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BOOK REVIEW
‘Hausfrau’
Written by Jill Alexander Essbaum
Reviewed by Fred H. Olin, MD
When I read this novel, I was moved more deeply by the protag- The other critics (see how smoothly I included myself in the
onist Anna Benz’s problems with life than I had been by any book group?) also took shots at the author for, in essence, ripping off Tol-
I’ve read in years. The sadness and disconnectedness of her life de- stoy (“Anna Karenina”) and Flaubert (“Madam Bovary”). There are
pressed me to the point that the distressing feelings lasted a day or some parallels, indeed, but our Anna’s attitude and problems aren’t
two. Then I decided to write a review of it, and went looking for re- the same. Although it’s been years since I read those books, and they
views by the professionals … I usually do so when I get the urge to sort of came to mind, I saw this as more of a re-envisioning of the
write and submit one of these. unloved-feeling, lost-in-her-world woman than a form of plagiarism.
I discovered that I must be much less sophisticated than the re- I wrote the preceding paragraphs in the first few days after I fin-
viewers for various national publications, websites and blogs. They ished the book. The malaise that it brought on couldn’t withstand
thought it was superficial, that Anna was boring, that the plot was the fact that I was on vacation in Oregon, visiting relatives, touring,
thin, that the other characters were formulaic and unrealistic, etc., drinking Oregon wine and overeating. Now, a couple of weeks later,
etc. The New York Times reviewer wrote: “There is little air in Anna’s I find myself still musing about the book. One feeling is that it is
sadness, precious little wit or grit or grace. Her misery is blunt and likely that a woman reading it would have a different set of reactions
static, unyielding as a mountain.” Right! That’s what made her whole than I had. I was saddened that Anna, a woman who seemed to be
experience interesting and involving to me: How could someone be intelligent, loving, reasonably attractive and affectionate, was so un-
so stuck in the mire? How could she fake being a good wife and fulfilled by her life … even though her alienation was mostly of her
mother and friend and be so deeply unhappy all the time? Why didn’t own making. It’s not that she was passive; her first affair starts when,
her husband, Bruno, and her friend Mary notice? Why was her Jun- during a German class break, Archie asks, “What are you doing this
gian psychotherapist so relatively passive? afternoon?” and Anna replies, “You.” In addition, I was fascinated
by the interplay between Anna and her therapist, Doktor Messerli.
What’s the book all about, you ask? The opening line in the book Descriptions of their sessions are interspersed into the main narrative
sort of gives a hint: “Anna was a good wife, mostly.” Indeed she was, and helped me to see into Anna’s mind … and into Dr. Messerli’s,
but she was an American woman living with her reticent, non- who utters short, aphoristic phrases, many of which have stuck with
demonstrative Swiss banker husband and their three children. Her me. Here’s one: “Shame is psychic extortion.”
somewhat disapproving mother-in-law was always around. She was
living in a culture foreign to her, and she never made any real attempt I had a definite feeling of acceleration of Anna’s psychological slide,
to engage with the community and society until the time of the story: undoubtedly intended by the author. As the book went on I became
she decided to take German language lessons, and in class she met more and more involved, and yet I was shocked and depressed by
her first extramarital lover, Archie. (You need to know that there are the final scenes. They shouldn’t have happened … but their in-
several scenes that might qualify as pornography in the narrative and evitability could only have been thwarted by a nearly complete in-
that would be mostly “bleeped” if they were read on the radio or version of her life, which would have required a whole different set
dramatized on broadcast television.) Anna’s further decline and fall, of friends, family members and a different milieu.
stimulated by tragedy and frustration, made me think of a quotation
from Madam de Staël, an 18th century intellectual and revolution- Fred H. Olin, MD, is a semi-retired orthopaedic sur-
ary: “The desire of the man is for the woman, but the desire of the geon and chair of the BCMS Communications/Publica-
woman is for the desire of the man.” So many of her actions and tions Committee.
thoughts seemed to me to be driven by a need for recognition of her-
self as a person and a desirable woman.
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