The Charmed Wife by Olga Grushin
Published by G.P. Putnam's Sons
Publication date: January 12, 2021
Genres: Book Clubs, Fantasy, Fiction, Literary
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When it came out, Olga Grushin’s novel Forty Rooms blew me away. I had never read a piece of fiction that so perfectly encapsulated many of my feelings about marriage and being a woman. It was with great excitement that I saw Grushin was back with a new novel. Actually, excitement and trepidation because the bar would be high and Grushin looked to be mining the same territory—modern day woman and relationships. The novel is The Charmed Wife and is a follow-up to the fairytale Cinderella. Cinderella has been married to Prince Charming for 13 years and, not to mix fairytale metaphors, the bloom is off the rose.
In the original story Cinderella marries the prince, vanquishing her evil stepmother and stepsisters, but as The Charmed Wife begins she is sneaking out of the palace late at night to meet a witch and plot against her husband. She’s filled with a righteous anger at Roland, whom she now knows to be unworthy of her love and devotion. As the witch begins making her deadly brew, Cinderella’s distraught fairy godmother appears in an effort to council her against doing anything rash. With these key women assembled, Grushin lets Cinderella’s story unfold. Each strand of her husband’s hair added to the witch’s cauldron winds the tale backwards.
At first, the past unfurls with the rosy glow of new love and a life of splendor, where every wish is fulfilled as soon as it is uttered. It’s only as she awaits the birth of her first child that Cinderella starts to feel a sense of unease. She begins to spin her own tales.
She was used to rigid fairyland rules dictating every move and every outcome, so she made life in the outlandish world of her fancy fantastical and unpredictable, for in that world there existed true magic—the magic of choice.
These new stories don’t work for long. By the birth of her second child, a son and heir to the throne, ruling the kingdom takes up most of the prince’s time as does traveling to foreign lands to visit other leaders. Left home, Cinderella looks to her fairy godmother to help her with the loneliness and listlessness. Which she does, with lovely potions that animate her and restore her world to brightness and other potions that allow her to sleep at night. And so, it goes; the charmed life unravels.
These new stories don’t work for long. By the birth of her second child, a son and heir to the throne, ruling the kingdom takes up most of the prince’s time as does traveling to foreign lands to visit other leaders. Left home, Cinderella looks to her fairy godmother to help her with the loneliness and listlessness. Which she does, with lovely potions that animate her and restore her world to brightness and other potions that allow her to sleep at night. And so, it goes; the charmed life unravels.
Grushin leaves breadcrumbs not only to be followed, but to highlight small details in Cinderella’s story that, as the pages pass, don’t quite add up. Yes, Roland is a poor excuse for a husband, but what is Cinderella’s role in her own life? As The Charmed Wife progresses, the witch and godmother go from vengeful and placating to probing, forcing her to question not just her marriage, but herself. Late in the long night, Cinderella begins uncovering her own truth, her own role in this fairytale gone wrong.
I had only one small quibble with the novel. Cinderella’s friends, the mice, are inserted into the narrative intermittently with their own history. I wanted to keep my attention solely on her story so this device was unappreciated. Thankfully, it’s limited to the earlier chapters and is a small hitch in an otherwise enchanting novel.
In the same way Cinderella journeys through The Charmed Wife so too does the reader. A kaleidoscopic gem of a novel, each turn of the page dazzles the mind, shifting it from accepted perceptions to perspectives not previously considered. All within a magical tale told with intelligence and wit. Just as there is no charmed wife, there is no charmed life, but maybe there is something even better.
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*I received a free copy of this book from G.P. Putnam’s Sons in exchange for an honest review.*
Sounds truly enchanting! What an interesting mix of old and new.
It was the perfect blend of fairytale and reality.
You had me at nearly five stars which, from you, is quite an endorsement. 😉 This sounds like such an immersive escape!
I hope you like it. It’s a very intelligent look at fairytales and what, ultimately, they do to little girls.
I haven’t even heard of this book, but it sounds really interesting and fun. I think it might be just the sort of book I like on audio. I’m going to keep it in mind and see how long the wait is on Libby. Thanks! (Only 1 of my 3 libraries had it, so I’ll be waiting for awhile.)
I’d be very curious to know what it was like on audio. As I mentioned I didn’t care for the mice from the fairytale and I wonder how that would be narrated. Little squeaky voices would make them even more problematic!