Autopsy of a Boring Wife
CBC Books | | Posted: June 27, 2019 8:11 PM | Last Updated: January 6, 2021
Marie-Renée Lavoie, translated by Arielle Aaronson
Like a Québécois Bridget Jones's Diary, Marie-Renée Lavoie's Autopsy of a Boring Wife tells the hysterically funny and ultimately touching tale of 48-year-old Diane, a woman whose husband leaves her and is having an affair because, he says, she bores him. Diane takes the charge to heart and undertakes an often ribald, highly entertaining journey to restoring trust in herself and others that is at the same time an astute commentary on women and girls, gender differences and the curious institution of marriage in the 21st-century. All the details are up for scrutiny in this tender, brisk story of the path to recovery. Autopsy of a Boring Wife is a wonderfully fresh and engaging novel of the pitfalls and missteps of an apparently "boring" life that could be any of ours. (From House of Anansi)
Autopsy of a Boring Wife is on the Canada Reads 2021 longlist.
Marie-Renée Lavoie is the author of three books, including Mister Roger and Me (La petite et le vieux in French), which won Radio-Canada's Les combat des livres in 2012. Lavoie lives in Montreal.
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From the book
I've always thought it terribly pretentious to gather all your loved ones in one place to say: the two of us, right here right now and in spite of overwhelming statistics, declare that we, temporarily bonded by the illusion of eternity, we are FOREVER. And we've asked you to spend time and money to be here today because we — We — we shall elude whatever it is that dissolves other loves. Aged twenty-three, we are certain of this and want to share our conviction with you. We're neither convinced nor frightened that the vast majority have stumbled before the implausibility of this oath. Our love will endure because our love is special. Our love is not like other people's. Our marriage will survive.
From Autopsy of a Boring Wife by Marie-Renée Lavoie, translated by Arielle Aaronson ©2019. Published by House of Anansi.