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The Love Wife Audiobook
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(3.00) - 668 listener ratings
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Publisher Description
From the massively talented Gish Jen comes a barbed, moving, and stylistically dazzling new novel about the elusive nature of kinship. The Wongs describe themselves as a "half half" family, but the actual fractions are more complicated, given Carnegie's Chinese heritage, his wife Blondie's WASP background, and the various ethnic permutations of their adopted and biological children. Into this new American family comes a volatile new member.Her name is Lanlan. She is Carnegie's Mainland Chinese relative, a tough, surprisingly lovely survivor of the Cultural Revolution, who comes courtesy of Carnegie's mother's will. Is Lanlan a very good nanny, a heartless climber, or a posthumous gift from a formidable mother who never stopped wanting her son to marry a nice Chinese girl? Rich in insight, buoyed by humor, The Love Wife is a hugely satisfying work
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"What is good about this book is that it undercuts the cliche of the always wise Chinese eespecially elders. The old mother is a nightmare, controlling her son from beyond the grave. The immigrant relative, Lanlan, plays a game of seducing the daughters of the family with 'Chinese wisdom' while seducing the husband in another way. The multiple narrators work well in the audio version, maybe not so well in print. The narration is heavy with the preteen, 11 year old Wendy, and the reader must suspend disbelief at the narrator's maturity and powers of observation, but it works ok. All in all, a kind of rollicking, free wheeling narrative of contemporary family life with detail that incorporates the immigrant experience."
— Beverly (4 out of 5 stars)
The Love Wife Listener Reviews
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" This was an interesting story- Jen remains emotionally engaged with her characters throughout the narrative. The entire story is told in first-person account, interview style, and yet the sensation and imagery do not get lost. I had a lot of fun with it. "
— Sara, 1/21/2014 -
" Like the best novels this one transported me into another world...this one the life of a cross cultural family. It made me think about race and parenting in ways I had not before. "
— Rachel, 12/26/2013 -
" An interesting novel about a family composed of a white woman, her asian husband, their two adopted asian children and their biological baby, and what happens to their lives when a relative from China comes to live with them. It was ultimately a good book, but was very slow going for me. also took a while to get used to the multiple narrators not just in each chapter, but often on each page. "
— Jennifer, 12/13/2013 -
" Gish Jen: another HOW HAVE I NEVER READ HER BEFORE NOW? author. And where, please, can I find other excellently-written poignant, painful, funny, and incredibly readable novels that address immigration, transracial marriage, transracial/transnational adoption issues, and first/second generation American dynamics? The constantly shifting points of view can be occasionally tricky to wrap your head around, especially when the narrators change 5 times on a single page, but ultimately the conversational flow of the narration is really skillfully done, and allows the reader to really jump inside everyone's head and get to know all the characters intimately. "
— Katie, 12/10/2013 -
" I found this an interesting story about a family -- couple in their late 40s, with teenage adopted daughters & a biological baby. As part of his mother's will, a distant relative from China comes to live with the family for a few years. I found the method of story telling -- much like a conversation or an interview about the past with people interrupting to add facts less compelling. It was an ok book, but not very compelling. "
— Suzanne, 11/26/2013 -
" Terrible ending...it just kind of ends with little resolution. The whole book just made me sad for everyone. "
— Alison, 11/12/2013 -
" I'm on page 170 or something. It look several pages to get into the story--the narrative style was a bit distracting--but now I'm totally used to it and wondering "what's next?" "
— Karol, 11/12/2013 -
" interesting portrait of a family. best if you have other people to discuss it with. kind of depressing! "
— Lindsey, 11/1/2013 -
" fun novel about a modern blended family, I like her novels, and find them funny, this one got a little off track "
— Alaine, 8/30/2013 -
" loved it; witty and possible true, great read :) "
— Joan, 8/22/2013 -
" Couldn't take all the switching around from narrator to narrator. Didn't finish it. "
— Dereka, 7/10/2013 -
" An interesting look at a diverse family "
— Elisabeth, 5/10/2013 -
" Portrays the difficulties that an interracial couple encounter when the husband's mother comes to live with the couple (from China) and is extremely overbearing. An interesting commentary on marriage and on interracial relationships. "
— Sarah, 4/20/2013 -
" Read over a vacation. Not bad, easy enough to read without having to focus too hard. I liked how the book was written in regards to how the characters are speaking. "
— Saylaveev, 1/3/2013 -
" This isn't a fantastic book, but it was a good read for my airplane ride. It has an unusual style which I am sometimes annoyed by, but the way this is written works quite well. "
— Whitney, 6/1/2012 -
" Chinese American man marries "Blondie" adopts two Chinese girls, has one bio son. Complicated multi-generational, multi-ethnic story. "
— Bonnie, 11/26/2011 -
" This one was not my favorite. "
— Jenn, 8/11/2011 -
" Like Jen's other novels, The Love Wife concerns lives of Chinese immigrants. However, it also addressed adoption and what it is like living with someone with Alzheimer's. While the novel got a bit rushed in the middle and end, I loved the beginning. "
— Ke, 3/8/2011 -
" The further I got into it, the less appealing all the characters became. "
— Melissa, 8/22/2010 -
" I loved how this book is told from every family member's perspective, as if you sat down with them over a long dinner and they were telling you their story. I think Jen paints the ugliness of bigotry well, showing us it comes in many forms. "
— Ronnica, 8/18/2010 -
" Read over a vacation. Not bad, easy enough to read without having to focus too hard. I liked how the book was written in regards to how the characters are speaking. "
— Saylaveev, 7/10/2010 -
" This book is disturbing. It pushes deep buttons. There was something about it I didn't like - although I wouldn't stop anyone from reading it. "
— Pamela, 3/22/2010 -
" I liked how the book explores the struggle between one's cultural and national identity, espicially for the Chinese-American family. I also liked the study of a modern family with both biological and adopted children. However, the ending is weak. "
— Chris, 2/5/2010 -
" . . . so that's why my mother-in-law is the way she is. "
— Jennie, 10/9/2009 -
" This was an interesting story- Jen remains emotionally engaged with her characters throughout the narrative. The entire story is told in first-person account, interview style, and yet the sensation and imagery do not get lost. I had a lot of fun with it. "
— Sara, 8/26/2009 -
" an enjoyable read, but the pacing and the drama at the end didn't really suit me. "
— Nicole, 8/10/2009 -
" Couldn't take all the switching around from narrator to narrator. Didn't finish it. "
— Dereka, 6/24/2009
About Gish Jen
Gish Jen is the author of three previous novels and a collection of stories. She is the recipient of numerous honors, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Radcliffe Institute fellowship, a Lannan Literary Award for Fiction, and a Strauss Living Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She is a graduate of Harvard University and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop.
About the Narrators
Linda Stephens is a seasoned audiobook narrator whose readings include Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell, which won an AudioFile Earphones Award and was a finalist for the Audie Award for Best Narration.
Nancy Wu has narrated audiobooks since 2004, winning three AudioFile Earphones Awards. A New York theater, television, and film actor, she has recorded in studios all over the world—from Italy to Switzerland to Thailand. Her credits include Law & Order, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Hope & Faith, All My Children, Made for Each Other, and the Oscar-nominated film Frozen River.