THE SILENT WIFE - A.S.A HARRISON

This is a contemporary psychoanalytical thriller in which we follow the story of a couple, Jodi Brett and Todd Gilbert, and their twenty years of marriage-like life, meaning they have been together but unmarried and childless for twenty years. Jodi is a psychotherapist and is the one who refused to be in a marriage because she did not see the need for it. Todd is a developer and has no problem with his financial life. This couple is perfect! They are having a comfortable and constant life; problem-free and everything seems steady and predictable, until one day, Todd has an affair with Natasha Kovacs, who is the daughter of his best friend Dean –and who happens to know a little about this thing happening between his daughter and his friend- and this was only the tip of the iceberg because we learn later that Natasha is pregnant and this news is going to make difference in the lives of the characters in the novel especially Jodi; who is now forced to confront the truth regarding the relationship between Todd and Natasha especially when the former decides to leave Jodi to get hitched to Natasha. Throughout the book, Harrison switches between Todd and Jodi’s perspectives, letting us have an insight into the mind of each of them. From the outset of the book, we are introduced to the characters of Jodi and Brett who are both the damaged products of a difficult upbringing. We learn from the start that Jodi is unaware that her life is going downhill and that the walls that are girding her home are about to molder. We are also told that “a few short months are all it will take to make a killer of her”. However, Harrison takes her time in building details which will eventually lead Jodi to dice with death. The reader will hence find himself shocked, disappointed and frustrated.

This book is about denial, betrayal, and revenge in the main character personality, it tackles many important topics: feminism, cohabitation, childhood, marriage in the US and the different views of marriage (marriage without love, love without marriage and marriage based on love) and last but not least, it sheds the light on the realm of psychology (contemporary VS classical) through the Jungian process of realizing oneself and his idea of individuation, and Alfred Adler’s pragmatic school of thinking. This is a great book for novices of psychology and for those who are looking for a “gripping story of deception”.