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The Wife: A Novel
(Adobe EPUB eBook, Kindle Book, OverDrive Read)

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Published:
Scribner 2007
Status:
Available from OverDrive
Description
Now a major motion picture starring Glenn Close in her Golden Globe–winning role!

One of bestselling author Meg Wolitzer's most beloved books—an "acerbically funny" (Entertainment Weekly) and "intelligent...portrait of deception" (The New York Times).
The Wife is the story of the long and stormy marriage between a world-famous novelist, Joe Castleman, and his wife Joan, and the secret they've kept for decades. The novel opens just as Joe is about to receive a prestigious international award, The Helsinki Prize, to honor his career as one of America's preeminent novelists. Joan, who has spent forty years subjugating her own literary talents to fan the flames of his career, finally decides to stop.

Important and ambitious, The Wife is a sharp-eyed and compulsively readable story about a woman forced to confront the sacrifices she's made in order to achieve the life she thought she wanted. "A rollicking, perfectly pitched triumph...Wolitzer's talent for comedy of manners reaches a heady high" (Los Angeles Times), in this wise and candid look at the choices all men and women make—in marriage, work, and life.
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Format:
Adobe EPUB eBook, Kindle Book, OverDrive Read
Street Date:
11/01/2007
Language:
English
ISBN:
9781416584889
ASIN:
B00ADSC5KC
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Citations
APA Citation (style guide)

Meg Wolitzer. (2007). The Wife: A Novel. Scribner.

Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation (style guide)

Meg Wolitzer. 2007. The Wife: A Novel. Scribner.

Chicago / Turabian - Humanities Citation (style guide)

Meg Wolitzer, The Wife: A Novel. Scribner, 2007.

MLA Citation (style guide)

Meg Wolitzer. The Wife: A Novel. Scribner, 2007.

Note! Citation formats are based on standards as of July 2022. Citations contain only title, author, edition, publisher, and year published. Citations should be used as a guideline and should be double checked for accuracy.
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Grouped Work ID:
e0c03868-04ea-385a-a21b-128ded0880c6
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Date Added:
Jun 12, 2018 16:44:33
Date Updated:
Dec 11, 2023 13:33:06
Last Metadata Check:
Mar 24, 2024 08:07:35
Last Metadata Change:
Mar 02, 2024 21:09:09
Last Availability Check:
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Last Availability Change:
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Last Grouped Work Modification Time:
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OverDrive Product Record

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      • value: The Interestings
      • value: books to movie
      • value: The Wife
      • value: The Female Persuasion
      • value: The Uncoupling
      • value: gifts for mothers
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      • value: best books for mom
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      • value: golden globe best actress
      • value: meg wulitzer
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      • value: surrender dorothy
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      • bioText: Meg Wolitzer's novels include The Female Persuasion; Sleepwalking; This Is Your Life; Surrender, Dorothy; and The Position. She lives in New York City.
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title
The Wife
fullDescription
Now a major motion picture starring Glenn Close in her Golden Globe–winning role!

One of bestselling author Meg Wolitzer's most beloved books—an "acerbically funny" (Entertainment Weekly) and "intelligent...portrait of deception" (The New York Times).
The Wife is the story of the long and stormy marriage between a world-famous novelist, Joe Castleman, and his wife Joan, and the secret they've kept for decades. The novel opens just as Joe is about to receive a prestigious international award, The Helsinki Prize, to honor his career as one of America's preeminent novelists. Joan, who has spent forty years subjugating her own literary talents to fan the flames of his career, finally decides to stop.

Important and ambitious, The Wife is a sharp-eyed and compulsively readable story about a woman forced to confront the sacrifices she's made in order to achieve the life she thought she wanted. "A rollicking, perfectly pitched triumph...Wolitzer's talent for comedy of manners reaches a heady high" (Los Angeles Times), in this wise and candid look at the choices all men and women make—in marriage, work, and life.
reviews
      • premium: False
      • source: Allison PearsonMeg Wolitzer is so smart and funny she should be bottled and sold over the counter. The Wife
      • content: is a complex, compelling portrait of a marriage that raises painful issues, even as it has you howling with recognition. Why does the better half feel she has to protect the lesser half from failure and disappointment? What exactly is the nature of the transaction between men and women -- and who picks up the check? The Wife picks up some of the hard questions with the lightest, most glittering of touches.
      • premium: False
      • source: Lorrie MooreA triumph of tone and observation, The Wife
      • content: is a blithe, brilliant take on sexual politics and literary vanity (as well as sexual vanity and literary politics). It is the most engaging, funny, and satisfying novel the witty Meg Wolitzer has yet written.
      • premium: False
      • source: Susan IsaacsThe wife of The Wife
      • content: is a brilliantly conceived character, smart and foolish, tough-minded and weak-willed, witty and profoundly sad. And Meg Wolitzer's observations about gender and creativity: They are not only pointed, but penetrating. She has written some fine novels, but this is her best yet!
      • premium: False
      • source: Katha PollittHow does Meg Wolitzer do it? Write those witty, deft, hilarious sentences that add up to so much tragic understanding of life? The Wife
      • content: is a funny, sad, beautiful novel. Unforgettable.
      • premium: False
      • source: Stacy SchiffUnflinching and acute, The Wife
      • content: packs a ferocious punch. And that is before Wolitzer's stunning twist of an ending.
      • premium: True
      • source: Publisher's Weekly
      • content:

        February 3, 2003
        A starred or boxed review indicates a book of outstanding quality. A review with a blue-tinted title indicates a book of exceptional importance that hasn't received a starred or boxed review. THE WIFE Meg Wolitzer. Scribner, $23 (224p) ISBN 0-684-86940-3 Wolitzer (Sleepwalking) opens her latest tale in the first-class cabin of an airplane. Joan, a still-striking 64-year-old woman, observes her husband, the "short, wound-up, slack-bellied" famous novelist Joe Castleman, as he lolls in his seat and accepts the treats and attention offered him by the flight attendants. The couple are on their way to Finland, where Joe will receive the fictional Helsinki Prize, not quite as prestigious as the Nobel, but worth a small fortune—the crown jewel in a spectacular career. Yet as the once blonde Smith College co-ed looks over at the once handsome creative writing teacher who seduced her, she realizes that she must end this marriage. The reader is prepared for a tale of witty disillusionment. Here is Joan on the literary fame game: "You might even envy us—him for all the power vacuum-packed within his bulky, shopworn body, and me for my twenty-four-hour-access to it, as though a famous and brilliant writer-husband is a convenience store for his wife, a place she can dip into anytime for a Big Gulp of astonishing intellect and wit and excitement." As the narrative flows from the glamorous present back to the past, tracing the bohemian Greenwich Village beginnings of the couple's relationship and Joe's skyrocketing success and compulsive philandering, an almost subliminal psychological horror tale begins to unfold. Wolitzer delicately chips away at this seemingly confident and detached narrator and her swaggering "genius" husband, inserting a sly clue here and there, until the extent of Joan's sacrifice is made clear. There is no cheap, gratifying Hollywood ending to make it all better. Instead, Wolitzer's crisp pacing and dry wit carry us headlong into a devastating message about the price of love and fame. If it's a story we've heard before, the tale is as resonant as ever in Wolitzer's hands.

popularity
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Now a major motion picture starring Glenn Close in her Golden Globe–winning role!

One of bestselling author Meg Wolitzer's most beloved books—an "acerbically funny" (Entertainment Weekly) and "intelligent...portrait of deception" (The New York Times).
The Wife is the story of the long and stormy marriage between a world-famous novelist, Joe Castleman, and his wife Joan, and the secret they've kept for decades. The novel opens just as Joe is about to receive a prestigious international award, The Helsinki Prize, to honor his career as one of America's preeminent novelists. Joan, who has spent forty years subjugating her own literary talents to fan the flames of his career, finally decides to stop.

Important and ambitious, The Wife is a sharp-eyed and compulsively readable story about a woman forced to confront the sacrifices she's made in order to achieve the life she thought she wanted. "A rollicking,...
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