The Other Wife

Michael Robotham, “The Other Wife” Sphere, 2018, 384 pp.

Another book-club book—this time a mystery.  The title is accurate, the father of the narrator it turns out has had two wives: the most recent, Oliva, for the past twenty years while simultaneously retaining the other wife for forty years plus the last twenty.

Our hero, Joe O’Loughlin a clinical psychologist, is summoned to the hospital with news that his father has been brutally attacked.  His father received severe head trauma, and medical treatment required that he be put in a coma to relieve the pressure on his brain.  The son launches his own investigation.  As the book progresses the theme that truth comes at a price is constantly turning up.  The first clue other than all the blood spatter is a note left at the attempted murder scene: “I can’t do it, find someone else.”

My notes:

Pg. 1:  Facts about the narrator, Joe O’Loughlin:  “I am no different – a broken man, built upon the wreckage of my past.  It has been thirteen years since I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s.  It began with an unconscious, random flicker of my fingers on my left hand, a ghost movement that looked like a twitch, but read like a guilty verdict.  Unknown to me, working in secret, my body had begun a long, drawn-out separation from my mind; a divorce where nobody gets to keep the record collection or fights over who gets the dog.”

Pg. 232:  A good example of a Living Will:

I, William Joseph O’Loughlin, being of sound mind would like to make the following wishes known.  I refuse ALL medical procedures or interventions aimed at prolonging or artificially sustaining my life if in the opinion of two appropriately qualified doctors the following occur:

1.      I have an imminently life-threatening physical illness or condition from which there is little or no prospect of recovery.

2.      I suffer serious impairment of the mind or brain with little or no prospect of recovery together with physical need for life-sustaining treatment.

3.      I have been diagnosed as being in a persistent vegetative state or minimally conscious state and have been so for at least twelve weeks with no prospect of recovery.

I know that at any time I can change my mind about these conditions by tearing up this form and writing a new one.

Pg. 254:  Children swarm into groups, laughing and jostling and saying goodbye to each other.  Emma shuffles past them, speaking to nobody.  ‘Youth doesn’t need friends – it only needs crowds,’ Zelda Fitzgerald said.  Emma has neither.

Pg. 371:  Hate is an evil passion and love an inspired one, but they share the same brain circuitry and lead to similar acts of desperation.

Addenda:  Here’s a modern Other-Wife story:  In 2006, on his 76th birthday, Warren Buffett married his longtime companion, Astrid Menks, who was then 60 years old—she had lived with him since his wife's departure to San Francisco in 1977. Warren’s wife, Susan, had arranged for the two to meet before she left Omaha to pursue her singing career. All three were close and Christmas cards to friends were signed "Warren, Susie and Astrid".  Susan briefly discussed this relationship in an interview on the Charlie Rose Show shortly before her death, in a rare glimpse into Buffett's personal life.