What do you think?
Rate this book
The Obedient Wife
When Carla Verdi finds herself abandoned by her husband, she begins to explore the world outside of her family
229 pages, Hardcover
First published September 1, 1985
16 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
Read
December 30, 2024The stereotypes are Italian-Catholic this time, rather than Irish. Most of the men are still awful. The ending is miserable. I'm still impressed with the details in the style, but I can't say I like where she seems to be going. The first collection of short stories that I read seems to me to be brilliant. The two novels, read subsequently, equally well-written, but depressingly ultra-conservative, in each case consigning the female protagonist to a condition that is formally approved by world morality but which in each case seems a reduction to misery for that woman.
March 15, 2026
In no hurry to announce itself or its intentions, in a way common to many on the edgier, more ponderous side of the decades-old mimetic mainstream. Instead, we meet our sun, and, in due course, the planets revolving therearound. And it’s from this cast that the psycho-emotional terrain is trod, and it’s this which is actually the meaning of the thing; our enjoyment thus depends on how much we wanted to take that walk.
Otherwise, the novel shares more than a few things in common with Carolyn See’s GOLDEN DAYS, despite See’s belated speculations and O’Faolain’s naturalist fidelities, in that we have two examples of that otherwise overplayed dictum: “and Los Angeles plays itself.” The California of these first-term Reagan years is dissolute, dangerous, and verging on disaster (apocalyptic in the former, and natural in the latter [with the mudslides, et. al]), and either infecting or reflecting the values of the otherwise solid, middle-class occupants (as in the Verdi’s momentary interest in aiding and abetting the plans of a friend to sustain his manipulative relationship with an underage girl).
Either way, the stink and suspicion of the time and place seeps through the pages in O’Faolain’s work. A sign in the local market warns women of the rapist on the loose, freighting all Carla’s interactions with menace and uncertainty. The ultimate intention of the larger nefarity is, however, to simply underscore the personal catastrophes of the major players, which explains why the thing starts, around 150 pages in, to few very claustrophobic.
… A strong final 15 pages partially arrests that free fall, at least.
Otherwise, the novel shares more than a few things in common with Carolyn See’s GOLDEN DAYS, despite See’s belated speculations and O’Faolain’s naturalist fidelities, in that we have two examples of that otherwise overplayed dictum: “and Los Angeles plays itself.” The California of these first-term Reagan years is dissolute, dangerous, and verging on disaster (apocalyptic in the former, and natural in the latter [with the mudslides, et. al]), and either infecting or reflecting the values of the otherwise solid, middle-class occupants (as in the Verdi’s momentary interest in aiding and abetting the plans of a friend to sustain his manipulative relationship with an underage girl).
Either way, the stink and suspicion of the time and place seeps through the pages in O’Faolain’s work. A sign in the local market warns women of the rapist on the loose, freighting all Carla’s interactions with menace and uncertainty. The ultimate intention of the larger nefarity is, however, to simply underscore the personal catastrophes of the major players, which explains why the thing starts, around 150 pages in, to few very claustrophobic.
… A strong final 15 pages partially arrests that free fall, at least.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews