No-one writes a small village saga like Joanna Trollope. Though the main character of The Rector’s Wife is the said wife, the tensions within her marriage, family and community are universal. The independence of the woman, the stifling controlling behaviour of an uncommunicative husband, the disapproval of outsiders making judgements on the family with no knowledge of the truth. First published in 1991, The Rector’s Wife is about a priest’s wife struggling to rediscover her own identity, a feeling of self that faded on marriage and has been swamped since by the competing needs of husband, children, church and village. The flower committee, the Sunday School, the newsletter, the endless teas and cakes to bake. The silent expectation that she will do this without payment. It is a sad story about a struggling marriage where communication is limited and the three children – Charlotte, Luke and Flora – observe in fear, confusion and ultimately in rebellion, in their own individual ways. How can they know who they are if their father rarely talks and their mother is having her own identity crisis. But it is also a heartwarming story about family love and adaptation.
Anna Bouverie’s rebellion begins when her husband Peter fails to be awarded promotion to archdeacon. ‘He would be changed by this; he couldn’t avoid that. Even the gradual assimilation of his disappointment would leave scars and blights, like a landscape after fire.’ Anna wonders if he will become even more difficult. Peter retreats into himself, leaving Anna to deal with the family’s financial problems. Son Luke wants to drive to India in an old van with friends, but doesn’t have the money. Flora is being bullied at her comprehensive and longs to go to the convent school. Oldest child Charlotte, away at university, avoids going home. Anna’s solution is pragmatic. To the scandalous whispers of the village women, she takes a job as a shelf-stacker at Pricewells supermarket. To her surprise, she enjoys the work. Her husband is scandalised. Two newcomers to the village, a rich businessman, and the brother of the new archdeacon, observe the upheaval and watch Anna with interest.
As Anna faces down her husband’s sullen disapproval, her mother and mother-in-law rebel in their own small ways and navigate their own choppy waters with resilience. There are asides which raise a chuckle, particularly old villager Mr Biddle, and some of Flora’s pronouncements. I finished the book feeling indignant at how the men in Anna’s life, no matter how well-meaning, seem to treat her as an appendage to themselves rather than seeing Anna the person.
The ending is satisfactory, not neat but realistic. “I married the man, not the job,” Anna tells a parishioner. “I’m not an outboard motor, I’m another boat.”
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Read my reviews of other novels by Joanna Trollope:-
A PASSIONATE MAN
A VILLAGE AFFAIR
MUM & DAD
THE CHOIR

If you like this, try:-
‘We Are Water’ by Wally Lamb
‘The Language of Others’ by Clare Morrall
‘The Last Day’ by Claire Dyer

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COMING SOON… THE NEXT BOOK I REVIEW WILL BE:-