For an aspiring novelist, Oprah's Book Club is a dangerously capricious monster: the talk show tie-in casts the spotlight on eight to ten books a year, bringing their authors fame and wealth while simultaneously paying no attention to the hundreds of other books published every year. Tufts upperclassmen will likely recall the recent success had by lecturer Andre Dubus III when his third novel, House of Sand and Fog,
was added to the club's reading list last November.
But Dubus is not the only writer with a Tufts connection to have been honored by Oprah's Book Club. Anita Shreve, a graduate of the Jackson College class of 1969, received the same honor in March 1999 when the club paid tribute to The Pilot's Wife, her sixth novel.
Set in coastal southern Massachusetts, The Pilot's Wife tells the tale of a woman coping with the tragic loss of her husband - as well as the discovery that her marriage's foundation has been all but eaten away by his string of lies. Shreve's tale begins with a knock on Kathryn Lyons's door at three in the morning: "She heard a knocking. And then a dog barking. Her dream left her, skittering behind a closing door. It had been a good dream, warm and close, and she minded." As Kathryn wakes, she immediately understands the significance of the thumping: her aviator husband, Jack, has died in a crash. The horrific news is the story's opening and the start of Kathryn's ordeal.
Within hours, her quiet, suburban home becomes the focal point of a media frenzy desperate to siphon off information about the captain of Vision Air Flight 384. Robert, who initially delivered the news of her husband's death, is a pilot union executive who quickly enters Kathryn's life, advising her on how to deal with both the situation and the press. Robert, recently divorced and once an alcoholic, adds fuel to the mysterious fire that burns throughout The Pilot's Wife. Why is he consistently in the picture, and what are his hidden motives? Is he suspicious of Jack, falling for Kathryn, or both?
Shreve provides only some of the answers. And while they are shocking enough, it's the lingering mystery surrounding Robert that keeps the gears in the reader's head turning well after he or she has finished the book.
While Shreve uses the length of the novel to bring Kathryn Lyons to life, the portrait of daughter Mattie is particularly brilliant. From her lilting, awkwardly diffident speech to her love for the ska band Less Than Jake, Mattie seems a true-to-life teenage girl, haplessly and joyfully discovering the impending threat of college, love, sex, and popularity until her father's death shatters her world. When the press speculates that the plane crash was a suicide, we see Mattie thrown into a maelstrom of confusion and resentment.
As the mystery around Jack Lyons's death grows deeper, Shreve uses flashback chapters to shed light on Kathryn's marriage. Written in the present tense (as opposed to the novel's general past tense), these chapters begin with Jack meeting Kathryn in the pawnshop where she was raised by her grandmother after her parents drowned. Shreve goes on to detail Jack and Kathryn's marriage, Mattie's birth, and the purchase of the home in which much of the novel takes place. As the marriage is further chronicled, the reader watches it slowly lose its luster. And after Kathryn puts together the clues, her suspicions about her husband's lack of commitment gain legitimacy.
Shreve sets up a predictable climax, yet delivers the story brilliantly, with an air of mystery that keeps pages turning until Kathryn discovers Jack's secrets. Throughout the book, Shreve's portrayal of human emotion is dead-on and beautiful, uninhibited yet artfully restrained, helping the reader to feel what Kathryn feels.
But it is after she reveals the truth about Jack that the book's pace begins to lag. Kathryn slowly begins to deal with the knowledge the reader knew was coming all along. Still, the unsolved mysteries about Robert drive the reader to finish the book, and we see Kathryn return to Mattie and her grandmother.
Shreve's female perspective dominates the entire book with its unrestrained realism. The Pilot's Wife is laden with richly developed female characters, from Kathryn herself to her grandmother, Julia. Her old age never once prevents her from remaining a failsafe pillar of strength for both Kathryn and Mattie. It is this maturity that all of Shreve's women characters possess, to varying, but always increasing, degrees.
Overall, The Pilot's Wife is well written and an incredibly fast read. The novel isn't as time-consuming as a War and Peace and won't detract from all-important class preparation time. Best of all, it's a free read for Tufts students: this Oprah's Book Club selection is available at Tisch Library.
