Two stories for the price of one, The Wife's Story and The Husband's Story, from the sublime writer of men and women living on the edge of massive life changes, and falling or flying....

(18/04) The Husband’s Story

I’ve read the first part of this matching pair. Luckily for the geek in me, the husband’s story was written before the wife’s story...I would have hated to read them out of order!

This is typical Shields, well written, the slightly home-spun plot is more than balanced with great characters and an unerring eye for the human foibles and weaknesses. In this case we meet Jack Bowan, 43, married to and still madly in love with Brenda, in a stable and respected academic job, living in an upmarket suburb of Chicago. But, typically, there are some cracks in this cosy middle-classed and middle-aged existence, or at least a fine ‘crazing’. The plot unfolds over a week in January with Brenda away on her own at a quilting conference, also some unusual harsh weather, and some major and minor disturbances among Jack’s family, friends and neighbours. Shields indulges Jack in a constant internal dialogue, always self-interested but never dull or trivial IMHO. Besides the most significant theme – Jack’s ‘loss of faith’ in his ability to complete an academic book - I loved the more subtle storylines around Bernie (his best/only friend), Bernie’s wife and disabled daughter, Jack’s Dad, even the owner of their regular Italian restaurant, and the unrequited lust of Jack’s co-worker etc. etc. Less than 200 pages full of little gems…I’m looking forward to part 2 :)

(26/04) I don't think I enjoyed The Wife's Story as much, although it does stand alone I thought that it wasn't as convincing, and suffered because of the very disconnectedness of Brenda, away in Philly at a craft convention. Brenda, like her husband, is thrown into some unusual situations and reviews her life as the events unfold, looking for meaning, patterns (no pun intended!) and some direction.

'Happenstance' is credited to Jack, as a catch-all phrase covering lost opportunities; Jack's father not being the right age to fight in either world war, 'cheated by time', or Brenda being the right age in the 50's and 60's but not able to celebrate the freedoms and immancipation (sp?) of the 1960's. Brenda doesn't come to any great decision although she dabbles with a type of unfaithfulness...'faith' a word that Jack uses and Brenda mirrors. At the end of both stories is a general acceptance of where both Jack and Brenda are in their lives, if not always happy, then at least mostly content. So no earth-shattering changes, but [probably] slight shifts in power - a very human compromise

Lastly, a great quote from Brenda's friend, Hap Lewis, 'Deep down we're all shallow' :)

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

Taken along to today's Ipswich meet-up.

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