Four Wives
Wendy Walker
Reviewed by Jaimie Bell
This fast paced, savvy debut novel follows the lives of four well-to-do
women as they ponder the reasons of how they can have everything and
still be unhappy. They live in an affluent suburb called Hunting
Ridge where privileged exteriors often hide brutal and nasty truths.
Janie is the perfect wife and mother to four children. Faithful
workouts and plastic surgery leaves her forty something body looking
twenty years younger, a must for her social climbing husband. To him
their marriage is perfect but Janie feels like an object in a hollow
life and combats growing feelings of emptiness in an affair with a
married man.
Gayle comes from old money and feels the weight of family and social
expectations keenly. Kindhearted, shy, and no way prepared to
deal with public scrutiny she hides in prescription antidepressants.
The reasons for her reticence become clearer as her married life is
slowly revealed to be a nightmare.
Love is completely overwhelmed as a mother of three and her house and
personal grooming show it. Married to a doctor she expected to have
more money but it did not turn out that way. The sudden
revelation of a destructive secret from the past causes her body to
react in excruciating pain that even her doctor husband cannot find a
cure for.
Marie is an overachieving control freak with an attitude of superiority
over her husband, daughters, and most of her neighbors. Two college
degrees and feminist beliefs are used as an excuse to be angry most of
the time and petty fusses at home cause her husband to retreat into
golf.
Wendy Walker exposes many ways women can become unhappy with their
lives and find themselves in ruts that seem bottomless. Most of the
stories are pretty sad and much heavier than I expected. Unlike the
Desperate Housewives genre, humor is used sparingly as these women
flounder for some sort of meaning in their lives. Many of their
problems are tied up in their marriages where communication and
selfless giving are almost non-existent. The following quote
summed up the feelings of both genders.
And though he knew he should feel hopeful, that perhaps this was all
that was needed to be done to win back his wife, the larger part of him
was bewildered at the high price of keeping a marriage intact – and
wondering if it was worth it.
That comes from a salvageable marriage.
Some stereotypical material cropped up such as cereal boxes left on the
counter (likened to the marital toilet paper roll conflict) and happy
stay-at-home moms referred to as Stepford wives. Turning real and
disturbing problems into a cliché was disappointing especially
when placed alongside some very astute observations and keen
understanding of what people married for a long time experience.
Pages turn fast to see who emerges from their problems intact and who
would sink beneath the stormy seas of life. A couple endings are
completely unexpected and one was very satisfying as I was really
rooting for this one woman in particular.
Wendy Walker is a former commercial litigator and investment banker who
now works at home. She is currently working on her second novel.