His Wife and Daughters

by Kim Arbor, Wendy Tokunaga

HIS WIFE AND DAUGHTERS by Wendy Nelson Tokunaga It’s 1988 and Trina Brath and her teenage daughters, Jill and Phoebe, lead happy and privileged lives as the wife and daughters of successful California Congressman Dan Brath. But that all changes when Dan, 52, is suspected of having an affair with Lesley Chisholm, a 19-year-old Washington DC intern who has gone missing. Soon Dan Brath is being accused in the harsh media spotlight of not only sleeping with Lesley Chisholm, but responsible for her disappearance. Despite Trina’s standing by her husband—yet keeping the secret that he has cheated on her many times before—the incessant media scrutiny puts a strain on the family, and their lives to go into a tailspin. Eight months later, when Lesley mysteriously returns home safe and sound, Dan Brath’s career is over, and his family is in tatters. Fast forward to today and the scandal that rocked the Brath family continues to take its toll. Jill has food issues and can’t trust men, Phoebe leads a self-destructive life and Trina continues to blame Lesley Chisholm for everything. And now Lesley is breaking her silence with a tell-all memoir, which is sure to make Dan Brath’s wife and daughters relive the trauma all over again. Will Jill, Trina and Phoebe be able to cope, heal their wounds and move on with their lives? Told from the viewpoints of the three women, His Wife and Daughters is a moving story of how one family attempts to survive the ultimate betrayal.“A refreshing narrative with a strong sense of political scandal with an interesting twist that hits the mark.” —Kirkus ReviewsAbout the Nelson Tokunaga is the author of the novels, "Midori by Moonlight" and "Love in Translation" (both published by St. Martin's Press), and the original e-book novels, "Falling Uphill" and "His Wife and Daughters." She's also the author of the original nonfiction e-book, "Marriage in Foreign Wife, Japanese Husband." Her short story "Love Right on the Yesterday" appears in the anthology "Tomo," published by Stone Bridge Press and her essay "Burning Up" is included in "Madonna and Women Writers on the Queen of Pop."Wendy holds an MFA in Creative Writing from University of San Francisco and teaches for Stanford University's Online Writer's Studio. She also does private manuscript consulting for novels and memoirs. When she's not busy writing, Wendy loves to sing jazz and Japanese karaoke with her Osaka-born surfer-dude husband accompanying her on keyboards. Follow her on Twitter at @Wendy_Tokunaga and visit her website www.WendyTokunaga.com

Genres: Chick Lit, Fiction, Drama

275 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 19, 2011

About the author

Kim Arbor is the pseudonym of a New York published author. She’s a San Francisco writer with an MFA and a serious addiction to gummy bears. When she’s not busy writing you’ll find her haunting the coffee houses of North Beach, exploring the city’s stairway streets and chasing cable cars that climb halfway to the stars.

Reviews

[Maria (a) · Rating 2 out of 5]

There's this prevalent idea in our society that if a husband cheats, it's somehow the woman's fault. The man's actions are usually excused, but the woman is evil, a whore, worthless. That's the idea His Wife and Daughters is based on, and it almost made me toss this book when I realized that. As Trina talks about how her husband kept cheating on her, she says:

I could understand. In his line of work when a man is as handsome and charismatic as Dan, there are too many temptations - and too many evil, seductive women.

For Trina, Dan is never at fault. He's just a victim here. It's the women who bear all her anger:

I despised my husband's philandering and wished to the heavens that it had never happened in the first place, that his weakness had been just about anything else - gambling or alcohol or drugs. But life brings trials, tribulations and challenges, and in every marriage a woman has her cross to bear.

But I always felt justified in my anger toward the other woman. Why couldn't she find her own man? Why take someone who already belonged to somebody else? It made no sense to me.

I kept reading for two reasons: 1) I wanted to know what had happened with Lesley (the book is filled with so much hatred towards this poor woman, as if she alone was responsible for the affair, as if Dan had no say in it all, never mind that he was not only 33 year older than her, but also in a power position since she was just an intern, that I desperately wanted to know her story), and 2) I really, really hoped that the book would showcase how wrong this idea is.

The book tells the story of a family - the titular wife and daughters - as they navigate the world after the patriarch, congressman Dan Brath, has an affair with a nineteen-year old girl who ends up missing. It is very much an "us vs. them" story, or even a "me against the world", as Trina, Jill and Phoebe try to find their own happiness. Every single woman that appears in the book that's not one of those three is judged endlessly - not just Lesley, but even side characters that only appear once are described negatively. Men can, by definition, not be trusted. Literally. At one point Jill says:

I found it easier and less stressful to be alone. All men were cheaters in some way or form, when you got down to it, weren't they? It didn't seem worth the aggravation.

It was easiest to connect to Phoebe, the youngest daughter, since she at least seems to be aware of how messed up the whole situation has made her. I appreciated her honesty with herself, the way she struggled to always land on her two feet. Jill, however, seems to think everything she does and feels is completely justified and normal; even though she blows up every relation she has by intense paranoia that her partner is cheating based on the most flimsy of proofs. Her hypocritical thinking that she's so much better than other people even when she does the exact same things as them grated on my nerves as well. (The fact that she thinks she's above modern technology and social media didn't help, but that's simply a pet peeve of mine.)

While it makes sense that these girls (13 and 16 when the affair happened) were influenced by what happened, the book doesn't seem to care about growth at all. Any progress that happens, happens off the page. At one point Jill, in a conversation with this guy she likes, states "I was out of my mind. I have my own issues. But I'm working on them. It's getting better." I'd say good for you, but there is literally no evidence of her working on anything on the page. It's too bad, too, because that could have been an interesting story.

The writing was filled with descriptions that I personally found superfluous, but I'm certain some people will love the book for it. If you enjoy reading about San Francisco, this is the book for you, because it will not let you forget which city it is set in (at certain points my eyes simply glazed over from all the geographical names: "I picked up my pace and continued on Battery over to Vallejo Street, then Green, until I reached Levi Plaza Park where workers picnicked on benches surrounding a waterfall, the Transamerica Pyramid, towering in the distance, like a giant Lego toy"). Other elaborate descriptions include a summary of a movie she just saw, a play-by-play of a restaurant dinner and a real estate description of a house.

As for the genre: every time I saw the awful cover, especially in combination with the title, I was convinced this'd be porn. Seriously, that's some weird design. To be clear: it's not. And though the book sets itself up to be a mystery around Lesley, with her story being revealed in the tiniest of steps, there are no twists and turns; this is a chick-lit (not a judgement call, simply the genre it fits in), not a mystery, and every step of the story is telegraphed. Amazon classifies this as political fiction (which it's really not; Dan Brath might have been a congressman, but his political life doesn't really matter beyond the fame it gave him), and "Family Life", which does fit.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have to admit I've always been fascinated by political sex scandals, from Gary Hart when I was a teenager up to the latest with Anthony Weiner. So I was excited to read Kim Arbor's novel, His Wife and Daughters. But this book is so much more than a scandal, and has caused me to look at the real scandals in a more human light, not as a CNN circus sideshow.

His Wife and Daughters is a forgiving story of the two daughters of California Congressman Dan Brath and his wife, Trina. Jill, the older daughter, is a divorced realtor. Although the story is ultimately very sad, I found myself laughing out loud when Jill thinks her ex-husband is about to ask her back or when she spills coffee all over herself in a public spectacle at a cafe. She's so human and sympathetic. And her younger sister, Phoebe, is portrayed as a lost soul who feels betrayed by her parents and her sister after her father's sex scandal goes viral when Phoebe is at the tender age of 13. Trina Brath deals with her husband's infidelities in a few ways--some helpful, some not--and shows how a woman in her situation can still lead a dignified life, even if it takes years to get there.

I love the San Francisco setting, especially Potrero Hill, which was the closest nice neighborhood to where I lived for a couple years in the 90s. But I had no idea about San Francisco's stairway streets. I'm definitely going to check those out on my next visit. One could even do a walking tour of many of the places in this book--and see a side of San Francisco off the tourist path.

If I could change one thing about this book, I'd add a disclaimer at the beginning warning readers not to start this book on an empty stomach. The food descriptions are just too delicious to read when you're hungry!

[Guilie · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author does an excellent job in two difficult areas: a narrative from the points of view of three characters--and she captures the distinct voices of each flawlessly, they all come across as perfectly believable and human--and sustaining the tension of the opening question until, literally, the very last page. HIS WIFE AND DAUGHTERS is a tale of betrayal and forgiveness, of a family's disintegration, of the scars children bear for the sins of the parents. Why just three stars? It is perhaps the flip side of a three-POV narrative, but I found the internal conflicts a bit left behind. They could have been deepened, explored further, brought more to the forefront. Still, it is perhaps not the author's style to do so, and the narrative doesn't suffer from it. Linked to this is the use of distancing language that created a gap between myself as a reader and the characters' conflicts. This might be personal preference and not necessarily a flaw of the writing itself, though. All in all, a very enjoyable read. Great sense of setting, good pacing, high drama.

[Fran Hutton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another summer freebie read, somewhat less light, but following a theme from the previous book...a man who done his women wrong. This time instead of three wives it was one wife and two daughters, as well as the young other woman involved. This story, however, was not the story of the scandal, but if the aftermath of the lives of those involved years later. I liked how the mother in the story got on with her life...sort of a now it's my turn, this is who I really am, story. The book was written from multiple points of view which was interesting, but disjointed at times. I did not feel there was proper balance among the different POVs. However, I really liked how the author did not use the sensational scandal as the basis for the plot, but rather the decade plus aftermath of public betrayal, lies and upheaval. We can read about those kinds of scandals in the media on an annual basis, but what we don't get is what agony is suffered by the innocent parties who were blindsided by the events.

[Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

His Wife And Daughters is a very timely story about our choices and how they follow us, not to mention those close to us, into the future. This is an edgy well written novel with characters I enjoyed getting to know. Jill is so real I feel like I know her. I strongly suggest this book. It is a riveting read.

[Elaine · Rating 3 out of 5]

"His Wife and Daughters" tells of the repercussions of one man's infidelities -- those (repercussions) upon his life and family -- not just in the present but in the later years. It's about the choices we make based upon the lives we've lived and the situations we've been through. It's about pain and forgiveness.

[April · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a fast read, not entirely what I expected; which is a good thing. I will probably re-read this some day and do a little research about some of the places mentioned. Maybe add some stops to my vacation bucket list!