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A Meaning for Wife
Your wife is killed by a cashew (anaphylactic shock), but there isn't time to grieve because your toddler son is always at your heels—wanting to be fed, to be played with, or to sleep next to you all night long. A change of pace seems necessary, so you decide to visit your parents in order to attend your twenty-year high school reunion. What begins as a weekend getaway quickly becomes a theater for dealing with the past—a past that you will have to re-imagine in order to have any hope of a future for you and your son.
Told in second person, A Meaning for Wife is the story of a man trying to come to terms with the sudden death of his wife, the aging parents he has long avoided, and the tribulations of single parenthood.
Mark Yakich is the author of two poetry collections, Unrelated Individuals Forming A Group Waiting to Cross (Penguin Books, 2004) and The Importance of Peeling Potatoes in Ukraine (Penguin Books, 2008). He lives in New Orleans, Louisiana, where he teaches English at Loyola University.
Told in second person, A Meaning for Wife is the story of a man trying to come to terms with the sudden death of his wife, the aging parents he has long avoided, and the tribulations of single parenthood.
Mark Yakich is the author of two poetry collections, Unrelated Individuals Forming A Group Waiting to Cross (Penguin Books, 2004) and The Importance of Peeling Potatoes in Ukraine (Penguin Books, 2008). He lives in New Orleans, Louisiana, where he teaches English at Loyola University.
- GenresFiction
200 pages, Paperback
First published November 15, 2011
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22 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
August 14, 2020
“A Meaning for Wife” is a quirky, poignant read about a recent widower with a two-year-old son who visits his aging parents and attends his 20-year high-school reunion. It’s essentially about letting go - one of those books that is simultaneously sad and funny. I enjoyed it very much and I’m putting Mark’s other books on my read list.
July 1, 2012
I will start by saying that I read this book out of curiosity since the writer was my teacher and I'd read "Unrelated Individuals Forming a Group Waiting to Cross", which I loved, so I thought I'd also give a go to his prose. I do not regret it at all.
This book is about loss, about grieving and about how life in general evolves. It is very sad at times, very heartwarming and very funny and witty, which is an interesting combination. The author manages to put a number of feelings in the same page, completely opposite feelings and it never seems forced or mawkish. I also felt like you feel very involved in the character's journey through his loss and adaptation to being a single parent and losing his partner.
The whole book is narrated in the second-person, which is a different and interesting approach. I was a bit worried that I wouldn't like that but I found it funny and it kind of gave an intimate feel to the book, you feel like you're just watching the character's inner dialogue. The ending really makes you have a sense of closure for the character, which is great.
Would recommend to anyone with a sense of humour and a soft heart and, of course, those who experienced loss, because they will really feel connected to the character's journey.
This book is about loss, about grieving and about how life in general evolves. It is very sad at times, very heartwarming and very funny and witty, which is an interesting combination. The author manages to put a number of feelings in the same page, completely opposite feelings and it never seems forced or mawkish. I also felt like you feel very involved in the character's journey through his loss and adaptation to being a single parent and losing his partner.
The whole book is narrated in the second-person, which is a different and interesting approach. I was a bit worried that I wouldn't like that but I found it funny and it kind of gave an intimate feel to the book, you feel like you're just watching the character's inner dialogue. The ending really makes you have a sense of closure for the character, which is great.
Would recommend to anyone with a sense of humour and a soft heart and, of course, those who experienced loss, because they will really feel connected to the character's journey.
November 21, 2011
I've been a fan of IG Publishing for a while and decided to give Mark Yakich's new book a shot. I really loved this story. Terribly sad from the start, A Meaning For Wife tackles issues of coping with death and raising a child alone. Hardly an attempt is made to explain single parenthood. The issue at hand is raising a baby alone when your wife is dead, when she dies of anaphylactic shock of all things.
The book is written entirely in the second person. I was afraid this would come off a bit like shtick but in the end, the approach was well executed.
At times this book made me laugh my ass off, both as a parent and also as someone who has lost folks close to me. Keenly aware of what goes on in people's minds as we experience loss, Yakich has done us a great service. He treats death and loss with dignity, and manages to make it a compelling read as well.
The book is written entirely in the second person. I was afraid this would come off a bit like shtick but in the end, the approach was well executed.
At times this book made me laugh my ass off, both as a parent and also as someone who has lost folks close to me. Keenly aware of what goes on in people's minds as we experience loss, Yakich has done us a great service. He treats death and loss with dignity, and manages to make it a compelling read as well.
November 15, 2011
Read my review on New York Journal of Books: http://goo.gl/0NUAk
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January 30, 2012Please see my review on Fiction Writers Review. Review based on complimentary review copy.
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August 2, 2011from publisher
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews