Still Life with Husband
Lauren Fox, Still Life with Husband
Publisher: Knopf
February 2007, 257 pages, $22.95

This debut novel is blessed with a first-person narrator, Emily, who delivers quirky descriptions and intelligent observations with a generous side of humor. Too bad said narrator applies these gifts to a story line worn thin from overuse—disenchanted character cheats on suburban-minded spouse—and occasionally indulges in chick-lit frivolity. It’s funny frivolity, but it undermines the narrator’s astute rendering of the emotional landslide cheating can cause. And it’s a symptom of a deeper problem: Emily’s savvy voice suggests that the plot might conceal deeper human truths, but in the end, the truth is all on the surface.

—Tracy Staton