Here’s another book review for all of you, any of you, who might actually be reading. Enjoy. This book took me by surprise, a fun and wonderful surprise.
Book Review Wellesley Wives
When this book opens, we meet four very different women, who are all part of the Wellesley scene with wealth, expensive homes, jewels, cars, etc. Popsy, the one I would consider the main character, though the book switches points of view between the four, is married to Peter, and they’ve had a long happy marriage. Her two daughters, Lily and Rosie, and Sandra, Popsy’s best friend, married to Peter’s business partner make up the rest of the quartet of women. They seem to have everything anyone could want. And then, one by one, for various reasons, their lives fall apart, beginning with the news that the business is going bankrupt. Through adversity and trials, losing money, a husband’s unfaithfulness, another husband’s desire to try swinging and some shocking revelations about one of the other women, you wonder if and how they will survive. And if they do, will love and friendship remain?
When I began the book, I wasn’t sure I would like it. But Popsy is such an engaging character, warm and accepting, loyal and unflappable, and I wanted to know what would happen to her. I was glad I stuck it out, because as their lives unfold, we see how these four women do more than merely survive. They grow; they adjust; they triumph. Each woman, in herself and through the support of the others, becomes stronger, finds something in herself she probably didn’t even know was there. Their lives are a journey in this story, and each of them took me along for the trip, and damn, was I ever glad to go.
So, I started out early in the story not sure if I would end up caring about these women to rooting for them and cheering at the end. I went from only liking Popsy to caring deeply about each woman. For me, the power of a book is in its characters. And in these four Wellesley wives, I met four unique and interesting women, not always perfect, not always wonderful, but oh so very human and believable, four women I’d be proud to call my friends. I was sad when the book ended, and I still think about them and wonder what they’re doing, imagining them as they continue on their fictional life paths. And I’m still cheering for them all the way.
By Suzy Duffy