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    Wife 22: A Novel
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    Wife 22: A Novel
    Unavailable
    Wife 22: A Novel
    Audiobook12 hours

    Wife 22: A Novel

    Written by Melanie Gideon

    Narrated by Cassandra Campbell

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    For fans of Helen Fielding's Bridget Jones's Diary and Allison Pearson's I Don't Know How She Does It comes an irresistible novel of a woman losing herself . . . and finding herself again . . . in the middle of her life.

    Maybe it was those extra five pounds I'd gained. Maybe it was because I was about to turn the same age my mother was when I lost her. Maybe it was because after almost twenty years of marriage my husband and I seemed to be running out of things to say to each other.

    But when the anonymous online study called "Marriage in the 21st Century" showed up in my inbox, I had no idea how profoundly it would change my life. It wasn't long before I was assigned both a pseudonym (Wife 22) and a caseworker (Researcher 101).

    And, just like that, I found myself answering questions.

    7. Sometimes I tell him he's snoring when he's not snoring so he'll sleep in the guest room and I can have the bed all to myself.
    61. Chet Baker on the tape player. He was cutting peppers for the salad. I looked at those hands and thought, I am going to have this man's children.
    67. To not want what you don't have. What you can't have. What you shouldn't have.
    32. That if we weren't careful, it was possible to forget one another.

    Before the study, my life was an endless blur of school lunches and doctor's appointments, family dinners, budgets, and trying to discern the fastest-moving line at the grocery store. I was Alice Buckle: spouse of William and mother to Zoe and Peter, drama teacher and Facebook chatter, downloader of memories and Googler of solutions.

    But these days, I'm also Wife 22. And somehow, my anonymous correspondence with Researcher 101 has taken an unexpectedly personal turn. Soon, I'll have to make a decision-one that will affect my family, my marriage, my whole life. But at the moment, I'm too busy answering questions.

    As it turns out, confession can be a very powerful aphrodisiac.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateMay 29, 2012
    ISBN9780307990563
    Unavailable
    Wife 22: A Novel
    Author

    Melanie Gideon

    Melanie Gideon is the bestselling author of Wife 22 and The Slippery Year: A Meditation on Happily Ever After, as well as three young adult novels. Wife 22 has been translated into thirty-one languages. She has written for The New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Shape, Marie Claire, The Times of London, and other publications. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and son.

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    Reviews for Wife 22

    3.5/5

    296 ratings76 reviews

    What did you think?

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      Fun, breezy, sharp, engaging, thought provoking!!
    • 4/5
      This is exceptional midlife chick lit. Wife 22 is the story of Alice Buckle, a woman in her forties rounding the finish line on raising children. Her marriage to William, an advertising executive, has grown stagnant. When a survey pops up in her spam folder from the Netherfield Center for the Study of Marriage, Alice embarks on some serious naval gazing over the state of her marriage and on an increasingly dangerous flirtation with "Researcher 101." The book is scattered with Google searches, texts, and Facebook status updates, which gives it immediacy and momentum. Alice is likeable, even as she veers away from her husband. It's a fun read with a great supporting cast of characters.
    • 3/5
      Marriage can be complicated, especially when the husband and wife don't talk to each other about their problems, but confide in total strangers. Wife 22 has decided to take part in a study about marriage and "falls in love" with her assigned "reporter." Interesting concept of what you are you willing to tell a stranger but not willing to say to your spouse.
    • 4/5
      In Wife 22, Alice is beginning to suspect that her marriage is losing its spark. In her early 40's and possibly embarking on a midlife crisis, she responds to a mail in her inbox, inviting her to participate in an anonymous online study, answering questions about her marriage. With each question, she finds herself opening up more and more to her anonymous questioner ("Researcher 101"), and soon begins to doubt her relationship with her husband, beginning to speak more freely and personally with her anonymous correspondent. I read Melanie Gideon's more recent novel Valley of the Moon a couple years ago and while I had a few minor issues with that one, I enjoyed it. This novel is completely different, but I enjoyed it a lot, probably more than I had expected to. I found Alice's character witty and relatable, and I was sucked in immediately. It was a quick read, but a fun one. I'm now rather anxious to see where Gideon goes with her next novel.
    • 3/5
      I received a free, unsolicited copy of this book from the publisher, and overall, enjoyed the novel as a light summer read.The plot revolves around a middle-aged wife who participates in a marriage study conducted via e-mailed questions. I liked that only the wife's answers were revealed in the body of the novel -- it was a challenge sometimes to guess what the questions were, and I did go back at the end of the book and match the questions to the answers.On the down side, I accurately predicted the ending of the book about halfway through.
    • 4/5
      was really enjoying it - light, breezy, adorable premise of wife taking part in marriage survey. did not like the twist, felt cheated and ruined book for me.
    • 4/5
      I love unconventional story telling, and this book does that with the plot unfolding through modern means of communications, emails and facebooks posts, along with a traditional narrative. The story is set within a marriage, with our narrator, Alice, and her husband stuck smack dab in the middle of their mid-life crises. They are going through all the familiar things that those of us in our 40's and 50's can relate to, boredom with our relationships and jobs, worrying about our children as they transition from children to adults, and looking for a bit of excitement and change in our lives.

      This book is sweet and very funny, and is a bit like a rom-com script and I thoroughly enjoyed every page of it. Gideon has created some memorable characters with her writing skills and I only wish that I could continue to being a voyeur into their lives a bit longer.
    • 2/5
      Meh. I don't really remember why I picked up this book. In fact I'm a little embarrassed I did. It's not usually the type of thing I read (and maybe that's why I picked it), but I'd call it mediocre at best. The plot was superficial, cliched, and I had the "twist" figured out halfway through. The constant brand-dropping felt contrived and unwarranted, and the main character read more like a 15 year-old rather than the (wiser, less-whiney) 40 year-old she was supposed to be. I'd say I was mildly entertained but frequently annoyed and a little bored, too.

      Would I recommend it? Probably not.

      Edit: I just read that Gideon is a YA writer. Makes sense now.
    • 4/5
      This is a great read. Alice feels her life is meaningless and decides to participate in a marriage study. While participating she starts an online relationship with Researcher 101. After a while she begins to regret the relationship and decides to end it, but is not sure if she wants to end the relationship. The book shows us how we can find happiness if we're willing to turn over a few stones.
    • 5/5
      fantastic book. The woman reading it was wonderful. this was my first audiobook and I'm rather pleased.
    • 5/5
      Funny, sad, happy, creative. These are the tags I choose for this book. It's about a 20 yr. marriage from the wife's point of view, (or so we think). The story looks back at the marriages adventures, tragedies, children, and careers. I enjoyed this book immensely. ( I also found it to be very thought provoking.)
    • 3/5
      I hate the dismissive "chick-lit" label because it can be dismissive of writing by and about women. However, this book seems to fit snugly within that genre and to offer some of the best parts of what that genre offers. The story is about a wife and mother in San Francisco who used to write plays but now teaches drama to children and who is secretly having an online affair.
      I liked that this book used a format that included a lot of emails, Facebook status updates and online chats, in addition to standard narrative. The use of these formats really echoes the way in which we experience our world today, not only through our own eyes and brains but also through the filters of the way we anticipate others reacting to what we see, through what we post on Facebook or Twitter or instagram.
      The twist in the story, which I won't reveal, made me really like the book more and really added a heart to what could have been a standard cheating novel.
      The author has written for young adult readers before and this is evident in the way that she handles the characterization of the main characters tweenage and teenage son and daughter. They are real people with distinctive personalities, not merely ciphers there to service the plot.
      This book doesn't really offer anything hugely new or unusual but it was a fast paced story that I really enjoyed and that felt true to life in a good way.
    • 4/5
      Not bad, but the ending wasn’t particularly difficult to guess.
    • 3/5
      Alice Buckle is a forty-something mother of two who feels her children do not need her as much, her husband is a little boring, her job is frustrating and not what she envisioned herself doing and all her friend’s lives seem so much more exciting than her own. At a cocktail party at her husband’s work she overhears his colleagues discussing a little competition they have going on … who has the most hits when they Google their own names. She goes home that evening and tries it – nothing! Feeling depressed about her own impact on the world she moves to check her email and finds an interesting email in her “spam” folder, an invitation to join an on-line survey about marriage. She checks out the credentials of the organization doing the survey and agrees to participate. Through this survey the reader learns about her life and how she got to this point. Alice herself finds she is discovering some long lost emotions and some new ones. Unfortunately, the new emotions mostly have to do with her communications with the researcher analysing her answers.

      Despite the fact that at times throughout the book I found Alice a little bit on the annoying side, it was a fun read. Definitely chick-lit for the over 40 crowd.
    • 4/5
      It was good! I really felt for the mother. Confused, funny, smart but no excuse for doing what she did. Not going to spoil it for anyone so I'm making this very short. Read this in a day and 1/2.
    • 4/5
      While I did win this book in a First Reads contest, it is definitely worth buying. I picked it up this morning to read, stuck inside after a snowstorm, and completed this afternoon. I started laughing on page one and finally chased my husband out of the room because I couldn't stop laughing. Alice Buckle could be any of us...trying to find meaning in life while actually living it! Not an easy thing to do. I think the previous reviews have done an excellent job outlining the major plot of this book so I won't repeat. If you want to just relax and enjoy a fun read with heart, this would be the book for you.
    • 4/5
      What a fun, realistic read! The way we are all so "connected" these days, this story could be about any of us. Loved the surprise ending. Has good discussion questions.
    • 4/5
      I really liked it! It was very cute and funny, and since the protagonist is only a few years younger than me, I could identify with the whole mid-life, empty-nester, just-the-two-of-us-again storyline. I figured out the ending about halfway through, but still a really enjoyable read.
    • 3/5
      I was thrilled to finally snag a copy of the much talked about Wife 22. A novel about love, marriage, and family and one woman's inability to deal with all of the above.The story begins as Alice the protagonist is in her mid-40's and realizing her mother passed away when she was 45. Her 20 year marriage is already in shambles and she is dealing with two teenagers. All these components seem to have sent her off on a mini mid-life crisis. Since the story comes in at a point where Alice and William's marriage seemed to be falling apart, the reader is only left to wonder what the history was of these two. I wanted to know when did this ennui set in?I believe Ms. Gideon was writing about the consequences of lack of communication in today's marriages. As Alice & William settle in to the same old routine, relationships start to become more individualized. She uses a modern approach to their story, utilizing text messaging, emails, google and facebook to tell the story of Alice and William which ironically is also listed as a reason as to why communication has fallen apart.The story's concept was good. One has to get used to the different types of prose used. Overall, characters were developed nicely. I can't say that I really liked Alice but I understand the basis of the story and it is conveyed nicely in the book.
    • 2/5
      I unfortunately could not make it very far into Wife 22; the rather trite subject matter and mundane writing style put me off into delving into the novel any further.
    • 4/5
      This was a cleverly written novel that was innovative in the way the author wove social networking, searching, and regular prose to develop the story. The characters were entertaining if a bit one-dimensional. Overall I enjoyed the book but found the ending rather predictable. I'd recommend to someone who was looking for a light read.
    • 4/5
      Loved this light, fun, easy read!
    • 3/5
      This was an enjoyable, quick read. I am perhaps a little slow on the uptake as the book was not entirely predictable until about half way through. I enjoyed the characters presented, but did not feel as though I really got to know any of them in depth. I would have enjoyed this book more if the characters were developed more. All things considered, it was a good book, and I liked the characters, but when the book was over, I was ready to put it down.
    • 5/5
      The formatting of this book was a little difficult to get into, but once things got going, I couldn't put this book down. It was a good read, with an unusual outcome. Highly recommend this book by Melanie Gideon.
    • 5/5
      I really enjoyed this clever, technology-driven novel about a suburban mom's mid-life crisis as she approaches her 20 year anniversary to her husband. The author uses online postings through Facebook, text messages, and other technological communication devices to move the dialogue along. I could totally relate to the main character, Alice Buckle, as her life and mine are so similar (same-age kids with similar personalities and genders, 20 year marriage, poorly trained dog, etc.). The story was witty and fun and I really loved the tension between Researcher 101 and Alice (Wife 22), as she participated in an anonymous research study on marriage. Alice's voice seemed very real and believable. While I predicted the ending early on in the story, I still enjoyed watching it come to the climax. I would highly recommend this story for anyone who enjoy contemporary novels that have technology synched with a good dose of nostalgia, family life and romance.
    • 3/5
      The beginning is a 4 and the end is a 2 so I'm averaging it out to be a 3 star book. Very funny and touching but also very cliche. Can't say why though as it would be a terrible spoiler and it is an easy no-stress read so you should go for it.
    • 3/5
      Review based on ARC:Also, my book group, Desert Girls, read the book. See the group's review at desertgirlsbooks.blogspot.com.I thought the book was OK. I didn't hate it, but I found it cliched and predictable.I found the characters to be somewhat dull and 2-dimensional, and a lot of them seemed to have a lot of anger and negativity. The so-called best friend of the protagonist seems to love her friend by offering good advice, but seems to turn her back on the emotional sufferings and baggage of bad decisions. She was a friend who seemed present only when it was convenient for her to be so. The various "mother" figures in the book were interesting and ... well, probably the only likeable characters that were really there. The writing and the story-telling, however, were quite good. I thought Gideon did a *great* job interweaving various social networking, texting, emailing, etc. to tell the story. I also felt that there were a lot of realistically drawn characters, but I felt that the "resolution" was altogether too easy for the lack of self-reflection and growth the characters seemed to exhibit or experience in the story.Overall, I would recommend to someone who likes suburban stories about the emotional struggles that we experience as a result of our own decisions. The book isn't challenging, but it's funny at times, light at times, thoughtful at times, and written well enough to not throw.
    • 3/5
      Entertaining and easy to read. Terrible ending.
    • 4/5
      This novel really is somewhat of a Bridget Jones’ Diary for midlife, although being in my mid-thirties I was quite captivated by it. The form of the novel is unique; it’s written partly in first person present tense, partly in screenplay, partly in answers to questions that the narrator has Googled, and partly in Facebook chats. The basic plot is that Alice Buckle, a 44-year-old wife, part time drama teacher, and mother of two, is invited to participate in a research survey about marriage. As she, Wife 22, engages in answering the questions and strikes up a dialogue with her correspondent, Researcher 101, her doubts and questions about her 20 year marriage come to the surface. Alice is a thoroughly human, flawed, and endearing protagonist. She alternately rails against the way technology has taken over our lives, and wonders whether she herself is addicted to Facebook. She begins to communicate things online to Researcher 101 that she could not dream of sharing with her husband, causing her to more deeply question her marriage and the path her life is taking. As she recounts her courtship with her husband, she becomes increasingly aware of how far they have drifted apart, and must grapple with whether they can find each other again. The novel turns out to be a nice blend of romance and comedy, with some drama thrown in. It’s equal parts hilarious and heart-tugging. Alice and her family could be any of us, and that’s what makes her story so relatable. A delightful read.
    • 3/5
      I could actually relate to Alice Buckle so of course I enjoyed it. This is what I consider a beach or pool read. You can pick it up read a few chapters and then not pick it up until the next weekend. If you like sweet happy endings then this is the book for you!!