The Pretend Wife
Bridget Asher, 2008
Random House
288 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780385341929
Summary
What would life be like with the one who got away? From the author of My Husband’s Sweethearts—hailed as “a laugh-and-cry novel” that’s “whip-smart, tender.... An undiluted joy to read”—comes this bighearted, funny, fiercely perceptive tale about a happily married woman and the little white lie that changed everything.
For Gwen Merchant, love has always been doled out in little packets—from her father, a marine biologist who buried himself in work after her mother’s death; and from her husband, Peter, who’s always been respectable and safe. But when an old college boyfriend, the irrepressible Elliot Hull, invites himself back into Gwen’s life, she starts to remember a time when love was an ocean.
What does Elliot want? In fact, he has a rather surprising proposition: he wants Gwen to become his wife. His pretend wife. Just for a few days. To accompany him to his family’s lake house for the weekend so that he can fulfill his dying mother’s last wish. Reluctantly Gwen agrees to play along—with her husband Peter’s full support. It’s just one weekend—what harm could come of it?
But as Gwen is drawn into Elliot’s quirky, wonderful family—his astonishingly wise and open mother, his warm and welcoming sister, and his adorable, precocious niece—she starts questioning everything she’s ever expected from love. And as she begins to uncover a few secrets about her own family, it suddenly looks like a pretend relationship just might turn out to be the most real thing she’s ever known. (From the publisher.
Author Bio
Bridget Asher is a high-powered neurotic with an anxious heart that sometimes kicks up unexpectedly like a lawnmower motor in her chest. And because she's looked at the bios and author photos of a large number of other authors, she believes that she needs to attach a warning label or an advisory report or an apologia of some sort because...
- She does not have an authentically dingy T-shirt a la Colson Whitehead.
- She does not have teeth as grand and white and straight as Lolly Winston.
- She cannot pull off funky striped leggings for an author photo like Myla Goldberg nor has she been able to pose with a pet bear on a leash like Gary Shteyngart. (In general, she balks at stunts with animals.)
On the positive:
- Her name is easier to pronounce than Gary Shteyngart.
- She can buy the leggings and hope for the best!
- She is not opposed to cosmetic dentistry—as an art form.
And now she feels much better and can move onto her actual bio: In some ways, Bridget Asher is much like her heroine Lucy. She has fallen in love with loveable cheats. She has adored the wrong men for all the right reasons. She's as guilty as anyone. And, yes, like Lucy, her mistakes have made her who she is, and she's someone she's become fond of—except when she gets flustered ordering elaborate side dishes in sushi restaurants, in which case, she's overbearing.
She wanted to write a novel that, at its heart, focused on loving those we love for reasons we can't always fully rationalize; about friendships between women running deep; about dealing with compulsive mothers in velour sweat suits; about sweet liars and tenderhearted cheaters; about forgiveness of sorts, absolution and acceptance in the form of honesty and love.
Asher lives in Florida where she hopes she is being partially preserved by air conditioning and is married to a lovable, sweet man who has given her no reason to inquire about his former sweethearts (but, still, she's agonizingly curious). They have multiple children who are high-strung like their mother and sweet like their father.
That's the short bio. There's more, of course. There's much more. But she hopes this serves as some explanation for herself. (From the author's website.)
Book Reviews
Gwen is happily married until her dreamy ex asks if she’ll act as his wife—just for the weekend, to please his dying mom. A cut above chick-lit.
People
Balances the lighter side of life with the sadder realities. Surprising, poignant moments pave the way for a...satisfyingly happy ending.
Booklist
With still more to say about marriage, fidelity and the importance of being wittily earnest, Asher (My Husband's Sweethearts)—Julianna Baggott's adult fiction pseudonym— brings an abundance of warmth and wisdom to this tale of lost-and-found love. Married woman Gwen Merchant agrees to pretend to be the newlywed of former beau Elliott Hull to appease his dying mom. Gwen, smothering in a marriage to Peter, jumps at the chance for a redo at an abruptly ended college romance, and it's a slippery slope that Gwen slides down with passion and verve, falling in love with Elliott and becoming attached to his sister and her precocious kids and the imperious and uncannily perceptive matriarch, Vivian. But while weaving one faux relationship, Gwen unthreads the very real sadness in her own tattered family, including a widowed dad and a marriage that hides more than it confides. It's more than a little disappointing, if not surprising, that Asher inserts an improbably happy ending to push the sweet and funny Gwen into a trite epiphany.
Publishers Weekly
Flippancy gives way to more affecting emotions in a second novel from Asher (My Husband's Sweethearts, 2008) about a married woman who, as a favor, pretends to be the wife of her ex-boyfriend. Gwen Merchant lost her mother when she was five in a drowning accident from which she was mysteriously saved. Her caring but undemonstrative father spoke little of the tragedy and never filled Gwen's emotional gap, and neither does Peter, her perfectly nice yet somehow underwhelming anesthesiologist husband of three years. Then Gwen bumps into Elliot, a boyfriend from college days, and ends up agreeing to stand in as the wife he lied about to his cancer-stricken mother Vivian. The weekend visit to Vivian at her lovely lake house is both idyllic and disconcerting, throwing into the air many of Gwen's ideas about family and marriage. Vivian sees through the deception but gives her blessing to Gwen, who must now come to terms with her feelings for Elliot, Peter and most of all her mother. Some clunky bits of plot mechanism and meditations on love and commitment are required before all players are liberated to reach desired conclusions. Although the book could have used a stronger foundation, it largely succeeds with the aid of humor, insight and an appealing heroine. If this one has not yet been optioned for film, it soon will be.
Kirkus Reviews
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Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:
• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)
Also consider these LitLovers talking points to help get a discussion started for The Pretend Wife:
1. How does the death of her mother and her father's taciturn nature affect the now adult Gwen? What does she find missing in her life?
2. What is the state of Gwen and Peter's marriage? What is lacking in their relationship?
3. Talk about Gwen's decision to step in as Elliot's wife—does she have ulterior motives in accepting his proposal, or is she totally above board?
4. What about the weekend at the lake with Elliot's mother? Describe the characters Gwen meets there, starting, of course, with Vivian—how does she penetrate Gwen and Elliot's deception? What draws Gwen to Elliot's sister and her two children?
5. Ultimately, what does Gwen come to understand about love, family, and commitment? What do all characters learn? Are you satisfied with the way the book ends?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)
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