Wife in the North - A Review

"Wife in the North" by Judith O'Reilly was given to me by librarything.com as an advance copy for review. It took longer to read then I thought it would because I had a hard time getting started. As a fan of books written by British authors I rarely have a problem with the smattering of regional terminology they throw in but this book had me stumbling. Perhaps I was stumbling over the pace of the writing more then anything.

O'Reilly's memoir tells the tale of relocating her family to the northern reaches of the British countryside from the city of London. They left because of her husbands deep desire to live there, but much of his time was spent working in London. Leaving O'Reilly for weeks at a time to assimilate herself and their three small children into the farming, ranching, fox hunting community they were now a part of. To say she struggled is an understatement. Though after running out of gas for the third time I think I would have taken that chore upon myself. I enjoyed her candid stories of child rearing and it's often exhaustive effects. It made me feel better about the ever changing landscape of childrearing that I am a part of now.

I believe everyone could relate to something this author went through. Parenting small children, caring for aging and ill parents, a drastic change of lifestyle, a major house rennovation, making new friends while trying to fit old ones into a wholly different life and almost losing oneself in the bargain. It was time well spent and I will happily pass the book along to anyone who wants to read it.