Maud Ventura

A revealing, fascinating and disturbing portrait of contemporary marriage in France, narrated over the course of a week by the wife. She is an English teacher and a translator of novels and as such, is highly analytical of words and behaviour. She carries this analysis into her 15 years of marriage as she worries over whether her husband still loves her and over the week her suspicions grow and her fears drive her to desperation. At the same time, her mental state appears to deteriorate and her actions become more erratic. The question is: is this love as she insists? Or obsession? Or control? All appear to be possible as the week passes and another Sunday comes around. But will it herald a fresh start for their marriage? You are compelled to read on for the answer.… (mere)

I appreciated this book for its humor. I listened to it on audio and it was very short. But really hilarious how crazy this woman was. Very dark humor kind of book about a woman who is absolutely obsessed with her husband, in the most psychotic way possible. She loves her husband way more than her children. The book is mostly from her perspective and the absolute crazy things she does. She logs every little thing her husband does. It's just incredible. And then the final chapter, is the husband's perspective, and she has not given him enough credit. He's really controlling everything and he knows everything that she logs and does. Just amazing. They're both completely crazy and meant for each other. I really kind of dug the dark humor in this. It definitely got repetitive and you wanted to slap the main character, but I think that was also the point of the book.… (mere)

i only read literary fiction about women being unwell. and clearly not for everyone as this book currently has an average rating of 3.73 on goodreads, but it is unique and unforgettable! this was a very fast, musing, creepy, pathetic, abrasive, clever book. you will hear the words “my husband” so many times throughout this book that you will have already lost track of the number of times you have heard it before monday is even over. that is by design, because she is in fact OBSESSED with her husband. headings of chapters are a day of the week beginning with monday. the wife has specific rules about what happens on each one of these days or what each day symbolizes and they all have a color. wednesday is orange like a clementine. “My yellow Thursday start joyfully". and saturday is red "for him". she is THE queen of righteous indignation and of observations. over analyzing everything that he says and does she will punish him in both passive aggressive ways when appropriate. i found myself wondering if she was like this when the two first married or if had perhaps been a slow descent into madness over the fifteen years they've been together. like a car wreck that you can't help but to look at, i could not stop listening to this crazy book narrated so well by kiiri sandy. i was captivated by this story and our very unlikable narrator. it all seems like french from the outside -playing mind games with somebody who is playing mind games on you instead of just talking things out… (mere)