The Wife's Tale by Lori Lansens

The Wife's Tale by Lori Lansens



Genre: Fiction
Publication Date: 2010
Pages: 353
Challenges: Support Your Local Library #24
Source: Library





The Short Version:
When Mary Gooch’s husband of 25 years leaves, she sets out on a journey to find him and ends up finding herself.

Why I Read It:
I thought Lori Lansens previous novel about conjoined twins (“The Girls”) was absolutely wonderful so when I started seeing positive reviews of this one it was a quick addition to my TBR list and a long wait on the library hold list.


The Book:
On the day of their 25th anniversary, Mary Gooch waits for her husband Jimmy to come home from work. By the next morning it’s clear that Jimmy has left. Initially this sends Mary into a tailspin and eventually she sets out in search of Jimmy. That she would even do that is huge because for many years Mary has not ventured much farther than from her bed to the refrigerator. At over 300 pounds, Mary has spent years hiding within herself and her own small world of home, work at the local drugstore, and the few social interactions she could manage if she had clothes that still fit.

Mary, on her own for the first time ever is forced to cope with things others find easy such as figuring out how to work her cell phone and manage her bank account. That she manages to get on a plane to California where Jimmy’s mother lives in an LA suburb is nothing short of astounding. What she discovers there is ultimately a Mary that she didn’t know existed and perhaps has been hiding beneath the layers of flesh and behind the boundaries of her own making.


My Thoughts:
Mary is a character who is both frustrating and sympathetic. Much of her pain is self imposed, but Lansens portrays a woman whose eating habits and obesity are rooted in emotional pain. The book is not about Mary’s weight so much as it is about the Mary beneath that weight.

As she tries to make sense of her husband’s leaving her and to try to figure out what to do, the reader goes along on her journey. Interspersed with Mary’s current story are flashbacks to her childhood, courtship, marriage and life with Jimmy in their small hometown in Canada. I loved that there was a casual mention of the Darlen twins from The Girls which took place in the same small town.

I can get past the occasional remarkable coincidence and encounters with kinder than one would ever expect strangers, because making this physical and emotional journey along with Mary was a very satisfying read.

The story is gently told and even a bit slow in places, but it’s a story that has pain, love, anger and happiness woven through it.


Rating 4/5