al27caro's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Bleak, but I kept reading.
laurensalisbury's review
3.0
O'Nan for me, is consistently mediocre. With the exception of Last Night at the Lobster and Snow Angels, his books are typically just OK, regularly earning 3 out of 5 stars in my Goodreads ratings.
Some of the trouble lies in what I would argue is a propensity for nice, clean endings. Nothing about an O'Nan ending is ever complicated; uncertain maybe, but never uncertain in a way that implies danger, longing, or heartache. His endings are abrupt and absolute. I never get the sense that the characters continue to orbit the world of the story. Instead it feels a bit like a Leave it to Beaver episode, some twisted piece of Pleasantville where the character stand, frozen, waiting for the next half hour segment of their lives to unfold.
And that's what The Good Wife turned out to be, the further into Patty's world we go. Inst at of living in this world, as O'Nan works so hard to imply she does, it feels as though between chapters and years, Patty ceases to exist. She simply picks up again, five years in the future, when O'Nan feels it's necessary for us to look in on her; like a clockwork figure she us winded up and commanded to perform.
Patty, too, is an issue. She never feels real, but instead serves as some imagining of what O'Nan thinks a woman in her condition might be like. She never takes command of her own story, as we hope she might and the woman who surround her, the partner's girlfriend, her mother, her sisters, her coworkers, all are clockwork pieces too. They never quite fill in and instead serve as two dimensional fill ins for what O'Nan must imagine women to be like. Perhaps it's time he realized, women aren't his forte.
Some of the trouble lies in what I would argue is a propensity for nice, clean endings. Nothing about an O'Nan ending is ever complicated; uncertain maybe, but never uncertain in a way that implies danger, longing, or heartache. His endings are abrupt and absolute. I never get the sense that the characters continue to orbit the world of the story. Instead it feels a bit like a Leave it to Beaver episode, some twisted piece of Pleasantville where the character stand, frozen, waiting for the next half hour segment of their lives to unfold.
And that's what The Good Wife turned out to be, the further into Patty's world we go. Inst at of living in this world, as O'Nan works so hard to imply she does, it feels as though between chapters and years, Patty ceases to exist. She simply picks up again, five years in the future, when O'Nan feels it's necessary for us to look in on her; like a clockwork figure she us winded up and commanded to perform.
Patty, too, is an issue. She never feels real, but instead serves as some imagining of what O'Nan thinks a woman in her condition might be like. She never takes command of her own story, as we hope she might and the woman who surround her, the partner's girlfriend, her mother, her sisters, her coworkers, all are clockwork pieces too. They never quite fill in and instead serve as two dimensional fill ins for what O'Nan must imagine women to be like. Perhaps it's time he realized, women aren't his forte.
tmdavis's review
2.0
I listened to this one but that didn't make me like it any better. The story here is that the main character's husband gets drunk with his friend one night and breaks into an old lady's house. In the process of trying to rob the old lady, the old lady accidentally gets killed. The story deals with how the wife handles her husband's 25+ year prison sentence and raises their child (she was pregnant when he went to prison) with very little money. This woman works all kinds of low paying jobs since she has no degree for very little fulfillment or enjoyment. And then gets up in the wee hours of the morning to ride a bus or drive herself (and her son) to the prison to visit. It would have been so much easier if she had left him and found someone else.
I kept expecting her to leave him and find someone else to help her raise their child but she doggedly sticks by him (even though her family disagrees) right up until his release on parole at the end of the book. I'm still not sure about this one.
I kept expecting her to leave him and find someone else to help her raise their child but she doggedly sticks by him (even though her family disagrees) right up until his release on parole at the end of the book. I'm still not sure about this one.
davidwright's review
4.0
The sadness of this book, the long life story of a woman whose husband goes to jail for murder while she is pregnant with his child, reminded me of the big open lost sadness of Norman Mailer's The Executioner's Song, even though the story is far less sensational. This is America not as a place of cruelty and menace, as in Cormac McCarthy, or a place of unrealized dreams, or a place of great injustice - it is less definite than that. It is a place of disconnection, of small lives, modest hopes. Lives hemmed in by circumstance, by fate, by mere accident. Although O'Nan writes of working class people, it really is everyone's sadnes, deep down. That said, this is an extraordinarily sad story - a sadness without the comfort of sorrow or drama.
an_enthusiastic_reader's review
3.0
I found this book painfully flat, yet I read it all the way to the end.
mslaura's review
4.0
This book is so simple and straightforward, yet so engrossing. It is just the story of one wife making her way through her husband's incarceration, playing the hand that life has dealt her as best she can. This simple story is presented in a very objective, non-judgemental way, without sensationalizing or falling back on stereotypes. Patty felt very real and I felt very connected to her. Well done.
Ratings:
Writing 4
Story line 5
Characters 5
Emotional impact 4
Overall rating 4.5
Ratings:
Writing 4
Story line 5
Characters 5
Emotional impact 4
Overall rating 4.5
erine277's review
4.0
Listened to this...liked it and am going to look into more of his books. It was a good story and I liked that it took place in New York (Southern Tier).
angrygreycatreads's review
4.0
The Good Wife by Stewart O’Nan is a book that I saw featured on a List Challenges list (of course, I can’t remember which one) .Years ago I read another book with the same title by Jane Porter. Jane Porter’s book was a straight up romance/women’s fiction, this “Good Wife” is not.
Stewart O’Nan’s The Good Wife is about the strength of a marriage that is tested beyond belief. A pregnant Patty receives a phone call in the middle of the night, not the stereotypical call about an accident or a death, this is a call about her husband’s involvement in a crime, a serious crime. The book then follows Patty as she and her marriage survive against immense obstacles. Her husband’s trial, the denial of bail, incarceration, the appeal process, and relocations to prisons hours away from Patty’s home are interspersed with the regular life trials, crappy jobs, living with her mom, and raising a child on her own. Patty endures it all for 28 years. An excellent depiction of how incarcerations impacts entire families, not just the prisoner. O’Nan does a very good job of creating sympathtic characters, despite their life choices.
Stewart O’Nan’s The Good Wife is about the strength of a marriage that is tested beyond belief. A pregnant Patty receives a phone call in the middle of the night, not the stereotypical call about an accident or a death, this is a call about her husband’s involvement in a crime, a serious crime. The book then follows Patty as she and her marriage survive against immense obstacles. Her husband’s trial, the denial of bail, incarceration, the appeal process, and relocations to prisons hours away from Patty’s home are interspersed with the regular life trials, crappy jobs, living with her mom, and raising a child on her own. Patty endures it all for 28 years. An excellent depiction of how incarcerations impacts entire families, not just the prisoner. O’Nan does a very good job of creating sympathtic characters, despite their life choices.
fablejack's review against another edition
3.0
O'Nan is a fine writer and a pro at making the day to day experiences of his characters matter. The downside is that sometimes the mundane is just mundane. There was a mix of both in this book, but ultimately it's a hopeful story.
melaniejayne35's review
2.0
This was an ok read for me. I was interested enough to finish. I wanted to see what life decisions the main character would make throughout the years her husband spends in prison. Mine would have been very different.