Review: Old-fashioned
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 12 25, 2011
My Wife's Story is a very old-fashioned story, suitable for a more sophisticated time. I could see this story in a magazine in the fifties or sixties, when the art of short story writing was kept in higher regard, and when a story could be told simply, but have this wonderful subtext. I could also see this, with minimal tweaking, as an Alfred Hitchcock Presents.MWS is very much about the nature of relationships. I could say the nature of marriage, but I'd say there is some spill over into friendship and familial bonds. The story that delights us, draws us closer to someone, perhaps even makes us fall in love, becomes the thing that later on makes us grit our teeth. The words are too familiar, the teller holds no more secrets or surprises.The wife at first glance might seem unsympathetic as we consider the people we know who bore us with a repetitive tale, but I believe this author wants you, us, to think about this more. To think about a woman who had the most interesting thing that will ever happen to her be ever increasingly a long time ago, and who just wants to feel special again. She's not the little girl on the ship, saving the day, and she's no longer the much-loved bride of an adoring groom either. She has the story, that's all, and her husband has no tolerance at all for the story, not an understanding of her need to tell it.In the words of Springsteen:Now I think I'm going down to the well tonightand I'm going to drink till I get my fillAnd I hope when I get old I don't sit around thinking about itbut I probably willYeah, just sitting back trying to recapturea little of the glory of, well time slips awayand leaves you with nothing, mister, butboring stories of glory days