My Favorite Husband by Pam McCutcheon

Blurb

After five years of being lost in the Amazon, archaeologist Chaz Vincent has finally come home to his wife, Kelly, only to learn that she has had him declared dead. When he attends his own funeral, Chaz finds out that Kelly married another man just that morning. Now she has to choose between them. Who will be her favorite husband?

Review

Not my favourite book!

The premise of someone returning after they have been declared dead is always an interesting one and full of possibilities, but I didn’t feel this book lived up to its promise.

It was too farcical for my taste, but maybe that’s a personal thing. What really was an issue for me was the characterisation: Amalia was wooden, cardboard cut-out; Chaz was a total prat, and though he did grow and mature he started off from such a low level that he still lacked emotional depth and intelligence; Spencer was a cliché; and I had no idea why Kelly’s brother kept hanging around.

The setting (a hotel) was rather one-dimensional and I did wish for a change of location on more than one occasion.

Another bug-bear was the constant internal repetition of both the main characters of their thoughts and feelings for the other. The woe-is-me attitude of the main female character became rather wearing after a while.

All that aside, there were some amusing moments and some plot twists which I didn’t expect, holding my attention for long enough to see me through to the end. But that brings me to the predictability of the ending itself.

As a novel, I don’t think it works brilliantly, but I really can see it as a comedy play along the lines of The Importance of Being Earnest!