My Husband

I wasn't quite sure what to expect from this novel, translated from French, about a woman desperately in love with her husband. It's a quick, propulsive read, drawing you into the mind of our unnamed narrator, who is completely consumed with thoughts of her (also unnamed) husband, for one week in their lives. At first it seems like she's a little extra, but it becomes increasingly obvious that the narrator is less in love with her husband than she is obsessed with him. She spirals for days when he compares her to a clementine fruit. She breaks a floor lamp because it disrupts the ambience of their home's entryway and she's terrified that it will lead her husband to no longer want to return home to her and the children. She has a secret copy of the mailbox key made so that she can scan through the mail before her husband gets home to make sure he's not receiving love letters from other women. And then the obsession itself takes a darker turn. Ventura writes her protagonist as a black hole of need, resenting even her own children for the attention they draw from her husband that isn't otherwise allocated to her. If you enjoy stories that center an amoral female antihero, this is a great choice!