Last year, I raved about Lori Lansens' "The Girls," an amazing novel about conjoined twins living in rural Ontario. Lansens' new book, "The Wife's Tale," has a lighter tone but is no less engaging or thought-provoking. It chronicles the self-actualization of Mary Gooch, the damaged and alienated protagonist whose weight tops 300 pounds. When Mary's husband fails to return home on the night of the couple's 25th wedding anniversary, Mary embarks on a literal and symbolic journey on which she meets a cast of misfits, unlikely mentors and friends.
Mary’s mission to find her husband reveals human strengths and limitations and also foregrounds such painful issues as racism, alienation, poverty and, especially, hunger. For Mary, food makes due as a substitute for that which she can't name or define and therein lies the most powerful theme of the novel: to be stricken with hunger is more of a spiritual deprivation than a physical one.
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