Wife 22

A Novel

By: Melanie Gideon

Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell

Length: 12 hrs and 8 mins

Publisher's summary

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.

Maybe it was those extra five pounds I’d gained. Maybe it was because I was about to turn the same age my mother was when I lost her. Maybe it was because after almost twenty years of marriage my husband and I seemed to be running out of things to say to each other.

But when the anonymous online study called “Marriage in the 21st Century” showed up in my inbox, I had no idea how profoundly it would change my life. It wasn’t long before I was assigned both a pseudonym (Wife 22) and a caseworker (Researcher 101).

And, just like that, I found myself answering questions.

7. Sometimes I tell him he’s snoring when he’s not snoring so he’ll sleep in the guest room and I can have the bed all to myself.

61. Chet Baker on the tape player. He was cutting peppers for the salad. I looked at those hands and thought, I am going to have this man’s children.

67. To not want what you don’t have. What you can’t have. What you shouldn’t have.

32. That if we weren’t careful, it was possible to forget one another.

Before the study, my life was an endless blur of school lunches and doctor’s appointments, family dinners, budgets, and trying to discern the fastest-moving line at the grocery store. I was Alice Buckle: spouse of William and mother to Zoe and Peter, drama teacher and Facebook chatter, downloader of memories and Googler of solutions.

But these days, I’m also Wife 22. And somehow, my anonymous correspondence with Researcher 101 has taken an unexpectedly personal turn. Soon, I’ll have to make a decision—one that will affect my family, my marriage, my whole life. But at the moment, I’m too busy answering questions.

As it turns out, confession can be a very powerful aphrodisiac.

©2012 Melanie Gideon (P)2012 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“Wife 22 is absolutely fresh, vibrant, au courant, and hilarious. As you read, you will swear that this deft novelist hacked your phone and unearthed your longtime marital secrets and maternal struggles with a keen ear and an open heart. Brilliant! Melanie Gideon owns the moment with this debut.” (Adriana Trigiani, best-selling author of The Shoemaker’s Wife)

“Refreshing, original, and crackling with energy, Wife 22 is a brilliant, engrossing novel about the way we love and live now. Prepare to be dazzled.” (Elin Hilderbrand, author of Summerland)

“Absolutely delicious! What Bridget Jones did for single women, Alice Buckle will do for married ones. Melanie Gideon’s Wife 22 is a fabulously funny contemplation of relationships and parenthood in the twenty-first century.” (Meg Waite Clayton, author of The Four Ms. Bradwells and The Wednesday Sisters)

Great story, decent reading

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I would definitely recommend it to a friend. The storyline and characters were fantastic. This was my first Melanie Gideon novel and definitely won't be my last.

Who was your favorite character and why?

I thoroughly enjoyed the best friend - Nedra. She was direct, to the point, and had several lines throughout the novel that made me re-evaluate my initial reaction to the scene at hand.

What aspect of Cassandra Campbell’s performance would you have changed?

It took me awhile to get into Campbell's style. At first I thought she sounded a bit too much like a computer reading the story. But by the end, I had adjusted to her style and actually come to appreciate it.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

If I had the time to listen to it in one sitting, sure. But it was easy to pick up right where I left off. This was a book I enjoyed on my daily commute to/from work.

Hearing email addresses read is a bit tedious

Much of this novel takes place via email conversations and facebook chats between characters and the narrator reads the email address and subject line of each email or the handles of the chatters. This can get really annoying and repetetive to hear over and over again. The story itself was an all right, light listen, but audio is probably not the best format for this type of book.

Worth a Try

I almost gave up on this book - It was moving kind of slowly and a little whiney. I began to like the central character a little more and stuck with it and it paid off. Getting used to the spoken email addresses took some doing - Just not that interesting to listen to. I did actually laught out loud while listening. The narrator was fine for me and I felt did a good job.

wife 22

Narration drove me crazy. I only finished for story .

Like!

A totally grinworthy read. Moliere (sorry no accent grave on this keyboard) meets Facebook, a comedy of manners for 2012. Mixed in with all the endlessly repeating email addies, tweets and status reports, and tucked away inside a boatload of trendy buzz words and brand names ("bento boxes"? Really?) and oh-so-precious food chit chat is a good story with some serious pondering of a few realistic "issues". Just what this reader needed.

Cassandra Campbell did a masterful job of narrating this performance - but I can't help wondering how the read would sound if rendered in a more ironic narrative style. Just an idle speculation.

Whatever, 5 stars!

Bumpy ride, but rewarding finish

As this is Melanie Gideon's "debut novel" we'll forgive the odd medley of styles. Most of them drew you right into the narrative. The Facebook bits, texts and emails were very creatively done. The sections written like a script of a play were so grating I was tempted to fast forward. These probably work better on the page than orated.

Alice was deftly drawn and was delightfully human, as were all the female characters. All resonated so true when it came to the high jinks of relationships, family and marriages. The men were fairly interchangeable, mainly props for the women to maneuver around. But hey, it's summer, and this quirky romantic comedy definitely fills the bill!

Love it! Definitely recommend!

Where does Wife 22 rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Wife 22 is definitely in the top 25% of the books I have listened too. It's a fun listen.

Surprisingly Good

If you have the perfect life/marriage don't read this!

For some reason, I wasn't expecting to like this book, much less end up with a new perspective on life! As a wife and mother, I could relate to the main character while she questioned her life choices. For anyone who wonders about the ???paths not taken???, this is a really good read.

Beware online Questionnaires

I thought the story was witty and profound. I believe everyone can relate to the characters and aspects of their courtship and marriage. This was an interesting concept and I would have liked the story infinitely more if the entire email address of Wife 22 & Researcher 101 wasn't read in it's entirety every few minutes. I think the book would have been done in 8 hours instead of 12. The constant email issue is what brought down my story rating - I found it tedious and my mind would start to drift to other things instead of staying with the story. The narrator did a really good job all things considered.

Could Relate

If you could sum up Wife 22 in three words, what would they be?

Easy Mindless Entertainment

What other book might you compare Wife 22 to and why?

Not sure

Which scene was your favorite?

When Wife 22 and Researcher101 create Facebook pages.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

When Alice was crying in the car after her husband told her he had lost his job, and her son came up.

Any additional comments?

I could relate to the age of the main character and her husband, as well as the phase of life the entire family is in. This book was easy, yet entertaining. I needed the brain break that this book gave me.