Wife 22 by Melanie Gideon

Title: Wife 22
Author: Melanie Gideon
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
ISBN: 978-0-345-52795-0
First Published: 2012
Genre: Fiction,Family Saga
Pages: 400
Rating: 4.5/5



Summary (From Goodreads):


Maybe it was those extra five pounds I’d gained. Maybe it was because I was about to turn the same age my mother was when I lost her. Maybe it was because after almost twenty years of marriage my husband and I seemed to be running out of things to say to each other.
But when the anonymous online study called “Marriage in the 21st Century” showed up in my inbox, I had no idea how profoundly it would change my life. It wasn’t long before I was assigned both a pseudonym (Wife 22) and a caseworker (Researcher 101). 
And, just like that, I found myself answering questions.
 
7. Sometimes I tell him he’s snoring when he’s not snoring so he’ll sleep in the guest room and I can have the bed all to myself.
61. Chet Baker on the tape player. He was cutting peppers for the salad. I looked at those hands and thought, I am going to have this man’s children.
67. To not want what you don’t have. What you can’t have. What youshouldn’t have.
32. That if we weren’t careful, it was possible to forget one another.

Before the study, my life was an endless blur of school lunches and doctor’s appointments, family dinners, budgets, and trying to discern the fastest-moving line at the grocery store. I was Alice Buckle: spouse of William and mother to Zoe and Peter, drama teacher and Facebook chatter, downloader of memories and Googler of solutions.
But these days, I’m also Wife 22. And somehow, my anonymous correspondence with Researcher 101 has taken an unexpectedly personal turn. Soon, I’ll have to make a decision—one that will affect my family, my marriage, my whole life. But at the moment, I’m too busy answering questions. 
 
As it turns out, confession can be a very powerful aphrodisiac.


What I feel: 


I had received this book as part of Good Reads First Reads Giveaway.Since this was my first win,I was way excited.The book hit the stores on May 29,2012.
I have no idea why I didn't devour this book the moment I received the package.Instead,I stack up this book in my 'to-read' collection.It was on one of those monotonous days I browsed through my book collection and there it was.

First of all, I loved the cover page.Looked fresh& chic.I straightaway fell in love with the main character,Alice Buckle.The story line is about Alice,middle aged ,nearing her 45th birthday, who is not sure whether she is bored of her life or plain tired!She is, wife of William Buckle, mother of Zoe Buckle (15 year old teenager, with all the tantrums and rebellious behaviors in full swing) & Peter Buckle (sensitive and wholly adorable,convincing his mom that her son could be gay!),best friend to Nedra Rao(Has your friend ever advised you NOT to do something, nevertheless you go ahead  and do it and go back to your friend nursing a broken heart and yet she has her arms wide open for you?Well that's the relationship between Nedra and Alice)& a drama teacher in a school.
At this point in her life, her life is more or less predictable.She feels her marriage of 2 decades has lost its passion,her relationship with her kids have seen better days,she still mourns her mother's death as she nears the age when her mother had died.The part where she deals with her mother's death makes the character real.It shows,no matter how old we grow,our mothers are the ones we can always depend on.

On a fateful day,when she feels there is nothing exciting happening in her life and the distance between her and her husband is increasing by the day,she receives a spam mail inviting her to participate in an online study of marriages.Little does she know that this could change her life and her marriage for ever! All she had to do was answer a questionnaire in return for $1000 at the end of the study.As a part of the study she is given a pseudonym 'Wife 22' and her case is a dealt by a 'Researcher 101' with whom an she develops a fervent relationship,online.What is the name of this relationship?Where is it leading? What will happen to her marriage and family?Who is this Researcher 101? All these questions gets you hooked till the last page of this book.

What I particularly enjoyed in the book was,side by side to the normal narration of the story,there were numerous text messages,Facebook updates,Twitter updates,playwriting scenes and Google searches!!The readers get a chance to read the answers to the questionnaire,however the questions were nowhere in sight.It was a little frustrating until I flipped through the end pages and voila the questions are all there in the appendix section!The chapters were short and lucid.My favorite character was Researcher 101.Charming fellow! Who wouldn't love him?!

The portrayal of the characters were all real.Imperfect,quirky and yet lovable.I thoroughly enjoyed the ride.Bravo Melanie Gideon!


 In a nutshell-'easy on the eyes',light read.