Thursday, April 30, 2009

The Pilot's Wife by Anita Shreve

I'm really glad I re-read this book. I bought it years ago. Long enough ago that I wasn't yet married. Long enough ago that I didn't really 'get it'. I knew it was well-written back then, but I never went on to read any more of Shreve's writing, because I don't think I was quite ready for it. I was just a bit too young.
Now, is a completely different story. The entire time I was reading it I was wondering why haven't I read more of her? She is a fabulous writer. She has a great sense of description for setting, character and emotion. I genuinely cared about these people and their lives. Although I'd read it before I still wanted to know what was happening next. What would she find out?
If you haven't yet read The Pilot's Wife, the premise is this: a pilot's wife is woken one night by the airline representitive to face her worst fear, her husband's plane has gone down. As the story progresses you experience her stages of grief as well as discover that perhaps her marriage wasn't exactly what she thought it was. It looks at the question: 'How well can we really know another person'.
Shreve does an excellent job weaving past and present scenes so that you are never lost, but rather getting valuable insight into this relationship.
I really enjoyed this book (much better than the first time around) and look forward to reading more of her books.

1 comment:

Mary (Bookfan) said...

I liked this book, much more than the movie. Not sure if I'll get around to reading it again - the TBR list is about a mile long right now.