The Obedient Wife - Softcover

O'Faolain, Julia

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0571259081 ISBN 13: 9780571259083

Publisher: Faber and Faber, 2011

Synopsis

Temporarily abandoned by her overbearing husband amidst the chaos and decay of Los Angeles, Carla Verdi tries to run her home and bring up her son along traditional Italian lines.

She finds solace in the friendship of Leo, a Catholic pries. 'Obedience', he teaches her, 'was the prime virtue taught in seminaries.' Thus armed with their private loyalties - he to his church, she to her marriage - they are swept towards temptation.

'A writer of stunning quality, a novelist of irony and compassion who observes her American scene with a refreshingly European detachment.' Daily Telegraph

'A novel of writhing ironies . . . a ruthless, penetrating and desolately funny book.' Guardian

'High-class, serious fun.' Sunday Telegraph

About this title

About the Author:

Julia O'Faolain was born in London in 1932. Her novel No Country for Young Men was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. She was brought up in Cork and Dublin, educated in Paris and Rome and married an American historian in Florence. She lived for many years in the US, and now lives in London. A major collection of her short stories will be published by Faber and Faber.

From Library Journal:

Carroll & Graf Pubs. Nov. 1985. 230p. LC 85-17145. ISBN 0-88184-197-8. $17.95. f Upper-class Los Angeles, with its trendy morals and even more treacher ous hillsides, is no place for an Italian wife, even a modern one. Carla Verdi, separated from her domineering hus band, must cope with the ``phases'' of her 13-year-old son, the assaults of the weather, and the intricacies of her friends' love lives. Until, suddenly, she has a love life of her own, and, with her husband's return, complicated deci sions to make herself. O'Faolain plays with the meaning of the title, making it first ironic, then deadly serious, and back again, as Carla decides where her life and allegiance must be placed after 15 years of marriage. Well-written, with a subtle, insidious message. (O'Faolain also wrote Women in the Wall, No Country for Young Men, and Daughters of Passion ). Shelley Cox, Southern Illinois Univ. Lib., Carbon dale
Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Faber and Faber
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0571259081
• ISBN 13: 9780571259083
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 230