Recipe for a Perfect Wife by Karma Brown

The title is brilliant, Recipe for a Perfect Wife. Very old fashioned you might think but this story, set in both 2018 and the 1950's is anything but. Through dual timelines and parallel lives the reader lives with Alice and Nellie in the same house (over sixty years apart) as they struggle with expectations about what the world (and the people they love) expect of them. Both women have creative interests and pursuits and both struggle with the patriarchal ideals and expectations. Nellie, living in the home in the 1950’s feels powerless over her life. Alice renovating the property in 2018 has little more agency and struggles with the same issues that plagued Nellie. How they each handle the predicaments they are in gives the novel an excellent page-turning thrill. 

Karma Brown does a great job of creating the setting and describing Nellie’s life in the 1950’s and juxtaposing it with scenes from modern day, Alice. The characters and the connection Karma gives them is wonderful (a cookbook). As much as I loved this story it did give me moments of pause to think about how many years separated these women living in the very same house and realizing how little had changed.  Recipe for a Perfect Wife is a fascinating read, a page-turning thrill and in a way, a call to action to ensure that life is better for women in the future. 

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