagonist towards promiscuity, "Good Wife" shows frustration, but not panic... attacks or otherwise, and is able to choose more clearly, as she is not easily driven to and fro by her own emotions,even as she is driven onward by the politcal junket surrounding her spouse. Instead,"Good Wife" shows some of the less enjoyable, non-public portions of being a political wife, (it is NOT documentarian, as it is fiction, but obviously well researched) and the life-sucking abilities of that world to consume everything of a person, if allowed. The ending was sort of deu ex machina, but as I was hoping for a moral and non-unhappy ending, I was still pleased.... though I saw "it" coming. However, as one of the few books I've read lately that both seemed to understand the dilemma of being wife and mother, and yet chose to underline and rely on the moral implications of choosing anything other than morality, I found it particularly refreshing. The writing is brisk and beautiful, with great description. The characters are dynamic and sympathetic, even the ones we don't always like. I particularly enjoyed the juxtoposition of the "good" wives/mothers in the story- Meg, whose parents had died and who chose to grow up raising her brother, the politican "good Son candidate," and appear at his side, who is displaced when he falls in loe and marries and who jockeys for position while suffering from alcohol addiction, Sally, who abandoned her daughter to go be a good wife someplace else, and our titular good Wife, who has a brief but pleasant midlife crisis, and runs away from home as soon as her daughter Chloe, graduates from High School and leaves for her own adventures. There is no splitting hairs about the cost to a relationship if someone chooses to stray, and Buchan chooses to have her characters HAVE enough character to be concerned about the cost to thier families... or at least, her FEMALE characters. At its heart, this book is about family, and the choices a woman makes- the family of her birth, or her marriage family? Looking for the family she wanted or making due with the family she _has_? Redefining herself within the family unit, as it continues to shift and twine, or staying stagnant and unchanging? Thankfully, the heroic characters in this book did choose to change and grow for the better, making a good read of "The Good Wife..."
—Heather
I hate books about Europe and how they describe Italy as being hot. Italy is not hot. Houston is hot. Houston is depressing in August and hot, hot, hot. Italy is not depressing in August. I don't think Italy could ever be depressing. Italy is roughly the same latitude as New York. New York my be hot during the summer, but it isn't Houston. Therefore, not as all time heat scorching with no releif in sight hot. This book sucked.I am in Chapter 9, and this book finally got interesting. Sometimes that's how long it takes. What I don't like about Elizabeth Buchan's main characters are that they don't realize how miserable they really are until near the very end of the book when they start to make some kind of major life change. On the other hand, maybe real life is more like that...it's hard to see the forest for the trees. Anyway, in this book, the main character is married to a politician. Although I haven't read the whole book yet, I think it's going to turn out that he is having an affair. It's pretty evident if you ask me for these reasons: 1. The main character's best friend is also the wife of a politician and she found out that her husband is having a 'serious affair' which means it is not the first one.2. The main character's husband is never home and keeps a separate apartment in London for his work.3. He doesn't pay much attention to his family.4. He has a private manager who would make it easy to hide his affair.5. His own wife doesn't even know his schedule all of the time.6. He's a politician.I finally finished it and it left me sad and depressed. Why do I keep choosing this author? I don't really like her books.
—Jschwabenland1
Buchan's female characters are very different from those in traditional romance novels. In 'The Good Wife' fanny has found and married her man and is now playing the dutiful wife, supporting him to fulfill his ambitions as a politician. Fanny finds herself turning from the young, dreamy girl who married Will, to a woman who has to look good and stay quiet. I found some of the ideas in this novel rather predictable as Will goes from idealistic young man to embittered and ambitious politician, with Fanny doing her best to be the wife he wants and struggling to find what happened to the girl she used to be. However, it is better than a lot of the chick lit out there, showing that there is more to life than a great pair of shoes and whether or not your crush fancies you back.
—Emma
