Autopsy of a Boring Wife

Autopsy of a Boring Wife / Marie-Renée Lavoie
 translated from the French by Arielle Aronson
Toronto: Anansi Press, c2019. 
280 p.

Forty-eight year old Diane has just found out that her husband is leaving her for a younger woman, because, as he says, she is boring.

But Diane doesn’t feel boring. And as she deals with her new status in life, she proves that she really isn't -- perhaps it was just the settled marriage that was boring. Alongside her best friend Claudine, she explores what it means to be suddenly single after a 25 year marriage. This includes lengthy discussions of the relative attractiveness of middle aged women and men, the state of marriage as an institution, friendship, motherhood, and lawn care.

Yes, lawn care. Among the more serious issues there is a lot of humour in this book. Diane’s wry observations and the situations she finds herself in are very entertainingly told. There’s ribald humour that middle aged people will appreciate; there will be times when you laugh, and times when you cringe while reading this. From making bad decisions about home renovation to crushing on an office mate, Diane experiences a wide range of emotional responses to her new reality.

From shock and wanting to hide out, to not knowing what to do with herself, to starting up all sorts of projects recommended by her friend Claudine, Diane tries numerous things to recover from this trauma. Meanwhile her ex just floats along into a new comfortable life with a new and younger woman willing to take care of him. This book really outlines the experience of midlife divorce, and how it differs for men and women, or for the left and the leaving. 

The emotional journey that she's on carries her through a year of adjustments, some effective and some a little ill-judged. And in the end she finds a new way of living, in a final chapter that feels a little pat or saccharine in comparison with the rest of the book. But it does tie up some loose ends and leave the reader satisfied that Diane is going to be okay, that there is hope for a happy-ever-after even after such an upheaval. 

This book is referred to as a "Quebecois Bridget Jones" in its publisher's blurb, but I don't think that's quite accurate. To me, it is more reminiscent of other Quebec novels such as Colleen Curran’s Something Drastic – another tale of women finding their way after relationships gone bad, told with subdued hilarity. If you appreciate entertaining women’s writing with a French sensibility, this story might be just the one you’re looking for.