Amity Gaige’s previous book, SCHRODER, is one of my favorite novels of the last decade. Her observations on identity, parenthood and family life have stuck with me for the eight years since it was published. As you might imagine, I was keenly eager to see what Gaige might do next, and with her latest, SEA WIFE, I was not disappointed. Here she continues to build on some of the themes she has explored in her prior work, all while giving readers a timely narrative about the personal repercussions of the Trump era. 
 
When we first meet Juliet, she has retreated from her family and is hiding --- effectively living --- in her husband Michael’s closet. It’s clear that something has gone horribly awry, but readers aren’t sure for quite some time exactly what has gone wrong.
 
Juliet’s present-day narrative --- in which she is coaxed out of the closet by her mother, attempts to regain some semblance of normal family life for her two children, and eventually enters therapy --- alternates with the parallel accounts of Juliet and Michael’s (one presumes, doomed) experience of living with their family on a 44-foot sailboat.

"At a time when many readers might be ready to jettison their own circumstances and set sail (at least in their imaginations), SEA WIFE comes along at just the right moment."

Juliet would be the first to admit that she was reticent to follow Michael’s bliss and embark on what was supposed to be a year-long odyssey, beginning in Panama and ending with a triumphant return to their home in Connecticut. Michael --- a burned-out businessman whose personal disillusionments have bled into his political outlooks --- is eager for a fresh start for his family, a chance for him to bring up their two young children to be self-reliant, creative, and free of the sort of self-pity and neediness that plague society. Juliet balks at first, but when she sees how important this undertaking is to Michael, she reluctantly acquiesces. It doesn’t hurt that this break from reality also gives her the perfect opportunity to forget about her failed attempts to finally finish her dissertation about the confessional poetry of Anne Sexton.
 
At first, Juliet is charmed by Michael’s boyish enthusiasm (against the advice of the dockworkers in Panama, he even renames their boat Juliet in her honor) and the way their children --- Sybil (age seven) and George (age two) --- thrive, not to mention the undeniable romanticism of their beautiful surroundings. At sea, however, there are no escape hatches, and the rifts that had marred their marriage back home in suburban Connecticut are no less deep at sea. One of their acquaintances, another woman who has made her family’s life at sea, notes, “Marriages have failure points, just like boats…. You sail a boat through rough weather and the failure points are revealed, yes? Or would you rather not know?”
 
Speaking of rough weather, SEA WIFE is full of genuinely nail-biting descriptions of storms at sea, particularly when Juliet is required by circumstances to take on the role of captain. It’s also infused with tender descriptions of the narrators’ children and their evocative surroundings. There’s even a bit of a (largely unnecessary) mystery. But I imagine that, as with SCHRODER that preceded it, what will stick with me are Gaige’s astute observations on balancing personal identity with one’s role in a family, of negotiating marriage and parenthood, of contending with the demons of one’s past or setting them aside in order to simply get through the day.

At a time when many readers might be ready to jettison their own circumstances and set sail (at least in their imaginations), SEA WIFE comes along at just the right moment.