Expert Book Reviews

Liane Moriarty has become a best-selling novelist in the UK and is slowly grabbing an American audience. I would not say she's a great novelist, in various respects her writing style reminds me of most of the other writers that grace the best-seller lists. Like many contemporary writers, Moriarty feels the need to tell the reader everything about her characters or explain the plot and theme of her novel, as opposed to just trusting the reader to well, figure things out on their own. She's not a subtle writer and doesn't quite have a flair for language that some of the more literary and accomplished novelists do, but she is a step above Jennifer Cruisie, Jane Green, Helen Fielding, and a few other female contemporary writers who unfortunately are associated with annoying chick-lit category of fiction. (Who came up with that category name by the way? It's sort of misogynistic. What ever happened to the far better category - "women's contemporary fiction" or how about just "general fiction"? That's actually where Ms. Moriarty's novel belongs - general/contemporary women's fiction.)

The story is about how the little decisions people make affect others in ways that they can't possibly begin to imagine. To ensure the reader gets that - there's an epilogue spelling out how if the characters in the novel made different decisions...their lives and the lives of everyone they knew would turn out differently. Also, we can't blame ourselves for everything - since our decisions and choices aren't isolated but rather they are compounded by the decisions and choices of everyone else. In this respect, The Husband's Secret reminded me a great deal of the film The Cloud Atlas.

Other than that - it was an entertaining and thoughtful novel, with the writer taking the time to delve into the messy emotions. Told in a stream of consciousness style, and in the limited points of view of three suburban Australian wives and mothers. Did at times feel like a throw-back tale to the 1970s and 80s, even though it took place in more modern times.

I do recommend it, but with the caveat that the writer does explain more than she should, and it is told in stream-of-consciousness, which is not everyone's cup of tea. Personally, I adore stream-of-consciousness...but again, not to everyone's taste. Also it's female centric, the men are important, but we are never in their point of view and they do come across as rather weak and inadequate. If you have issues with how the male characters in the series Downton Abbey are portrayed, you'll have difficulties with how they are portrayed here.
… (lisätietoja)