Without her son to brighten her life, Marta has stopped taking
her medication. She desperately loves her son,
but it's not so clear about her much older husband and his
domineering mother. Hector, her husband, rescued her after her
parents died in an accident. He married her, and since then she has
led a very restricted life trying to be a “good wife”
following the precepts set out in How to Be a Good Wife, a book given
to her by her mother-in-law.
Without her pills, she begins to have
either memories of her past, or hallucinations. It's unclear which.
Marta lives in a state of helplessness and frustration. We wants to
find out about the memories, but can't seem to make adequate plans to
do so. Perhaps she is the victim of a plot to keep her from
remembering and finding out the truth.
I found the first part of this book
very slow going. We learn about Marta and her husband, see her
walking through her day, and learn about her love for her son, but
the narrative plods. In the second half of the book the pace
quickens, but by then I'd lost interest in the characters. Since the
story is told through Marta's skewed perceptions some of the
interactions with other are rather two-dimensional.
I didn't enjoy this book. I found the
ending disappointing after all the tension leading up to Marta trying
to find the truth. I think if the author had been cleverer, she
could have provided a satisfactory ending no matter whether Marta was
mad or a victim.
I reviewed this book for Net Galley.
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