CONTACT CAROLINE
facebook
rss
tumblr
twitter
goodreads
youtube

  • Home
  • Write Away Blog
  • Books
    • Books
    • Trompe l’Oeil
    • Heart Land
    • Gothic Spring
    • Ballet Noir
    • Book Excerpts
  • Video Interviews
  • Press
    • News
    • Print Interviews
    • Plays
    • Ballet Noir in the Press
    • Trompe l’Oeil In The Press
    • Gothic Spring In The Press
    • Heart Land Reviews
  • Contact
  • About
  • Resources
    • Writer Resources
    • Favorite Blogs
    • Favorite Artists



At the Half Way Mark and Slogging

Nov 07, 2012
by Caroline Miller
Anita Shreve, Oprah Book Club, The Pilot's Wife
0 Comment

I’m half way through The Pilot’s Wife by Anita Shreve. It was one of my recent $1 finds. (See Blog 10/10/12) I picked it up because Oprah’s Book Club recommended it, though I don’t know why. I’ve always been disappointed by their choices.

So far, my experience with Shreve’s novel does nothing to reverse that my opinion. I am on page 150 and struggling to go on.

Like other titles I’ve read on Oprah’s list, this book is about “relationships.” The story focuses on the widow of a recently deceased, commercial pilot. He’s been killed in a explosion while flying over Ireland and the mystery, if it can be called that, is to discover whether or not the husband was guilty of pilot error or committed suicide, taking 170 passengers with him. While the wife waits for an answer, her thoughts go back in time to retrace significant moments in her marriage.

I don’t mind relationship books. Elizabeth Kostova’s The Swan Thieves dwells on the experiences of two women who had troubled dealings with a mentally disturbed artist. Andrei Makine’s The Crime of Olga Arbylina explores a mother’s feelings about her perverted devotion to her son. But those two books took me beyond the ordinary and posed larger questions about love and life. So far, Shreve’s book seems little more than a long equivalent of “Can this Marriage be Saved?” I read it as a voyeur, peeking into a discordant relationship and hoping the ending won’t be as trite as a marriage counselor’s recommendation that the couple institute date night. In fact, I pray Shreve has some trick to play. I would love to be overwhelmed and forced to eat my words.

Footnote: I have finished the book since I wrote this blog. Shreve had a trick up her sleeve but it was as predictable as the ending. The wife finds a new love. One assumes they live happily ever after.

The Pilot's Wife

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Coutesy of Wikipedia.org)

 

Social Share

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

*
*

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Contact Caroline at

carolinemiller11@yahoo.com

Portland, Oregon author Caroline Miller had distinguished careers as an educator, union president, elected official and artist/advocate.

Her play, Woman on the Scarlet Beast, was performed at the Post5 Theatre, Portland, OR, January/February 2015

Caroline published a serialized novelette, Marie Eau-Claire, on the website, The Colored Lens.  She also published the story Gustav Pavel,  a parable about ordinary lives, choice and alternate potential, on the website Fixional.co.

Caroline has published four novels

  • Ballet Noir
  • Trompe l’Oeil
  • Gothic Spring
  • Heart Land

Subscribe to Caroline’s Blog


 

Archives

Categories

YouTube-logo-inline2 To access and subscribe to my videos on YouTube, Click Here and click the Subscribe button.

Banner art “The Receptive” by Charlie White of Charlie White Studio

Web Admin: ThinPATH Systems, Inc
support@tp-sys.com

Subscribe to Caroline's Blog


 

Contact Caroline at

carolinemiller11@yahoo.com

Sitemap | Privacy Notice

AUDIO & VIDEO VAULT

View archives of Caroline’s audio and videos interviews.


Copyright © Books by Caroline Miller
Posting....