The Senator's Wife
by Sue Miller
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Book Reviews of The Senator's Wife
Book Review: The Senator's Wife
Summary: 1 Stars
This was my first experience with this author and my last. I hated the book. I kept asking myself why would anyone put up with a cheating lying husband for 25 years. It was so improbable to want me to beleive that a woman who hasn't lived with her husband for 20 years and has a completely separate life is still so in love with him that she takes him back once in a while to have sex, even into her 60's. What exactly is the love based on if you are not sharing the experiences of life that help grow and bond your life together. It made no sense to me. I kept asking myself why is she staying married I don't see the love between them, only betrayal and lies. Meri's character was so whiny, disloyal and unpleasant I was hoping her husband would just leave her. I didn't see anything about her that was ever happy and she was a devious liar. The ending floored me and made me sick. It was thoroughly depressing. After ruining the lives of two elderly people Meri ends up the happy one with the husband and childern. I guess in this case it pays to be selfish,bitchy, sneaky, and untrustworthy.Book Review: Faux-Intellectualism
Summary: 1 Stars
The senator's wife is the story of a young woman, newly married, who moves in next door to the estranged wife of a U.S. senator. The eponymous senator's wife has long been the victim of her husband's numerous infidelities. Because of this, the reader is led to believe--even hopes--that the younger woman will gain valuable knowledge of the uncertainties of the male/female marital union.
However, without revealing the ending, the younger woman betrays the senator's wife in a way that is intended to be somehow shocking, but comes out rather sad, if in a vulgar manner. This is passed on to somehow represent the "bigger picture," most likely on the nature of love. The way this manifests, though, is very cheap, and not at all realistic. The message, if a comprehensible one does exist, is lost in a sea of meaningless cliches.
This novel, in short, attempts to teach the reader nothing of love and marriage. But for the faux-intellectualist, who can find purpose and metaphor in any absurd piece of literature, this is the perfect treat.
Book Review: The Professor's Wife
Summary: 2 Stars
Warning: Slight spoilers
The title may be something of a misnomer, since the agent of change in this novel is Meri, the professor's wife. She grew up poor with (we're told) an indifferent (at best) mother, but that does not excuse her behavior. She is in her late 30s when she marries, is educated, and is a royal pain in the gluteus maximus. The senator's wife, Delia, seems sympathetic, if affected at times, up until we learn that she's just an idiot, thanks to Meri. Meri is self-centered, vain, and not worth the time spent on her. Nobody ever suffered as much as she having a baby! No one ever was more confused by her mixed feelings for her newborn! Whatever Meri does, including completely invading Delia's privacy and violating her trust, is justifiable (though she does feel a bit guilty).
The climax (no pun intended) of the novel is grotesque and negates Delia's very existence. That Meri goes on to have a happy life is a travesty. Avoid this book, even if you are as I am (or was) a Sue Miller fan.
Book Review: Behind Closed Doors
Summary: 3 Stars
Delia is the Senaotor's wife who lives alone after ending her marriage with her philandering husband. Yet, despite his many affairs and betrayals, she stands by him at the cost of her own freedom.
Meri is the woman who has moved into the duplex, next door to Delia. She is a newlywed and we see her move through her struggles with marriage, pregnancy and their life after the birth of their child. She and Delia strike up a friendship, even though both of them are at different points in their life. Both women in this book deal with the complexities of being a wife and a mother.
My problem with this book was the fact that Delia never took the reigns in her marriage to Tom and never took a real stand. I was disappointed in her considering that she was supposed to be such a strong character. I was also disappointed with Meri, especially with her invading Delia's privacy early on in the book and then the horrible ending. I felt let down in the end. I expected more from both characters.
Book Review: So disappointing
Summary: 1 Stars
I just finished reading "The Senators Wife", and I'm asking myself why I even bothered. I've been a fan Of Sue Miller's since The Good Mother, which I consider one of my all time favorite books by any author. I normally gravitate towards novels about women and their relationships with each other. As I read this book, I was intrigued by the bonding between the two vastly different women. I felt they were connected by their efforts to sustain their individual marriages, which were at completely different stages, and I also felt a mother daughter bond. between the two. Then, just as I was relating to their willingness to help each other through their struggles in deep and meaningful ways, I'm completely disappointed and a little bit creeped out by the last six chapters. What I was interpreting as a supportive, uplifting pairing of two strong women, suddenly became a shallow, selfish act of betrayal done in, of all things, the name of love. Very strange, very disappointing.