The Senator's Wife

Unlike many readers, I found the ending merely sad, not shocking or a sign of Meri's moral bankruptcy. Meri is far from perfect, and what she does at the end is clearly not noble or ethical. But she has lacked love all her life -- her husband seems too self-absorbed to love her -- and she honestly believes that she did it for love. It is sad that such a gesture can cause such harm, but it did, and Meri will have to live with the consequences.

Sue Miller knows how to delineate characters and how to write dialogue. But she has a very annoying, constant writer's habit -- what I would call the fading-away comma phrase. Just in the online excerpt, we see: "this is a coup, an achievement," "the profiles, the three-quarter angles," "a great change, a beginning," "they can find a way to keep talking about all this, a way of shaping their marriage to suit them both." Those last phrases trail away and make the sentences seem precious and affected. On occasion, it's fine, but Miller does it constantly. What about, for example, "the profiles and the three-quarter angles." Or what does "an achievement" add that was not already present in "a coup"?

To keep it brief: I read this book because I liked While I Was Gone, also by Sue Miller. Though the heroine of the that book was unlikable, the story was good and rather well-written.

Sue Miller seems to have slipped several notches in the interim. The prose in The Senator's Wife is straight out of Writing 101, with conversations unremittingly punctuated by inane asides: "She took a sip of beer" or "He cut the pizza and put it on her plate." There was also a lot of meaningless detail that served no purpose.

The older heroine is a one-dimensional stereotype of an old lady. The senator husband is worse, maybe half-dimensional. But the worst thing about this book was the young heroine, an utterly amoral piece of work whom the author seems to like and believe moral. Either Sue Miller is off her nut or she's pulling our leg.

I don't recommend it at all.

The Senator's Wife is about two women: Delia is the one who gives the book its name while newly-wed Meri is her new next-door neighbor. Delia's husband Tom was a prominent Democratic senator in the 1960s. The couple now live apart, but still maintain a relationship. The book is about the relationship between the two women as well as their individual marriages. The book is set in 1993/1994, although it has an oddly dated feel, as if it were set 10 years earlier.

Delia is the more likeable of the two women and for some time I felt that Meri wasn't adding much to the book other than another perspective on Delia, but ultimately their lives become entwined and common themes develop. Although Meri is a newly-wed, she is aged in her late 30s (presumably to make some events that occur later in the book more credible), and yet she has the naievity and self-absorption of a younger woman.

Even though I didn't particularly warm to either woman, I enjoyed this book very much and read it quickly. I could feel the tension building throughout and I wasn't sure how it would resolve itself. Some reviews that I had read talked about a twist at the end which I think is over-selling it, but it does build to a climax. However I also felt that the ending was over-explained and that Meri's motivations were spelled out in a way that didn't feel convincing (nor necessary). This would be a good choice for a book club as there's plenty to discuss.

This is the first book that I've read by Sue Miller, but her writing reminded me in many ways of Anne Tyler, whose writing I love.

It doesn't take a literati to decipher that the message here is this: despite what your husband/significant other may do to embarrass both you and himself, it's best to keep that dirty laundry in the washing machine of marriage. Delia Naughton, 'The Senator's Wife', is an educated, sophisticated woman. So, why on earth would she allow her husband's philandering to carry on? Unlike Hillary Clinton, she didn't have political aspirations; she didn't need to use her husband Tom like Mrs. Clinton implemented Bill.

Then there's the issue of her young married neighbors, Meri and Nathan. Nathan is completely enthralled with the idea of living next door to a Senator, while Meri subconsciously begrudges the life that Delia Naughton lives, both in the public eye and behind closed doors. Perhaps that is what leads Meri to execute her wiles over Tom, however, that is surreptitiously the point that Delia takes a stand - finally.

While I wasn't one to really be intrigued by the plot, Miller's deft use of language was reward enough to warrior through this one. If you hoped to gain a bit of insight into a political marriage, this may whet your appetite. If you are looking for a page-turner, this one isn't it.

Boy, in my opinion this didn't measure up. So, did Nate ever cheat on Meri?? I was so bored that I just skipped around and finally read the last couple of chapters to finish it off