War
of the Wives
Tamar
Cohen
Mira, Jan 27 2015, $14.95
ISBN: 9780778317487
When Simon Busfield died in what looks like a suicidal leap into a
river, he left behind two widows, Selina and Lottie, without divorcing
either. The late bigamist’s wives are
180 degrees different in outlook. The
deceased’s first wife of twenty-eight years
Selina is sophisticated and the queen of organize;
while his other spouse of seventeen years Lottie is artistic and the queen of
disorganize. Selina arranges the funeral
that Lottie attends when a stalker expresses his condolences for her loss. Thus Simon’s two spouses and their respective
offspring meet for the first time at his burial.
The widows are far from merry with the shocking news of their late
husband’s infidelity. As they struggles
between denial and anger, Selina and Lottie share in common a need to know why
he had two families and why he committed suicide if that is he actually took
his own life. To do so they must put
aside their raging War of the Wives.
Thus the depressed widows bargain with each other to forge a détente in
order to uncover the secrets of whom the man each spent years with truly was.
The intriguing storyline follows the Kübler-Ross's Five Stages of
Grief while rotating the lead between the two wives in each phase. The two families have more problems than Job
and myriad of secrets than the CIA possesses; both elements at times overwhelm
the overall fine tragicomic family drama.
Harriet Klausner
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