The Senator's Wife by Sue Miller Published by Knopf/DoubleDay on January 8, 2008
Genres/Lists: Fiction
Pages: 306
Read synopsis on Goodreads
Buy the book: Amazon/Audible (this post includes affiliate links)
When I first heard about The Senator’s Wife by Sue Miller, I was so excited. As a news and politics junkie, I was delighted at the prospect of reading a political book written from the other side, especially one that focused on the family of a politician rather than the politician himself. It is my own fault for not doing enough research about this book before adding to my 2013 TBR Challenge list because, as it turns out, it isn’t about a senator at all. Sure,there is a man who was at one point in time a senator, but he’s just a placeholder for a husband who could have just as easily been an accountant or a professor.
Needless to say, I was disappointed when I realized that this would not be a book about what it is like to be married to a senator. Luckily, I learned this early on and was able to readjust my expectations accordingly. Unfortunately, even after having done so, I was not thrilled about the book. I know it has amazing reviews, but I felt like all of the characters were hedging their bets and none were all-in on anything. The tiptoeing around and across the issues, rather than jumping into them, led to a shallow read that missed out on a lot of opportunities to go more into depth.
None of this is to say it isn’t a good book, but it isn’t the book for me. Perhaps my initial expectations tainted my reading experience from the beginning, or maybe this just isn’t a genre that I’m as interested in as I used to. So I won’t recommend that you read (or not read) it because you might love it!
