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The Mere Wife
- A Novel
- Narrated by: Susan Bennett
- Length: 8 hrs and 57 mins
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Publisher's Summary
New York Times best-selling author Maria Dahvana Headley presents a modern retelling of the literary classic Beowulf, set in American suburbia as two mothers - a housewife and a battle-hardened veteran - fight to protect those they love in The Mere Wife.
From the perspective of those who live in Herot Hall, the suburb is a paradise. Picket fences divide buildings - high and gabled - and the community is entirely self-sustaining. Each house has its own fireplace, each fireplace is fitted with a container of lighter fluid, and outside - in lawns and on playgrounds - wildflowers seed themselves in neat rows. But for those who live surreptitiously along Herot Hall’s periphery, the subdivision is a fortress guarded by an intense network of gates, surveillance cameras, and motion-activated lights.
For Willa, the wife of Roger Herot (heir of Herot Hall), life moves at a charmingly slow pace. She flits between mommy groups, playdates, cocktail hour, and dinner parties, always with her son, Dylan, in tow. Meanwhile, in a cave in the mountains just beyond the limits of Herot Hall lives Gren, short for Grendel, as well as his mother, Dana, a former soldier who gave birth as if by chance. Dana didn’t want Gren, didn’t plan Gren, and doesn’t know how she got Gren, but when she returned from war, there he was. When Gren, unaware of the borders erected to keep him at bay, ventures into Herot Hall and runs off with Dylan, Dana’s and Willa’s worlds collide.
Critic Reviews
Kirkus Reviews Best Books of the Year - Longlisted, 2018
Washington Post Best Books of the Year - Longlisted, 2018
Seattle Times Best Books of the Year - Longlisted, 2018
World Fantasy Award - Finalist, 2019
"Susan Bennett masterfully narrates a stunning retelling of Beowulf that confronts all manner of monsters.... Powerful, upsetting, and unforgettable, Bennet's narration is staggeringly potent." (AudioFile)
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What listeners say about The Mere Wife
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Lena Leigh
- 07-04-20
Strange, Dark, and Beautiful
“The women with their perfect faces, all cracking and showing what’s underneath, what’s always been there, course fur and gaping maws, whipping tails, scales, claws and hunger, and teeth, and teeth, and teeth.”
Epic fantasy, magical realism, the real housewives of Herot Hall, a broken and betrayed soldier, all culminating in an ending so satisfying it grounds Beowulf into dust.
Headley has blown away this tired old tale of machismo.
Here everyone is a monster and everyone is a hero because everyone has a narrative.
The claws unsheathe.
The swords are drawn.
All heroes win.
All heroes lose.
All heroes die.
All monsters win.
All monsters lose.
All monsters die.
A notable part of my enjoyment was the narrator. Even at speed the emotion came through.
3 people found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 08-02-18
Outstanding
A brilliant feminist critique of suburbia by a very talented writer. Beautifully written and richly layered. The narration brings the story and characters to life.
6 people found this helpful
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- gattineri
- 09-02-18
A remarkable accomplishment
Uneven, but a remarkable accomplishment nevertheless.A superb addition to the retold Beowulfs, joining John Gardner’s Grendel. Smart, moving, clever.
4 people found this helpful
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- babylon baroque
- 05-22-19
Mere Wife
Wow, what a wonderful re- contextualizing of a well loved , well known tale . So much to admire about this imaginative narrative , such loss at its conclusion, my solution is to listen once again straight away .
1 person found this helpful
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- Joy A.
- 12-24-18
Excellent Performance of a Terrible Story
I couldn’t follow so much of this story. I don’t know what the point was. We are all monsters? There was so much random back and forth and I don’t know what to call it. Just jumpy. Wild far off comparisons and thoughts. I think everyone in this story is schizophrenic and ADHD. This is not a book you can listen to while you do other things like drive or fold laundry. You have to focus on every single word to make sure you don’t get lost and have no idea what is going on or who is talking. The narration jumps from person to person. I kind of like the short section when the narration was in the first person of the search dogs. That was funny. It was a very brief section though.
The performance was great though. Really she was into everything and really sold the schizo thoughts of these characters. Yelled when yelling when characters yell. Stark pauses, just excellent performance. I would like to hear her read some good content.
1 person found this helpful
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- Hilary Hontz
- 08-04-18
Excellent!!
This modern day re-telling of Beauwulf was the bomb! I loved the interpretation of each character, the perspectives, the language was like poetry. The narration was spot on! An excellent read!
2 people found this helpful
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- T. Winter
- 07-21-18
Really not good
I didn't know it was possible, but this book was both depressing and boring at the same time. I don't mind depressing writing if there is a point to it, but this didn't have one. It just droned on and on in endless, nihilistic apathy and stream of consciousness gibberish that is never elucidated or clarified. Is it all just a metaphor? 30 minutes in, I still had no idea what was happening.
Take this direct quote from the near beginning, for example (it's not a spoiler). I transcribed it verbatim, although the punctuation interpretation is my own:
"She walks out of a stall without the use of legs, and says, 'Hey.' And I say 'hey' back to her like I'm not worried about my sanity. Her fingers are nothing but skeleton. She's smoking a cigarette. In the center of her chest there's an open wound, and through it I can see her ribs . . . her lungs. A candle, lit, balanced on her solar plexus, and surrounded by gilding. 'God get to you yet? God ask for any favors?' she asks."
So she has an open wound in her chest and a lit candle in her abdominal cavity? And before you say it is just a literary device, or a dream, I will say that there was nothing to indicate that. These things just happen throughout the normal course of the plot. None of the strangeness is ever clarified. It just stays weird and nonsensical throughout. Essentially, this isn't a novel, or a story, but some strange attempt at really long, macabre poetry.
Between these desperate attempts at literary genius through mindless insanity, I was able to gather that the characters think life is meaningless, nothing anyone does matters, and everything is just death, death death. Basically, we're all just wandering madly through the corridors of hell waiting for Cerberus or Ammut to eat our souls. Ugh, just thinking about it makes me feel like I need a strong drink. And I don't even drink.
The narrator did a great job of reinforcing this fatalistic impression in a terribly bleak and annoying way. She might have been alright in some other book, but just the fact that she read this makes me never want to listen to her again.
I have never wanted to return a book as much as this one. I have come across a lot of bad books in my day, but this is the absolute worst piece of utter nonsense I have ever read or heard. I cannot get rid of it fast enough. So, so bad.
14 people found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 03-03-22
Amazing
Taking the story of Beowulf and retelling it in a way that gives voice to those who have been othered in history. What an amazing novel
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- Susan Chacin
- 03-20-19
Dark modern version of the ancient Beowolf story
I barely liked one character. Very melodramatic though thought provoking. Might make a better neo-classical tragedy play.
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- Laurie M. Ousley
- 11-24-18
Fantastic Retelling
I just finished the book and I'm going to listen again as soon as I'm done typing. I love this clever retelling and its reimagination of the characters and setting. I teach Beowulf every year and was excited about this and it didn't disappoint. This is the second book I've listened to narrated by Susan Bennett, who is a very good reader, absolutely one of the best.
1 person found this helpful
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- Allison Wright
- 05-06-21
Compelling
Compelling from start to finish. The element of the fantastical is brought to it's true home in reality. Great narration.