Book Review: The Husbands

Synopsis:

Nora Spangler is a successful attorney. But when it comes to domestic life, she packs the lunches, schedules the doctor’s appointments, knows where the extra rolls of paper towels are, and designs and orders the holiday cards. Her husband, Hayden, works hard, too… but why does it seem like she is always working so much harder?

The Spanglers go house hunting in Dynasty Ranch, an exclusive suburban neighborhood. There, Nora meets a group of high-powered women — a tech CEO, a neurosurgeon, an award-winning therapist, a bestselling author — who all have enviably supportive husbands who happily shoulder household responsibilities.

Nora agrees to take on a resident’s wrongful death case and is pulled into the lives of the women. She finds their lives are much different than hers: they aren’t hanging on by a thread.

To what lengths will a woman go for a little more help from her husband? As the wrongful death case unravels, Nora discovers the women’s secret to having-it-all. One that’s worth killing for.

Review:

Author Chandler Baker grew up in Sarasota, Florida. She attended the University of Pennsylvania and earned her law degree at the University of Texas, Austin. She practiced law in Washington, D.C. and Dallas, Texas, and penned five young adult books before publishing her first adult novel, The Whisper Network. She says it was the book that “changed my life and allowed me to stop practicing law full time.” These days she lives in Austin, Texas, with her husband and children, where she writes, listens to audio books, and “obsesses over true crime.”

Baker says that inspiration for The Husbands struck when she least expected it. When she submitted the draft of her second novel, her editor suggested she “reconceptualize.” But she had already quit her job as a corporate attorney and struggled for months to find “a workable premise,” coming up empty.

Then she went on a trip with friends. They discussed Fair Play by Eve Rodsky “and our efforts to implement its advice in our own homes. The book offers a practical framework to discuss the division of household labor with your spouse, but what sparked for me was the way in which we talked (and talked and talked) about it.” The following week, the idea came to her for The Husbands, “a sort of gender-flipped Stepford Wives” in which she marries “social commentary on gender norms and the division of domestic labor with a thriller.” As she began writing the book, she was seven months pregnant with her second child and contemplating “the recalibration of domestic chores that comes with a new baby” in her own life. Now she’s thankful for her editor’s honesty, because it enabled her to write “the book I was meant to write.”

The Husbands centers on Nora Spangler, a litigator on track to become a partner if she can meet the firm’s quotas for billable hours and bringing in new clients. In addition to her professional workload, she and her husband, Hayden, are the parents of four-year-old Liv and she is three months pregnant with their second child. “It hasn’t escaped her notice that she managed to arrive at partnership eligibility, a year typically marked as being one of the hardest in a young lawyer’s life, knocked up.” And she is at her wit’s end as she tries to juggle all of the demands upon her . . . without sufficient assistance from Hayden. She tries not to nag or cajole or fight with him in order to get him to step up and help more around the house and with Liv. As the story opens, she is trying to work at home on the weekend and respond to her boss’s demands while Hayden watches Liv. With both the senior partner and Liv vying for her attention, Hayden seems to have disappeared. When she calls his name several times, he finally comes into the house from the garage, removes his AirPods, and announces that he was working out, innocently asking, “Did you need me? What’s wrong?” Nora points out that she’s trying to work “with a toddler hanging on me while you’re off in la-la land.” Hayden declares she should have come to the garage to get him because he would have been happy to help, chastising her for her tone. “I was just in the garage,” he says. “Well, don’t be,” she snaps, turning away from him. “Geez. Someone’s in a mood,” Hayden complains. Nora then begins sweeping up crumbs left on the kitchen floor from Liv’s snack as she explains to Hayden how different their lives are. When he goes to work, that’s all he has to think or worry about. Just work. It’s not so simple for Nora, who has to pick up and drop off Liv, manage medical appointments, take time to purchase birthday presents for Liv’s friends, and figure out what to do if Liv is sick. “Tell me what you want from me,” Hayden replies.

Every woman who has ever raised children will recognize the scene playing out, nodding their head in solidarity with Nora. She is an instantly recognizable, empathetic protagonist — a woman in her 30’s who is trying to succeed in her profession, give her child everything she needs, and hold her marriage together. And Hayden is a typical husband — hardworking and devoted to his family — who does not face the same pressures or have to navigate the same challenges that Nora does. Because of her gender.

So in response to Hayden’s inquiry, Nora’s answer is one readers will also recognize: “I just need time.” And when Hayden tries to comfort her, assuring her that everything will work out, Nora know that means she will be the one to figure it all out. And his promise to help out more with packing Liv’s lunch, cleaning, transportation, etc. will not alter the status quo. Nothing will change. And the same scene will play out again, and again, and again . . . “Women are tasked not only with the burden of the problem that exists, but also with how to solve it,” Baker aptly observes.

Even when Nora and Hayden fight, it’s her responsibility to smooth things over. After all, he forgave her for the worst thing she has ever done in her life. And Nora is certain that she would do anything to keep something like what happened on one horrible day from ever happening again.

Baker was interested to “create a Stepford scheme but actually justify it, and see if we could agree that perhaps the ends could justify the means.” The female residents of fictional Dynasty Ranch — a neighborhood inspired by those near her own Austin home — are all accomplished and successful. When Nora and Hayden, who need a larger house with the impending arrival of the baby and can afford to move with Nora’s partnership a distinct probability, consider purchasing a home there, they recognize her potential. Richard March, the husband of Penny March, an advice columnist (A Penny for Your Thoughts), died when their home burned and the residents inform Nora that Penny wants to file a wrongful death lawsuit. It’s not Nora’s area of expertise. But it’s an opportunity to bring a major client and case to the firm and, hopefully, seal the partnership deal. But as Nora begins investigating the circumstances surrounding the fire, it begins to look more like arson and murder than a spark from a malfunctioning appliance.

Curiously, all of the husbands of the Dynasty Ranch women gush about performing domestic chores. In fact, the first one Nora encounters gallantly assists her with a flat tire, but then rushes off because he has to finish doing laundry. It seems that the resourceful women of Dynasty Ranch have “taken it upon themselves to figure out how to solve the problem of the inequality in the division of domestic labor.” And the closer to the truth Nora inches, the more appalled, yet intrigued, she becomes.

Baker’s contemporary twist on a very old problem is, much like The Whisper Network, centered around the frustration that plague women as they strive to balance their responsibilities and desires in a world that still doesn’t acknowledge, much less reward, the value of motherhood. Women devote twice as much time as men to unpaid work. It may be the post-#MeToo era, but women still earn less money than men who perform the same work, and are subjected to criticism and judgment if they need to take time away from their careers in order to attend to the needs of their families.

Baker’s characters are compelling and credible, especially Nora and Hayden, a typical couple in their 30’s who love each other but have not figured out how to run their household in an egalitarian manner. Hayden is no more clueless than the average man, and he struggles to understand Nora and accede to her demands. It’s not his fault that he is neither perceived by nor perceives the world in the same way as Nora, so can never fully relate to her dilemma. That’s only partly because he is not a lawyer, although that’s one aspect. Baker places Nora is a highly competitive, demanding profession in which partnership is attained by billing an unrealistic number of hours per month, networking with other lawyers in order to secure referrals, and courting potential clients. It’s a world with which Baker, a former corporate attorney, is familiar and believably proves her thesis.

Baker’s supporting characters are an eclectic mix of diabolical and committed to their worldview. They are controlling and manipulating the emotionally distraught Penny, whose behavior must be managed lest their secrets be revealed. Baker keeps the action moving at a steady pace, interjecting details about Nora’s struggle to juggle everything — for example, she forgets to register Liv for the upcoming school year which is catastrophic because enrollment is full and Liv will not have a place in the school she loves with her friends. The guilt she carries with her every day, not just for a past lapse in judgment but her ongoing failure to achieve perfection, endears her to readers.

Nora’s investigation reveals that, prior to his death, Richard complained about hearing a clicking noise coming from an indeterminate location within the home at unpredictable hours of the day. She also learns that neighborhood residents’ marriages weren’t always idyllic. In fact, some of the couples improved their relationships by participating in couples therapy with resident neurosurgeon Cornelia White. Nora and Hayden are convinced to try White’s immersive and disorienting approach employing unconventional modalities. As Nora unravels the mysteries surrounding not just Richard’s death, but the activities of the neighbors, she must figure out what is actually transpiring in time to extricate herself and Hayden from the neighborhood — and its residents — in which they so naively allowed themselves to become enmeshed. And, even more importantly, decide if she wants to give up her dream home, and the progress she and Hayden have been making in their relationship and co-parenting.

The Husbands is, at its core, an engrossing and darkly humorous mystery that keeps readers guessing about the domesticated Dynasty Ranch husbands right up to its shocking conclusion. Baker touchingly dedicates the book to “the millions of women who are struggling to be caregivers, mothers, coworkers, and spouses all at once — and who left the workforce this past year in record numbers (at four times the rate of men) — because women can do anything, but they can’t do everything.” Nor should they have to.

Baker hopes The Husbands will inspire “mad women everything [to] cackle with the possibilities” it presents. If it starts productive conversations between partners, change can take place one small step at a time. If not, readers can at least be entertained by quiet moments spent reading the book . . . after they’ve finished folding the laundry, shopping, picking the kids up from school, helping with homework and baths, and getting the kids to bed before finishing the work they brought home from the office and ensuring that they picked their suits up from the cleaners so that they have something to wear to work the following morning. If they can stay awake.