On the eve of their 25th wedding anniversary, Mary Gooch's handsome husband Jimmy fails to come home. Mary wonders whether her size or her aversion to adventure chased him off. With few clues, she ventures to California in search of her husband. What she discovers is as shocking as it is delightful: a new vibrant energy--and an entirely different kind of hunger.
"A sensitive but deliciously comic account of Mary's fight against the "obeast" that has lived inside her since childhood, The Wife's Tale offers more than self-improvement: there are loving reflections on marriage and family in small-town Ontario, hilarious travelogues about American obsessions like McMansions and vanity license plates, and a tender documentary of the improbable compassion of strangers for fellow travelers. Of course, there's plenty of self-discovery too.... Lansens has more than a few tales worth telling."-Casey Cep, New York Times Sunday Book Review