The Reader's Shelf: Desperately Seeking Desperate Housewives in Print

Edited by Nancy Pearl -- Library Journal, 12/15/2005

The TV show Desperate Housewives has swept the nation like a busy homemaker’s dust mop. While the term “housewife” should be swept under the rug for good, embrace your inner domestic goddess and look at the multifaceted roles these women play, in both fiction and nonfiction.

Warren Adler captures the angst of a newlywed in THE HOUSEWIFE BLUES (Stonehouse Pr. 2001. ISBN 1-931304-66-1. pap. $19.95). Blushing bride Jenny leaves the familiar comforts of the Midwest to start a new life in New York with her urban-raised husband. Her demanding (and paranoid) mate cautions her about socializing with the neighbors. But Jenny just can’t help her social nature, and her less-than-ideal life could use some excitement. What ensues leads to personal growth for Jenny and an exciting conclusion for the reader.

WIFEY (Berkley: Penguin Group (USA). 2005. ISBN 0-425-20654-8. pap. $12.95) was best-selling children’s author Judy Blume’s first excursion into adult fiction, and it’s still a good choice for readers seeking a sexy and light romance. Sandy’s boredom with her husband manifests itself as a variety of illnesses, but then things get interesting when her restlessness leads her into the arms of many men, including her brother-in-law. Her husband doesn’t help matters by being almost too understanding of her indiscretions.

What happens when a high-powered, well-educated woman is transformed into a diaper bag–toting, spit-stained, stay-at-home mom? Danielle Crittenden, author of What Our Mothers Didn’t Tell Us: Why Happiness Eludes the Modern Woman, turns to fiction in AMANDA BRIGHT@HOME (Warner. 2004. ISBN 0-446-69246-8. pap. $13.95). Amanda views herself not as a homemaker—since she doesn’t feel her housekeeping skills are really up to par—but simply as being “at home.” The surprising rigors of her domestic life are a bit more than she bargained for, and Amanda’s constantly trying to strike a balance between the day-to-day tedium and the feeling that she should have stayed in the work force, surely a dilemma that many “retired” moms face.

In ANGRY HOUSEWIVES EATING BON BONS (Ballantine. 2004. ISBN 0-345-44282-2. pap. $13.95), Lorna Landvik introduces readers to a group of diverse housewives who belong to the same book club. Over three decades, the five women come together and support one another through child rearing, husbands, divorces, and the intricacies of daily life. As the book club and its members come into their own, it is renamed from the lackluster Freesia Court Book Club to the more apt Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons.

Four women living in a New York suburb had the big wedding, bought the big house, and started their families. But are they really happy? Pamela Redmond Satran explores their lives in BABES IN CAPTIVITY (Downtown: Pocket Bks. 2004. ISBN 0-7434-6355-2. pap. $13). After one of the women confesses her plan to make a dream come true, the dam breaks as each friend begins to explore the “what if” in their lives. Deirdre wants to start a singing career, and Anne dreams of leaving the corporate world and opening her own restaurant. Juliette pines for another baby, while Lisa, the one what has it all together—especially for a mother of four—faces a severe illness.

A group of housewives living the seemingly good life during the 1950s find themselves facing new challenges once their children have grown and they are either widowed or their husbands have left them in Kate Walbert’s OUR KIND: A NOVEL IN STORIES (Scribner. 2004. ISBN 0-7432-4559-8. $23; pap. 2004. ISBN 0-7432-4560-1. $12). Loosely tied together by a collective narrative “we,” the stories are full of pathos and emotion, serving as a reality check for anyone who thinks that the Fifties housewife was all about wearing pearls while cleaning the house and making the perfect casserole.

In DISPATCHES FROM A NOT-SO-PERFECT LIFE; OR, HOW I LEARNED TO LOVE THE HOUSE, THE MAN, THE CHILD (Three Rivers: Crown. 2004. ISBN 1-4000-4940-7. pap. $12), Faulkner Fox explores her own days of unhappiness and the juggling act of being a full-time mother while still trying to recognize some semblance of her former self as a writer and college lecturer. She addresses her own personal loneliness, the grueling pressure to raise the perfect child, and the burden of running a household with seemingly little help. Few are brave enough to speak up in such an intelligent and open manner.

Throughout history, most women had few career options except to be a housewife. Marilyn Yalom’s fascinating, thoughtful, and thought-provoking A HISTORY OF THE WIFE (HarperPerennial: HarperCollins. 2002. ISBN 0-06-093156-6. pap. $14.95) explores the variety of roles wives fulfilled throughout history from biblical times to the 20th century. Yalom even examines the marital dynamics of Bill and Hillary Clinton in a chapter entitled “Toward the New Wife 1950–2000.”