I have to admit I saw the film before reading the book: and the book’s better. It’s not a book to read if your relationship is in any way shaky.

It’s a close-run thing, but it’s definitely better for the story to have the direct feed into the characters’ innermost thoughts. Both the protagonists are well and deeply drawn. It’s a depressing story, of course, the tale of a marriage doomed by stress and indifference, before being “saved” – if by saved you mean the husband being trapped into acquiescence with his wife’s ideal. The sting in the tail, of course, is that he’s not entirely unhappy with this outcome, as it makes him in some senses a better man: he’s passed through anger and confusion and come to an understanding with his admittedly psychopathic wife.

5/5. Finished Sunday 8 March, 2015.

(Originally published on Goodreads.)