[.ca] The Sunday Wife: A Novel (ISBN 0786890444)

as a former librarian, I highly recommend this book.:
my reading list has always been made up of books on the booksense selection. a lot of good books don't make the selection because it is limited to a few per month, so when i see that a book is on the list, I know it's going to be top notch fiction. you won't find romance, trivial, or fluff books on the booksense list. their books are not only well-written but also deal with important issues, which was certainly true in the case of 'the sunday wife.' i've recommended this book to all of the avid readers i know.

Sunday Wife, Cassandra King:
Ms. King tells a wonderful tale, but who edited? One prime problem was regarding a woman on medication, near a mental collaspe. She took Zantac? More likely, she took Xanax. There are several errors with changing tense incorrectly and sentences that go on forever. With a story of this strength, Ms. King should track down and stomp her editor!

PAGETURNER EXPLORES SERIOUS ISSUES:
I found this book highly entertaining, yet provocative. The author knows how to keep the reader's attention while exploring issues that need to be heard and discussed. For example, the gay marriage issue and its place in our churches. For years, I've been appalled at the role of the minister's spouse in so many instances. Often, the spouse does as much as the one who is paid to minister, yet there are no beneifts, etc. Nonetheless, there are unlimited exectations. I think Dean's development as the novel unfolds is triumphant. I found her a believable, sympathetic character. And Augusta, in my opinion, is wealthy, beautiful, bright. In short, she could ignore the pain of homosexual couples or snub a struggling woman like Dean. But she doesn't choose that path. I found her love for the man who misused her as a young woman quite poignant. Perhaps misguided, but all too familiar a story. Hurrah for Cassandra King for encouraging "nice ladies" to take a look at the world around them. The book is skillfully written and I'd recommend it to anyone who likes a good book.

I couldn't put it down!:
This book was well written, and it just drew me into it. It was a book that was out of character for me to read, as I don't usually read books set in the south for some unknown reason, but this book was so vivid in it's depiction, it drew me in. It was fascinating to watch Dean bloom with her friendship with Augusta, and have the strength to do what she did. It's a book about roles, and fufilling roles before yourself. Dean found in the end, that she was much more then a "Sunday Wife"

Cassandra King shows a lot of promise as a writer:
But this book fell a bit short of what I think she's capable of doing at her best. The plot involves a woman (Dean Lynch) unhappily married to a Methodist minister (Ben Lynch). As the story begins, Dean is alone and moving to a trailer in a small town on the Gulf Coast where nobody will think to look for her. Immediately after this scene, the book returns to an earlier time, when Dean and Ben are arriving at their new church in the panhandle of Florida. Ben is ambitious and not sure that his wife (who he keeps telling her came from a white trash background) is going to behave well enough for him to achieve his ambitions in the Methodist Church. Dean is quickly befriended by a top-of-the-social-ladder woman, Augusta Holderfield, who Ben is anxious to bring back to his church. But this woman is a bit impulsive and emotional, and Ben quickly begins to disapprove of her and fear her growing influence on Dean -- as well he ought. Through her friendship with the Holderfields, Dean begins to blossom and Ben does not approve. As events unfold, there is both tragedy and liberation for Dean. This is a very well-written book with vivid characters and great dramatic scenes that beg to be made into a movie or serialized for television (with a high quality production). I think, however, that Ben is too resolutely awful -- no-one could be quite that bad, never varying into a decent moment. I think his character needed to display more complexity. The author also seems to blame the clergy when in fact there are systemic issues involved when clergy act badly -- having people want to put you on a pedastal is more than the fault of the person on the pedastal. It's a very complex problem, like a dysfunctional family. I also think the book was a bit too long, and could have lost 30-50 pages -- there were whole descriptive paragraphs that did little to add to the story that could have been removed (like the antique napkins getting used to mop up spilled coffee by a one-scene-only character), and a tightened up story would have improved the overall novel.