After I write my thoughts on Wifey, I'm going to go look at Judy Blume's web site to see if she hated writing the ending as much as I hated reading it. You know how they describe people as enablers when they allow an abusive person to continue their behavior without challenging it or attempting to prevent it? There was no "abuse" in this book but there was definitely an enabler...which maybe means, there was abuse. Isn't it considered abuse if a person continually hurts another's feelings and makes them feel bad about themselves?
I think I just wrote a big fat spoiler, but that's okay. The book was published in 1978. Anyone who was going to read it already has. As usual, the people who might benefit from reading it, won't. A person as controlling, rigid, and thoughtless as her husband wouldn't recognize himself--if he were capable of seeing how awful he was, he wouldn't be so.
So let me talk about the woman. IMHO, she gets what she deserves. I'm sorry for her, truly sorry, but what she needs is to get out, make herself a life, and then see if she wants to go on with this miscarriage, I mean, marriage. The implication is that she's going to try to work things out gradually, from within. She's going to try and she's going to fail--every word, phrase, and tone of voice in the husband's last remarks shows that clearly. He's not going to change.
I'm reminded of the wise phrase--
You can't change the world. You can only change yourself.
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