Wifey (novel)
Encyclopedia
Wifey is a 1978
1978 in literature
The year 1978 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*The Bookseller/Diagram Prize for Oddest Title of the Year, a humorous award given annually to books with unusual titles is created. The first winner was Proceedings of the Second International Workshop on Nude...
novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
by Judy Blume
Judy Blume
Judy Blume is an American author. She has written many novels for children and young adults which have exceeded sales of 80 million and been translated into 31 languages...
. The story follows the life of bored 1970s New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
housewife, Sandy Pressman, who decides to reinvigorate her life by having an extramarital affair with an old high school boyfriend. This decision is complicated when she accidentally discovers evidence her husband might be having a long-term affair. Somewhat emblematic of the time period of open marriage
Open marriage
Open marriage typically refers to a marriage in which the partners agree that each may engage in extramarital sexual relationships, without this being regarded as infidelity. There are many different styles of open marriage, with the partners having varying levels of input on their spouse's...
s and different mores, this is the first novel by Blume to directly address adult lives and sexuality.
Author's commentary
"My first novel for adult readers! Funny and baaad, Sandy Pressman was raised to lead a fifties life. You know... grow up, get a college degree in case, god forbid, you ever have to go to work, marry well, have children and....that's the problem...and what??? For Sandy, it's the summer she begins to question her choices and give in to her fantasies."When Wifey was published some people thought I would never write another children's book, some thought I had written a real book at last, some were angry that I hadn't used a pseudonym, others that I even had such thoughts! Plus, I began to hear from old boyfriends. And those who wanted to be."