Still Life with Husband by Lauren Fox

The cover art and title of this book made it seem like it would be chick-lit, but I thought it was better than that. This story follows a woman named Emily in her early thirties who is doubting her relationship with her husband and contemplating an affair with a man she meets.

Emily was immediately likable and familiar. As I read, I thought of Emily as, if not myself in a different situation, at least as someone I would be friends with. For example, she writes, "I have always fallen for guys the way smart girls do, the way not-beautiful girls do, with my brain." Even her relationship with her mother was familiar: " 'Erica Marchese had twins,' she says by way of greeting, giving first me, then Kevin a perfumey kiss on the cheek...I went to grade school with Erica Marchese, although I haven't seen her in about twenty years. But my mother keeps her finger on the pulse of her thriving, procreating suburban community."

The majority of the book describes Emily's descent into a relationship with a man who isn't her husband and the ensuing exhilaration, guilt, and confusion surrounding this decision. The reason I didn't consider this book pure chick-lit is the intelligence with which Emily (actually, Lauren Fox) comments on the situations she's in. "Later, in bed, it occurs to me that maybe a lie is composed not of the substance of what you tell someone, and not even of its intention, but of the amount of stress is causes you to tell it." These comments are included in the book not as Carrie-Bradshaw-esque interludes, but as continual reflection.

The book was a bit scary, too, in its possibility. Here was a story about a young well-educated woman who married a nice, steady guy, and suddenly felt trapped at a young ago. A little too close to home for me? Probably not. But it was the first book about adultery that I have read in which the main perpetrator was of my demographic. Her description of her husband was sweetly familiar, which was scary: "Poking out of a pocket of Kevin's suitcase, I notice, is the book he brought to read during his free time: Sound Investments for the Careful Planner. I feel a familiar pang of love for my steady, staid husband."

A pretty good book.