Last week I picked up The Oriental Wife (Other Press, 2011), a new novel by Evelyn Toynton and looked forward to a light summer read.
I’d read the description on the back cover and thought nothing could be worse than growing up Jewish in 1930s Germany. Sure, after the main character moved to the US, she experienced a tragic betrayal. But she escaped Nazi Germany. What could be worse than that?
I plowed through the book in two days and when I finished, I knew it was anything but a light read. I started thinking about the degrees of tragedy, and how living through Hitler’s Germany doesn’t make other, life-altering mistakes any less terrible.
The Oriental Wife is one of the best books I’ve read all summer. If you don’t like sad stories or can’t stand it when authors don’t tie up loose ends at the conclusion, this book might frustrate you. But I’m tired of Disney endings.
Surprisingly, I didn’t cry at the end of this book. That happens a lot with me. In this case, I felt so many conflicting emotions throughout the novel that by the time I reached the end, I didn’t know how to feel.
And that’s why I so enjoyed The Oriental Wife.
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