How To Be a Good Wife

From the rural, anonymous Scandinavian location to the tense family situation "How To Be A Good Wife" left me with no answers, but rather with open-ended questions. When you question everything about your life, who are you? Does your memory match reality? In particular, the novel suggests deeper questions about who we are, and how the stories we tell (or are told) become both our history and reality. Like a good ghost story, only better - well written, contemporary, timeless.

In an unknown village in an unknown Scandinavian country, Marta experiences the pressures of empty-nest syndrome and a future with nothing but caring for her house and her husband to fill up her time. In a fit of pique at the loss of her son and tired of Hector treating her like the fragile china dolls she loves, she opts to stop taking the very same medication she needs to keep her functional. As she starts remembering bits and pieces of her past and is visited by the blonde girl, she realizes that something is very wrong, that there is something in her past so horrific that she has repressed all of her memories of her childhood. Now, those memories want to resurface and threaten to disrupt the life she has carved for herself.

The key show more to How to Be a Good Wife is Marta’s narration and whether one believes her to be a reliable or an unreliable narrator. Good arguments can be made for either side of the debate, and the possibilities of both create a heightened tension to an already intense story. There is so much one does not know about Marta and Hector and so much that could be inferred, which is always subjective based on a reader’s own biases and experiences. In addition, there are so many questions, all of which have different answers depending on what one believes about Marta’s story. The unknown is always terrifying, and in this way, Ms. Chapman wrote a novel in which absolutely nothing is known – either by Marta, Hector, or the reader. It is up to the reader to weed through the clues and discern the truth as s/he sees it.

The vagueness of the novel should not scare away readers. In fact, the power of the novel lies in its vagueness and lack of distinct answers. Whether one chooses to believe she is mentally ill or repressing memories of a horrible trauma, the fact remains that Marta’s happily ever after seems to have been built on a façade, which is now decaying and crumbling in the absence of her son. Hector is not the wonderful, doting husband he first appears to be, and her mother-in-law is even worse. Problems abound regardless of their origins, and as Marta wends her way through the tricky maze of memory, these problems become glaringly clear. There is an awfulness to these problems that soothes the frustration felt at the lack of definitive answers.

Or are there solid answers? Just when a reader thinks s/he has the novel completely understood, Ms. Chapmen changes the dynamic of the story entirely. Readers feeling one way or the other will change their minds abruptly based on this new information, regenerating the debate in earnest. It is a brilliant sleight of hand and something readers will not see coming.

How to Be a Good Wife is a fascinating, superbly written study on perception. The is-she-or-isn’t-she elements of Marta’s visions lead readers down tricky paths that have no definitive answers while the surprising ending will have readers questioning everything previously experienced within the novel and then some. The nuanced characters and scenes belie the fact that this is a debut novel. Bound to leave one reeling with the possibilities, the buzz it is going to generate is well-deserved. show less

How To Be a Good Wife is a debut novel by Emma Chapman. Marta Bjornstad is suffering from empty nest syndrome - and maybe depression and/or some other unmentioned mental health aliment. We know at the beginning that she desperately misses her son, Kylan. We know that she was only 21 when she married Hector, who is over 20 years her senior, 25 years ago. They tell people he saved her from drowning after her parents died, a loss from which she was not recovering. We know that her overbearing mother-in-law, Matilda, gave Marta a book entitled How To Be a Good Wife for a wedding gift. Marta learned every lesson and quotes from the book are interspersed throughout the novel, tips like: Your husband belongs in the outside world. The house is show more your domain, and your responsibility.

We also know that her husband, Hector, checks on Marta and makes sure she is taking her pills like a good girl because she should know how she gets when she doesn't take her pills.

Unknown to Hector, Marta hasn't been a good girl. In fact, Marta hasn't been swallowing her pills, even if she dutifully opens her mouth for him to give the pill to her. She's been spitting them out later. And now she is seeing what might be visions or hallucinations of a younger blond girl. She is also smoking, something she has never done, but suddenly feels like it was something that she enjoyed. She is also scared to travel out of the valley in the unnamed Scandinavian village where she lives - or she has been told she scared to travel outside the valley.

This short psychological thriller starts slow, so you have to give it time and allow the tension to gradually keep building. At first I thought Marta was simply a woman suffering from depression, but them doubts began to enter and questions began to assert themselves, chiefly that perhaps everything isn't as it seems. The tone began to become more ominous and creepy. Is Marta suffering from a mental illness or is there some other reason she is being kept medicated?

How to be a Good Wife is extremely well written, especially for a debut novel, and Chapman manages to keep the same tone throughout the book. I won't give away anything but I was left wondering what was the truth right up to the end (in a good way because Marta's voice was consistent throughout the narrative.) Marta is an unreliable narrator, but her voice is all we have to go on while trying to discern the truth. It was also maddening at times. I'm just giving you a warning: know that you will very likely get angry.

So, if there is a flaw in How to be a Good Wife, it is, obviously, that Marta is an unreliable narrator so you don't know who to trust or what is true, which will leave you feeling frustrated - and angry.

I very highly recommend How to be a Good Wife.

Disclosure: My Kindle edition was courtesy of St. Martin's Press via Netgalley for review purposes. show less

Marta has never been completely well but her husband, Hector, has always been there to take care of her. He makes sure she takes her medications. He makes sure she gets her rest. He makes sure she doesn’t smoke. He makes sure she has enough to do to keep her at home. Having been given a copy of “How To Be A Good Wife” as a wedding gift by her mother-in-law, Marta strives to be just that. Then, when their son leaves for university Marta discovers that as attentive as Hector is, he can no longer fill the emptiness of her days. Whether as a conscious decision or just on a whim, Marta decides that she wants to know what life would be like without her medication. That’s when the trouble seems to start. She begins to see an apparition show more of a young girl who is seemingly trying to tell her something. The longer she only pretends to be swallowing her little pills the stronger the apparition seems to appear. Finally Marta starts to think that things are not normal around the house that she so meticulously keeps.

It is difficult to describe this book without totally ruining the experience for future readers. It has been described as a psychological thriller – which it is. It has been described as a look into a schizophrenic and a paranoid mind – which it is. It has been described as a treatise on a long marriage and “empty nest” syndrome – which (maybe) it is. All of that and it is a chilling read!

The book is well written. I particularly enjoyed the author’s use of short, staccato sentences to convey Marta’s fear and anxiety about not understanding her visions. As Marta becomes more comfortable with the visions and more confident in herself, her thoughts, and the sentences, become more fluid. Intentional (or not?) on the part of Ms. Chapman that aspect of the writing definitely drew me in. When I began reading this book I thought that this might be one of the few books I put away without finishing. I mean it contained archaic quotes from a manual on how to be a good wife: “A man’s home is his castle and as such, he ought to be treated like a king.” These interspersed between descriptions of a perfectly submissive homemaker and mother. But as I kept reading I realized Marta was a deeply troubled soul trying to make sense of a life than (to her) no longer makes any sense at all. As the book progressed I wavered between cheering for Marta and her independence and feeling sorry for Hector for having an ungrateful and crazy wife. Then, when the proverbial dime dropped I didn’t know what to think any more? It was a great feeling!

I’ve mentioned before in my reviews that I am one of those readers who like to have the end of a book tied up in a pretty pink ribbon. This book certainly does not fit that criteria, but it definitely succeeded in leaving me wondering if my assumptions about Marta were right or wrong and, in this case, that was the perfect ending. As I write this review the book still plays in my head and I still cannot decide on what I believe. I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoyed The Room or Before I Go To Sleep. show less

Take small mouthfuls of food, like a baby bird, and make sure to chew daintily with your mouth closed.

Emma Chapman's How To Be A Good Wife, a tense, claustrophobic psychological thriller, is punctuated by such glimmering diamonds of 1950's marital etiquette. I felt an instant kinship upon seeing this- I remember copying similar advice into the margins of feminist zines I wrote as a teenager, in my very best curly penmanship, with tiny stars and exclamation points for proper emphasis. On any topic, the advice always amounted to the same thing: shrink yourself. Quiet your voice to be pleasant to his ears, shrink your personality so as not to outshine his own, shrink your waistline, quell your desires, stop wanting, stop needing. Stop show more existing.

When we meet Marta Bjornstad, she has bought into the propaganda, fish hook and line, in her perfect gleaming home where nothing is ever out of place. But we quickly realize something is horribly amiss, the cracks in the veneer rapidly widening to show the rot beneath.

I don't like to give spoilers in reviews, but I think with this book, the most fascinating aspects can't be discussed without a bit of spoiling. At the same time, I feel like the "secret" at the heart of the book isn't particularly meant to come as a huge revelation to anyone but the protagonist herself.

After twenty years lived behind a gentle, medicated fog, Marta stops taking her happy pills. From the first appearance of a young blonde girl in the flood of hallucinations and memories that follow, I think any savvy reader will begin to sense where this tale will lead. To a dark place beneath the doorstep, a tiny hidden room with the stench of desperation and the furniture nailed to the floor.

It's a sparse, interesting study of captivity, and hits on the question often asked when children who have been taken are found years later, often fully acclimated to their new lives and even unaware that they had been kidnapped: Why didn't they run away? From the psychological studies I've read, it's shocking how little time it takes to completely strip a person of their identity, through isolation and fear.

So when someone such as Marta begins to emerge from this state, to try to find her way back to her true self, how difficult it must be to trust her own thoughts and emotions. How easily dismissed those same thoughts and memories would be by everyone around you.

In the end, the book is actually less about the salacious, television version of captivity and more about the strange sort of confinement that marriage and motherhood entail for all women. The sacrifices women make for the happiness of others. The way we are taught even now that indulgence and selfishness are sins, that we must care for the future and happiness of our families no matter what the cost to ourselves. That not existing is preferable to living too loudly or venturing onward and beginning again. show less

Marta is a housewife in an unspecified Scandinavian country. She was on medication for a medical disorder but, after her grown son leaves home, she goes off her meds. First,she discovers that she is a smoker, something Hector, her controlling husband would not approve of. Then she starts hallucinating or perhaps remembering a young, blonde girl.

And there's the thing, the story is told in the first person by Marta and because of her mental state, she is not necessarily a reliable narrator. Throughout, it is never clear whether what she tells us is happening or has happened is all the result of her illness as it gets progressively worse without her little pink pills or she is actually remembering a shocking past she had forgotten years show more before.

The book seemed to drag at the beginning but, as it progressed and Marta either regained her memories or became more mired in her delusions, it really picked up. Just when the reader thinks they know the truth, author Emma Chapman throws a new spanner into the works and we are again unsure of what the truth is. In fact, even at the end, this question is never really answered leaving the reader at once frustrated but satisfied that this is really the only possible outcome given our knowledge of Marta's mental state.

How to be a Good Wife is a well-written and well-crafted debut novel by author Emma Chapman. Although, it dragged at the beginning, once it begin to delve deeper into Marta's story, it is a very satisfying psychological thriller. show less

How To Be A Good Wife is a disquieting novel by debut novelist Emma Chapman. This subtle psychological thriller is an intriguing tale of half truths and lies, madness and mystery.

Make your home a place of peace and order.

Marta Bjornstad has always striven to be a good wife and mother, following the rules in the manual gifted to her on her wedding day, but now that her son has left home to lead his own life, her days seem long and empty. Her husband Hector, more than twenty years her senior, maintains that Marta will be fine as long as she continues to take her pills, but Marta stopped taking her medication months ago. And in the quiet, the house begins to echo with pleading ghosts and visions that flicker in darkened corners.

After a show more slow start, How To Be a Good Wife rewards the reader with a unnerving mystery. Written in the first person present tense, Marta is a narrator that we are not sure we can trust. Her husband and son would have us believe she is mentally ill and certainly Marta’s confused thinking and hallucinations would seem to support their opinion but as the novel unfolds doubt is cast over their simple explanation. Free of daily medication, Marta begins to piece together the story of her past, a tale that conflicts with what Hector has told their son, and one that she can get no one to believe.

Persevere beyond the first quarter or so of the novel and How To Be a Good Wife rewards you with an unexpected twist, though be warned, the unreliability of Marta’s narrative will not suit every reader and the truth remains obscured even after the final pages. Personally I was satisfied with the conclusions I drew from my interpretation of the story, I believe I know where the truth lies, even in the absence of Chapman’s denouement.

Haunting, poignant and gripping How To Be a Good Wife is an impressive, well crafted novel of suspense. show less