The Husband Wasn't the Only One With Secrets

 Liane Moriarty, author of The Husband’s Secret, took a calculated risk with the book’s title. How many of you who read the book thought about skipping ahead to find out what the secret was and ended up totally involved with the plot and characters? I considered it! This did not turn out to be a book that had just one interesting aspect. It was written by Liane Moriarty, after all, and so it gave the reader a group of complex characters interrelated socially and around the title’s secret. Our conversation about the book was lively and detailed, with lots of opinions about most of the characters and their activity.

We covered a number of topics and questions about the characters and people in general. We talked about John Paul. Linda asked, “What kid would strangle someone who broke up with them?” Joyce said that John Paul was 17 at the time of his crime and so could be tried in the courts as a juvenile. About John Paul’s coping with his guilt, Pat noted he tried to atone by giving up things, as if for penance. Joyce asked why John Paul wrote the letter. Linda said the letter rid him of both the crime and the secret. This line of thought led Joyce to suggest that he was rewarded for writing the letter.

Lydia said the author had to find a way for Cecilia to find the letter. We talked about Cecilia, who was in every way a character who generated discussion, i.e., gossip! Someone said Cecilia was guilty of aiding and abetting a criminal. Someone said Cecilia liked to be the person who fixed everything. Linda added that Cecilia was a bit anal retentive, which was also exemplified by Cecilia’s close relationship with the many different forms of Tupperware, which helped her to compartmentalize and organize things. Then we all stopped to think about and talk about what we would have done upon finding such a letter. I thought the sensible thing to do would be to ask one’s husband about the letter and demand a satisfactory answer. Someone suggested the letter could be combined with legal papers to be read upon the person’s death.

I can’t help but interject here that I made one humorous observation while reading that I didn’t have a chance to mention at our meeting. It was that combining the names of Cecilia’s children, Polly and Ester, results in “Polyester, a manufactured synthetic fiber.”

Aside from Cecilia, the part of the book we spent the most time on was the Epilogue! Joyce had made a point of recommending we make sure we read the epilogue. Flo characterized the epilogue as “unnecessary.” It was food for thought for us, adding to the interesting characters’ various backgrounds and life trajectories in the book. Our Book Club has often been disappointed with the endings of novels, especially when the reader is left with too many unresolved plot developments. This epilogue might have been unnecessary, but it did generate ideas. Linda noted the uncertainties in life. She said, ”This is where you are. You must go from there and take the next step.” Someone added that the epilogue wasn’t resolution but chance ideas; that it emphasized that one never knows which way life is going to go. Linda said that we all live life somewhat on a banana peel and don’t know where it will go. Pat added that there are many forks in the road and that we never know how many we missed.