Feb 18 2008
Week #2: The Senator’s Wife
With all of our readers ready to move on with more Book-#2-Talk, let’s go ahead and post comments here about chapters 7 through 10. I don’t know about you, but I’m chompin’ at the bit to say a few things. And all that chompin’ aggravates my TMJ, so why waste another minute.
Your thoughts? (No spoilers, please.) 
14 Responses to “Week #2: The Senator’s Wife”
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I’ve got to say it. The conversation between Tom and Nathan in Chapter 8 made it clear that Delia has enabled Tom’s cheating behavior, the one he sees as a ‘disease’ in Washington’s political realm:
Tom: “The problem here is the g*ddam Democrats, who sleep down… as opposed to the Republicans. They sleep up… where all is Episcopalian and quiet as death itself, and no one ever has to hear a thing about it.”
Seems to be his reasoning for allowing himself so many affairs. Meanwhile, I still don’t understand how Delia let it continue when she didn’t believe in his thinking with regard to political philandering.
Now we get to see how Meri’s world parallels Delia’s… and hope she doesn’t fall victim to becoming a pushover as well.
ITCM: Wasn’t that a great quote - I was really struck by that, being new to the whole Democrat and Republican landscape (I only just learned what President’s Day was in 2005).
His motivation and justification for affairs is never made explicit although her permission is alluded to a few times. I think power seems to be the underlying theme of much of the indiscretions and regrets made public in the book. Both losses of and gaining of power.
But I’ve got to say it. The book twists and turns in weird and wacky ways. Just when I think maybe we’re being set up for Meri discovering or experiencing something monumental, the tale shifts to Delia in the past. At the beginning, I was immediately put off by the book being told in third person but then I realized that because the book had to do with intimacy and lack thereof, the narrative distance was probably a deliberate ploy by the author. Or maybe not. But it struck me as so.
There are many loose ends though that the shifting from Delia’s tale to Meri’s tale never does quite clear up. I’ll come back to that when we cover the end of the book though.
The voyeurism is interesting too. It reminds me of the tale Holy Daughter has been telling lately - once upon a time there was a man with a hollow tooth and in that hollow tooth, there was a chest and inside that chest there was an envelope and inside that envelope there was a letter. And that letter read, “Once upon a time there was a man with a hollow tooth and…” (tale repeats to infinity)….
By voyeurism I mean how we the reader are reading and trying to understand their collective and intertwined lives and HERstories, just as Meri is reading Delia’s letters and trying to make sense of Delia’s choices, just as Delia is a docent and historical interpreter to Anne Apthorp and HERstory.
Best quotes in this section were page 169..”I think the arrangement, as you put it, was immortality.” That’s classic and I think so apropos of his larger than life political and Casanova lifestyle.
And page 192 was my fave, when Delia stands up to Nancy on the topic of Tom disobligating and disobliging them by rationalizing that since she’s the one less hurt, offended and disturbed, she’s the perfect caregiver. That was an interesting shift in power at a time when Delia was clearly feeling vulnerable to the manipulations of her adult children and other life circumstances.
That was powerful.
And is it just me or is there a lot of talk of sex and drinking in this book? Not in a smutty and drunken, debauchery kind of way, but enough that I notice it.
There are interesting parallels and juxtapositions with Meri and Delia - I think they’re made more obvious though, in the chapters to come - post pregnancy. And with that pregnant pause, I’ll leave it at that.
@Holy - Funny how Democrats vs. Republicans handle themselves in the public eye, isn’t it? Sometimes it makes me want to take off my Republican hat and become a Libertarian, or whatever those liberals call themselves.
I am sensing that whole power thing as I approach Delia butting heads with Nancy in bringing Tom home under her care. She’s loving the control factor way too much. It’s almost as if she has Tom under her thumb by letting him carry on as he did while standing beside him as the devoted wife. Ick.
The twisting and turning is making me feel as if I’m on a roller coaster - another reason to finish and just get the whole thing over with. I’d like to see all those loose ends wrapped up nicely. That’s my favorite kind of ending!
Holy Daughter’s tale is great - perfect timing for us in reading this book.
And oh yes, page 192… powerful indeed. Causes one to pause and think about who was really hurt here, and who should be best suited to care for the person who hurt them.
Nope, not just you. Lots of sex and alcohol in this book. Such is the life in Washington? A part of the ‘disease’?
Another pregnant pause… I’m done for now.
You both nailed it…
So I am pausing….since I finished the book.
@Becca - Yes, I think we’ve picked up on it.
@All - While reading chapter 14 this afternoon, this paragraph brought a certain connection between Delia/Tom & Meri/Asa to light:
“If it weren’t also shocking to her that she, that she and Asa, could be the cause of such revulsion. She felt a sudden sense, the first sense she’d had, of being somehow in it together. Asa included in the old lady’s disgust. Asa, wronged.”
Bingo.
No comment
…but I am looking forward to hearing your thoughts when you finish the book.
@Becca & Holy - I’m going to finish reading it today, then we can go ahead with the final thoughts. Any objections? Where are you in the book, Holy?
@All - Done! And now I’m seeing spots with all that flashing forward and backward. Oh yes, and I’m also quite sure of the fact that Holy is clairvoyant.
So how’d you like that ending? I’m undecided…
I think that what Meri did was quite odd, but Tom’s actions were status quo, just because he had a stroke why should anything change. And maybe that had to be the straw that did finally break Delia’s proverbial back? And I am so disappointed in the fact that Meri never told her husband the truth, but I wonder if somehow, there is that unsaid, he knows, if the unwritten is that Delia or one of the children made him aware, and the cycle starts anew in another family? I think that it is sad that Meri did what she did and then would lie by omission if that is what it is called.
@Becca - Throughout the book, I found Meri’s lack of maturity despicable. The woman carried an evil streak! Only at the very end after learning of Delia’s passing did she show any remorse for her actions, and yet she continued to be dishonest with Nathan by hiding the truth from him. And while she finally realized that over time her marriage and love for Nathan could become as deep as that between Delia/Tom, Meri seems oblivious to the role of trust - as if keeping her dirty deeds underground would keep their relationship intact.
I found it hard to enjoy this novel.
The book feels like so long ago now. Was that only last weekend that I read it? Wow.
I wasn’t a big fan of Meri but I did relate to her on a couple levels. I got her first day with her son disconnect - but epidurals, long labours, and little to no prior experience with babies will do that, I now suspect. Not to mention post-partem depression.
I was cheesed that it looked as if Meri’s husband might have been cheating on her at work with a couple of obvious hints in the book, and yet nothing materialized with that. Perhaps the movie (Jennifer Aniston will be starring in it, I guess?) will delve into that and finish that better.
I liked the storyline with the breastfeeding. There is something voyeurist and sexual and taboo about it, from a societal perspective, even today.
But it did seem to end funny. To not have any closure with Delia seemed strange to me, especially given that they were neighbors and had to run into each other all the time.
But I enjoyed the book. It was exactly what I needed to read last weekend on my girlie weekend at home alone with my daughter, as we ensconced ourselves with chick flics and girlie activities.
The chapter 14 quote was powerful, in retrospect. A good chunk of her memories of Asa as a baby will be wrapped up in horrific memories, once would have to think.
Have fun with your sci fi read next month - I’ll catch you on the next mainstream bloggerville read.
@Holy - Your viewpoints are always so refreshingly honest. Wishing you were joining us in our sci-fi read, but won’t let you stray too far from the club.
I read the books while I was on my trip. I enjoyed the twists and turns, and alternate points of view, but found myself disliking Meri for her passivity and her snoopiness.
I detested the ending, it was very unsatisfying. It depressed me for a couple of days. I realize that I, as a reader, can’t dictate how he/she tells the story - I can decide how I react to the story.
Was the ending in character for Meri? Probably. Was it in character for Delia & Tom? Definitely. Was it necessary to blow things up like that to tell the story? Can’t say… I sure didn’t enjoy it.
I did object to the flyleaf copy which indicated that “at the end… healing grace”. I would not call that ending healing at all for the characters… sad, explosive, provocative, finding bottom… but not healing at all.
@JeriM - Amen.