Sandy Pressman is frustrated. In life, in marriage, in the bedroom. Her husband, Norman, wants her to join The Club and work on her tennis and golf skills. With the kids at camp, and a whole empty summer ahead of her, Sandy still dreads The Club. She's abysmally bad at golf, and her tennis game is laughable. But what else is a 1970s housewife to do with an empty house? Create sexual daydreams and fantasies of course. And once her hot, ex-boyfriend Shep comes back into the mix, Sandy can't help but throw herself into an affair she thinks she desperately needs.
As a child, I read and reread many many books by Judy Blume. My favorites were "Just as Long as We're Together" and "Here's to You Rachel Robinson" when I was a preteen and "Forever..." when I hit my teen years. It was a shock when, at the tender age of 16, I discovered that Judy Blume wrote books for adults as well. I got to the first sexually explicit scene in "Wifey" and dropped it like a hot potato. Now, 15 years later and much less shockable, I sought it out again because of the release of Blume's newest book, "In the Unlikely Event." I wanted to know if her prose for adults stood up to her children's books. And I think it does. While published in 1978, "Wifey" still speaks to the "typical" married life today. And also serves as a reminder that America in 1970 was just as sexually charged as America in 2015. I would say it's more easily accessible today, but all of the new sex is really just the same sex with shinier labels on it. Some readers may not like to read such a charged book by a beloved children's book author, I absolutely love that about this novel. I love that Judy Blume wrote it. I love that she took many, many risks in a period when such risks were taboo. Despite Sandy's fantasies and extra-marital affair, the ending to "Wifey" is actually quite interesting and realistic. I won't say anymore. I wouldn't want to give it away. But I just love the realism Blume presents in all of her books, for children and adults alike. Read "Wifey" to see what I mean!
