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The Good Wife
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Synopsis
The Good Wife by Elizabeth Buchan
From the author of the bestselling phenomenon Revenge of the Middle-Aged Woman comes a compulsive novel about the fascinating tangle of marriage. Fanny Savage was once dutiful, clever, vulnerable and dreamy. Now married to Will, a successful politician with big ambitions, her life is a whirlwind of public engagements and loyalty to the party, a position that requires her to look good and remain silent. But she's no fool. She's well aware that the world outside her home is one that seethes with despair and danger, division and lack of faith, and how fragile happiness can be. She wonders if she's been happy coping with the transition from eager bride to politician's wife? Has she been the Good Wife? Does being good mean being truthful?
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Reviews
The author of the bestselling The Revenge of the Middle-Aged Woman offers readers another sensitive study of marriage. Writing very firmly from the woman's point of view, she has nevertheless created a cast of believable characters, both male and female. By making her central character's husband an MP Elizabeth Buchan sets her story in the political arena. Without naming any one party she gives a convincing picture of the stresses and excitement of a life filled with divisions, red boxes and meetings with dignitaries from all over Europe but she is even more convincing in her portrait of the other side of political life, the bread and butter area of constituency work. This is where her heroine, Fanny Savage, must frequently deputise for her husband, demonstrating complete loyalty to him, to his constituents and to the government. From the start of her marriage she discovers that she and her own concerns come very low on her husband's lists of priorities. Buchan tells the story of this marriage in sad little flashbacks: the falling in love, the birth of the child, the wistful realization that a politician's life leaves little room for family. So what does a good wife do other than accept her role and buckle down to all that it entails? She must dress well but not showily, attend functions, knock on doors and smile, smile, smile. Fanny chooses to conform while at the same time retreating into her inner mind and developing a slightly cynical attitude. When an opportunity comes for escape presents itself she is tempted to take it. Buchan has some wise things to say about love and its compromises. Sometimes funny, sometimes desolate, she prescribes, here, an excellent antidote for sugary romance. (Kirkus UK)
About the Author
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Elizabeth Buchan led a double life for a while as a publisher and author, managing to successfully pursue both careers simultaneously, until in 1994 she became a full-time writer and hasn’t looked back since. Her first novel for adults Daughters of the Storm, was set during the French Revolution. Her second, Light of the Moon, took as its subject a female undercover agent operating in occupied France during the Second World War. Her third novel, Consider the Lily, became an international bestseller and sold over 300,000 copies in the UK alone. Her subsequent novel Perfect Love, was described as ‘a powerful story: wise, observant, deeply-felt, with elements that all women will recognize with a smile – or a shudder’. Against Her Nature was then published in June 1998, critically acclaimed as ‘a modern-day Vanity Fair…brilliantly done’. The Independent on Sunday praised the most recent novel Secrets of the Heart, which ‘recalls E M Forster’s Howard’s End…and celebrates human resilience and flexibility’.
Elizabeth Buchan has also had a number of short stories published in various magazines and broadcast on BBC Radio 4. She is currently on the committee for the Society of Authors, and was a judge for the 1997 Whitbread Awards and Chairman of the Judges for the 1997 Betty Trask Award. Elizabeth lives in London with her husband and two children.
Author photo © Ian Philpott
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Book Info
Format
Paperback
320 pages
Author
Elizabeth Buchan
More books by Elizabeth Buchan
Publisher
Penguin Books Ltd
Publication
date
29th May 2003
ISBN
9780141009797
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