Most women reading “The Wife App” will agree with Carolyn Mackler’s position that in any heterosexual marriage, it’s the female, the wife, who ends up with most of the duties regarding running a house and a family. In fact, I find myself a bit disgruntled as I go about my daily routine, much of which is mentioned in this perspicacious novel. There is a lot that I do, that most women do, which is taken for granted. We schedule many social activities, we make sure clean sheets are on the bed, we order food or make the grocery lists if we are lucky enough to have a husband who will do the shopping. You are forewarned.
Mackler presents us with three close friends, the last of whom is finally getting a divorce, and who want revenge on their husbands, mostly. Two of them especially have their own reasons for wanting to stand up and fight, but both are tired of carrying the burden of being the mother, the secretary, the chef, the chauffeur, the therapist, and the provider. The last friend, Madeline, has her own reasons for becoming involved in the Wife app.
Lauren is the last of her three friends to get divorced. She found out that her husband Eric was cheating on her. So after giving up her career to stay home with their twin girls, she is now single. While Eric went to work and advanced his career, she stayed home and worked part time while caring for the girls and Eric. He is now dating their babysitter, and Lauren is furious.
Her good friend Madeline seems like she has it all. She is tall, beautiful, and extremely wealthy. She and her husband divorced years before when he moved to England for work. Colin is as involved a father as one can be from across the globe, but Madeline made the decision to be a full time mother to her daughter Arabella, and she has the financial means to do exactly that. While she loves being a mother, she’s feeling very threatened, and angry, that her former husband wants their daughter to live with him in London for a year.
Their friend Sophie, on the other hand, struggles to make ends meet. Her husband Joshua never provided for them during their marriage, and now he’s moved on and is married to a beautiful, and successful, estate lawyer. Their life, at least on Instagram, looks perfect. But Sophie knows what a jerk Joshua is. He refuses to contribute to the counseling that Sophie knows one of their children needs, and during their marriage, she bore the brunt of any responsibility for caring for the family.
All three women are sick and tired of the work involved in running a family. Lauren has a tech background, and after mulling over their issues and the attendant anger, she decides that the solution is to create an app where people can hire Wives (capital W) to do the work that they don’t have time or energy to do. People who will organize calendars, do grocery shopping, hire contractors, supervise landscapers, fill out school forms, bake for class parties, and more. At the beginning, the three women will fill the jobs, and they will limit the area to their close neighborhoods in NYC. While the other two women are skeptical at first, they support Lauren fully.
What Mackler shows us at the very start is a day in the life of a Wife. A sample day of jobs for a Wife might consist of driving a car for the state inspection, checking out party venues for a Bar Mitzvah, taking a dog to the vet. Instead of doing these jobs for free—as women usually do—these jobs, this “Mental Load,” as they call it, can be hired out.
The writing is addictive and the story quick-paced and gripping. Mackler’s writing makes us really like the three women, and we want them to succeed and get their justice. And while the novel is an enjoyable read, it’s also a thoughtful one. As I spent the day overseeing the gardeners, calling to order medical supplies for our pets, doing laundry, thinking about what to make for dinner, I realized how true it is that our Mental Load, our tasks and responsibilities, are literally never-ending. I want a Wife of my own! (FYI: My husband did NOT like reading this. He wants you all to know that he does a lot!)
This review was first posed on Bookreporter.com.