Q&A with Lori Lansens discussion

So, I'm dying to know...in your mind did Gooch come back? Why did you end it the way you did? Thanks.

Loved loved loved The Girls--one of my all-tiime favorite books!

I second this question, as much as I loved the process of Mary moving on without anything as much as a word about him, I do wonder what happened!

Well, now you HAVE to write another story about Mary, Lori!!

Yes! I want another book about Mary!
I don't care that Gooch came back or not. Obviously she was better off without him!

I'm so glad that someone started this discussion - I was thrilled that the book ended the way it did, though, as it was all about Mary and her self-discovery. IIt would have been too pat and perhaps predictable to have Gooch come back.

That being said, there is a part of me that would like to think that he did come back. The way that you wrote his character, it made sense that he needed the time to think about his own life, and the decisions that he'd made. But nowhere along the journey or in all the scenes where Mary thought about her husband. and remembered certain scenes in their past, did I ever doubt Gooch's love for her.

Lori, I think that you're going to receive a lot of requests for a sequel to this book, including one from me. It's not so much that I need to see Mary and Gooch reunite, but I would like to know what happened to Gooch and have him see the transformed Mary. I believe that the two would have much to say to one another and achieve, if not reunion, closure. Please think about it.

I love this discussion! Theirs was/is a complicated marriage. Is there any other kind? Even as their creator I admit that there are things I don't always know or understand about my characters. I do know, and agree with so many of you, that their love for each other was genuine. And never for an instant did I believe that Gooch left Mary because of her weight. Rather I think that Mary left Mary because of her weight in that she'd stopped living and was merely existing, like the way she describes her mother as, "a life but not alive." And I know for a fact that Gooch accepted Mary as a woman of size and was sexually attracted to her up until the time she rejected him for the last time. Mary's spirit shrunk as her body grew and that's why Gooch left. Her unhappiness and lack of interest in life must have been soul destroying for him too. I've had many readers write to my website to confess their connection to Mary - not necessarily because they weight 300 pounds but because some behavior that they know they have to take responsibility for has changed them into people they don't want to be. I've been in that place myself - weight works as a metaphor for me.
I felt when I began writing the story that the book would end when Mary understood the word 'enough.' Enough is a wonderful word - except when people are shouting it at you! It's clear at the end of the book that Mary has turned the corner and will start down a new path. It did not occur to me that readers would want to see Gooch return but of course I understand it now. Gooch is ultimately a sympathetic character and even if you believe that Mary is better off without him, I completely see why a reader might want to know what became of the character and the marriage. You have all begun a raging debate with me and my writer self about the subject of my next book:)

Lori, I would certainly be curious to read a story that takes Gooch's point of view. We could see him with that winning ticket and follow his progress, which would be so different but such a compliment to Mary's story. I don't know if it would include a reunion after the timeline of The Wife's Tale or not, but it would be so interesting to find out!

That question reminds me of the British author Jane Gardam's two novels, "Old Filth", published in 2006 and her follow-up novel, "The Man is the Wooden Hat", published in 2009. Both beautifully written, they are the story of a marriage, told from both sides. "Old Filth", ("FILTH" stands for "Failed in London, Try Hong Kong") is the story of Sir Edward Feathers, a noted Hong Kong jurist in the latter half of the 20th century. He was born in the British East Indies to Raj parents, but was sent back to England to be raised in a series of public schools after his mother died and his father descended into alcoholism. He became a barrister in London and then went to Hong Kong because the opportunities for advancement after WW2 were better in British-run Hong Kong. (Hence, the nickname). He married a fellow Raj-orphan, Elizabeth, and they made a life together both in Hong Kong and then in rural England following Edward's retirement from the bench.

Both books are the study of their marriage. Although "Filth" was published first, "Wooden Hat" is neither a prequel nor a sequel. Both are wonderful reads on their own, but when read together, they form a marvelous picture of a marriage. Both books are published in trade paper.

Christine, I think many people would be curious to have The Husband's Tale told and I know what you mean about a reunion. And Phoebes - the Gardam novels sound wonderful and such is also the case with Marilynne Robinson's brilliant Gilead and Home which are companion pieces but also stand alone. Oddly, I think of my 3 novels as companion pieces.