This is the haunting story of a woman whose self worth centers around her husband. Edna is crippled by insecurities and social awkwardness during her childhood and adolescence, and ultimately finds a place to belong when she and Harry marry following college. For twenty years, she lives to serve Harry's every need, seeking the impossibility of perfection throughout their marriage. She rarely expresses any desire or need of her own, and swallows the disappointment of not being able to bear a child. Harry commits a betrayal that totally obliterates Edna's identity, and leads to an act that results in dire consequences. Edna records her story in a journal following hospitalization in a psychiatric unit. Joan Barfoot is masterful in portraying Edna's world where the opinions of others define her, and ultimately her safe place is destroyed forever. ( )

Not Barfoot's best work, I think, but quite a good read nonetheless.An interesting analysis of what makes an apparently 'normal' woman perform a highly 'abnormal' act. The problem I found was that this reader was still left asking "but why?" Sure, an explanation is given in terms of the woman's background and the nature of her marriage relationship, but I wasn't convinced enough. ( )

This book suffered, from my point of view at least, from the fact that I read it immediately after one of the best books I have ever read, and the effect was like switching the television over from an action packed comedy film to a documentary on existentialism.

It was faultlessly written, though, and the sort of book that would reveal more hidden meaning on each subsequent reading. It concerned Edna, a dedicated housewife who murdered her husband after he had an affair (no spoilers here, it's all on the back cover), and clearly the book's task would be to illustrate how this came to be, given that many men have affairs but their wives do not become murderers as a result.

What emerged was a picture of obsessive housekeeping, limited ambition, and the idea of marriage as a very formal contract where the keeping of an immaculate house brings very specific guarantees. I note the author is a known feminist writer and assume that there is a feminist agenda at work here. Fair enough, but in my experience it isn't men who insist on houses being immaculate all the time, it is women themselves: they do it because their friends will bitch about them if they don't, and because their mothers have brought them up to be obsessively clean. Anyone who has ever watched Wife Swap on TV will know that the easiest way for a wife to land a low blow on her counterpart at the table meeting is to say her house is filthy. They do it every week.

So overall it was a good, cerebral read, not a page turner, but thought-provoking even if I wasn't totally convinced by the message. ( )