The Senator’s Wife by Sue Miller

 Sue Miller has a lovely writing style and I always enjoy her books. I found this one a bit weird, however. The ending is a huge shock and really blows everything apart, as it’s meant to, but, on the other hand, it was a bit difficult to connect it with the rest of the story.

This finely wrought tale, set in the seventies, concerns two marriages — those of Meri and Nathan and Senator Tom Naughton and his wife Delia. Nathan, young and ambitious, is starry-eyed when he and Meri move next door to the much older Senator, only to discover that Delia lives alone. Meri, prickly and resentful about her past life and her sacrificing her career for Nathan, makes friends with Delia, finding in her a mentor. Delia, friendly and magnanimous, is much more likeable than Meri. They meet the Senator eventually, discovering that he is just as charming as his wife.

When Delia leaves her in charge of the house while she’s in Paris, Meri, bored and frustrated, starts going through her things, discovering old secrets about the marriage. The book also tells of Delia’s romance and marriage in flashbacks, and why she hasn’t got a divorce from her unfaithful husband, and even remains his lover. The children are amazed by this.

I can’t say much more about the plot without giving too much away. The end is convincing and somewhat believable considering the characters of Meri and Senator Tom, however it really is one of the strangest that I’ve ever read. Some could find it sordid but Sue Miller writes it so well and it’s so understandable that it really isn’t. I just wonder whether it would ever happen in real life. 

I’d never say that in a book club though because I complained about one of the character’s sudden madness in Geraldine Brooks’s Year of Wonder as unconvincing and someone snapped that I must have led a very sheltered life!

I read this for Rose City Reader’s The TBR 26 in ‘26 Challenge. I got it at the Little Library nearby and I’ll return it soon. (I’ve done well there)!