Sigh........this books was disappointing. The main characters were unlikeable and their decisions confounding. I ended up skimming parts of it. Even the surprise ending could not make this a reccommended read. ( )

I just finished The Senator's Wife by Sue Miller, my first by her, and while at first I was a bit bored by it, I found myself really involved with the characters halfway through - to the point where they were making me angry. While I wouldn't mark this book as one of my favorites, I will say that if an author can make me feel any emotion towards a character they did a good job.

The relationship between Delia (the Senator's Wife) and Meri (the neighbor) was an awkward one in my opinion. While I never understood Delia and her reasons for staying in her marriage, I disliked Meri so intensely that I wanted to strangle her. Getting towards the end of the book I was nervous that the ending was going to be a lackluster, but I was actually really happy with the way that Miller wrapped up everything. ( )

This was the first time I've read a Sue Miller, and I liked it! It examined infidelity in two very different maggiages in an intelligent way - reminded me of Ann Tyler. I will be reading more of Sue Miller! ( )

I picked up this book expecting a light read, but I found a bit more. Miller tells the stories of Meri, a mid-30's wife of a professor, and Delia, the wife of a former senator in her 70's. They live in the two sides an old New England house and come to be friends. Their voices alternate as Miller provides a window into slightly more than a year of their lives - a year when both Meri and Delia deal with changes that introduce new roles into their lives. Through flashbacks, we come to understand the events that have brought them to this point in their lives and that have influenced the decisions that they make.

I liked this book most in the middle. The characters are not perfect (few likable characters are, in my opinion), and it took me a little time to warm up to them. But within a few chapters, I found myself intrigued by Meri and Delia. Having recently been a new mother, I felt that Miller's descriptions of Meri's transition into this role were spot on. She also creates interesting parallels between the challenges of new roles that we face in the middle of our lives and those we face as we grow older.

There were two things that made me like this book less than I might have otherwise. First, I felt as though Miller gave away her secrets too quickly. We learn much about Meri and Delia in the first few chapters, and then Miller uses flashbacks and other plot devices to reveal these secrets again. I felt that the flashbacks would have been more effective if there had been some suspense left. I also had trouble believing some of the choices that Meri made - especially one completely misguided (in my opinion) choice near the end of the book. I was listening to this on audio in the car, and actually found myself yelling at the iPod (No. . no. . you can't do that. .. you won't do that . . . you did THAT!?!?!). Maybe I'm naive, but I just didn't see Meri's choices as plausible. And so my relatively positive view of the book was diminished greatly by the end.

I like all Sue Miller's books and this is no exception. I thought it was a great picture of "this kind" of marriage which doesn't seem to be all that out of the ordinary these days. I really could understand and sympathize with Delia, how she lived her life and remained in love with her charming but totally self-centered, narcissistic husband who was not unlike many of the men found in politics and elsewhere. I found Meri an annoying, self-centered, sneaky and sullen character with a lot of problems -- she was undoubtedly supposed to be this way, but I wish she had been held a bit more responsible in some way. ( )