This took me 9 weeks to get through. The premise of the story sounded interesting, but it was too slow. ( )

Interesting premise - young minister takes position in small town where it's been raining for - weeks? months? - Not sure, but a long time, and it rains for the duration of the book. The thing is, the book is so overwhelmingly somber, and there is no insight into the characters, what they're thinking or feeling, or why. "Noah's wife" is an example, in that everyone is someone's wife or husband or mother, or whatever. No characters are developed in their own right, and I, at least, never became interested enough in any of them to really care about them, or what happened to them. Even the town, caught up in the troubles of the rain, which could have been a heartbreaking thing, or transformative thing, is just a sketchy background to sketchy characters. I did finish it, but that's more due to the fact of my stubborn nature and the comparative short length. ( )

It wasn’t always raining, but for the townspeople who have not yet fled, it is beginning to seem as if the rain has been falling forever. Many have abandoned the town, but those who remain are slowly wearing down; weary, they spend most of their time in introspective soul-searching as they question their own decisions. And yet, they cling to the improbability of dawning rainless days, diminishing puddles, and the return of sunshine.

Noah, a man of God called to serve their nestled-in-the-hills church, arrives with his wife in time to conduct a funeral. As the relentless rain continues to fall, they meet the disparate group of quirky characters populating the small town, each wondering if their hope has been misplaced. Should they continue to believe it will get better, that the rain will end? Should they stay or should they go?

With a nod to the Biblical narrative of Noah, the forty chapters of this book contain a variety of animals, boats, incessant rain, a white dove, and a flood. But the dreary rain, with its heavy clouds and persistent greyness, assumes the role of a foreboding character rather than an occurrence in the telling of this tale; ultimately, it overwhelms both the story and the reader.

With a narrative that is heavy on tell and extremely light on show, the drawn-out, fable-like story tends toward repetition as it drags along. And, although well-developed, the characters feel more like individually-drawn studies than cohesive parts of a whole brought together to tell a tale.

The author’s imagery is breathtaking and the finely-detailed writing is beautiful. Thought-provoking, “Noah’s Wife” propels readers on a pensive quest to explore faith, commitment, courage, strength, compassion, and hope as they ponder the choices they themselves might make. ( )