A NIGHT OWL REVIEWS BOOK REVIEW | Reviewed by: Kyraninse
A Lost Wife's tale alternately leaves me entranced and beguiled by Marion McGilvary's wry, edged prose and bewildered by all the shenanigans going on.
Dry, funny, and well-turned on the lathe of sarcastic wit, the story swept me up and didn't falter until it let me down at the end, confused, and full of questions. The premise is not an unlikely one, and perhaps is even the story of far too many women who have decided to fade into the blank canvas of a city, but I found myself wondering about Agnes. My only quibble was that I found it difficult if not impossible to identify with her -- why the choices that she made? Instead of melting into her story, nodding along with her woes and angst, I found myself wanting to shake her. The young Agnes who was a sorry tag-along behind Kirsty, reluctantly dragged behind and down by her. The older Agnes who was a basket of might-have-beens and then the one that I meet at the beginning of the book. Oddly enough, I might have liked her more if I had gotten to know her less, as someone beyond the bundle of issues that I saw. Why not tell the truth? Why run without being open and honest about it? Why not tell her daughter straight out that she was the product of rape and so she probably was never going to be able to have a relationship with her? Why sit and sit and sit on herself until she all but lost herself in the re-making? It's not as if she was re-making herself into a better and more attractive person with each running away, so why not just tell the bare ugly truth? That was the part I found problematic, that I wondered about. When you see someone who has remade themselves into a glittering paragon totally unlike the person before, one who lies and runs from the past -- that makes sense. What doesn't is when she is willing to come across as such a morally ugly person rather than admit to her past. Perhaps is it a mark of McGilvary's brilliance that Agnes got to me so much. Much as I didn't like her, she became real for me.
I'd recommend this book to someone who likes their contemporary fiction with a healthy dose of realism, dry humor peeking out from the angst and drama.
Jun 16, 2010 | 9780061766091
5 = Rare - Top Pick | 4.5 = I Loved It - Top Pick | 4 = Good Solid Read
3.5 = Enjoyable | 3 Stars = OK - Needs a few changes | 2 Stars = It just didn't click / DNF
Book Blurb for A Lost Wife's Tale
Once Edith Lutz had a life, a husband, and a home. Why did she run?
Edith doesn't want to be found, so she's taken on a new look, a new name, and an anonymous new life in New York City. Hoping to escape her past and start over, she's now working as a live-in housekeeper for wealthy, recently divorced publisher Adam. Edith is a breath of fresh air in her lonely employer's empty home, and she soon becomes more than just the woman who cleans the kitchen. But Adam knows nothing of the real woman he's falling in love with—or just how shaky the foundations of their blossoming relationship truly are. And Edith can never be sure that her dark history won't catch up to her. In fact, it's closer than she thinks.
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