Today is another review for the Literary Wives blogging club, in which we discuss the depiction of wives in fiction. If you have read the book, please participate by leaving comments on any of our blogs.
Be sure to read the reviews and comments of the other wives!
- Naomi of Consumed By Ink
- Rebecca of Bookish Beck
This month we welcome a new member, Kate of booksaremyfavoriteandbest! She will join in for the next review in June.
My Review
Set in an undefined time that is probably the 1950s or 60s, Mrs. March is a character study of a woman disintegrating. This all begins at her favorite pastry shop. Mrs. March is a woman highly concerned with appearances. She is married to George March, a writer whose most recent novel is a hit. She is figuratively torn asunder when the shop owner asks her if she minds being depicted in George’s book as the main character, Johanna. Mrs. March hasn’t exactly read the book, but she knows that Johana is an ugly whore whose clients don’t even want to be with her.
Mrs. March immediately becomes obsessed by the idea that he has portrayed her and that everyone is talking about it. She doesn’t read the book, which might be a reasonable reaction, but she destroys a few copies and roots through George’s desk trying to discover his secrets. There she finds an article about a missing teenager in Maine and immediately begins to believe that George, who periodically visits a cabin in the same town, has had something to do with it.
This novel takes a deep look at the psychological behavior of a woman who is unraveling. At times it is darkly funny, sometimes tipping nearly to absurdism. Mrs. March is not likable, her behavior is often outrageous, yet it’s hard to turn away from the page.
What does this book say about wives or about the experience of being a wife?
It’s hard to answer this question, actually, because we don’t see much of George. You have to wonder in the first place what would make George give such an unpleasant character as Johanna all of his wife’s rather distinct mannerisms, especially since most of the time he seems affectionate and soothing to her. Artists can be clueless, but it also seems clear that Mrs. March is so self-obsessed that she is detached from everyone, even her son.
What does the poor woman have to do all day except clean up things she doesn’t want her maid to see and prance around town in her fur coat shopping? It’s enough to drive anyone mad. Yet is seems that no one is stopping her from doing whatever she wants to except, possibly, the notion of how it would look if she, say, got a job.
And how things look seems to be the dominating force in her life. We get a few glimpses into her childhood where her cold mother taught her this priority.
George has his secrets, but he is really not at all important in this novel. Mrs. March is able to adjust her notion of George instantly, thinking he’s a murderer while preparing his birthday party. What a book!
whatmeread 
You’re right: there is such a focus on appearances in the novel. Even, disturbingly, the fact that the protagonist doesn’t seem to recognize herself in a mirror, or thinks she’s seeing other people when in fact it’s a reflection. It’s a powerful representation of some kind of dissociative disorder.
I didn’t remember the part about not recognizing herself. That’s a good point!
I also felt as though George was a big nothing in this book. But I wanted more from him. I wondered what more from him might do to the story.
I think we all agree, though, that Mrs. March is too disconnected from everyone. But now I’m wondering if she fell apart because she was disconnected or is she disconnected because she started falling apart a long time ago?
I think she was disconnected because she was never quite all there! I have a theory about George, too, that like many people who are cheating on their spouses, he was using his book as a way to villainize her. After all, you don’t have to feel as guilty about cheating if you can find things wrong with your spouse.
I hadn’t thought of that!
Not that there wasn’t anything wrong, mind.
I kinda feel that not having even made the effort to read her husband’s book means she deserved all she got! It sounds quite interesting as a concept though – it would annoy me that it’s never really explained why he did it.
That would have been the first reaction I would have had. He was having an affair, so I think he did it because, when you want to split with someone, I believe, you start finding things wrong with them, as opposed to the other way around, although it could be both. In which case, you find more things wrong with them.
Yes, I see what you mean – interesting thought, and I think you could be right. As for gaslighting, I wondered if maybe it had all been in her imagination and that it wasn’t really based on her at all? (Based only on what you’ve said, obviously – I haven’t read it.)
It sounded like it might be. People recognized it was her from the characters’ quirks.
He might have been gaslighting her, though.