I seem to be on an infidelity kick lately. I read Lucy Dawson's
debut novel, His Other Lover, over two nights, reading until my
eyes burned. In all the ways Love and Other Natural Disasters
failed, His Other Lover succeeded.
One night, Mia, a 20-something woman who works for a small
advertising firm somewhere near London, discovers a text message on
her live-in boyfriend's phone. Mia thought Pete was the one. Turns
out he's someone else's one, too. That someone else is an actress
named Liz.
The discovery of the text message begins a downward spiral of
destructive behviour which upends Mia's life. But hers is not the
only life shattered by the discovery.
It's interesting, but true, I think: women who are cheated on often
blame the other woman. Mia pours all her anger and hatred on top of
Liz. She almost makes Pete seem like another victim, someone who
fell into Liz's Black Widow trap and was helpless against her
sticky charms.
Of course it's all much more complicated that that. Mia goes
completely off the rails, calling in sick for days on end while she
tries to track down Liz. She wants her boyfriend back and the only
way to do that is annihilate the enemy.
Dawson does a terrific job of getting inside of Mia's head. The
whole range of emotions are there: grief, anger, the hot desire for
revenge. Mia is single-minded in her thirst for getting back her
man. The thing is: he's not worth it.
But the book is.