Book Review #25 - Wife 22

Definitely one of the funnier books I've read in a long while.  But while I enjoyed the humor and the wake-up call the author sounds to take care of your marriage, especially if it has become stagnant with middle-age responsibilities, I didn't really believe this story.

Life is strumming along for Alice and William and their two children, Zoe, fifteen and Peter, twelve.  Except they all seem so unfriendly, unhelpful and bored.  After a particularly lackluster night out with her husband, Alice decides to take part in an apparent random marriage survey she discovers in her junk email.  She is assigned the identity, "Wife 22," and while giving her written responses, she wakes up her dormant memory of better times, evaluates her values and attitude, dusts off her old playwright writing skills and remembers she is a person worthy of interest.  The question she now faces is does she invest her rekindled  energy towards her twenty year marriage or pursue the researcher who seems so besotted with her.

Like I said, parts were tremendously enjoyable.  There is this memory Alice writes about the time her William, who she wasn't yet dating, and her old boyfriend met in line at Au Bon Pain and the situation with her embarrassment over her boyfriend's blue bandana was laugh out loud funny.  But, unfortunately, funny parts can't seem to carry a story and if I remove the humor-filtered glasses, I see a book with many flaws.  Alice is a very weak protagonist.  She is actually hard to root for.  Her husband is not a complete character.  He is whoever the author decides she wants him to be in whichever chapter.  There was never any consistency in how he was written.  Her family life is appalling in both what she expects from people and what she gives.  Her poor kids.

The writing switches between traditional narration, survey responses, emails and facebook chats.  I worry for the books longevity as it is so interwoven with Facebook terminology and technology that it will really date itself quickly.  I know this book isn't really meant to be a critical essay on modern marriage or social media so if you read it with the light-heartedness with which, I believe, the author intended, it should serve its purpose as enjoyable, anecdotal middle-aged chick-lit.