10/31/2022
Critic Ciuraru (Nom de Plume: A (Secret) History of Pseudonyms ) delivers a harrowing history of five mid-20th-century literary spouses. “If we think of literary wifedom as a narrative genre,” Ciuraru writes, “it might be described as some blend of romance—turbulent, passionate, highly charged—and dystopian literature.” There’s Una Troubridge, whose marriage to Radclyffe Hall was marked by the former inhabiting “a subservient role with no trace of resentment or seething envy.” (Indeed, with Troubridge the “submissive wife” and Hall the “controlling husband, they did not exactly defy patriarchal norms,” Ciuraru notes.) Elsa Morante, meanwhile, was often “volatile” and made to feel “ignored, unwanted, taken for granted” by her husband Alberto Moravia; Kenneth Tynan sexually abused his second wife, Elaine Dundy, a writer whose “life was filled with fascinating characters, remarkable friendships, adventure, glamour, and literary success”; and while Elizabeth Jane Howard “always marveled” at husband Kingsley Amis’s “intense discipline in his work,” it often came at the expense of her own. Throughout, there are intense accounts of the writers psychologically (and sometimes physically) brutalizing their long-suffering partners; as Ciuraru puts it, “we must give writers’ wives their due, marvel at what they achieved... and reflect on what might have been.” This bracing survey delivers. Agent: William Morris, WME. (Feb.)
"Ciuraru writes in a voice that is intelligent, confident and trustworthy. We do not doubt for a minute that what we are reading is as close to the truth as we're likely to get."
"A pleasure to read."
Washington Post Book World
"Ciuraru has a wry sense of humor that lightly steps in at just the right moments...She builds each history as its own personal story, then builds the literary charm and genius behind the pathos...creating a history of pseudonyms that becomes a tale of literary genius all its own."
"Ms. Ciuraru writes with clarity and confidence, and her research is impressive."
"Fascinating, lively, and fun"
★ 02/01/2023
Literary critic Ciuraru (Nom de Plume: A (Secret) History of Pseudonyms ) examines five literary marriages—some fairy tales, some nightmares. Each couple (Elaine Dundy and Kenneth Tynan, Elizabeth Jane Howard and Kingsley Amis, Patricia Neal and Roald Dahl, Elsa Morante and Alberto Moravia, Una Troubridge and Radclyffe Hall) gets a chapter that discusses their complicated relationships, often filled with excessive drinking/drugs, infidelities, clashes, and resentments. The author honors these women who performed many household and other tasks to support their "needy" literary spouses. In sustaining their writer-partners they often sacrificed their own careers and ambitions (Howard, Troubridge) and experienced intense envy and vitriol from their spouses when they attained their own literary success or fame (Dundy, Neal) that eclipsed their husbands'. She calls Morante the least selfless of the five wives; however, her husband's success often overshadowed her significant contributions to Italian literature. There are frequent quotes from letters and other sources but no footnotes and only a selected bibliography. The author also incorrectly states that Paul Newman won the Best Actor Oscar for Hud —he lost to Sidney Poitier. Of the featured marriages, only Troubridge and Hall's lesbian relationship endured. VERDICT A notable book about remarkable women that could have subsequent volumes. Recommended for readers interested in these authors or in 20th-century literature.—Erica Swenson Danowitz
★ 2022-11-16
Whether serving as muse, assistant, mother figure, antagonist, or lover—or some combination thereof—these women were crucial to the careers of their partners, but the road was often rocky, fraught with numerous challenges. In her latest book, Ciuraru, author of Nom de Plume: A (Secret) History of Pseudonyms , offers a rare window into five relationships—Una Troubridge and Radclyffe Hall, Elsa Morante and Alberto Moravia, Elaine Dundy and Kenneth Tynan, Elizabeth Jane Howard and Kingsley Amis, and Patricia Neal and Roald Dahl—providing a respectful yet unflinching look inside the daily, often complicated lives of the writers and their wives. Once romantically entwined, the wives often had to shelve their own aspirations in order to nurture their partners, sometimes fighting like hell to keep their own identities. They often grappled with substance abuse, codependency, domestic violence, professional envy, and infidelity (Troubridge, Howard). “Modern marriage,” writes Ciuraru, “is a series of compromises, a relentless juggling act of work obligations, childcare demands, household chores, money squabbles, hoarded grievances, simmering hostilities, and intimacy issues….Toss in male privilege, ruthless ambition, narcissism, misogyny, infidelity, alcoholism, and a mood disorder or two, and it’s easy to understand why the marriages of so many famous writers have been stormy, short-lived, and mutually destructive.” While none of the stories fade into the sunset with a neat, happily-ever-after conclusion, Ciuraru shows how some of these women thrived in their own careers later in life. “As has been true historically for many women artists and writers,” she writes, “only a divorce or the death of a spouse liberated them to create and publish their best work—or any work at all.” While the stories of betrayal and suffering might not exactly ruin literary heroes, readers beware: The reality is often harsh—but also fascinating.
An illuminating, well-rendered literary biography.
“Ms. Ciararu is intensely interested in the vicissitudes of relationships over time...and driven by indignation over the subjugation of women's talent...A compulsively readable book.” — Wall Street Journal
“Eye-opening . . . . A rare window into five relationships providing a respectful yet unflinching look inside the daily, often complicated lives of the writers and their wives. . . .The reality is often harsh—but also fascinating. An illuminating, well-rendered literary biography.” — Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)
"A tour de force...The stories Ciuraru tells are gripping, horrific and sometimes funny, but most of all they are important." — Washington Post
“Carmela Ciuraru offers scintillating, no-prisoners-taking portraits of five marriages in which at least one partner was a well-known writer.” — Shelf Awareness
“Entertaining. . . .witty, well-researched. . . .these vivid studies of famous personalities and their interaction do tell us in some cases more about them than we knew, and perhaps confirm that this struggling model of conventional marriage is a thing of the past.” — New York Journal of Books
"A notable book aboutt remarkale women." — Library Journal (Starred Review)
“An intriguing analysis of the relationship dynamics between creatives.” — Booklist
"The five marriages that Carmela Ciuraru explores in Lives of the Wives provide such delightfully gossipy pleasure that we have to remind ourselves that these were real people whose often stormy relationships must surely have been less fun to experience than they are for us to read about." — Francine Prose, author of The Vixen
"Witty and powerful." — People
"Delicious and infuriating...'Unputdownable.'" — Sadie Stein, New York Times
"Lively and absorbing." — New York Times Book Review
“Enthralling…incendiary reading…These five marriages are very different in the nature of their dysfunctionality and the manner in which a talented woman is subordinated to the talented man she chooses to marry.” — Daphne Merkin, Airmail
“Deliriously readable…you’ll want to read it in one go.” — Center for Fiction
“Ciuraru manages to reposition her wives, bringing them out from behind their great men and placing them center stage. Up close, we discern their resilience and determination and view most of them not as other halves but better halves.” — Malcolm Forbes, Washington Examiner
"LIVES OF THE WIVES explores five literary marriages full of tempest and tumult, offering rich biographical portraits and examining the role of ambition, narcissism, misogyny, infidelity and alcoholism in relationships where imbalance seems baked in from the start." — Dave Smith, The Guardian
“The literary relationships featured in Lives of the Wives may have been tumultuous, but in Carmela Ciuraru’s telling, they are never tawdry, and nobody is a victim. The women she focuses on are complex, accomplished, and witty; their relationships are fully realized and dimensional.” — Boston University Today, "Books to Read for Women's History Month"
Erin Bennett's voice is lovely, and she delivers this gossipy study of addiction and pathology with thoughtful sympathy. The material, harvested from in-depth biographies and memoirs by others, is predictably shocking, given the marriages the author chose, and is often fascinating, especially if you are more interested in spectacle than illumination. Radclyffe Hall, Kingsley Amis, Alberto Moravia and Elsa Morante, Kenneth Tynan, and Roald Dahl and Patricia Neal provide the specimens, and all are unhappy in their own ways. In some cases, the wives are artists in their own rights though it's pathologies more than art that link these couples. The writing is sometimes clunky, but Bennett is excellent at subtly indicating changes of voice. Occasional mispronunciations of proper names distract, but only a little. B.G. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine
Erin Bennett's voice is lovely, and she delivers this gossipy study of addiction and pathology with thoughtful sympathy. The material, harvested from in-depth biographies and memoirs by others, is predictably shocking, given the marriages the author chose, and is often fascinating, especially if you are more interested in spectacle than illumination. Radclyffe Hall, Kingsley Amis, Alberto Moravia and Elsa Morante, Kenneth Tynan, and Roald Dahl and Patricia Neal provide the specimens, and all are unhappy in their own ways. In some cases, the wives are artists in their own rights though it's pathologies more than art that link these couples. The writing is sometimes clunky, but Bennett is excellent at subtly indicating changes of voice. Occasional mispronunciations of proper names distract, but only a little. B.G. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine
