Join Amazon Prime and get unlimited Free One-Day Delivery. Already a member? Sign in.

 

or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
   
More Buying Choices
31 used & new from £0.01
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
   
The Wife
 
See larger image 
Share your own customer images
Publisher: learn how customers can search inside this book.

The Wife (Paperback)

by Meg Wolitzer (Author)
4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
RRP: £6.99
Price: £4.89 & eligible for Free UK delivery on orders over £5 with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
You Save: £2.10 (30%)
In stock.
Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk. Gift-wrap available.

Want guaranteed delivery by Tuesday, July 7? Choose Express delivery at checkout. See Details
13 new from £2.33 18 used from £0.01
Other Editions: RRP: Our Price: Other Offers:
Hardcover (Large Print Ed) £16.99 £16.99 Order it used
Paperback (1st Scribner Trade Pbk. Ed) £7.99 £7.19 59 used & new from £0.01
Hardcover (Large Print) 9 used & new from £1.52

Frequently Bought Together

The Wife + The Position + The Ten-year Nap
Price For All Three: £15.50

Show availability and shipping details

  • This item: The Wife by Meg Wolitzer

    In stock.
    Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk.
    Eligible for FREE UK delivery on orders over £5 with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions

  • The Position by Meg Wolitzer

    In stock.
    Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk.
    This item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions

  • The Ten-year Nap by Meg Wolitzer

    In stock.
    Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk.
    This item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

The Position

The Position

by Meg Wolitzer
3.7 out of 5 stars (3)  £5.49
The Ten-year Nap

The Ten-year Nap

by Meg Wolitzer
3.3 out of 5 stars (3)  £5.12
Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant

Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant

by Anne Tyler
4.6 out of 5 stars (9)  £5.59
The White Tiger

The White Tiger

by Aravind Adiga
3.7 out of 5 stars (98)  £3.84
The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher: or the Murder at Road Hill House

The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher: or the Murder at Road Hill House

by Kate Summerscale
3.1 out of 5 stars (177)  £3.99
› Explore similar items

Product details

  • Paperback: 328 pages
  • Publisher: Vintage; New edition edition (5 Aug 2004)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0099478196
  • ISBN-13: 978-0099478195
  • Product Dimensions: 19.2 x 12.8 x 1.6 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 44,334 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    •  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

Product Description

Review
'A triumph of tone and observation, The Wife is a blithe, brilliant take on sexual politics and literary vanity...It is the most engaging, funny and satisfying novel the witty Meg Wolitzer has yet written' Lorrie Moore 'An astonishingly dry, funny and gripping account of two writers trapped for life in an ever-more bizarre marriage...persuasive, hilarious and even frightening. The Wife is a milestone in the career of one of her generation's truest novelists' Adam Gopnik 'A rollicking, perfectly pitched triumph...Wolitzer's talent for comedy of manners reaches a heady high' Los Angeles Times 'Deploys a calm, seamless humor...Rage might be the signature emotion of the powerless, but in Wolitzer's hands, rage is also very funny' The New York Times Book Review

Product Description
Joe and Joan Castleman are on route to Helsinki, Joe is thinking about the prestigious literary prize he will receive and Joan is plotting how to leave him. Their marriage has been careering towards this moment, Joe's chance to bask in the glory of a life dedicated to letters and Joan's final appearance as his adoring wife. For too long Joan has played the role of supportive wife, turning a blind eye to his misdemeanours, subjugating her own talents and quietly being the keystone of his success. The Wife is an acerbic and astonishing take on a marriage from its public face to the private world behind closed doors. Wolitzer has masterfully created an expose of lives lived in partnership and the truth that behind the compromises, dedication and promise inherent in marriage there so often lies a secret underpinning it all.

See all Product Description

Suggested Tags from Similar Products

 (What's this?)
Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
Check a corresponding box or enter your own tags in the field below
(1)
(1)
(1)
(2)
(1)
(1)
(1)
(1)
(1)

Your tags: Add your first tag
 
See most popular tags

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

The Wife
79% buy the item featured on this page:
The Wife 4.0 out of 5 stars (5)
£4.89
The Ten-year Nap
9% buy
The Ten-year Nap 3.3 out of 5 stars (3)
£5.12
Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant
4% buy
Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant 4.6 out of 5 stars (9)
£5.59
Housekeeping
4% buy
Housekeeping 4.5 out of 5 stars (10)
£4.79
Explore similar items
 

Customer Reviews

5 Reviews
5 star:
 (2)
4 star:
 (1)
3 star:
 (2)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.0 out of 5 stars (5 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Indulge yourself!, 11 Sep 2005
By A Customer
Entertaining and easy to read, this is a book to relax with and to enjoy. The blurb compares the author to "a tonic" who should be bottled; I couldn't agree more! I felt that in her company I'd visited a therapist to hammer out some of my hang-ups about life and men; and then gone on to indulge myself further in an evening of gossip with a good friend and a bottle of wine! If this sounds like chick-lit, it isn't - its so much MORE! You won't have to feel guilty about reading Meg Wolitzer, because her book is intelligent and profound. She writes perceptively and humourously, with a delicious enjoyment of language. Highly recommended.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Great book, bad cover, 20 Oct 2004
By A Customer
This is a really fantastic book but is totally let down by the cover. The publishers seem to have tried to make it look like a chick lit book when it's not. Which means that half the readers who would enjoy it will ignore it on the shelves. It's a serious read and beautifully written.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Auspicious beginning leads to predictable ending., 8 April 2006
By ****babarluvsceleste (Pleasant Hill, CA) - See all my reviews
This novel's auspicious opening sentence, combined with other readers' hints of a surprise ending, tantalized me into ordering the book. However, as early as the first chapter I guessed the "secret" underlying the story but kept reading to the end just to see if I was right.

Joan Castleman is a disgruntled wife who provides a first person account of her 45 year marriage to Joe, a vain, self-satisfied, unfaithful man who happens to be a very successful author. The story opens with her decision to leave him while they are flying at 35,000 feet in the first class section of an airliner carrying them to Finland. Joe is about to receive the Helsinki Prize, the fictitious equivalent of the Nobel prize for literature. The next 200 pages is a literary autopsy of a defunct marriage. She remembers their decades together that began as an adulterous affair between a married college writing professor and his more talented student. The ensuing scandal caused her to drop out of school; he lost his teaching position, and they fled, nearly penniless to Greenwich Village.

Despite Joe's apparent lack of writing talent, after they marry he writes a novel, which is surprisingly well written and becomes a best seller. Over the years more literary sucesses follow, and the accolades make him more insufferable. As his celebrity grows, so does his appetite for other women. He is also a neglectful father. As Joan's resentful memories accumulate, you begin to wonder why this intelligent woman didn't leave him years before. Why did she trade her own writing ambitions to become a wife and mother? Has she really been satisfied basking in his reflected light? Did the women's liberation movement somehow bypass her? When Joe makes his acceptance speech for the Helsinki Prize he acknowledges Joan as his muse,saying "Without her, I am certan that I would not be standing up here tonight. I would instead be at home staring at a blank piece of paper." There's more to that statement than meets the eye, for she is much more than his muse. You come to realize that her apparent complacency over the years is actually complicity. Although the story is darkly humorous, at only 219 pages, it still feels too long. I think it would have had more dramatic impact as a short story.

Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)


Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars If you grew up reading Cosmo ...
I agree with the previous reviewer that this would work better as a short story (and then it wouldn't matter so much that the end is so utterly predictable). Read more
Published 8 months ago by booksetc

4.0 out of 5 stars Honest and engaging
This book is brilliant. It is the story of a woman looking back over her marriage in middle age, the choices and compromises that she made. Read more
Published on 25 April 2007 by Jaybird

Only search this product's reviews


Customer Discussions

 Beta (What's this?)
This product's forum (0 discussions)
  Discussion Replies Latest Post
  No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
  [Cancel]


Active discussions in related forums
   
Related forums

Listmania!

Create a Listmania! list

Look for similar items by category

Look for similar items by subject









i.e., each product must be in subject 1 AND subject 2 AND ...

Feedback

Health & Beauty at Amazon.co.uk

Elemis Resurface and Renew Skin Care Gift Set of 4 Products
From soap to shavers, massagers to mascara, stock up on your daily essentials or truly pamper yourself.

›Discover Health & Beauty

  

More From Meg Wolitzer

The Ten-year Nap

The Ten-year Nap by Meg Wolitzer

'...wit, bite and schmaltz-free sympathy' Read more
£12.99 £9.09

 

A Close Shave

Philips Nivea Coolskin HS8060 Moisturizing Rotary Shaving System
For all types of hair removal, stay smooth with Amazon.co.uk.

›Discover Shaving & Hair Removal

  

Treat Someone

Amazon.co.uk Gift Certificates--available in any amount from £5 to £500 With an Amazon.co.uk Gift Certificate, you can get them what they want (even if you don't know what that is).

›Learn more about Gift Certificates

  
Ad

Where's My Stuff?

Delivery and Returns

Need Help?

Your Recent History

  (What's this?)
You have no recently viewed items or searches.

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.

Look to the right column to find helpful suggestions for your shopping session.
Continue Shopping: Top Sellers

amazon.co.uk Amazon Home
International Sites:  United States  |  Germany  |  France  |  Japan  |  Canada  |  China
Business Programs: Sell on Amazon  |  Fulfilment by Amazon  |  Join Associates  |  Join Advantage
Customer Service  |  Help  |  View Basket  |  Your Account
About Amazon.co.uk  |  Careers at Amazon
Conditions of Use & Sale |  Privacy Notice  © 1996-2009, Amazon.com, Inc. and its affiliates