The wives
Lauren Weisberger
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 9780007569281
Three American women in their thirties have hit a bump in the road in their respective lives. One is a former supermodel turned senator’s wife, Karolina, whose life as a poor girl in Poland changed spectacularly, thanks to her incredible looks. Her life is thrown into harrowing turmoil when she is arrested for drunk driving, even though she insists that she was sober; her reputation is in tatters, and her husband, instead of standing by his wife, tosses her out unceremoniously and takes their son away. Graham is a charming man whose political ambitions surpass his sense of morality, and getting rid of his wife is part of his strategy, so he sets her up for public humiliation and uses her arrest as a justification for divorce. Karolina’s friend, Miriam, is a homemaker and mother of three who gave up her career as a successful lawyer when her husband’s start-up technology company brought in millions of dollars. She is struggling to fit into the affluent suburbs after having lived in New York for her entire life, and her husband is beginning to behave in a distant manner. Emily is Miriam’s oldest friend and is an image consultant to celebrities. Her career is going into freefall as she rapidly loses clients to a younger, more social media savvy competitor, so she seeks temporary refuge with Miriam. Once Karolina reveals what really happened on the night that she was arrested, as well as the way that her husband has treated her, Emily and Miriam decide that they are going to use their skills to get Karolina justice and her son back.
Lauren Weisberger uses this intriguing and rapidly moving plot to take us into the world of superrich American suburbia, with designer clothes, big cars and competitive soccer moms with surgically enhanced faces and bodies (including private parts), who are desperate to maintain a veneer of respectability while their secret lives are anything but “respectable”. This is a world in which private parties have porn stars providing “live demonstrations” of how to spice things up in bed as part of the entertainment. Broadway stars are flown in for special performances, and waiters turn out to be professional dancers. Karolina is not part of this set, having lived the life of glamour while keeping her nose clean. She is now a mother and wife whose life has been devoted entirely to supporting her family, especially her husband with his career, so her respectability is beyond reproach. One of the women whose children go to kindergarten with Miriam’s twins decides to bring her into the Tiger Mom and Impossibly Sexy Wife posse. Miriam finds that she cannot relate to these women. Having worked as a strait-laced lawyer, she has never made fashion a priority, so she immediately feels excluded. She has not lost her baby weight and has never considered cosmetic surgery, while the clique all have bodies that look like they belong to 25-year-olds. Emily is a wild card as she enters this world, due to her glamorous career falling apart. She is very cynical of suburbia, preferring the no-holds-barred, childfree city lifestyle. She is keen on taking on Karolina as a client, due to the fact that she needs to keep her shop open and she wants to avoid crawling back to her old employer, who is Miranda Priestly from Runway Magazine. Remember The devil wears Prada? That’s the very one! Miranda still has a visceral effect on Emily, and there is a twist in the plot in terms of her role in assisting with Karolina’s battle. This makes Emily, Miriam and Karolina a rather unlikely but charming trio.
Lauren Weisberger | www.laurenweisberger.com/author/
The wives is a delicious escape. The dialogue is rapid, the descriptions vivid, and it also serves as a kind of Bible for the fashion-conscious. The story reflects on the challenges of reaching a place in life that feels either like stagnation or loss when women progress through their thirties. For many middle-class women, sometimes the thirties don’t deliver on their promises. The “happily ever after” isn’t always happy, and forever can begin to feel like a long, painful time. There is the threat of younger, faster women taking their place both in the workplace and in the bedroom. There is the constant pressure to keep up, otherwise one becomes obsolete. The thirties can feel like the age of reckoning. Society promises that if you follow a certain route (work like a slave, party hard, marry at 27, have kids), then your life will be good. This may happen materially, but one often has to think of the real cost to one’s well-being. This book also gives one pause to reflect on whether it is worth it to try and keep up with a youth-obsessed society that makes unrealistic demands on how you spend your time and where, how your body should look (like Barbie) and how much you should have in your bank account. In The wives, friendship trumps societal expectations, and, although happiness is not delivered to the characters in a designer box, it is worth savouring and appreciating. This is a book that you can read alone or with your book club, on holiday or during a rainy day indoors, with wine or hot chocolate. It manages to be hilarious and touching – you will find yourself cheering on the characters and crying with them – and there is hardly a dull moment. Well done, Lauren Weisberger!