Spidercup

by marion-halligan

Does a wife exist only when her husband is contemplating her?....A wife is called into being only by a husband: therefore does she cease to exist when he stops observing her, stops regarding her?

Elinor leaves her husband suddenly and goes to France, to the village of Severac-le-Chateau. There she ponders the lives of other women. In the seventeenth century a wife is murdered for faithlessness: in the early twentieth century a woman embroiders sheets for a trousseau never needed; in the 1980's a successful pediatrician may or may not know what her husband is up to.

Elinor's process of transformation - from a wife to a self - is written with subtlety and humour. The journey she undertakes is more than a journey of the flesh.

Cover illustration; List Herriman
Cover design, Ellie Kinigopoulos

Genres: Fiction, Australia

153 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1990

Reviews

[Tricia · Rating 2 out of 5]

A woman leaves her husband when she finds out he has been having an affair. She goes to France to find herself.

I thought this was ok.

[Dalice · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book inspired my first trip to France. The descriptions of Severac Le Chateau and the surrounding region opened up a world to me that I felt I needed to explore. The break up of a relationship, the forging of new ones, the ties between friends and lovers - an honest tale.

[Velvetink]

bargain = 1 of 29 books for $5.