Tony Parsons – My Favourite Wife

YOU SHOULD REALLY READ MY FAVOURITE WIFE.

• The Times thinks that this book is a perfect description of the modern China in a good-humoured way.
• My favourite wife is a funny read which tells us about various kinds of love that a man can feel for the women cross passing in his life: the wife, the mistress, the daughter, the mother.
• The book reveals an unknown view of today’s China.

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You don’t leave your child for another woman.

Nobody’s that good in bed.

YOU SHOULD READ IT AGAIN.

First of all, you lie to yourself. You keep saying that you’re dating an unmarried man who loves you. Then, you see him constantly checking his watch and his t-shirt’s collar. In time, you realize that he cannot take home your Christmas presents or, if he does, he must hide them. You wonder how many presents did he hide or throw away?

Of course, when you’re together, it’s wonderful.

This is exactly the right word for it: wonderful.

And when he is not there, all those lonely nights, it’s terrible.

This is exactly the right word for it: terrible. So, stop lying to yourself.

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– Do you know what I loved the most about you when we first met?

– My wife?

OR, MAYBE, WE SHOULDN’T READ IT.

Eh, we cannot call them prostitutes, per-se. No, it would be very unfair. They are some kind of second-wives. That is, they fall in love, they have children, they wash dishes, they cook. It’s not a luxurious career. These “wives” have a normal, domestic life while waiting for the man to leave his wife – a thing that won’t happen. They have a chaotic existence and their statute can easily change overnight.

Hopefully, the man gets bored. Or the wife catches him.