Synopses & Reviews
Take a peek beyond the perfectly-manicured lawns of Hunting Ridge. For four wives who live there, all is not as it seems…
Former child prodigy Love Welsh can't seem to banish the demons that ended her career. Now a devoted mother and wife, her quest for a resolution to her secret past will place at risk the life she has created. Her neighbor, part-time divorce attorney Marie Passeti, struggles with a difficult case and her unexpected feelings for the young intern working at her side. In a mansion across town, Gayle Beck enjoys the social status that her family's “old money" guarantees, but inside her fairy tale, life grows darker with each passing day. Gayle's friend, Janie Kirk, who is both envied and loathed for her exceptional beauty and expert homemaking, is losing the battle to remain satisfied in a passionless marriage, and falls into a surprising affair.
As the women plan a charity gala, their not-so-perfect lives are slowly exposed. And as springtime comes to a close, each woman faces the most difficult challenge of all: reconciling her innermost desires with the path that she has chosen.
Review
“Walkers first novel is a treat. Its well written and features great characters, lots of humor, and dead-on analysis of friendship, marriage, and motherhood.”
-Library Journal
“Wendy Walker writes a cleverly woven, sexy debut that is a fascinating peek inside the gilded cages of suburban matrimony....A true page-turner treat.”
-Jill Kargman, author of Momzillas and co-author of The Right Address
“A fascinating read. Wendy Walker delivers a blistering dissection of modern suburban marriage. I couldn't put it down.”
-Danielle Ganek, author of Lulu Meets God and Doubts Him“Four Wives is a brilliantly clever and accurate study in domestic discontentment. Acutely well-observed and suspenseful, it's a stunning reflection of life in an affluent American suburb, where the women seem to have everything...except happiness. A great read.” -Jane Green, author of The Other Woman and Swapping Lives
Review
“
Four Wives is a brilliantly clever and accurate study in domestic discontentment. Acutely well-observed and suspenseful, it's a stunning reflection of life in an affluent American suburb, where the women seem to have everything...except happiness. A great read.”
-Jane Green, author of Swapping Lives “A cleverly woven, sexy debut that is a fascinating peek inside the gilded cages of suburban matrimony....A true page-turner treat.”
-Jill Kargman, author of Momzillas and co-author of The Right Address
“A fascinating read. Wendy Walker delivers a blistering dissection of modern suburban marriage. I couldn't put it down.”
-Danielle Ganek, author of Lulu Meets God and Doubts Him
Synopsis
In Wendy Walker's brilliant debut, the lives of four wives and mothers intertwine and collide in a tale of suburban angst among outrageous wealth. On the outside, it appears as though Love Welsh, Marie Passetti, Gayle Beck and Janie Kirk lead enviable lives, with marriages to handsome, successful men; bright, happy children; and homes right out of Architectural Digest. But in the wealthy suburb of Hunting Ridge, appearances mask a deeper truth: These four wives are anything but perfect. As they try to maintain a façade of bliss, behind closed doors they each face their own crises-infidelity, dissatisfaction, self-doubt. As springtime draws to an end, doors are both opened and closed and the women come face to face with the most difficult and heartbreaking challenge of their lives-to reconcile their innermost desires with the lives that each of them has chosen.
Four Wives shares a peek beyond the perfectly manicured lawns of Hunting Ridge—exposing a world as troubled as it is blessed.
Synopsis
In Wendy Walker's brilliant debut, the lives of four wives and mothers intertwine and collide in a tale of suburban angst among outrageous wealth. On the outside, it appears as though Love Welsh, Marie Passetti, Gayle Beck and Janie Kirk lead enviable lives, with marriages to handsome, successful men; bright, happy children; and homes right out of Architectural Digest. But in the wealthy suburb of Hunting Ridge, appearances mask a deeper truth: These four wives are anything but perfect. As they try to maintain a façade of bliss, behind closed doors they each face their own crises-infidelity, dissatisfaction, self-doubt. As springtime draws to an end, doors are both opened and closed and the women come face to face with the most difficult and heartbreaking challenge of their lives-to reconcile their innermost desires with the lives that each of them has chosen.
Four Wives shares a peek beyond the perfectly manicured lawns of Hunting Ridge—exposing a world as troubled as it is blessed.
Synopsis
People are talking about
Four Wives...“
Four Wives is a brilliantly clever and accurate study in domestic discontentment. Acutely well-observed and suspenseful, it's a stunning reflection of life in an affluent American suburb, where the women seem to have everything...except happiness. A great read.”
-Jane Green, author of Swapping Lives “Wendy Walker writes a cleverly woven, sexy debut that is a fascinating peek inside the gilded cages of suburban matrimony, where wives' envy for the perfect life is as green as the manicured lawns and golf tees they are widowed for, revealing the fiery restlessness beneath the placid permasmiles. A true page-turner treat.”
-Jill Kargman, author of Momzillas and co-author of The Right Address
“A fascinating read. Wendy Walker delivers a blistering dissection of modern suburban marriage. I couldn't put it down.”
-Danielle Ganek, author of Lulu Meets God and Doubts Him
About the Author
Wendy Walker is a former commercial litigator and investment banker who now works at home writing and raising her children. She is the author of Social Lives (coming in August 2009), the editor of Chicken Soup for the Soul: Power Moms, and is currently working on her third novel.
Reading Group Guide
1. Though all four wives face different personal struggles, there are some overarching issues that all of them must face throughout. What are they? If you had to pick one theme that runs through the stories of all four characters, what would it be?
2. What problems facing Love, Marie, Gayle and Janie seem specific to suburban life? Does the story seem to be critical of suburban life, in general, or this kind of upscale suburb, in particular? Have you read other novels that explored suburban life through this kind of lens? How did FOUR WIVES differ from other novels of suburban life that youve read?
3. It could be argued that the women in this book are archetypes of modern “wife-hood.” Do you agree? Did you see the women as symbols or did they feel “real” to you? Which character felt the most "real" and why?
4. The author devotes a lot of attention to exploring how childhood experiences dramatically shape ones choices later in life. Through which characters is this theme most thoroughly explored? Did the revelation of childhood secrets change your impression of any of the characters?
5. The cause of Love's illness is never discovered. What do you think the author was trying to accomplish by leaving this mystery unsolved? What do you think, if anything, Loves unresolved illness symbolizes?
6. Professional identity is another important theme in the novel. Why does Marie cling to her identity as a lawyer so vehemently? What does her devotion to her career represent or say about her? What did Marie learn from the Farrell case? How do you think her involvement in the case plays into the decisions she makes at the end of the book?
7. Whether the wives simply ponder its possibilities, engage in it, or are “wronged” by it, infidelity is an issue that most of the women in the novel grapple with. What does this novel have to say about the reasons someone might become unfaithful to his or her spouse? In instances where affairs occur or nearly occur, what attracts each person to the other? Did you react differently to the infidelity of one character than you did to another?
8. For several, if not all, of the marriages in the novel, one might find it easy to question why theyve stayed together as long as they have. What does the novel suggest about the reasons people remain in bad or unsatisfying marriages? Do you understand why some of the relationships have continued for as long as they have? Are there any you have trouble justifying?
9. What roles do supporting characters like Randy and Paul play in helping Marie and Gayle make the choices they do? What do these men provide these women that their husbands do not?
10. Readers tend to view Janie as the “bad” wife. Despite her questionable choices, do you see her as “bad?” What, if anything, could be said in her defense? Do you think her expectations of married life are unrealistic?
11. Were you satisfied with where each woman was left off at the end of the novel? Where do you think these women will be in their lives one year from the end of the book?