The Spare Wife

By: Alex Witchel

Narrated by: Laural Merlington

Ponce Morris is a beautiful, rich widow who's been dubbed "the spare wife" because she's the perfect companion to the wealthy, powerful couples she socializes with. She'll go to sports events with the husbands, throw elegant dinner parties, and shop with the wives. She's cool and nonthreatening because the two things everyone knows for sure are that Ponce doesn't like sex and doesn't have a romantic bone in her body.

Over the years, she has managed other people's lives - and her own - perfectly. Ponce has everything under control, exactly the way she likes it. Until....

Babette Steele, an ambitious aspiring journalist, finds out that Ponce is having an affair with a socially prominent and very married man and decides to break the scandal in a juicy magazine piece. For Ponce's circle, day-to-day existence quickly becomes a complicated game of social and professional chicken - whoever outsmarts and outmanipulates the other will win.

There is a lot at stake, not only for Ponce but for her friends, all of whom are in the midst of crises of their own: a philandering novelist who hasn't been able to write since his breakout Wall Street best seller; an aging billionaire who can't seem to resist young women (the younger the better); a legendary news-show producer on the decline; an old-time politico looking to rebound from his wife's death; and an editor at a glitzy magazine that covers the worlds of politics, fashion, and Hollywood.

As Ponce's life threatens to come apart at the seams, the author takes us into a world she knows intimately: a dynamic Manhattan filled with opinion makers and social fakers.

©2008 Alex Witchel (P)2008 Brilliance Audio

Critic reviews

"A wonderful escape into a world of beautiful, glamorous women and their troublesome men. The dialogue is witty and true. You will have a great time." (Barbara Walters)
"Witchel's Manolo-sharp send-up of Manhattan high society. The fact that many characters bear more than a fleeting resemblance to real New Yorkers (is that Tom Wolfe?) makes it all the more delicious." (Entertainment Weekly)

Very enjoyable book, TERRIFIC reader!

I enjoyed this book mightily, and the reader is one of the best I have experienced. Definitely a good audiobook.

Puke

Boring, unimaginative. Don't waste your time or money. It's books like this that makes me appreciate television. Sorry can in no way, recommend.