The Good Husband

by Gail Godwin

As a young woman, the brilliant and eternally curious Magda Danvers took the academic world by storm. Then, to everyone's surprise, she married Francis Lake, a mild, midwestern seminarian, who has devoted his life to taking care of his charismatic wife. Now, Magda's grave illness puts their marriage to its ultimate test.
Though facing her "Final Examination," Magda continues to arouse her visitors with compelling thoughts and questions. Into this provocative atmosphere comes Alice Henry, retreating from family tragedy and a crumbling marriage to novelist Hugo Henry. But is it the incandescence of Magda's ideas that draws Alice, or the secret of "the good marriage" that she is desperate to discover? For Alice, Hugo, Francis, and Magda will learn that the most ideal relationship--even a perfect marriage--doesn't come without a price....

Genres: Fiction, Marriage, Literary Fiction, Novels, Contemporary, Book Club, Love

468 pages, Paperback

First published August 9, 1994

About the author

Gail Kathleen Godwin is an American novelist and short story writer. She has published one non-fiction work, two collections of short stories, and eleven novels, three of which have been nominated for the National Book Award and five of which have made the New York Times Bestseller List.

Godwin's body of work has garnered many honors, including three National Book Award nominations, a Guggenheim Fellowship, National Endowment for the Arts grants for both fiction and libretto writing, and the Award in Literature from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. Five of her novels have been on the New York Times best seller list.
Godwin lives and writes in Woodstock, New York.

Reviews

[Lobstergirl · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was one of the books I came away with when I was at the library looking for ordinary novels. I wanted a bit of a rest from the classics, and from truly literary novels, which I think of as novels which are trying hard to use language well (sometimes succeeding, sometimes not). I wanted novels where plot and characters were strong, certainly not overwhelmed by language or literariness. The Good Husband was probably pretty close to precisely the kind of novel I was looking for, and it kind of sucked.

The plot concerns a fifty-something humanities professor named Magda who has just been given a terminal cancer diagnosis. Magda has chosen not to receive further treatment, but to convalesce and die at home under the care of her very, very caring house-husband Francis (he has spent their whole marriage caring for her, keeping house, cooking, etc.). Into their lives come Alice and Hugo Henry. Hugo is the writer-in-residence at the college where Magda teaches. Alice was his literary agent before Hugo proposed. Several months before the book opens, Alice and Hugo lost a baby boy during a home birth, and Alice has been hiding at home, not wanting to face the world. Befriending Magda and Francis and helping Francis care for Magda brings her out of isolation. Alice and Hugo's marriage had become increasingly rocky even before the loss of the baby, and as Magda gets ever closer to death, Alice feels herself drawn emotionally to Francis. Magda dies at about the novel's halfway point. There are several side plots: the homophobic Hugo finds out his adult son is gay and living with a lover, and happy and ambitious rather than the lazy layabout he thought him to be; Hugo meets a woman with lupus in his southern hometown who inspires his next novel; the college fundraisers organize an alumni cruise in Ireland on which the next stages of Francis's, Alice's, and Hugo's lives will be determined.

One of the things Godwin is doing is asking us to consider how the trajectories of lives are altered by the partners chosen. Did the caring house-husband Francis actually stifle Magda, by tending too closely to her needs? If Francis had had more of a life of his own, would Magda have published more books and been teaching at a more prestigious place than backwater Aurelia College? If Magda and Francis hadn't met, wouldn't Francis have continued on his path of becoming a priest? If Alice hadn't edited Hugo's novel, where would her life have gone?

The problem is that all of this is very boring. I actually found myself liking Alice, alone among the protagonists, but not caring about the plot whatsoever. Godwin's writing is very bland and pedestrian. (Why was this a New York Times Notable Book? Because NYT readers like reading about academics?)

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book, mostly because it digs deeply into the relationships and motivations of two married couples. The main characters are very distinct. In the first half of the book Magda, a highly regarded and rather eccentric academician, is in the process of dying, which draws her husband and the other couple into a closer relationship. Each has dealt with tragedy or loss in the past. The ways in which they can and sometimes can't support each other are very familiar in real life. Another of the main characters is a novelist, who is struggling to produce and live up to his reputation. When I finished the book I was so glad that my edition included a conversation with the author, Gail Godwin, at the end, since I am not aware of any friends who had read the book, and it was the next best thing to talking with someone about it.

[Melanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's been a long time since I read a Gail Godwin novel. I'd forgotten how gifted she is.

[Jeannette Barnes · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was epiphany for me. I have admired, enjoyed, and followed the writing career of Gail Godwin now for, oh, roughly forty years. The style of this, the clarity, the wallop this prose packs is not the only reason why I love this novel. Nope. It's the people in this book, so real, so true to themselves and to life, who struggle so, especially with their own beloveds' deaths. And the central character whose slow dying precipitates all these marvelous designs is hooting, howlingly, excruciatingly funny, for a wonder, too.

One for the ages, y'all. Highly recommend.

Jeannette, who never praises lightly, from this other LA

[Patricia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gale Godwin writes on a more spiritual level than most authors. Her book Father Melancholy's Daughter was one I will not forget. The Good Husband deals with spirituality, symbolism, and self-sacrifice without ever becoming saccharine or morbid. Excellent book.

[Mark McKenna · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is said there are only seven great themes; I can only think of two: birth and death, love and loss. In "The Good Husband" these themes become Gail Godwin's canvas.

Magda Danvers is dying of cancer. Magda is a writer, a brilliant academician (think: Joseph Campbell) a great acerbic wit, and the author of a perennially re-printed work on the transcendent in literature.

Hugo Henry is a complicated, fifty-ish novelist, married to the lovely Alice; the couple have just lost their first child in a home birth.

As Magda dies and Alice and Hugo grow further apart, Alice begins an inner, one-sided love affair with Francis, Magda's loving and subordinate husband.

Both relationships are fully recounted and explored. Since Godwin has made Hugo Henry a successful (if insecure) novelist, we also get a behind-the-scenes look at the creative process -- both flowing and stalled -- as well.

All of these plots and sub-plots are played out against the ivory tower of Aurelia College: chairs are endowed, literary cruises created (to induce a large endowment); references to Donne, Blake, Dante and collegial infighting are sprinkled throughout.

"The Good Husband" offers wonderfully real people and situations. Magda's long death from cancer is written by an author who seems to have had direct experience with this form of death. The full palette of color is used and all figures faithfully drawn. There are no false lines in this book.

[Debby · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall, I guess I liked this book. That said, it was WAY too long. The writing just dragged in the last half to third of the book, but I was determined to finish it. The characters and story are interesting to a point, but after about 300 pages or so, it just got on my nerves. Like cut to the chase and wrap this thing up already!! It's better than a 2 star rating, but not by a lot!

I've heard good things about Godwin's writing, but The Goood Husband didn't prove that to me! I'll be looking into her next book, Evensong, at some point in the future. I'm hoping for better things from Evensong.

[Maryjoamani · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, coming out of a long hiatus from reading novels. It's an old-fashioned kind of book, with writers and university college professors as main characters, and lots of literary references. An opening quote hints at the main theme--"Mates are not always matches, and matches are not always mates"--but I was struck more, by its call for us to be open to unplanned-for connections and consequences in life of even the simplest choices, to live fully and exuberantly doing what you are called to do, to find meaning in our actions, and to be true to our own stories. As Hugo Henry, an author in the novel, writes to a friend: "My novel is about what happens when one person, one single solitary person, learns to read and write--that's the bare bones of this tale. A young Southern gentleman takes his slave off to college to housekeep for him, and the slave secretly learns to read and write, and because of this everything is changed for everybody involved in the story. Literacy literally becomes destiny....We can't be free until we can our story, and only by telling it convincingly can we each do our bit to help the world grow up." I like this idea, that our own growth adds to the world growing up...

[La · Rating 1 out of 5]

There are few books that I can not finish and this was one of them. After plodding through the first 150 pages I forced my self to go another 100 pages before I put it down last night and decided to leave it on the nightstand for good. There was not one character that was likeable or even remotely personable. I just got bored with the never ending complaining, harping and whining. Guess you can tell that I would not recommend this book

[Lori · Rating 1 out of 5]

It is taking me a while to get going with this book. I hope something grabs me soon, or I'll be tempted to put it down. 3 weeks later I finally finished it. I don't think I am part of the intelligencia that would love this book. Too long and too boring and nothing resolved itself. A book about absolutely nothing.

[Marlena · Rating 1 out of 5]

I wanted to like this and kept hoping it would redeem itself, but watching someone's marriage decline for a whole book and then not having any redemption or resolution other than a couple pages of the separated spouses writing each other nice supportive letters at the end was frustrating.

[judy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Her writing makes me draw in my breath over and over again. It's simply stunning. I loved this book for many reasons not the least of which is that the central character is who I'd like to be.

[Roxanne · Rating 1 out of 5]

Tedious and pretentious.

[Lesley · Rating 5 out of 5]

A re-read: I suddenly needed a break from the series mysteries I've been catching up with. So very good.

[Carol · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. It may be one of my all time favorites.

[Lora Shouse · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is another chronicle of a woman’s dying days, similar in some ways to Susan Minot’s Evening. But in this case, there are more layers to the story and several other people involved, so the story is much more complicated.

Magda Danvers is a professor of English Literature at a small college. She is also the author of a rather infamous book analyzing the sources of spiritual creativity. Suddenly, after about ten years at Aurelia College and almost twenty-five years of marriage to Francis Lake, Magda discovers that she has cancer. She refuses all the possible extreme interventions that might be medically possible and begins to prepare for what she terms her “Final Examination.”

At about the same time, Alice and Hugo Henry have a baby who is born dead. Their marriage appeared to be okay before, but after the death of the baby, Alice’s body decides it can no longer stand to be touched by Hugo. Even after she has begun to recover from her grief over the baby a little, and even after she has partially reconciled herself to living with him.

Hugo is a writer-in-residence at the same college where Magda taught, so they are acquainted with Magda and Francis. One day Alice runs into Francis at the grocery store, and he invites her over to visit Magda, who by now is bed-ridden. Alice accepts the invitation and begins to find some sort of healing and comfort in talking to Magda and Francis.

We discover the past history of Magda and Francis’ great love, and also the history of Hugo and Alice, including what went on before they met each other.

An interesting thing about the book is that, since both Magda and Hugo are authors, many of the points are made in relation to writing and problems with writing. Magda had the one successful book, which was also her doctoral thesis (this has its own story). She has always planned to write a follow-up book and has been working on it for all of the intervening years, but it remains only half-finished. Hugo, on the other hand, is a moderately successful novelist with several books to his credit. But for the previous two years, he has been something of a slump and has been grouchy because he is looking for his next story. Interestingly, as he moves further and further from Alice, it is finding a new story to tell that gets him back on track. Although he and Alice don’t really reconcile, Hugo finds resolutions to some of his other relationships that allow him to go on with his life successfully.

Alice develops feelings for Francis, but an immediate happily-ever-after for them doesn’t appear to be in the cards. So it is interesting how they manage to arrange their lives so they too can go on after Magda’s death.

[Chana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not sugar coating cancer or marriage. Cancer is horrible, marriage is difficult. Some cancers are incurable and take effect quite quickly, some marriages are mysterious while being beautiful nonetheless. Love is a crazy force, much talked about and little understood. We think we can control our feelings but we can't, we can only, hopefully, control our actions. We think if we do all the right things; eating correctly, exercising, get regular checkups, that we can control our health. We can't, we maybe can assist the body in remaining healthy but outcomes vary.
This book is quiet, almost boring, but it leaves lasting pictures in the mind. A young man mopping the kitchen floor in the apartment of a woman he barely knows. A middle-aged, sharp tongued, bad-breathed woman pretending to be asleep with slitted eyes of sharp perception and keen mind watching and understanding. A youngish married woman sitting on a bus next to the man she is in in love with, touching hands and experiencing such heartbreak that the reader experiences it too.
There are so many scenes stored in my mind from this book. It is worth reading.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good, but not as good as A Mother and Two Daughters, this one seemed a little tired, although I enjoyed the minor characters - more so than the main ones.
I like the idea of the final pair having to go through hoops before they can actually be together, like they had to work towards each other.
I suppose Godwin is dealing with more mature themes, Magda dying and bitter because she's not appreciated her husband as perhaps she could have; her eagerness to set him up with the right future partner, and finally the difficulty for the Good Husband to let go; his return to the loose ends of his previous life. It's all very interesting, but a little sad, as if people always learn too late.

[Marilyn A. · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book. It started out so good. I was thinking that Magda would have words of wisdom on her death bed for her young friend Alice who was struggling in her marriage. But the descriptions of Magda’s last days made me wince as she repeatedly berated her husband and talked vulgarly to all who came to visit. The characters were not likable to me– not even the long-suffering Francis who I found to be unbelievably passive. The only thing that I can see that had value in the novel was the depiction of the politics of a small college which was described with tongue in cheek humor. In addition, Ms. Godwin’s writing style is excellent

[Jamie Smet · Rating 3 out of 5]

Godwin is the author of one of my favorite novels, Evensong.

This novel centers around 2 married couples in a small college town. One of the wives is dying from cancer as her devoted younger husband cares for her. The other wife, recovering emotionally from the loss of a baby, befriends the couple as a way to escape from her own loss and crumbling marriage.

I didn't fall in love with this book the way I did with Evensong, but it was an engaging read.

[Emma · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was expecting more from this book. The characters were one-dimensional and boring. After reading about a third of the book I was so bored that I started skimming big chunks of it and when I got to the (predictable) end I didn't feel like my skimming made me miss out on anything.

[Elizabeth · Rating 1 out of 5]

I got the book for my mother (in large print!) but read it myself. A college professor is dying of cancer and has a (duh) good husband. Lots of academic talk and references which I enjoyed == an easy read, but not a very gripping story. A pretty good main character though.

[Marvin · Rating 3 out of 5]

The characters are, as always in Godwin's books, wonderfully drawn in all their complexities, and the theme of how we die is a good one, but the relationships don't work as well for me in this one as in Godwin's other books.

[Marne Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the 5th novel of Godwin's I've read, and definitely the most puzzling to review. I'm really familiar with her distinctive voice by now, and I've read books published both before and after this one, so I think I'm qualified to say that it just didn't sound like her. In fact, while I was reading, I'd periodically think, "I wonder who wrote this novel and what else she's written," and then I'd remind myself that it was Gail Godwin, only to have the same thought again two hours later.

The book also presents an unusual number of problems to the reader. On an editorial level, it's full of typos, misprints, and sentences that go nowhere, something I've never encountered in any other Godwin novel. There are also problematic situations of the kind that Godwin usually avoids. For instance, much is made of the fact that a minor character is gay, and we don't really learn anything else about him as a person. You could say this is an artifact of the era when the book was written, but beyond that, it's sloppy writing. Even minor characters in Godwin novels are supposed to have distinct personalities and real motivations!

So it is that I spent a lot of the time reading this book wondering what was going on in the life of the author while she was writing it. Was there a change in her editorial team? Was she having personal problems of some kind? I haven't been able to find the answer to these questions, although I'll probably keep looking.

If you're willing to look past all the problems, there are some very nice touches here. There are four main characters, who start out the book as two married couples. Each couple has a dominant spouse who teaches at the university and a passive spouse who takes care of them. What makes it interesting is that these couples are gender-flipped mirror-images of each other. No one is at all surprised or concerned that Alice, once a prominent editor for a New York publishing house, has left her job to support her new husband, a novelist and creative writing professor. But everyone constantly questions the fact that Francis Lake has devoted his life to caring for his wife, celebrity professor Magda Danvers, despite the fact that they've had a very stable and devoted marriage of over twenty years. When she gets cancer (not really a spoiler because it's revealed on the very first page), Francis doubles down on his efforts to make her life perfectly comfortable, and many characters express shock and confusion that a man would debase himself by taking care of a dying woman's bodily needs. (As someone who has lost both parents to cancer, let me say that Godwin gets all these uncomfortable physical details exactly right. This could only have come from lived experience, although I haven't been able to find anything about that, either.)

This is one of my most rambling reviews, but I think that's only fitting, since this is one of Godwin's most rambling novels. I definitely wouldn't start here, but if you've read several of her other books and are looking for a challenge, you will probably find this one worth the effort. (If you are looking to start with Godwin, might I suggest Father Melancholy's Daughter if you want to get lost in something long or Flora if you want something shorter.)

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an extraordinary, if rather melancholy novel, interjected with flashes of grim humour. Recommended to me, this is the first I have read by Gail Godwin. Intelligent and well researched, she weaves a tale of two marriages blighted by death and grief. Madga Danvers, a real force of nature, dominates throughout. She continues to enthrall from her deathbed as she gradually succumbs to 'the gargoyle'. I found this aspect of the novel a hard read as my mother died from Ovarian character. Charismatic, manipulative and zealous in her pursuit of knowledge even as she approaches her 'Final Examination'. The writings of William Blake loom large throughout. Family, friends and colleagues gather at Magda's bedside to observe her demise, some with ulterior motives, others reluctant to let go. Madga's husband Francis, younger by over a decade, devotes himself to satisfying his wife's dying wishes. Alice, finds an unexpected solace in her visits to the couples home as she grieves for her stillborn son. Hugo, her husband, senses the growing distance in their relationship which adds to his personal sense of failure. A successful novelist, Hugo is struggling to find inspiration for his next book. Themes of religion, academia and personal fulfillment run through the thread of this novel. At it's core, it's an examination of human relationships. The denouement, although in retrospect inevitable (a nod to Hugo's well received lecture onboard the Galatea 'Beginnings, Middles and Ends'), is deeply poignant. Not an easy read, but well worth the effort.

[P · Rating 2 out of 5]

Let me start off by saying that literary fiction is my least favourite genre. So, I'm not sure why I bought this book. I vaguely recall being impressed with Godwin's other book, A Mother And Two Daughters, which probably led me to buy this book. It is entirely possible that I did not read the blurb before adding it to my cart. According to the blurb, it is "a sophisticated tale of love and marriage". Unsurprisingly, this book lay on my shelves for years gathering dust. I picked it up last week because I wanted to try reading something new. I surprised myself by finishing this book, though there were times when I felt a strong urge to set this book aside and pick up a Blandings book instead. It dragged on and on toward the end of Part II, so I skipped several pages.
Gail Godwin writes beautifully. The characters felt real to me, though I didn't like any of them. It was the stark contrast that made all the difference, I think. Magda was as self-absorbed as Francis was self-effacing. Alice was as detached and aloof as Leora was meddling. Hugo was a prime example of a man-child and I did not care much for his POV. The rotting away of the human body is described in grisly detail. But what did Francis mean at the end? Does he and Alice really get together? Books such as these do not have a plot. They are more about people and their innermost thoughts and their distorted view of the world. It can get a bit tedious at times.

[Tobeylynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

A masterful depiction of relationships, particularly spousal, and our ability/inability to meet each other's needs. What brings two people together and what holds them together or drives them apart? Who is the good husband – or more precisely the good husband for whom?

I feel I need to read "The Good Soldier" by Ford Maddox Ford, because there was a reference to it in the novel and the similarity of the two titles indicates there must be a connection. This highly literate novel made me aware of my inadequate knowledge of classic British literature.

I was saddened by the breakup of Hugo and Alice's marriage, but recognized that the fit was wrong (despite the fact that I personally found Hugo the more interesting - although difficult - individual; Francis seemed much too servile and without a real core).

I was fascinated by Godwin's description of the four characters as "stimulating but often puzzling parts" of her own character. I could also find myself identifying with each of them at different times.

[Diane · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really liked the first part of the novel, with its focus on the six months of Magda’s dying, but with Magda’s death the novel lost its vitality. Her husband, Francis, was a saint, and, as such, exasperating and, eventually, boring. Alice’s marriage to Hugo seemed dead on arrival, and although I felt that the reader was meant to sympathize with Alice, I couldn’t warm up to her. Some of the minor characters were almost caricatures: the college president and his wife, the rich donor to the college, the screwed up daughter of a famous scholar.

[Oksana Kanevski · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is a wonderful, wonderful book, full of real life and poetry, of kindness and charity towards everyone in the story and us, readers. I read first time The Goid Husband few years ago on a loan from the Public Library, and during lockdown of Spring 2020 bought it and read again, slowly, being older and understanding more now ...... Its a slow read, stopping and looking at the window and thinking, opening book of poetry for reference read - full of joy and heartache book - highly recommended .......

[Lynn · Rating 1 out of 5]

My 92-year-old mom liked this book so much that she bought me a copy. As much as we see eye-to-eye on many books, I found this one unbearable. This is why I love Goodreads, though. I read through the reviews both glowing and abysmal, and I found my peeps in the lowest of ratings.

Yes, the author can write but when I found myself skipping through chunks of writing because I found the characters' blowhardy erudite ramblings insufferable, I knew that 275 pages was more than enough grace.