Book Review: The Actor and the Housewife

This was such a squirm with discomfort...good...cry your heart out...good...difficult...good read...

I believe there are authors for each of us out there. One's who write the things you only think and feel, words you recognize could be your own if you had spent the time to write them down. Shannon Hale is mine. I discovered her books Goose Girl and Academy Princess, I loved her detailed, picturesque, not afraid to write about the darker things in life too, writing style. I've read all of her books - wasn't thrilled with Austenland, not usually a sequel reader but her Goose Girls continuations were good; Book of a Thousand Days was darker, different but engaging. So when a friend offered The Actor and the Housewife I excitedly took it. I learned early on she was an LDS author and was thankful she didn't do LDS culture books (never been able to get into them, all the ones I have read seem contrived and sterile of real feelings) as I began to read this I realized I was reading a story about an LDS mom! Oh, man...but I kept reading cuz this LDS mom had a sense of humor and was putting to words a lot of things I witness everyday with my kids but didn't laugh at like this woman was doing, hmmm laughing is good, I should try that next time... and then for the next 60 pages I wanted to put this book down but couldn't because she was writing about the little talked about, dirty-dark secret that most of devoted wives have but do not allow themselves to think on too long - our tv/movie hunk crushes. How many of you walked out of the movie Eclipse and sighed just a little too long over Jacob? And had to have your girlfriend remind you of your hunky, devoted best friend waiting for you at home? Really! Just me huh?! Here's an excerpt from her book that reminded me of me at this moment: "...She'd fallen in love with characters all her life -- Gilbert Blythe, Mr. Rochester, Harry Hamlin as Perseus. Then she'd met (her husband). Real men had thinned into the scenery; fictional men were briefly entertaining but faded out of her consciousness as soon as she closed the book or emerged from the movie theatre (or 5 minutes after emerging from the theatre if you are Rachel, just me willing to admit that still? Really? Really?!) So her dalliances were inside those story moments. There was that pesky romance gene that needed a little twanging from time to time, and crushing on a fictional character or unattainable movie star was completely kosher. Everyone knew those rules... Granted if Don was to tell me about a crush on a movie star he had, I wouldn't be as willing to agree with the kosherness of it... anyway this LDS mom becomes best friends with her crush Actor and you are never quite sure how you feel about the whole thing, you want to say "Wow that's wrong, would you like your husband's bestfriend to be a girl?!" But at the same time you're hoping it will stay clean and good and okay, then, throw in some major - life shattering - you'll cry (because its another one of those dark fears lingering in the back of your mind) and need to call your girlfriend and sob or find your husband & kiss him (in my case, both) drama, and that's this book... It was an emotionally messy - dealing with questions you don't want to answer -learning to laugh at and survive motherhood - being madly in love with your husband - book...

So, if you are feeling up to it, it's a squirm with discomfort...good...cry your heart out... good... difficult...good read...