I finished A Circle of Wives by Alice LaPlante about a week ago, and I still can't think about it without breaking out into some Lion King soundtrack. (You're welcome for that ear worm. Share my pain.)
So, back to A Circle of Wives. It's ostensibly a murder mystery--a respected plastic surgeon in Palo Alto is found dead in his hotel room. First up is Wife #1, Deborah. They've been married for 35 years, have three kids. Next is Wife #2, MJ. MJ's been married to Dr. John Taylor (that's the cadaver from the hotel room) for about six years. Wife #3 is Helen, a respected doctor in her own right who lives in LA and carries on a long-distance marriage with John. They've been married just six months. Lastly, we have not a wife but a detective, Samantha (Sam) Adams.
I say the novel is ostensibly a murder mystery because really, Sam spends most of the book trying to figure out how one man can have three wives, how he made that work. She does eventually solve his murder, but not without registering some serious deficiencies in her own relationship. In fact, she privately thinks of herself as another wife, a member of the sisterhood, by the time the book's conclusion rolls around.
My major issue with A Circle of Wives, though, is not so much that it's not what I expected--that happens all the time--it's that the characters were so thinly drawn. Deborah is the bitchy ice queen. MJ is the scatterbrained aging hippie. Helen is the dedicated career woman. Sam is the rookie cop trying to prove herself. At one point, Sam thinks of MJ, "Underneath that scattiness is a real person. The same applies to Helen, and dare I say it, Deborah. Perhaps that's what I mean. Real people. John Taylor married three real women." Except, really, these women aren't real, at least not on the page. LaPlante never brings them fully to life for me in a way that explains who they are, what they want, how they were able to overlook the strange things about John and their relationships with him. Given that the chapters are narrated by all four women, that's possibly not surprising; one could argue we're never given enough time in each one's head to know her as a character. On the other hand, one could argue (and I do), that the immediacy of the first-person POV should've been more than enough to draw us in.
On the whole, I won't say this was a bad novel. It was entertaining and light, so if those are requirements you're looking for in a book (or you love singing Elton John for days on end), absolutely pick it up.
Title: A Circle of Wives
Author: Alice LaPlante
Star Rating: 2 out of 3 stars
Buy, Borrow, Skip: Skip
Bonus: a character named after a beer
So, back to A Circle of Wives. It's ostensibly a murder mystery--a respected plastic surgeon in Palo Alto is found dead in his hotel room. First up is Wife #1, Deborah. They've been married for 35 years, have three kids. Next is Wife #2, MJ. MJ's been married to Dr. John Taylor (that's the cadaver from the hotel room) for about six years. Wife #3 is Helen, a respected doctor in her own right who lives in LA and carries on a long-distance marriage with John. They've been married just six months. Lastly, we have not a wife but a detective, Samantha (Sam) Adams.
I say the novel is ostensibly a murder mystery because really, Sam spends most of the book trying to figure out how one man can have three wives, how he made that work. She does eventually solve his murder, but not without registering some serious deficiencies in her own relationship. In fact, she privately thinks of herself as another wife, a member of the sisterhood, by the time the book's conclusion rolls around.
My major issue with A Circle of Wives, though, is not so much that it's not what I expected--that happens all the time--it's that the characters were so thinly drawn. Deborah is the bitchy ice queen. MJ is the scatterbrained aging hippie. Helen is the dedicated career woman. Sam is the rookie cop trying to prove herself. At one point, Sam thinks of MJ, "Underneath that scattiness is a real person. The same applies to Helen, and dare I say it, Deborah. Perhaps that's what I mean. Real people. John Taylor married three real women." Except, really, these women aren't real, at least not on the page. LaPlante never brings them fully to life for me in a way that explains who they are, what they want, how they were able to overlook the strange things about John and their relationships with him. Given that the chapters are narrated by all four women, that's possibly not surprising; one could argue we're never given enough time in each one's head to know her as a character. On the other hand, one could argue (and I do), that the immediacy of the first-person POV should've been more than enough to draw us in.
On the whole, I won't say this was a bad novel. It was entertaining and light, so if those are requirements you're looking for in a book (or you love singing Elton John for days on end), absolutely pick it up.
Title: A Circle of Wives
Author: Alice LaPlante
Star Rating: 2 out of 3 stars
Buy, Borrow, Skip: Skip
Bonus: a character named after a beer