It is impossible to feel for Sandy or have any type of sympathy for this character at all. Throughout the book, Sandy comes across as being completely wrong. Holden Caufield from The Catcher in the Rye has a similar predicament in characterization, but with one saving grace: Holden is meant to be wrong, the reader is meant to realize Holden is wrong, and before the end, he's called out as being wrong; and because of this flaw, we find a connection to ourselves underneath his elitist attitude. In Sandy's case, even if we are to realize that she is wrong, everyone who calls her wrong is more wrong and messed up than she is. Though the book has interesting elements that could have been developed further, Blume dithers. Sandy’s actions, like those of her masturbating visitor, are sexually motivated, but random and inexplicable. Sandy recoils when Norman calls her “wifey” on their wedding night, but she acts diminutively, like a little girl. She’s dissatisfied with Norman’s stolid demeanor and his mechanical approach to sex, and she’s dissatisfied with her life. Yet she does little to make any changes, and throughout the book, is acted on rather than acting. Sex comes to her: the masturbating man on the lawn, the man whispering in her ear, the unbidden advances of Gordon (who, as her gynecologist, has admired her little pussy for some time!), and the return of Shep, the man she thinks she should have married. So yes i think I can say I still enjoy a good sex scene in my books ;) and Judy Blue is very capable of that. The language is a bit rough but yeah. A few seconds later, Norman was lying dead on the floor, and Sandy was standing over him, his blood and brain matter decorating her blouse.

Wifey – Judy Blume on the Web Wifey – Judy Blume on the Web

To me, Blume got the inner life of this cowardly woman, Sandy, all wrong. And I can understand why that would happen. I think women, especially married women, but actually most of us, learn to protect ourselves from judgment and ostracism by writing so many layers of narrative about our selves, and then wrapping our real, vulnerable selves up in those narratives. Eventually, something that we were playing at becomes who we are in an instinctive way. But, I don’t think it becomes who we are in a complete way. When Norman launched himself at her, Sandy grabbed a 9-iron out of her lemon yellow golf bag and swung it at his head with all her might. With more than four million copies sold, Wifey is Judy Blume's hilarious, moving tale of a woman who trades in her conventional wifely duties for her wildest fantasies—and learns a lot about life along the way.In the introduction, Judy Blume explains that she left her marriage and took her two kids away and sat down after being a best selling children's author and wrote this book. While she says that this story isn't a representation of her own story, I have to wonder what the purpose of this particular book is - it oozes bitterness, discontent and not a single sound choice. It seems odd to me that the woman who made a way for herself to leave an unhappy place would write a book with such a desolate conclusion. Judy Blume's first book geared towards adults. I hated it! I wish I could give it negative stars here. It's such a shame since I remember really liking her books as a child and recommending her to my own girls. Oh holy crap. Wow. That was pretty great. This is as close to a romance novel as I will ever get even though it was pretty spectacular. Was this really what 1970 was like? You're 33 and married with two kids and dudes from all over want to bone you? You get obscene phone calls and every guy you meet wants to "do it" (italics original) with you? Will that happen to me when I'm 33? It sure isn't happening now. Is it just because everyone was a swinger then?

Wifey - Judy Blume - Google Books Wifey - Judy Blume - Google Books

November 20 2013: Hmm after my first time reading a Judy Blume novel (in this case Summer Sisters) I had expected a lot of her cause that book was awesome. Within this generic mishmash, parts of the book reminded me of other literature. Early on, Sandy daydreams that her husband has died. Like the woman in Kate Chopin’s “Story of an Hour,” who has just learned of her husband’s death, Sandy guiltily contemplates what Norman’s death would mean: “ Free, free, free. She’d never been free, could only imagine what it might be like.” overall, the book is very all right. it is not comical enough to poke fun at, and it is not good enough to really like. but it is a fast read, with no headaches; it is a fine one-day diversion. I don't know how I managed to get through this book -I have read straight porn that had more of a story than this book did.

It was hard to relate to the time period and their upper-middle class world. Wifey was raised to believe that to be a good wife you had to: "Make his interests your interests. Make his friends, your friends. When he's in the mood, you're in the mood. Dress to please him. Cook to please him. What else matters? A happy husband is the answer to a happy life." When that doesn't work out for every reason that you knew it wouldn't, (he loves his wife, can't abandon his family, why can't they just have this relationship on the side?), she realizes her kids don't need her like they once did, she has no place in her husbands interests of golf and tennis and pushy attempts and getting her to fit in at his country club, AND she finds out she has somehow contracted gonorrhea. That last was probably the fault of that married schlep who showed her tenderness, he spent a lot of time tenderizing other women before her, I gather. This book is the outtakes from every David Lynch movie. Not the blooper reel, but the scenes that Lynch cut to shave some minutes or just because they were unnecessary and boring. It is, in that way, a found-art piece of all the scraps of daily life and all the momentous decisions people make to be boring. I also got the impression that J. Blume is trying to play both sides of the fence, delivering the goods to readers expecting a modicum of titillation, and at the same time avoiding the complexity of Jong's writings & other texts coming out of the women's lib movement during that decade. When he lunged at her, Sandy didn't think, but simply grabbed the can of Lysol and sprayed him full in the face.

Wifey by Judy Blume - Audiobooks on Google Play Wifey by Judy Blume - Audiobooks on Google Play

Edit: I still can't bring myself to review this though I'm essentially doing that in the comments. Here's a newish intro Blume wrote for the book in 2004 that at least partially explains what in the hell she was thinking about. It strikes me that this isn't at all dissimilar to J.K. Rowling's The Casual Vacancy, a book that she threw like a grenade at her fans as if daring us all to ever say anything to her about wizards ever again. Wifey tries hard to be The Awakening. It tries and it fails. Where The Awakening had a somewhat sympathetic protagonist, Wifey's main protagonist is just annoying and dare I say it, ignorant. Where in The Awkening Edna came off as being a mature, insightful character, Wifey's Sandy, in contrast, seems more like a never-satisfied child.I can kind of picture Judy Blume, who did continue to write mildly creepy children's fiction and several other books from grown ups after this one, practically screaming inside because she just can't write another Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing and her marriage is a nightmare and she doesn't know what she wants from like anymore and this all just comes pouring out.