Imagine if you decided to take an anonymous marriage survey. And not just any survey. One that asks you serious, personal things such as "Describe the moment when you knew your spouse was 'the one'" or "Give one reason why people should get divorced."
I was sent a book called Wife 22 by Melanie Gideon where the main character, Alice Buckle, decides to take such a survey.
ABOUT THE BOOK
For fans of Helen Fielding’s Bridget Jones’s Diary and Allison Pearson’s I Don’t Know How She Does It comes an irresistible novel of a woman losing herself . . . and finding herself again . . . in the middle of her life.
When Alice Buckle, who has been married to William for nearly twenty years, receives a survey in her e-mail from the Netherfield Center for the Study of Marital Happiness, she is in the doldrums. She loves her husband but they've grown distant, she is bored with her job, and her adolescent children need her less now. And she has reached the age at which her mother died. So as she idly begins answering the questions, she finds herself baring her soul in an anonymous survey she never even intended to respond to. As she struggles, she realizes it has been years since anyone asked deep, serious questions of her, and really listened to her answers. Soon her entire life as she knows it is called into question.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Melanie Gideon is the author of the memoir The Slippery Year: A Meditation on Happily Ever After, an NPR and San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of 2009, and a New York Times bestseller, as well as three young adult novels. Her novel, Wife 22 (to be published in 30 countries and translated into 26 languages and currently in development with Working Title Films) is forthcoming from Ballantine in May 2012. She has written for the New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, More, Shape, Marie Claire, the London Times, the Daily Mail and other publications. She was born and raised in Rhode Island and now lives in the Bay Area with her husband and son. Wife 22 is her first novel for adults.
Learn more about Melanie by checking out her website here.
Want more? Check out the trailer for the book:
MY REVIEW
I really enjoyed Wife22. It was written in a way that pulls the reader in. As Alice begins to take the survey she begins a bond with Researcher 101, who reads her responses. I was on the edge of my seat wondering if she was going to leave her marriage for this Researcher 101, who happens to be male. I won't give away the ending, but it's very satisfying. If Ms. Gideon wrote another book, I would check it out for sure.
READ AN EXCERPT
If you're curious about the book, go here to read an exerpt!
The book is in stores May 29th. HOWEVER, Random House has graciously offered to give a lucky reader a copy of the book.
(Don't want to wait to try and win? You can buy the book over at Amazon.com here.)
Giveaway Rules
--Must live in the US
Mandatory Entry: Answer the following question: would YOU ever do a personal marriage survey? (If you aren't married, just think about if you'd do one if you were.)
Extra Entries:
FOLLOW author Melanie Gideon on Twitter.
LIKE Melanie Gideon on Facebook
For each thing you do, please leave a separate comment. I will be running the contest until May 30th.
Good luck!!
I was not paid for this post. My opinions are my own. Random House supplied me with a copy of Wife22 and has offered a copy to the winner.
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