The Pilot's Wife

A Novel

By: Anita Shreve

Narrated by: Melanie Griffith

Length: 8 hrs and 48 mins

Publisher's summary

Until now, Kathryn Lyons's life has been peaceful if unextraordinary: a satisfying job teaching high school in the New England mill town of her childhood; a picture-perfect home by the ocean; a precocious, independent-minded fifteen-year-old daughter; and a happy marriage whose occasional dull passages she attributes to the unavoidable deadening of time.

As a pilot's wife, Kathryn has learned to expect both intense exhilaration and long periods alone - but nothing has prepared her for the late-night knock that lets her know her husband has died in a crash. As Kathryn struggles with her grief, she descends into a maelstrom of publicity stirred up by the modern hunger for the details of tragedy.

Even before the plane is located in waters off the Irish coast, the relentless scrutiny of her husband's life begins to bring a bizarre personal mystery into focus. Could there be any truth to the increasingly disturbing rumors that he had a secret life?

©2007 Anita Shreve (P)2007 Hachette Book Group

Great story, whiny narrator

I thoroughly enjoyed the story with the authors vivid descriptions and the plot twists. However, I found Melanie Griffith as the narrator to be whiny and challenging to listen to. There was no inflection at key times during the story. No sorrow, no intensity, no intimacy. Her Irish accent was appalling and simply shouldn’t have been attempted. I found myself challenged this connect with the story because of the voice. Definitely a great book to enjoy but perhaps try hard copy or digital.

Good story, could have been "more"?

I did enjoy this book, but it seems like there could have been more depth of detail, a longer suspense-building.
And why oh why Melanie Griffith? Great person, S_L_O_W reader. Sped up to 1.25 was perfect.

Excellent book

The story was wonderful, and Melanie Griffith is very good as the narrator. I'll definitely read more from this author.

Great story, bad narration

Like others have said, the narration is not great and can be annoying at times. I stuck it out though. Maybe the lack of inflection was intentional to make the character sound malaise and a bit whiny. If you can get past that, the story is actually really good. Some of the twists and turns are unexpected and not predictable.

Not so much

Melanie G has a wispy, babyish voice which wasn’t to my taste. Nevertheless, she is quite good when she is doing dialogue, but the narrative other than that was quite wooden, as if she were skimming a script and focusing on dialogue only. It did improve towards the end.
The story was ok, but glossed over the horror and drama of the real reason the plane went down.
And the love element was predictable.

Still waiting for action

This book was a great disappointment. I waited so long to read it, it had so many opportunities to bring the story to life, but it died in the first few chapters. The author used so many big words just to say nothing. Nothing at all. This story was about a man that had an affair, because he was a pilot didn’t change the fact that it happens every day in America. Dam it, I needed more from this book. I demand more from this great reader. Feed my desire to want more. Ok, let me stop, enough said.

Boring and Pointless

From he start I found this book without excitement. I didn't really care for the characters. I didn't relate to them as they did not react as I would react and can't imagine others doing as they did. The musings of this woman seemed totally unrelated to the story being told. Their reactions and interactions between the characters were odd. Was Kathryn going to fall in love with Robert? No spoiler alert here: she didn't. Yet she invited him into the bathroom to gaze over her naked body? What was that about? Kathryn's relationship with her daughter was typical on so many levels, and not on others. The daughter reveals she became sexually active at 14 and it's almost a yawner for Kathryn. I couldn't tell when Kathryn was angry, sad, or happy. There was no passion. From the news of her husband's death to the story of how it happened there is little evidence of emotion in the story.

The narration was well done in differentiating between characters. But there was little to work with here.

I have read other books by Shreve. Some I liked, others not so much. I don't think I will try any others. I don't get her style.

It was ok

I found the story to be very basic. I did enjoy Melanie’s reading except when she tried to do an Irish accent.

Riveting

I found this book riveting and didn't eat or much else 'till I finished it!
The quality of the reader's voice was unbelievable, the way it changed so completely when Mattie was speaking, for example. DJM

only ok

worst narrator I've ever heard. actual story was ok, I think. sometimes hard to tell if it was only ok because of the narrator or because the story