“THE HUSBAND’S SECRET” BY LIANE MORIARTY: THE UGLY TRUTH ABOUT PEOPLE IN GENERAL AND WOMEN IN PARTICULAR

RATING GUIDE:

 

6 – Life-Affirming and Life-Changing!

5 – A keeper!   

4 – Very good

3 –  Passable

2 –  I’d rather read a telephone book

1 – An absolute bomb.  Read at your own risk!

0 – Nothing will compensate for what I lost reading this book 

“THE HUSBAND’S SECRET” BY LIANE MORIARTY:

THE UGLY TRUTH ABOUT PEOPLE IN GENERAL AND WOMEN IN PARTICULAR

If you are brave enough to face your own “dark side,” then you might want to read “The Husband’s Secret” by Liane Moriarty, a complex tale about lies, secrets and compromises.

“The Husband’s Secret” is essentially the story of three Australian women.  There’s Cecilia, who appears to have the Picture Perfect life.  Everything about her life seems Martha Stewart-perfect.  She’s married to a gorgeous guy (considered a great catch by everyone), has beautiful children, a flourishing career selling Tupperware.  She and her family are model citizens of the community.  Then, there’s Rachel, a woman in her twilight years.  She used to have the big career and the wonderful family, but now, she’s just an aging widow who can’t get over the death of her daughter, Janie, thirty years ago.  Finally, there’s Tess, who hates change but is forced to change her husband has an emotional affair. 

One day, Cecilia stumbles upon a letter written by her husband, Jean-Paul.  Despite his written instruction that the letter must only be opened after his death, Cecilia’s curiosity gets the better of her.  She opens the letter and discover’s Jean-Paul’s deepest, darkest secret which totally turns her life upside down.  If she tells the truth, it will destroy her family.  If she doesn’t, she destroys someone else’s family --- Rachel’s. 

If you are able to get past the endless, confusing changes in point of view, and can overlook Liane Moriarty’s tendency to give her readers too much information (for example, does it really matter what kind of food her characters ate?), then you have a story that is deeper, darker and more complex that it initially appears to be. 

At first, “The Husband’s Secret” irritated me.  The story and the characters seemed shallow and frivolous.  However, further reading shows that “The Husband’s Secret” is a laser-sharp, unpleasant presentation of the secret thoughts, desires and pain of people.  Whether they’re ordinary people or “special” people, Lainie Moriarty’s book shows us that many times, what we think is real truly isn’t.

Lainie’s characters are painfully shallow, nasty, irritating, hypocritical, but sadly, very real.  As a woman, these fictional women made me cringe.  I found them so terrible that I think my overall view of humanity went down several notches.  I particularly disliked Tess’ character, who was such a hypocritical, mean-spirited bitch compared to her adulterous cousin, Felicity.  In fact, it is ironic that the characters who initially seem to be the “bad guys” (Will and Felicity) turn out to be the “purest” of them all.  And yet, despite these, it’s still easy to sympathize with the characters because they seem so real.  I’m pretty sure there isn’t a reader out there who has been as shallow or mean or hypocritical --- flawed --- as the characters in the book.

Ultimately, Liane Moriarty’s “The Husband’s Secret” presents us with so many thought-provoking questions.  How far would you go to protect what is yours?  Are people inherently good or evil?  Will you forgive someone who betrayed you and took away what you love the most?  How sure are you that you will do the “right” thing in a given situation?  Do you know how to forgive yourself and others?  What does it take to move on from a painful experience?  These are just a few of the serious questions that Liane Moriarty asks in her seemingly trashy but ultimately profound book.

RATING:  4

EMILY GIFFIN’S “HEART OF THE MATTER”: AN AFFAIR IN THE EYES OF THE WIFE AND THE MISTRESS

RATING GUIDE:

 

5 – A keeper!   

4 – Very good

3 –  Passable

2 –  I’d rather read a telephone book

1 – An absolute bomb.  Read at your own risk!

0 – Nothing will compensate for what I lost reading this book 

Emily Giffin tries to dissect the anatomy of an affair from the female point of view in her book, “Heart of the Matter”.

“Heart of the Matter” is the story of two women --- Tessa, the wife of a handsome, kind-hearted and successful surgeon named Nick, and Beverly, a self-made woman and a single mother to a beautiful boy named Charlie.  Even though they both seem to lead enviable lives are actually secretly unhappy and discontent.  Tessa leads a comfortable life, is married to the love of her life and yet can’t seem to shake off the feeling that something is wrong with her life and her marriage.  Meanwhile, Beverly’s successful career in law hasn’t shielded her from the difficulties of raising a child alone, as well as her own desire to have a companion.

The women’s lives change forever when Charlie becomes Nick’s patient.  Though Beverly tries to control her emotions, she finds herself falling for Nick.  Nick, even though he loves his wife and family, feels alone in his own marriage.  Soon, the two develop a friendship … which leads to an affair.  How will Tessa and Beverly deal with this act of infidelity?

Unlike many books for women that are fluffy tales about romance or hot sex or being a bitch to other women, Emily Giffin’s book is a book that tackles a number of serious matters such as (early) midlife crisis, emotional affairs and infidelity.  If you want a distraction from your own life problems, you might want to skip this book.  However, if you want to read a fairly realistic book that tackles many of the issues that confront women and families today, then this is a good book to consider.

The best part about this book is that Giffin’s book neither condemns nor condones affairs and the people who get involved in these types of relationships.  It is more of an analysis of how affairs evolve.  Whether they like it or not, women will identify with the two women in this book.  Married women readers, however, might view this book as a horror story, for in this book, even a marriage that appears to be full of love, isn’t safe from the prospect of infidelity.

Women generally condemn affairs and women who get involved with married men.  This book, however, presents the Other Woman’s side with respect and empathy.  Although I’m sure many of us want to condemn the Other Woman as a gold-digging slut, Emily Giffin’s book points out something that many of us refuse to accept:  that sometimes, oftentimes, the Other Woman is really just an ordinary woman who happens to fall in love with a married man. 

It would have been interesting had Giffin included Nick’s point of view in the story.  In the book, we only get to know about Nick from either Tessa or Beverly’s point of view.  I would have wanted to hear what Nick had to say about his infidelity.

While Giffin paints a very objective picture of infidelity, she also makes a strong statement about it:  that in any affair, no one really wins, and it’s the children who suffer the most.

RATING:  4