The Spare Wife: A Novel

The Spare Wife: A Novel
by Alex Witchel

The Spare Wife: A Novel
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Book Summary Information

Author: Alex Witchel
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2009-01-27
ISBN: 0452295300
Number of pages: 304
Publisher: Plume

Book Reviews of The Spare Wife: A Novel

Book Review: high school never ends
Summary: 4 Stars

The spare wife, is a bewitching Roman a clef
of the frivolous lives of thinly disguised celebrities of all shapes and sizes .
Our main character in this novel is Ponce,a middle-aged billionare, who came from humble beginnings, worked as a model, married an elderly billionare,became a pro bono lawyer and when her husband passed, used his wealth and her fame to help the down and out in ways never seen before. She is loved worldwide for her generosity grace and beauty.Her famous friend's dub her the spare wife,because Ponce can talk sports with the husbands and plan lavish dinner parties with the wives.They feel safe around her because she is too busy to be a threat and she doesn't like sex. (which isn't exactly true....)

It is at one of these dinner parties that Ponce is co hosting with a friend of hers,she accidently makes an enemy out of Babette Steele, a 24 year old intern, who has no problem sleeping her way to the top . Babette is miffed when Ponce does not return an invitation for a drink,so Babette starts digging through Ponce's personal life, in order to blackmail her so she get revenge and become famous. Unfortunately ,Babette fails to realize how respected Ponce is , and how many bridges she has burned with her lack of ethics.
What I hated
One bad thing about this book is alot of the people are very annoying and act like they are in 7th grade.And I could not relate or sympathize with most of them.I also found Ponce (who is supposed to be the heroine) rather annoying.Despite all the good she does, she also drinks too much, is anorexic, and whines about how hard it is being her. I could understand, why Babette wanted to ruin her image. I actually found Babette, the villian,much more interesting than Ponce.
Also, another bone I have to pick with this author is I feel she got a little lazy in the middle of the book and a couple of those chapters don't make any sense at all.

What I liked and why you should read it
One the things that kept me reading this , was that I recognized some of the celebrities, and it was fun
to see them as characters.It is also very gossipy, and funny, which makes it hard to put down..

There were lots of interesting character's in this book here are some of them.
Red,a crusty old political writer who has seen it all. He is also a good listener who was widowed and misses his beloved wife dearly,He pushes his own hurts aside to help other people with their problems and wishes Ponce and Shawsie would realize that there is
such thing as a healthy happy marriage if you are willing to look for it.
Rachel and her husband Gus , who have level heads and are decent human beings who haven't
lost site of who they are and don't act immature and phony like some of the people in the book.
Annabelle Gluckman - Mostly Comic relief ,she is in her 70's and dresses really sexy and shouldn't.
My favorite character of all is Shawsie a brooding,high strung and talented , editor,writer, director and publicist, (and one of Ponce's best friend's )who gives the beautiful people the image that they have, but she herself has a face that could break a mirror.
She longs for a baby and for her husband to love her as much she loves him,but that seems like a
distant dream. With all of her success ,her personal life is a mess,Her mother is mentally ill,and she has a very troubled marriage that she is trying to keep in tact.I liked her so much better than Ponce, because she has real problems and develops as a character through the story.
Even with it's flaws I hope you read it. It is a great beach book.

Summary of The Spare Wife: A Novel

Ponce Morris is a beautiful, rich widow who?s known as ?the spare wife? because she?s the perfect companion to the wealthy, powerful, New York couples in her elite social circle. She throws elegant dinner parties, goes to sports events with the husbands, and shops with the wives. She?s both flawlessly appropriate and coolly nonthreatening?everyone knows Ponce doesn?t have a romantic bone in her body. Over the years, she has managed other people?s lives?and her own?perfectly. Then Babette Seele, an ambitious, aspiring journalist, discovers that Ponce is having an affair with a socially prominent, very married man, and decides to break the scandal, turning Ponce?s carefully calibrated world upside down. Witchel?s sophisticated, witty, sexy satire provides a fascinating glimpse into the lives and loves of upper-class New Yorkers, sharply exposing the foibles of the fabulous.

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