Wendy Walker takes readers to Hunting Ridge, a wealthy New York suburb, in her debut novel Four Wives. She clearly defines four women who are very different characters, although I was disappointed in some of the pat resolutions of their storylines. The four wives are connected by a social group they belong to, and also by the problems in their marriages.
Janie Kirk's story opens when — after sleeping with a neighbor — she's sneaking back into the house where her husband and four children are slumbering. Janie is perhaps the least defined of the characters. Her story is really delineated most by her affair, although Walker leaves the reader in suspense until close to the end as to when the neighbor's name will be revealed.
Love Welsh is married to a doctor. Despite the couple's home in Hunting Ridge, they lack the wealth of the other families there. Love has three children, and a past secret with her father that causes her pain. Love Welsh's story is built up so much, and its climax disappointingly flat.
Gayle Haywood Beck takes antidepressants to get her through a marriage to an abusive husband, living only for her son. Marie Passeti left a high-powered job in a New York law firm to move to a suburb with her husband and two kids. Now, she takes on divorce cases in a small office while her husband works in a job he hates and plays golf.
Walker's four wives had to reach crises in their lives before they revealed their fears and secrets to each other. She tells a story of four women who found their money couldn't protect them from their problems. It's a competent debut, but it left me dissatisfied. Walker never found the heart of the women in this novel.
Instead, they were each stereotypes of the bored wealthy housewife. Lorna Landvik did a better job with a group of women in Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons. Wendy Walker tells the story of Four Wives, but it's not a story that lingers with the reader.
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