Sign in with Facebook
Loading...
322nd out of 1,229 books
—
6,470 voters
The Wife's Tale
by
Lori Lansens (Goodreads Author)
On the eve of their Silver Anniversary, Mary Gooch is waiting for her husband Jimmy--still every inch the handsome star athlete he was in high school--to come home. As night turns to day, it becomes frighteningly clear to Mary that he is gone. Through the years, disappointment and worry have brought Mary's life to a standstill, and she has let her universe shrink to the we...more
Hardcover, 353 pages
Published
February 10th 2010
by Little, Brown and Company
(first published February 10th 2009)
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
Community Reviews
(showing
1-30
of
3,000)
Mary Gooch promised herself that if her bulky mass of rolled flesh ever registered a lumbering 300 pounds, she would simply take enough pills to put herself out of misery.
Mary reached 302 the day before her 25th wedding anniversary. Years earlier and hundreds of pounds lighter, she married her high school sweetheart. Young and pregnant, she justified both the added pounds and the nagging sense that she tricked Jimmy into a commitment to be with her instead of following his dream of college and a...more
Mary reached 302 the day before her 25th wedding anniversary. Years earlier and hundreds of pounds lighter, she married her high school sweetheart. Young and pregnant, she justified both the added pounds and the nagging sense that she tricked Jimmy into a commitment to be with her instead of following his dream of college and a...more
Jun 17, 2013
Sally Whitehead
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
books-read-in-2013
Both "Rush Home Road" and "The Girls" were probably easily in my Top Three books of the year way back when I read them, and so it was with an odd sense of glee and yet slight trepidation with which I approached "The Wife's Tale".
The trepidation stemmed from the plot precis - overweight wife is left by husband and "discovers" herself - which was enough to almost turn me off. It brought to mind the flimsy and irritating "Jemima J" by Jane Green which is the closest I have ever come to even trying...more
The trepidation stemmed from the plot precis - overweight wife is left by husband and "discovers" herself - which was enough to almost turn me off. It brought to mind the flimsy and irritating "Jemima J" by Jane Green which is the closest I have ever come to even trying...more
1 like · like · see review
It was ok. Not the best, not the worst. Not a book I'll read again (and I re-read every book that I really like). I really disliked the ending.
5 likes · like · see review
Another lovely, strange story from one of my favourite authors. I liked the way the narrative and subject began so heavily and lightened (somewhat) as the novel progressed, mirroring Mary's experience. I liked Mary a lot, and even though not all of the questions get answered by the end of the tale, I liked that it was really a story about HER all the way through. I also liked that, while it was a story about Mary's (re?)awakening, and (re?)birth, it was not about weightloss. The focus was on her...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
Mary Gooch has lived her whole life in Leaford, Ontario. Life is not perfect. She has no clothes that fit her to wear to her father’s funeral and the outfit she bought just three weeks ago to wear to her silver anniversary dinner is now too tight. She has a part time job she hates, a house she has lived in her whole married life, a truck with a sunroof that will not close and her closest friend is her Kenmore refrigerator. All that aside, she is still in love with her high school crush, now her...more
I recently took a train trip to Montreal, and in the process, immersed myself completely in this wonderful, wonderful tale.
Mary Gooch is a morbidly obese woman approaching her twenty-fifth wedding anniversary to a husband who met her and married her in the one year of her life where she was pretty and slim.
What Lansens does masterfully is give Mary Gooch a verisimilitude that doesn't hinder your empathy for her. Mary is a woman who has led a life ruled by what she calls her "Obeast" and yet is a...more
Mary Gooch is a morbidly obese woman approaching her twenty-fifth wedding anniversary to a husband who met her and married her in the one year of her life where she was pretty and slim.
What Lansens does masterfully is give Mary Gooch a verisimilitude that doesn't hinder your empathy for her. Mary is a woman who has led a life ruled by what she calls her "Obeast" and yet is a...more
As usual, a very strange but enlightening story. It starts out as a sad and shocking look at the misery of someone's addiction and what it has cost her. You follow as she searches for her lost husband, finding herself as she goes. I saw myself in many of those pages.
2 likes · like · see review
Non so cosa mi abbia spinto all'acquisto di questo libro... sarà quella strana alchimia che spesso si crea tra pagine e persone... la trama mi ha ricordato un po' quella di "La metà di niente" di Catherine Dunne (che tra l'altro non mi era nemmeno piaciuto), qui in più c'è la componente (o l'aggravante) obesità, che la protagonista chiama obestia, con un'efficace metatesi linguistica che sarei curiosa di leggere in lingua originale.
Ammetto che mi aspettavo un ritratto frivolo e autoironico alla...more
Ammetto che mi aspettavo un ritratto frivolo e autoironico alla...more
The title 'The Wife's Tale' makes the main character, Mary Gooch, seem secondary to her own story. She kind of is, until her husband of 25 years disappears. They live in Canada, then a large part of the book also takes place in California (much like the author's own life), when Mary searches for her husband. From page one, almost every page mentions Mary's obesity, which gets a bit tedious... I know that people are judged on their weight, and physical appearance is what most people first notice...more
The tale had me hooked right away. It is all about the central character Mary Gooch. Mary is obese (or as she calls it, mishearing when she was a child, possessed by an obeast). She works part-time in the local drugstore, and lives a solitary sort of life with her husband.
On the eve on their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary, her husband doesn't come home. At first Mary isn't sure what to make of it, and soldiers on. When she finally faces up to his disappearance, she decides to follow the faint...more
On the eve on their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary, her husband doesn't come home. At first Mary isn't sure what to make of it, and soldiers on. When she finally faces up to his disappearance, she decides to follow the faint...more
I really wanted to love this book. I really did. It was just okay for me. So here's the story, the main character is morbidly obese (she calls the constant hunger within her the obeast.) She has reached 302 pounds and those 2 pounds are important--she had decided if she ever hit 300, she would kill herself. (But she doesn't.) On the eve of her 25th wedding anniversary, her husband does not come home. She goes after him. Through the story, in flashbacks the reader realizes that her husband LOVED...more
An unusual, very Canadian book. Mary Gooch married her high school heartthrob at a time in her life when she got small. Married at 18 and pregnant, the pregnancy and others after it didn't take, and Mary finds her solace in feeding her hunger. On the eve of her 25th anniversary, her husband takes off. Mary takes her very first trip to try to find him. This is a greatly simplified explanation of the narrative. It's actually a sort of vision quest in which Mary tries to find herself as well.
The d...more
The d...more
Lori Lansens is a gifted writer. She can lift the heart out of human emotion and psychological distress and translate it onto paper as if she had a magic wand. That's a gift. It translates, as well, to her readers as we are kicked full force in our hearts by her "wife" in "The Wife's Tale."
Mary Gooch, the wife in question, is a youngish, married woman....childless...who is obese and not altogether upset about it! She relishes her mounds and crevices. She's proud of her beautiful face that's full...more
Mary Gooch, the wife in question, is a youngish, married woman....childless...who is obese and not altogether upset about it! She relishes her mounds and crevices. She's proud of her beautiful face that's full...more
1 like · like · see review
On the night before Mary Gooch's 25th anniversary, her husband does not come home. She waits and looks and worries before realizing that it is not his intention to return any time soon. Lost without his presence, Mary turns to the only thing that can provide her an ounce of comfort and distraction: food. After days of soul-searching, she finally finds that food is no longer protecting her from her insecurities and feelings of loss and hopelessness. It is this realization that sends her on a jour...more
I love this author, I love this book, I whole-heartedly recommend it. What it's about: "The Obeast." That's what Mary Gooch, at the time, 9 years old hears when the doctor tells her mother that Mary is "obese." The Obeast nails it, though 'cause addiction of any kind is a scary beast. While telling the story of a small town Canadian woman whose husband of 25 years leaves her, the author, Lori Lansens nails addiction. You get what it feels like to always want, need, yearn for--more food, to never...more
When I discovered that Lori Lansen’s latest book, The Wife’s Tale (Little, Brown & Company), featured a character who is morbidly obese, I know this was a book for me. Often I read books about skinny woman (who fret about their weight), so a plump heroine resonates with me…and probably many other women. But you don’t have to be fat to enjoy The Wife’s Tale, which is a story about taking chances for the one you really love.
Mary Gooch reminds me of Susan Boyle, the formerly dumpy spinster feat...more
Mary Gooch reminds me of Susan Boyle, the formerly dumpy spinster feat...more
I don't remember reading Lori Lansens's second novel The Girls. The title and her name sound so familiar, but in reading the summary for it, nothing sounds like a book I've read. Many readers will remember her from that bestselling novel, but she writes a very different story in her latest release. In The Girls, Lansens explored the story of a set of conjoined twins. In The Wife's Tale, Lansens has a single narrator, one who is isolated from the world around her.
Mary Brody Gooch is a housewife....more
I really liked _The Girls_, so I was excited when this author came out with a new book. And I have to say, this was just the kind of book I needed at a time when I am exhausted and craving something easy.
If I could, I'd give it 3.5 stars. I drank the story down like a slurpee on a hot day. The premise is that a sad, middle-aged woman is left by her husband on their 25th wedding anniversary. And for the first part of the book, as the character is coming to grips with her aloneness, the writing is...more
If I could, I'd give it 3.5 stars. I drank the story down like a slurpee on a hot day. The premise is that a sad, middle-aged woman is left by her husband on their 25th wedding anniversary. And for the first part of the book, as the character is coming to grips with her aloneness, the writing is...more
Mary Gooch is a 43 year-old, 302 lb woman who has struggled with weight issues for most of her life. She is married to Jimmy Gooch who is still as handsome as he was in high school. For Mary food became her friend and her solace, when things went wrong in her life. With each major disappointment and loss in her life, she packed on more and more weight. The extra weight she gained, keeps her socially isolated. Even when she was a little girl, she heard the doctor whisper to her mother that she wa...more
6 likes · like · see review
On the eve of their silver anniversary, Mary Gooch is waiting for her husband, Jimmy — still every inch the handsome star athlete he was in high school — to come home. As night turns to day, it becomes frighteningly clear to Mary that he is gone. Through the years, disappointment and worry have brought Mary’s life to a standstill, and she has let her universe shrink to the well-worn path from the bedroom to the refrigerator. But her husband’s disappearance startles her out of her inertia, and sh...more
Imagine that you were left all alone one night. No spouse, no money, down on yourself, no children, no relatives active in your life, no future, and really no past except for the absent spouse. What would you do? Would you go down in flames? Or would you soar like a phoenix, reborn from the ashes of prior life?
This is the story of Mary Gooch, an obese rural Canadian woman who declared that she would commit suicide if she weighed more than 300 pounds. With that figure in the rearview mirror, she...more
This is the story of Mary Gooch, an obese rural Canadian woman who declared that she would commit suicide if she weighed more than 300 pounds. With that figure in the rearview mirror, she...more
This is Lori Lansens' third novel. The first two being: "Rusholme Road" and the ever popular and bestseller; "The Girls". This third offering is as good as "The Girls" and kept me reading long after the lights were out and everyone else gone to bed. The endearing Mary Gooch is a woman we can all relate too on one level or another and can find kinship in her honesty within and about herself. The slow dawning that she can change her life, how she lives it, and how she sees herself she realizes, ha...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
"Sei grassa" disse Joshua.
"Non bisogna dire a qualcuno che è grasso" spiegò Mary con dolcezza.
"Perchè?" chiese Joshua sbattendo le palpebre.
"Perchè lo sa già" Mary strizzò l'occhio.
Alleluia, una cosa così banale ma al tempo stesso così difficile da capire per molta gente.
Questo romanzo ha il pregio di descrivere bene l'obesità, coi problemi che si trascina, coi disagi quotidiani che porta con sé: la sedia mi reggerà? ci starò nelle poltrone del cinema? passerò da quella porta? riuscirò a cammina...more
"Non bisogna dire a qualcuno che è grasso" spiegò Mary con dolcezza.
"Perchè?" chiese Joshua sbattendo le palpebre.
"Perchè lo sa già" Mary strizzò l'occhio.
Alleluia, una cosa così banale ma al tempo stesso così difficile da capire per molta gente.
Questo romanzo ha il pregio di descrivere bene l'obesità, coi problemi che si trascina, coi disagi quotidiani che porta con sé: la sedia mi reggerà? ci starò nelle poltrone del cinema? passerò da quella porta? riuscirò a cammina...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
A real page turner. Couldn't wait to find out what happened next to Mary Gooch, wife of Jimmy Gooch. Mary has the 'obeast' - as a child she was described by her family doctor as being obese but heard it as having an 'obeast' inside her.
Mary's weight and 2 miscarriages become her justification for not living life. As she constantly feeds the 'obeast' inside her, she retreats further away from her husband and her friends until one night Jimmy doesn't come home from work and Mary's life changes for...more
Mary's weight and 2 miscarriages become her justification for not living life. As she constantly feeds the 'obeast' inside her, she retreats further away from her husband and her friends until one night Jimmy doesn't come home from work and Mary's life changes for...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
I was surprised by how much I loved this book. The dialogue was sparse, and only one of the characters was explored and developed fully while the rest played supporting roles. Lori Lansens does loneliness and personal growth really, really well. The story is about Mary Gooch, a 300+ pound, deeply lonely woman who has cut herself off from the world, unable to receive the love her husband has tried in vain to offer her for 25 years. When he leaves her, without notice or explanation, she is forced...more
There are no discussion topics on this book yet.
Be the first to start one »
Lori Lansens was born and raised in Chatham, Ontario, a small Canadian town with a remarkable history and a collection of eccentric characters, which became the setting for her first two bestselling novels. Living with her family in southern California now, she could not resist the pull of her fictitious 'Baldoon County' when she set out to write The Wife's Tale. She took the journey, along with...more
More about Lori Lansens...
Share This Book
No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »
“If you don't like something about yourself, change it. If you're OK with it, you gotta own it. There's nothing in between.”
—
8 people liked it
More quotes…
Jun 17, 2013 10:47am