The Senator's Wife

This might qualify as the worst book I've ever read--what a complete waste of time! Do not, under any circumstances, waste two days of your life reading this insipid character develop. I've never hated a fictional character as much as Meri Fowler. Is the name a precursor of the ending? Without a doubt!

Complete waste of time. Pitiful!

On second thought, I change my star rating to 4-stars.

I'm a fan of Sue Miller. To those disappointed reviewers who said they will never read another, I say, your loss. At least give While You Were Gone a try.

But back to this book, I liked it very much until the shocker ending. While Meri was rather whiney and snoopish, I think she is a fully human character with human flaws and struggles, some of which most women can relate. I thought her pregnancy and new mother issues poignant. But a journalist and wife of professor - she doesn't read parenting books? Meri had her redeeming qualities and I thought she would come to grips by virtue of a deepening friendship with Delia. Boy, was I wrong. I felt that there were more basic questions about Meri's character that went unanswered. And then the ending completely wrecked my expectation of some kind of self-understanding, self-acceptance, redemption. Instead, we find an ugly, corrupt soul lurking beneath her otherwise benign exterior. And where was her mother? What was that story? We only hear vague accusations but no substance to allow us to judge whether Meri's flaws are somehow explainable. But mother made no appearance, even after a new baby. Even through the Christmas holiday. This piece left me hanging, especially after her act of betrayal. I wanted to know more. Still, I simply found the act of betrayal implausible.

Delia, I felt I understood better, though, with her charms, beauty, temperment and status as former senator's wife, one wonders that she would cling to such a shabby remnant of a marriage, particularly while letting her children down so.

And the most underdeveloped character award goes to Nathan. I never could figure out whether he was emotionally invested in his marriage or a self-involved cad. We know from the outside he was a prize, but not much more. I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop, based on little hints along the way, but it never did, and I was left perplexed.

So perplexed and disappointed in the end sums it up. I really liked it until then. It was disturbing and apparently one of those "tragedy of real life" endings. But not my cup of tea.

"The Senator's Wife" was a good read, and made many points about life and relationships. I'm glad I read it.

I find Sue Miller to be a gifted writer whose elegance of phrasing and story development is consistently brilliant. This book was, for me, a delight to read and very much in keeping with that standard. In reading some of the reviews, one would think that the standard for a worthy book should include the development of only highly evolved, heroic characters. I found the main characters in this book to be deeply flawed but compassionately drawn...and realistic. I found Delia to be a compelling character whose inner life was beautifully explored for the reader in these pages. Real women ARE like Delia! Some struggle and attach in ways that are not always politically correct (pardon the pun). I love the way Sue Miller writes dialogue: efficient and real. One feels as though present to an actual conversation. In this book I found that I marked at least ten pages which contained lines which deeply touched me and I found beautiful....for instance, when Delia watches her grown son, Evan, during a brief visit home: "And yet the love she felt for him was unchanged, was based on who he'd been and who he still was to her. This is how it is with your children, she thought. You hold all the versions of them there ever were simultaneously in your heart."
I loved this book. I thank Sue Miller for the visit into another woman's life via such beautiful craft and skill in writing.

I found no redeeming qualities in either of the female characters n this book. I can determine no reason why anyone gave this book positive reviews. The younger woman bases her value on her body, sex and what other people of her. She's sneaky, jealous and shallow. The older woman hangs in there far to long and then when the author has the chance to give her a voice at the very end after she finally leaves him, she doesn't. Not only are the characters weak and uninspiring, the author wastes your time with a book with absolutely no message/moral. It's a waste of time to read and I'm annoyed that I even spent money on purchasing it. No stars.