The Good Wife Strikes Back - Elizabeth Buchan
As I was browsing the book shelves at the library looking for an Elizabeth Berg novel, I came across this book by Elizabeth Buchan. From reading the jacket, it sounded like a good book.
Book cover: Fanny Savage had a 19 year record - earned with patience, devotion and contentment - as the perfect wife to an ambitious, idealistic politician. Life is a whirlwind of public engagements and unquestioning loyalty to the party, to appearances and to her husband. Her job description is to look good and remain silent whatever the cost. But much as she and her husband love each other and their teenage daughter, Fanny senses within herself a creeping restlessness. Increasingly she feels the fragility of happiness and the part of her she had buries - the brilliant partner in her father's Italian wine business - begins to resurface. She has given two decades of her own life to being the Good Wife. Was it worth it, after all? Could it be time for a trip back to Italy? Could it be time for .... a change? Funny, sophisticated and wise, The Good Wife Strikes Back is an exquisitely nuanced tale of the complexities of marriage and of the self-sacrifices that somehow become tangled with love and duty over time. It is also the story of a women on the cusp of change - a woman who embarks on a journey across uncharted waters that turn out to be more satisfying than she could have imagined.
The story takes place in England and English politics. The ups and downs of dealing with a husband who is totally consumed with his political job, a daughter leaving home, a father and sister-in-law who die. Even though she had her own thoughts and ideas, she could never express them "in public". I felt the author did a good job in making me understand Fanny's discontent in her marriage and her husband's political life and yet she loved him without question. I think that we, as women, so often put our husband and children first and ourselves last. We nurture and care, doing what needs to be done for everyone else and then comes the time when we (women) start thinking: What about me? What have I done with my life? And yet, we love and care no less for our family. Each of us needs space, time to think, time for me. It's all a matter of balance. Did Fanny change her feelings at the end of the book, did her husband become more attuned to her feelings?
It was a good, light read but gave me lots to think about.
Finished: June 18, 2011
Book cover: Fanny Savage had a 19 year record - earned with patience, devotion and contentment - as the perfect wife to an ambitious, idealistic politician. Life is a whirlwind of public engagements and unquestioning loyalty to the party, to appearances and to her husband. Her job description is to look good and remain silent whatever the cost. But much as she and her husband love each other and their teenage daughter, Fanny senses within herself a creeping restlessness. Increasingly she feels the fragility of happiness and the part of her she had buries - the brilliant partner in her father's Italian wine business - begins to resurface. She has given two decades of her own life to being the Good Wife. Was it worth it, after all? Could it be time for a trip back to Italy? Could it be time for .... a change? Funny, sophisticated and wise, The Good Wife Strikes Back is an exquisitely nuanced tale of the complexities of marriage and of the self-sacrifices that somehow become tangled with love and duty over time. It is also the story of a women on the cusp of change - a woman who embarks on a journey across uncharted waters that turn out to be more satisfying than she could have imagined.
The story takes place in England and English politics. The ups and downs of dealing with a husband who is totally consumed with his political job, a daughter leaving home, a father and sister-in-law who die. Even though she had her own thoughts and ideas, she could never express them "in public". I felt the author did a good job in making me understand Fanny's discontent in her marriage and her husband's political life and yet she loved him without question. I think that we, as women, so often put our husband and children first and ourselves last. We nurture and care, doing what needs to be done for everyone else and then comes the time when we (women) start thinking: What about me? What have I done with my life? And yet, we love and care no less for our family. Each of us needs space, time to think, time for me. It's all a matter of balance. Did Fanny change her feelings at the end of the book, did her husband become more attuned to her feelings?
It was a good, light read but gave me lots to think about.
Finished: June 18, 2011
Comments
Post a Comment