"The Husband's Secret" is a light, fast read that is highly superior writing. We get into the lives of several women and their husbands, parents and children. The author astutely takes us right into their heads. Liane Moriarty is top-knotch at showing the exact steps by which a character moves from here to there, however unlikely or difficult the trip. The book is a Kindle bargain at $5.99 and deliciously good writing.
Generally we don't like to read two books in a row by the same author but I am confident that I will get back to Liane Moriarty again before long. Her books have high ratings by large numbers of commenters.
We have read some other books that might be called women's stories, such as "Wife 22" by Melanie Gideon, which was quite enjoyable. It too is an unusual book and in a memorable format. We read "Married by Monday" and "Wife by Wednesday" by Catherine Bybee. The books I have mentioned in this post are listed in my version of their quality and worth.
As a guy, there is a limit to how much feeling and fear I can stand before something has to blow up or somebody gets pushed out a window. I was impressed at how deeply Moriarty could get me caring about a character's double, triple and even more complex worries, fears on top of other fears. The book "Gone Girl" was also elaborate psychology but before I finished reading it, I pretty well detested all the characters. Not so with "The Husband's Secret". Moriarty had me pretty well caring about everybody and their feelings and futures. There were times when both of us were a little fed up with quite so much agony and sensitivity but generally, the characters were easy to like and care about.
The Husband's Secret (you probably will not guess beforehand what the secret is) has ratings by more than 1000 readers but just to show you how much my opinions can differ from others, Gone Girl has well more than 10 times that many raters. However, I note that the five star raters for Husband outnumber the 1 stars roughly 20 to 1. For Gone Girl, that ratio is roughly 4.5 to 1. I guess just like in real life, gentleness and sympathy and honesty win.
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Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety
