The After Wife

July 15, 2012
After being widowed, a woman begins to see ghosts everywhere in Grazer's breezy postscript to The Starter Wife (2005). When her husband, John, a personal chef and cookbook author, is the victim of a hit-and-run while biking to the market, 40ish Hannah Bernal's life is upended. A stay-at-home dad to the Bernals' toddler daughter Ellie, John also ran their household (in Santa Monica's fashionable NoMo district) and made meals that went beyond mere nourishment. Hannah's colleague and best friend Jay, a trash-talking gay man, forms a "Grief Team" with two of Hannah's eccentric girlfriends, to help her get back on her feet. But John's death has imbued Hannah with a sixth sense. Under her backyard avocado tree, Hannah sees her first ghost, Trish, the former owner of Hannah's historic house. Hannah's side-chatter with ghostly interlopers at a business meeting gets her and Jay fired from their jobs in reality TV. The first time John appears, the parted spouses argue about topics serious (he let his life insurance policy lapse) and absurd (are Crocs shoes or sandals?). When John reveals that his hit-and-run killer was a Range Rover driven by a texting Momzilla, not a truck driven by the illegal immigrant who was arrested for the crime, Hannah goes to the aid of the immigrant, convincing the police to refocus their investigation. Unable to refinance her home and threatened with foreclosure (a Realtor frenemy is hounding her to sell to a tear-down entrepreneur), Hannah is a bit slow (especially for an ex-reality TV producer) to see the monetary potential in ghost whispering. A New Year's trip to Palm Desert for high colonics, Team in tow, occasions arch commentary on what L.A. sybarites consider entertainment. Her friends have their own troubles, involving coyotes, Pomeranians, feckless married men and failed auditions. Hannah's banter with interlocutors, corporeal or not, is the chief pleasure here, more so than the leggy and disjointed plot. Darkly humorous look at grief, L.A.-style.

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February 1, 2012

How does newly widowed Hannah discover that she can talk to the dead? She's standing in the backyard, sobbing over the death of her husband and asking, "Why?" when the avocado tree laconically responds, "Why not?" Grazer is responsible for the screenplay Stepmom, plus a bunch of novels, including The Starter Wife, inspiration for the miniseries.

Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2012
Grazier, A-list writer for the TV series The Starter Wife, which is based on her best-selling 2005 novel of the same name, delivers another strong story set in upscale Los Angeles with The After Wife. Hannah Bernal is bereft when she learns that her beloved husband has been killed in a hit-and-run accident while on his way to the market. She struggles with overwhelming grief and the impossible task of comforting her three-year-old daughter, Ellie, who was inseparable from her stay-at-home dad. Three colorful friends keep Hannah going during a series of crises involving an arrest, a job termination, and day-care difficulties, but they balk at Hannah's weird and troubling new ability to see and hear the dead. Hannah begins to advise people according to the wishes of their deceased relatives and even talks to her dead husband. Grazer evokes powerful emotions and situations that remain realistic even with the complication of Hannah's paranormal gift, and she ends this affecting tale on a hopeful note. Fans of Lolly Winston, Mary Kay Andrews, and Jennifer Weiner will especially enjoy Grazer's newest.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)