After reading Fortunes Rocks and loving so much I felt compelled to read some of Shreve's other novels to see if they were just as good. And since The Pilot's Wife is probably one of the most well known of her works (thanks to Oprah) it seemed like a good place to start. And as it turns out, it's a pretty good book too: athough I didn't enjoy it as much as Fotunes Rocks and it is written in a slightly different style. It's a great story in how you don't always know someone as well as you like to think you do - especially those that you love.Kathyrn is married to Jack who is a pilot with Vision Airlines. Together they have a daughter; Matigan, and the family run their routine around Jack's flight schedule since he is away a few days at a time. As in Fortunes Rocks, the ages of the Kathryn and Jack are different since there is a fifteen year age gap between them, although you'll have to see for yourself whether this is significant to the story or not. Kathryn and Jack live in what she considers to be a normal marriage, and she views their decline in intimacy as the result of his long periods away and the natural ebb and flow of a marriage in it's 10th year.
But when Jack's plane goes down in the Atlantic just off the coast of Ireland leaving no survivors, Kathryn and Mattie's world comes crashing down around around them amidst much media speculation on why the plane exploded and crashed. As Kathryn tries to deal with the emotion surrounding her husbands death she is faced with accusations that he may have been a terrorist and may have used the plane to commit suicide: taking all 103 innocent passengers with him. But while she tries to unravel the mystery, convinced that she knew Jack well enough to know he would never do something like that, she uncovers and even greater secret he has kept from her. A secret that shatters the memories of their life together much more than an exploding plane ever could.
Once again Shreve does a great job with the writing. She leads you through the story but still leaves you to figure out what isn't being said just as much as what is. Kathryn and Jack's relationship is significant in the way they are with each other, although I don't think I managed to fully appreciate the intensity of their relationship. You get the idea of Jack being the central pivot in everything, who wields a power they are all unaware of. You also end up feeling sorry for Kathryn although she manages to rally herself and survive okay on her own. There is a suggestion that Jack didn't really love Kathryn as much as she thought; that it was his relationship with his daughter that keeps him in the marriage. And when Kathryn travels to London and comes face to face with Jack's other life, you can feel the love and trust that she held for him slipping away through her hands which Shreve manages to write beautifully. Her subsequent breakdown at the knowledge is handled with care but Kathryn is a real heroine and does the right thing by Mattie. You know in the end that she'll be okay - eventually. Another great story which is brillantly and sesitively written. Shreve explores boundries of what a character might do when truly faced with their worst reality.
