The Good Husband (Ballantine Reader's Circle) [Paperback]

"The Good Husband" is the first work I have read by Gail Godwin and will not be the last. I found the book enlightening as well as pertinent. Godwin has a way of taking ordinary events and bringing a fresh, new perspective to them. For me, the novel seemed to be entertaining and at the same time, educational; designed to make a person think. I really appreciated being able to see death from Magda's perspective. I had never thought of death as a final examination. It was a revelation for me as I have had many people in my life die recently. Although some of them may not have viewed death from her perspective, it gave me a new outlook on the process. It also gave me a new perspective on life. I found the part about Francis' misericords very educational and captivating at the same time. I think that while I am in Europe, I will be visiting some cathedrals just to see for myself if they exist. Godwin must have put quite a bit of time and effort into researching the subject for it to be so detailed. I really appreciated being able to "educate" myself while at the same time "entertain" myself. While I enjoyed the entire novel, I think that the speech Hugo Henry gave on writing a novel was my favorite part. It was very clever of Godwin to weave Hugo's views, as an author, on writing a novel into her own novel. I realized how true it was when Hugo said, "If you get the beginning of your story right, it already contains the seed of its own ending. And if the ending's right, it succeeds in making the beginning inevitable"(410). I also loved how Hugo related a novel to a relationship. It seemed the perfect way for him to tell his wife, Alice, that he realized it was over for them. Godwin put the whole novel together so well that I felt like I could empathize with her characters. While I knew what would inevitably happen, I found myself just turning the pages. I cried and got angry with the characters and was sad when the novel ended. As someone once said, though I cannot remember whom, reading a book is like making new friends and when it is done, you leave. If you want to visit them again you have to reread the book. I am sure that I will be revisiting Magda, Francis, Hugo and Alice again. Meanwhile, I think I will check out some of Gail Godwin's other books and make some more new friends.

As far as I'm concerned, you can't possibly care about a book unless you care about the characters. The fabricated inhabitant of a novel's pages are the catalyst for the entire tale. Gail Godwin's The Good Husband is no exception, and is, in fact, a wonderful example of this premise. Godwin manages to create fully textured and sympathy evoking characters in a plot that, while wrought with tragedy, remains genuine.

The story circles around the slow death of Magda Danvers, a brilliant college professor suffering from cancer. Magda is a lively, feisty spirit who, even in her deterioration, is difficult not to like. Her sarcastic yet somehow warm ways draw us in as we watch her prepare for what she refers to as her "Final Examination." We find ourselves wishing that we could have known Magda before her illness. It would be very easy to let the demise of such a person become overly dramatic, sappy, soppy. However, like Magda herself, Godwin handles the death of Magda Danvers's with all the grace and dignity that can be mustered.

In fact, I find myself hurting more for poor, gentle Francis than the tough and tenacious Magda, who must care for his wife during the process of her death, an ordeal that is remarkably painful for them both. Looking in retrospect at the novel, I find that I would normally have been irritated by Francis's tireless, unending, persistence to the point of obsessed devotion, coupled with his repeated disintegration into tears in nearly every chapter. Instead, curiously enough, it only endears him to me. I feel sympathy for Francis to the point of being angry at the dying Magda for being so cross with the struggling man (I mean, sure she's dying, but does she have to yell at the poor man?). Francis's enduring goodness under any circumstances cannot help but win over my affections, because in his submission to Magda, he actually displays tremendous strength that comes from the deepest love. Somehow, Godwin was able to make this point without making the reader gag.

Similarly, she manages to write the character of Alice Henry with surprising realism despite Alice's ludicrously tragic history. At seventeen, she lost her mother, father and brother (who she adored to the point of incest), and had to move in with her aunt, who later related that her beloved brother was not actually her brother, but adopted, and soon after died herself. As if that wasn't enough, the story opens soon after Alice and her husband lose her baby, and have to cope with their deteriorating marriage as Alice struggles with feelings towards the humble and meek Francis. If that's not trashy soap opera, I don't know what is. Yet, Alice manages to keep such a seemingly calm, even tone about her that you seem forced to take her seriously. She doesn't mope or whine over her deplorable situation, and one has to respect that. She truly possesses the attitude of one who's gone through so much, that they've learned long ago messy scenes bring no solace. Throughout the novel, I found myself hoping desperately that Alice would finally be able to somehow gain that solace.

Living with Hugo, certainly, would not bring this to her. Hugo Henry, a writer-in-residence at Aurelia College (where Magda taught), although probably my least favorite character, seems to me to be most realistic. His flaws are so intricately worked into his character--his homophobia, misogyny, and deep insecurity--that you almost don't notice them until they are pointed out, a very impressive feat of writing. You have to pity Hugo, especially when you look at his desire to make everyone around him happy. The tragedy is we know Hugo can't make anyone happy, because he himself will never be happy.

Overall, Gail Godwin has conjured up an amazing cast of characters and masterfully woven them together. She is able to instantly create a bond between the reader and her little cast that completely sucks the reader into The Good Husband. By the end of the first chapter, you feel as though you know these people, and have known them for the longest time. And by the conclusion, you feel as though you've experienced everything with them and only want for their happiness. This, to me, is what makes a novel worthwhile; this is what reading is all about.

"What next?" This common theme in Gail Godwin's The Good Husband seems to be fitting when you finish reading this articulate story of life, love, death, and everything that is encompassed within these complex experiences. The story focuses upon the lives of two professor/novelists (or should it be novelist/professors) and their spouses. The intricacy of every interaction, of how life and death can change one's mindset and of how love can be wrong, fade, or at least become skewed throughout a person's lifetime, with the interactions and cross-interactions of Magda Danvers, her husband Francis Lake, Hugo and Alice Henry make this novel go.

Magda Danvers and Francis Lake make an interesting pair; she is a pure academic whose mind never stops wondering or questioning, while he is a caretaker who emphasizes the physical, often overlooking the intellectual. During her dying months, Francis tends to all of Magda's needs, except the one that she really wants him to - her mind. Magda has no qualms about taking her frustration out on him about this, even though he always keeps the composure of a man of God, which he was once studying to be. At the beginning, you get the sense that the good husband is just a description of Francis; however, Magda makes a reference to her good husband as death. But, of course, this allusion is over Francis' head, just like all of her others.

At the same point that Magda Danvers is on her last leg, Hugo and Alice Henry lose their child during birth. The significance here lies in the fact that with this loss of child, so goes the loss of their relationship. However the question must be asked if they would have had a healthy birth of their child, could that have saved their marriage? Alice begins visiting with Francis regularly during Magda's illness, grows a strange attraction toward him. He is very different from Henry, but is that the reason for her attraction, or is he simply a better fit for her personality? Love can be a confusing thing, and this strange love square, it offers no solution to this quandary.

When I began reading this book, I became bored and uninterested. The overuse of unneeded repetition throughout the beginning chapters, the all-to-simple metaphor of their front yard's demise corresponding with Magda's, the sometimes jumpy narrative style, and the storyline that seems to be going nowhere left me pained during reading. However, Gail Godwin comes back strong from these annoyances with a story that is more about the reader's self reflection than anything that she could possibly put down on paper. This idea of one's death as a final examination left me pondering my own life for hours after I had laid the book down. The way that she shows love in all its intricacy (and delicacy) through the point of view of omnipotent narrator allows the reader to see perspectives that might have never been able to come from one single person.

After reading this book, I have some new ideas concerning love and its role in my life. I am trying to sort through the parts of my life that are what matters and what's ... garbage. I also have contemplated how I want my final exam to look ... even with the possibility that we might all get the same grade.