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The main
character of Eric Jerome Dickey’s The Other Woman is a TV news producer who works
late while her husband, Charles, a schoolteacher, arrives home early. They have a nice
home in suburban LA, but they’re rarely home at the same time. Her daily routine
includes dealing with the boredom of gridlock, pressure from her boss Tyra the tyrant,
stress from overwork, and the heartache of finding her husband sound asleep when she gets
home. His daily routine is finding a way to fill his time.
One day she
gets a phone call at work informing her that her husband is having an affair. That phone
call begins a series of events that creates disaster for the four individuals
involved—the couple that had the affair and their emotionally devastated spouses.
The book is written in the present tense in the voice of the women who’s
been cheated on. We never learn her real name, but her best friend, Yvonne, calls her
“Freckles.” Yvonne absorbs every word of Freckles’ highly dramatic stories and offers her
living room as a place to sleep. Yvonne even tries to get her interested in the voyeurism
home she frequents.
Freckles finds a revenge buddy in David Lawrence, the
jilted husband of her husband’s lover. This is where things get sticky—because if their
spouses hadn’t cheated on them, they would never have met under such intense
circumstances.
The Other Woman is a suspenseful read with a
surprise ending. You’ll keep turning pages, wanting to know what Freckles is going to do
next—because she’s in crisis mode and her behavior is unpredictable.
I
would highly recommend this book for its raw emotion. Be warned, however, that the
dialogue contains plenty of profanity designed to help these characters express their
anger.
