The Senator's Wife (Vintage Contemporaries) by Sue Miller
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Book Reviews of The Senator's Wife (Vintage Contemporaries)
Book Review: "The Senator's Wife" disappoints
Summary: 2 Stars
Although I had high hopes for Sue Miller's The Senator's Wife, it was a disappointment. While the title itself hints that the role of a politician's spouse includes loss of her own identity, the book was really not about identity at all. Told through the eyes of a newly married neighbor, a young woman sorely lacking in self-esteem due to a poor relationship with her own mother, the novel recounts how Delia, the wife of a philadering senator, exerts control over her husband and her own life. The young wife, Meri, constantly seeks approval from all those around her--her husband, her co-workers, her neighbor Delia, the senator's wife of the title, an older woman portrayed as Meri's substitute mother, and the senator himself. Of course the book has some really hot sex scenes describing lovemaking between the younger woman, Meri, and her husband Nathan and between the senator and his wife and some of his paramours. However, the adequate characterization and steamy descriptions don't make up for the lack of any real plot or any real motivation for the characters. Told through the eyes of the women, what this novel really needs is a man't point of view.Book Review: Disappointing
Summary: 2 Stars
I'm a big fan of Sue Miller's work, and eagerly dove into "The Senator's Wife." Her prose, as always, is immaculate and it was a joy to turn each page. In the end, though, I found the work disappointing, and can't share the enthusiasm of most of the other reviewers.
For starters, the main character is a woman named Meri, who behaves reprehensibly throughout the book. At the end, though, we're supposed to believe she somehow matured into awonderful, loving mother. There were far too many undotted i's and uncrossed t's for me to join the author in making this leap. And the Senator and his wife behaved as twin orbiting death stars, not as real people making understandable decisions.
At the end of the book, I felt a huge sense of missed opportunity for the novel. Such a great author, but such a frustrating plot line, with main characters that seemed to revel in self-destructive behavior. In the end, I concluded they were stuck in a story where they made a series of implausibly-dumb life decisions, and was glad to put these characters back on the bookshelf.
Book Review: Really didn't like this one...
Summary: 2 Stars
Check out all the long ones to see what the book is about. I'm reading it for my book group, otherwise probably wouldn't have read this past the first chapter. Not my thing at all - you can see from the beginning that Meri is going to make bad choices and she's very narcissistic. Nathan and Tom, two husbands are very underwritten. There is no sense of them, so you don't really understand why the marriages matter. Boring and uncomfortable. Buy something else.Book Review: Simply Awful; Boring Boring Boring
Summary: 1 Stars
Checked out the DVD version to listen as I drove 10 hours. If I had been reading it, would have quit after first chapter. Boring detail that added nothing to the plot --- but then I never discovered a plot either! I kept thinking it would get better, perhaps a surprize ending, but it only deteriorated the further it went. Hung in because there wasn't anything else on the raido I wanted to listen to. When at long last it was over I was so disgusted that I made a note of author's name so I won't ever read another of her books. The only reason for one star is I couldn't figure out any way to give it none.Book Review: Really disappointing
Summary: 1 Stars
I also wanted to like this book. But the characters are undeveloped and basically unlikable, except the senator himself sho is not so bad. At least he is honest with those around him.
The title is inaccurate. It is not really about the senator's wife, but her neighbor Meri, who is strange and has mostly unkind thoughts about everyone including her husband and son. She claims she doesn't fit in with her husband's life, etc. She had a bad childhood, but we don't know any details of this. But there they are in the end, happily ever after with THREE kids when they didn't even want the first.