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Copy/paste the text below into your blog. <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/217319.The_Good_Wife_A_Novel?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=blog_review" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="The Good Wife: A Novel" border="0" src="http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1172788419m/217319.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/217319.The_Good_Wife_A_Novel?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">The Good Wife: A Novel</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/18341.Stewart_O_Nan">Stewart O'Nan</a><br/><br/> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2151802?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review"><h3>My review</h3></a> rating: 5 of 5 stars<br/>Told in a matter-of-fact, unsentimental way, The Good Wife tells the story of one family and 25 years of their lives as they work through the New York state penal system. <br/> <br/>Tommy Dickerson does something stupid. He follows his friend Gary's lead and ends up involved in a murder for which he (and not Gary) pays the price--25 years in prison. At the time of his arrest, his wife Patty is pregnant. This is her story. <br/> <br/>We see through her eyes the frustration of the poor as they try to work the system. Everything is against them, including, it seems, the public defenders. Then as the wife of a prisoner we see Patty at the mercy of the system again--as items are confiscated and her husband transferred from prison to prison (moving farther and farther away--to Dannemora and farther northwest, to eventually Bare Hill in Malone) as she is left to make due as a single mother. <br/> <br/>Though they do not thrive, their marriage survives and their son makes it through college and ends up with a great job. It's at the end when Tommy is released and they are together again as a family (like they never were before) that we realize that all of these years have been not just a sentence for Tommy, but for all the rest of them as well. <br/> <br/>Yes, Tommy was guilty of a crime. Even if the didn't commit the actual murder, he was there and could have stopped it. But the key to this story is not his guilt or innocence, rather it is about what happens to the family, the extended family, the friends of those imprisoned. What is the world like through their eyes. And you walk away from the book asking yourself, what would I do if my loved one was in jail? Would I be able to persevere as Patty does? Would I be such a good wife? <br/> <br/>It's a fascinating, quick read and if you have not read O'Nan before, you should know that he is great. He has a no nonsense approach to telling a story that is utterly engaging and in this book, he has succeeded in doing just that. <br/> <br/><br/><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/140287?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">View all my reviews.</a>