Thomas Christopher Greene’s The Headmaster’s Wife will hook you from the beginning but beware of making snap judgments and resist the temptation to close the book when it appears that Arthur, one of the main characters is nothing more than a despicable human being, aka a ‘dirty old man’. All is not as it seems and Greene has upped the ante using the unreliable narrator with remarkable effectiveness.
He writes with poignancy and lyricism about Arthur’s life as the headmaster of a prestigious Vermont boarding school and his marriage while exposing the sadness and grief that has torn both apart . His writing is both beautiful and heartrending made more so after reading the acknowledgments and learning that the inspiration for this book was a deep personal loss the author previously experienced.
This thoughtful moving story will simmer in your mind and be one to discuss with your reading friends as I did with my fellow Matchmaker Reader’s Advisor. Read her blog post here if you don’t want to take my word for it: An Unreliable Narrator
Greene’s talent was in evidence in his earlier book I’ll Never Be Long Gone. The plot involves two brothers wrapped in a ‘Cain and Abel’ type relationship after their father committed suicide leaving his restaurant business to one son and a small monetary sum and a directive to his other son to go find himself. Neither are ever the same again as their reunion plays out in the restaurant and the evocatively portrayed Vermont landscape. Though you may be unfamiliar with Greene and his works he may well become one of your favorite authors after sampling one of his novels.
