The Wives' Tale

By Alix Wilber

Book Overview

A magical, four-generational saga marking the brilliant debut of a promising young novelist which combines the slightly supernatural with just the right touch of horror. The Dufore clan of Vermont has... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0393029751
• ISBN13: 9780393029758
• Release Date: January 1991
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Length: 351 Pages
• Weight: 2.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 5.9" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Weirdly Wonderful; Poignant and Powerful

This weird and wonderful first novel explores the trials and tribulations of the Dufore clan. In the tiny Vermont town of Esperance, the Dufores are a family that is admired and pitied. For generations the family has been plagued with trouble. Uncle Ab has a tendency towards spontaneous combustion; Gran Marie hasn't slept in decades; Bobby Dufore has disappeared into a bomb shelter with his wife and children, certain that a meteor will crash into his house soon; there are rumors that Marie's first husband, Paul, turned into a fish taking their only son into the river outside of town. Paul's brother, Davy, has gradually lost all the bones in his body, decomposing into a rotting pile of formless flesh. Through it all, the Dufore women trudge on, matter-of-fact, stoic in the face of astonishing events. Gran Marie buries two husbands and a great-grandson with quiet competence. The book opens with the widow of Daniel Dufore bringing home Daniel's body after he committed suicide. A writer, Daniel seemed overwhelmed by stories that filled his head until he could endure them no longer. Wilber presents the stories of the Dufores with tenderness and empathy. The reader admires the courage and directness of a family which seems doomed to tragedy. The book is by turns, hilarious and poignant. Ultimately, "The Wives Tale" is a story of affirmation that life goes on, that even the worst sorrows can be faced and overcome.

An amazing adventure

This is an amazing book, a moving, entrancing, weird, mysterious, magical, and entrancing tale. I first read this book in manuscript form after my first date with its author in 1989. I decided immediately that I had better make sure that I got a second date before anybody else noticed that this beautiful redhead and astounding writer was running around single. Two years later we were married, and this book was published on our wedding date.