Young Wives - Softcover

Goldsmith, Olivia

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0002261014 ISBN 13: 9780002261012

Publisher: HarperCollins, 2000

Synopsis

The battle of the sexes hasn’t ended – it’s just moved to suburbia. Now Olivia Goldsmith returns to the trenches in a new novel as unforgettable as The First Wives Club, about women let down by their men and the law.

Michelle
Rescued from an abusive upbringing by her ‘perfect’ husband Frank, her life in her beautiful house in middle-class Westchester is the happy ending she always dreamed of. She has never worried about how Frank pays for it all until, suddenly, traumatically, she is brought face to face with the ugly truth.

Jada
Jada is a worker. But Clinton, her husband, has been unemployed for years forcing her to be the bread winner, look after the children and run the house. One of the few black professional women in her neighbourhood, Jada is isolated in many ways but she finally gives Clinton an ultimatum. The consequences are disastrous.

Angie
When Jada and Michelle begin their quest for justice, Angie is the lawyer determined to help them. But she has similar problems of her own. Married just a year ago, she’s been shell-shocked to find out the truth about her wealthy, Ivy League husband’s extracurricular activities.

Moving, angry and bitterly funny, this is the story of how friendships formed in adversity helps Michelle, Jada and Angie fight back.

About this title

Review:

The women in Olivia Goldsmith novels always share the same unfortunate affliction: they have been dumped on by men--usually from a very great height. Following this formula, Young Wives is rather like her best-seller The First Wives Club (the film of the book starred Diane Keaton, Bette Midler and Goldie Hawn), set a decade earlier.

Three women from different walks of life, with different styles and different tastes, with the usual common denominator: dishonest, lazy, arrogant, selfish, good-for-nothing husbands (choose adjective to fit).

Angie is a lawyer about to celebrate her first wedding anniversary to her drop-dead-gorgeous, perfectly groomed, Ivy-League catch. Except the catch has a catch of his own to drop--and it's not exactly conducive to a long and happy marriage.

Michelle and Jada meanwhile are best friends, in spite of their many differences. Beautiful, long-legged blonde Mich is happily married to Frank whose role is to provide. Everything. Mich and her two children want for nothing. Jada, the only black career girl in the neighbourhood, is married to Clinton, an unemployed builder who can't even raise the enthusiasm to finish the kitchen floor. As the sole breadwinner, Jada is forced to work longer and longer hours to provide for her three kids.

It's not long before the worms turn. And, just like those First Wives, our Young Wives have a whole lot of avenging to be doing. Thankfully though, it really doesn't matter whether or not you have previously read or seen Olivia Goldsmith's work. Young Wives stands on its own as a ripping yarn, overflowing with characters so real you feel like you know them--or want to know them. Almost double the size of the average novel, this is a book you will make excuses to stay home and read. It's also a film waiting to happen... --Carey Green

Review:

Acclaim for Olivia Goldsmith:

‘One of our most acute observers of modern marriage and betrayal’
Good Housekeeping

‘Full of wisecracks, and gossip... Olivia Goldsmith can keep you reading’
Cosmopolitan

‘Goldsmith’s characters are wilful, robust, amusing and delightfully credible’
Mail on Sunday

About this edition

• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0002261014
• ISBN 13: 9780002261012
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 528