Wife in the North

by Judith O'Reilly

This book is about a woman who loved London, but her husband convinced her to move to Northumberland with two young boys. She was pregnant as well. And then he continued commuting into London, often spending weeks away. I didn't quite enjoy this book as much as I'd hoped to. A lot of it felt negative- her complaints about her husband, missing her social life in the city, trying to fit into a rural community. I could relate to the parts about being a mother and having a new baby, some of the cute things her boys said really made me smile. She also had to deal with helping her elderly parents, rennovating their home and renting another in the meantime- thus moving several times, and trying to help her son overcome a bullying issue at school. At the same time she talks about starting to keep her journal online in a blog format, and the repercussions when other mothers realized she was publicly writing about their school. It seemed like most of the book was her complaints, but then again people are more inclined to write about the bad times and let off pressure, then to write about the good things I guess. Some predicaments were funny, others very familiar and then there were parts I just couldn't relate to at all (not being someone who pines after city living).

Rating: 3/5      346 pages, 2008

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