OK enough is enough! How many books do we have to have with wifey titles?
We’ve got The Zookeeper’s Wife by Diane Ackerman (the wife in this book is also a zookeeper but let’s just call her the wife, shall we), The Time Traveller’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger, Ahab’s Wife by Sena Jeter Naslund, The Doctor’s Wife by Elizabeth Brundage, The Spy’s Wife by Reginald Hill, and that most chunderous of all The Surrendered Wife by Laura Doyle. Then there are all the spin-offs, or should that be offspring, like The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards, The Gravedigger’s Daughter by Joyce Carol Oates, and even The Hummingbird’s Daughter by Luis Alberto Urrea
Have these publishers not heard of a wee thing called feminism?!!
10 responses so far ↓
1 elizabeth brundage // Feb 27, 2008 at 12:11 am
Hi! Thank you for mentioning my wife. I want to say this, DO NOT JUDGE A BOOK BY ITS TITLE! Titles are designed to actually sell books, which, I hate to admit, is the writer’s goal. Not for the purpose of making money, but to actually have readers - what a concept! Regarding feminism, I do hope you will actually read my book The Doctor’s Wife, and my next book, yes, it’s true, Somebody Else’s Daughter, two novels that incorporate serious feminist issues in their stories. Please let me know your thoughts. Publishing is a difficult industry and writers, particularly women writers, are vulnerable in the great ugly mix of it all. Believe it or not, most women writers do try to take on serious themes that have much to do with being female. I do hope you’ll read my book, because I admire your site and think you’ll like it. My very best, Elizabeth
2 squib // Feb 27, 2008 at 8:44 am
Hi Elizabeth, thanks for dropping by. Please understand it’s nothing personal. I don’t like wifey book titles. I still think it’s a stupid publishing fad and terribly patriarchal to boot. That’s my opinion - what a concept!
3 warthog // Feb 27, 2008 at 8:03 pm
i wrote a book about patriarchy…’ how men became living gods while wimmin just tended to lose interesting bits of their anatomy to stop them being naughty’, by ‘the husband of mrs hog’
the wife of mr hog said the title was long winded and the book was a rambling mess. she took it over, re-edited it and in doing so rather changed its direction. it was published as ‘pigs’ by ‘wife of a pig’.
4 squib // Feb 28, 2008 at 8:25 am
Shouldn’t it be ‘Hogs’?
5 warthog // Feb 28, 2008 at 8:53 am
i think she thought ‘pigs’ was more punchy.
6 squib // Feb 28, 2008 at 9:09 am
And did it sell well then?
7 warthog // Feb 28, 2008 at 9:28 am
Only in the most hallowed circles of high academia.
8 squib // Feb 28, 2008 at 9:41 am
9 Ben // Mar 25, 2008 at 1:19 pm
My new book is called The Major-General’s Daughter’s Dentist’s Wife. It’s about a woman who eats a lot of chocolate and then blows some stuff up.
10 squib // Mar 25, 2008 at 2:47 pm
I think I could relate to that character a lot
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