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The Not Wives
The Not Wives traces the lives of three women as they navigate the Occupy Wall Street movement and each other. Stevie is a nontenured professor and recently divorced single mom; her best friend Mel is a bartender, torn between her long-term girlfriend and a desire to explore polyamory; and Johanna is a homeless teenager trying to find her way in the world.
In the midst of economic collapse and class conflict, late-night hookups and long-suffering exes, the three characters piece together a new American identity founded on resistance--against the looming shadow of financial precarity, the gentrification of New York, and the traditional role of a wife.
In the midst of economic collapse and class conflict, late-night hookups and long-suffering exes, the three characters piece together a new American identity founded on resistance--against the looming shadow of financial precarity, the gentrification of New York, and the traditional role of a wife.
368 pages, Paperback
First published September 10, 2019
About the author
Carley Moore
6 books57 followersCarley Moore's books include: The Stalker Chronicles, a young adult novel; 16 Pills, an essay collection; The Not Wives, a novel; and Panpocalypse, a novel, which is forthcoming in March 2022. Carley is a queer, disabled, single, co-parenting mom. She lives in New York City and teaches at New York University. Follow her on Instagram: @fragmentedsky
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Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
September 24, 2019
The Not Wives is a very real and raw view into the lives of three women in New York City during the Occupy movement. I enjoyed and appreciated it very much for its portrayal of women who are not usually the heroes of fiction: a single activist mom (Stevie), a bisexual woman in an open relationship (Mel), and a homeless woman (Johanna). I loved how much sex those first two had--the book is drenched in hot wet eroticism--and even as a gay man, I was turned on. I also adored little Sasha, Stevie's charming daughter.
From a craft perspective, the novel is quite deft, switching between first and third person, as well as a few short sections that read more like prose poetry. And the details of New York are spot-on and fun to read.
From a craft perspective, the novel is quite deft, switching between first and third person, as well as a few short sections that read more like prose poetry. And the details of New York are spot-on and fun to read.
October 23, 2019
This is clearly a novel written by a poet. It is so descriptive! Also, there’s a line on page 273 about the dogs that made me put the book down and laugh for a full minute. I won’t spoil it for you. Read the book.
December 21, 2020
Once in a while I find a writer where story and voice are equally compelling and Carley Moore is now added to that list with The Not Wives.
Moore’s voice is immediate, intimate, poetic, so clear, so strong, that the story becomes cinematic.
The three women in this book, Stevie, A non-tenured professor at an elite NYC private college who has to live with her young daughter in the student dorms, Mel a bartender in an open relationship with her long-term girlfriend, and Johanna a homeless teen struggling with addiction and trying to find her way, are all living in NYC at a time when resistance has begun to take shape after decades of apathy, and it is fascinating to watch how identity can take shape during a time of financial instability coupled with the aggressive gentrification of New York City. I loved each of theshe characters, not in spite of, but because of their flaws. When I fall deeply in love with flawed characters I know I’ve found a brilliant writer.
One of the attributes of a book that takes it to great for me is that it has to make me yearn to know what happens next. Carley Moore makes that happen. Each character’s story line and how they intertwine is delicious and I can’t wait to get back to it.
I recommend this book if you love strong interesting characters, beautiful writing, and a story that moves you to belly laugh one moment and freezes you in recognition and poignancy the next.
Moore’s voice is immediate, intimate, poetic, so clear, so strong, that the story becomes cinematic.
The three women in this book, Stevie, A non-tenured professor at an elite NYC private college who has to live with her young daughter in the student dorms, Mel a bartender in an open relationship with her long-term girlfriend, and Johanna a homeless teen struggling with addiction and trying to find her way, are all living in NYC at a time when resistance has begun to take shape after decades of apathy, and it is fascinating to watch how identity can take shape during a time of financial instability coupled with the aggressive gentrification of New York City. I loved each of theshe characters, not in spite of, but because of their flaws. When I fall deeply in love with flawed characters I know I’ve found a brilliant writer.
One of the attributes of a book that takes it to great for me is that it has to make me yearn to know what happens next. Carley Moore makes that happen. Each character’s story line and how they intertwine is delicious and I can’t wait to get back to it.
I recommend this book if you love strong interesting characters, beautiful writing, and a story that moves you to belly laugh one moment and freezes you in recognition and poignancy the next.
October 6, 2024
3.5 stars rounded down for the lesbian representation.
I got this book a year or two ago from a bookstore owner in El Paso. He gave it to me for free because he’d asked what I’d read lately and I said I’d enjoyed /Girl, Woman, Other/. He said if that was the case I would like this one and the author had had an event there recently, so he had a bunch of other copies. I haven’t wanted to go to that bookstore until I finished it…
I can see where he was going with the split perspectives of the three women. However, Stevie gets way more protagonist energy than Mel or Joanna. She has the only first person narrative and their stories peter out in the last third or so. I did have my own experiences with Occupy when I was a college student in Portland that MAY have also included polyamorous anarchists/Marxists and consensus-based meetings that were not all together positive. That MAY have influenced the fact that this book sat on my bookshelf so so long.
The Occupy Movement was definitely a Moment in Time and it was good to get some perspective on how others may have experienced it. For a novel that is marketed as Queer, Queer, Queer! I was disappointed in how many of the relationships and sex scenes revolved around men. For the women lovers, we get a singular one night stand and a chronically-disappointed lesbian longterm partner with limited romance, sexiness, or character development. The line coming from Mel’s (bisexual tier-two protagonist’s) new male lover about fucking her so well that she’d never want fake dick again, followed by a sex scene with her primary female partner where she asks her to take off her harness especially rubbed me the wrong way. Yes, bisexuality is real and valid and those stories deserve to be told, but the woman/woman relationships in a novel that spans many romantic connections deserve just as much care and attention and hotness and development as the male/female ones.
THAT SAID. I still thought the book itself was pretty solid. A little literary but with effortless prose that makes it easy to turn the pages. Read it! Or don’t.
I got this book a year or two ago from a bookstore owner in El Paso. He gave it to me for free because he’d asked what I’d read lately and I said I’d enjoyed /Girl, Woman, Other/. He said if that was the case I would like this one and the author had had an event there recently, so he had a bunch of other copies. I haven’t wanted to go to that bookstore until I finished it…
I can see where he was going with the split perspectives of the three women. However, Stevie gets way more protagonist energy than Mel or Joanna. She has the only first person narrative and their stories peter out in the last third or so. I did have my own experiences with Occupy when I was a college student in Portland that MAY have also included polyamorous anarchists/Marxists and consensus-based meetings that were not all together positive. That MAY have influenced the fact that this book sat on my bookshelf so so long.
The Occupy Movement was definitely a Moment in Time and it was good to get some perspective on how others may have experienced it. For a novel that is marketed as Queer, Queer, Queer! I was disappointed in how many of the relationships and sex scenes revolved around men. For the women lovers, we get a singular one night stand and a chronically-disappointed lesbian longterm partner with limited romance, sexiness, or character development. The line coming from Mel’s (bisexual tier-two protagonist’s) new male lover about fucking her so well that she’d never want fake dick again, followed by a sex scene with her primary female partner where she asks her to take off her harness especially rubbed me the wrong way. Yes, bisexuality is real and valid and those stories deserve to be told, but the woman/woman relationships in a novel that spans many romantic connections deserve just as much care and attention and hotness and development as the male/female ones.
THAT SAID. I still thought the book itself was pretty solid. A little literary but with effortless prose that makes it easy to turn the pages. Read it! Or don’t.
February 19, 2020
I loved this book about 3 women trying to find themselves. Also my second time reading fiction about Occupy, the first was Patriots.
January 15, 2021
I was surprised by how much I liked this. It has real-life issues but doesn’t feel overwrought or preachy, and the characters are likable yet flawed. It was particularly interesting for me because one of the characters is a professor at NYU and it’s set during the time that I was there, so it felt a little like when you get old enough to realize that your high school teachers have lives of their own outside the school.
September 22, 2023
I am not enough of a wife in the first place to appreciate the concept of being a not-wife.
October 12, 2019
I really enjoyed this and it moved me
September 26, 2019
This book consists of inter-weaving stories that connect via the Occupy movement in NYC. I think that perhaps more than any other contemporary book I have read of late, this feels real and recognizable. The characters are beautifully imperfect and you root for their happiness at the same as understanding on some deep level that such contentment is wrapped up in their own patterns, habits and insecurities that means any neat ending is impossible. And that is just how it should be. Strong female characters that at no point demonstrate a need to contextualize or explain themselves to the reader. These women have to need to justify their life choices and that alone feels quietly radical. I recommend this book highly. I cannot think of the last time a book felt as though it really stood for a world view that was so incredibly relatable.
September 22, 2019
I found “The Not Wives” at the downtown Portland Oregon Library on Saturday September 14, 2019, and I really love this book. I must have inadvertently found it on or about the day the book was released. The characters in “The Not Wives” feel like they were created from people I have met, been, known, and loved, which makes this book seem like a true representation of the times we live in. The lost youth I was, and the parent and adult that I am today were somehow both represented as were so many of the people I have known along the way, in a way that makes me feel like mine and probably lots of peoples stories are given a voice through this book. “The Not Wives” also promotes a powerful discourse around gender, sexual, and social dynamics that seem to be both urgent and emergent in our current society. Her representation of the subaltern gives them a voice in a striking and clear way, which presents their lives and stories in a way that creates a world where we are all respected and represented. For these reasons, I think we should all thank Carley Moore for telling our story in such a compelling and relatable manner.
September 25, 2019
It's been a long time since I read a book I couldn't put down, in the reading-while-walking, miss-your-subway-stop, sneaking-pages-at-the-office way. The Not Wives is one of those books. Very compelling narrative about being a student, a writer, a resident of New York City, a person trying to carve out a place for yourself in the world. Very positive and affirming, very real, doesn't pull any punches. I want more writing from Carley Moore!!!
January 27, 2021
The Not Wives by Carley Moore is a really enjoyable novel about three New York women and the Occupy movement.
Stevie is a nontenured professor and recently divorced single mom
Stevie is a nontenured professor and recently divorced single mom
July 10, 2022
I am trauma bonded to this book. I started it during COVID and in the midst of reading it went through a divorce, quit my job of 5 years, moved across the country and found myself. This book was something I didn't want to let go of. I didn't want to finish it since once I finished it... it would all be over, right? I stole it from the library I rented it from (and paid for it's replacement).
I loved this book. It was disjointed and switched between first and 3rd person as it switched between characters and story lines and perspectives. If you weren't over 18 as of 2009 this book might not make a lot of sense to you. For me, I was reminded of the Occupy movement that I experienced during college. I was shown how it was in New York City was similar to how it was in my home town in 2009: Hopeful and hopeless all at once. This book shows life happens really quickly and can get better even while it feels slow and long and painful.
I recommend you read. I enjoyed reading it in parts over the course of each season. If you are a divorcee you might relate to Stevie. If you are in polyamorous relationships you will likely relate to most of the characters. If you are a student in college you may be shown to empathize with your older role models.
This book will encourage emotions out of you. It will show you a real world... despite it being fiction. I doubt this book is entirely fiction. It feels very real.
I hope you enjoy.
Trigger warnings: suicide, divorce, lost children, drugs, rape, infidelity, fornication, life, etc.
I loved this book. It was disjointed and switched between first and 3rd person as it switched between characters and story lines and perspectives. If you weren't over 18 as of 2009 this book might not make a lot of sense to you. For me, I was reminded of the Occupy movement that I experienced during college. I was shown how it was in New York City was similar to how it was in my home town in 2009: Hopeful and hopeless all at once. This book shows life happens really quickly and can get better even while it feels slow and long and painful.
I recommend you read. I enjoyed reading it in parts over the course of each season. If you are a divorcee you might relate to Stevie. If you are in polyamorous relationships you will likely relate to most of the characters. If you are a student in college you may be shown to empathize with your older role models.
This book will encourage emotions out of you. It will show you a real world... despite it being fiction. I doubt this book is entirely fiction. It feels very real.
I hope you enjoy.
Trigger warnings: suicide, divorce, lost children, drugs, rape, infidelity, fornication, life, etc.
August 29, 2024
I loved the concept of this book and the story it was trying to tell, but what lost me was the episodic chapters that never quite gripped me into the novel as a whole. I never felt all that invested in any of these characters or what they stood for. This book had a lot to say about feminism, sexuality, sex, family, sacrifice, and struggle, but it was a tad too soap boxy for me. It was like everything was spelled out for us non-stop as if the audience is too dumb to figure out what the story’s about or what the characters are going through. The writing was descriptive and poetic, but sooo chatty and wordy, it could have said a lot more with way less words. The book was way too long. This book definitely had novella vibes that for some reason or another had to be stretched to 300 pages so it can be a novel instead, which didn’t quite work, as there wasn’t enough plot to stitch it all together. The sad thing is, I really wanted to like this, but it became too much of a slog for me, and at times felt insufferable, like it was just trying too hard when we get it, we get the point already! Highly overrated book.
November 10, 2024
Kinda shocked this book didn't make a bigger splash in the queer, lefty book-world. As other reviewers point out, the three main characters are compelling and flawed. Seeing what "Occupy" (specifically) and liberation (more generally) means to them in the context of their own lives is such a treat. I like that Moore captures all the ways financial precariousness can look like but doesn't pretend like being an adjunct professor at NYU is the same as a partnered bartender living with her more successful is the same as a teen living on the streets. It's true that moments like "Occupy" can break through these social strata and bring Stevie and Mel into Johanna's orbit (and vice-versa). There is something radical in these burgeoning friendships (and the forms of care that are created). But these friendships are also messy, challenging, and tenuous - good intentions or even small acts of solidarity can't dismantle structures of oppression, at least not in the short-term. "The Not Wives" is funny, sexy, introspective, and well-written. I loved it!
September 2, 2020
I haven't enjoyed reading a book in this way in a long time. I read a lot, but rarely does it feel like the book becomes your friend, and everytime you read it it's as if you're hanging out with an actual friend and having the best conversations with them.The Not Wives made me feel like I had a friend to hang out with during quarantine, a friend who makes me laugh and cry and believe in myself. A friend who is honest and vulnerable and real. A friend I want to hang out with all the time (and who never get bored of me either!). I hope Carley Moore's next book comes out soon, so that I have another friend to keep me good company :)
June 6, 2020
I really enjoyed this - 3 different women struggling with very real challenges (parenting, breaking up, getting clean, open relationships, recognizing privilege, living paycheck to paycheck, housing insecurity) that all felt familiar (to me, my friends, community). And set in the not too distant past, that feels somewhat familiar to now even. The characters were compelling and nuanced, and I especially loved the thoughts on parenting as an activist - so rarely discussed, especially so honestly. Great book!
June 15, 2020
At the start, I read this chapter by chapter. This made it hard to realize who was who! However, then I devoured the book in two sittings and it was easy to distinguish between them. So, don't plan on reading this in small chunks or it won't be as good.
I found this really relatable. Also, as someone who participated in Occupy, I felt like this accurately paralleled much of what I experienced. I both love and hate the ending bit.
I found this really relatable. Also, as someone who participated in Occupy, I felt like this accurately paralleled much of what I experienced. I both love and hate the ending bit.
November 23, 2019
I liked it. Sometimes had trouble relating to the characters, but they were well drawn. I liked that this is the first novel I've read about Occupy Wall Street, and that the book shows how economic precarity and stress manifests in a lot of different ways (and family manifests in a lot of different ways).
May 25, 2020
Read this in two days. Up all night gobbling this story of class warfare, resilience, queer sex & enduring feminist friendship.
SUPER-SMARTLY WRITTEN.
If you want a NYC-based Michele Tea- genre author this is your book.
SUPER-SMARTLY WRITTEN.
If you want a NYC-based Michele Tea- genre author this is your book.
January 15, 2020
This book is very out of my book genre comfort zone. I enjoyed the rawness of it. It follows 3 very different women with different complexities. Very intriguing read.
January 23, 2021
This novel was slow to get into, but then the plot picked up and I began to empathize with the characters. I wish there were some loose ends tied, but overall the writing really engaged me.
March 31, 2021
The Not Wives is a delicious melange of memorable characters, acts of random bravery that add up, and sexual bravado you won't soon forget!
December 10, 2023
Wow! I am very impressed with the enormous honesty and beauty of this writer, on few occasions have I come across a book that reflects so well the reality of a person's life.
August 25, 2024
At first I rated it a 3 because I felt like asking “what was the point?” However, I couldn’t stop thinking about this book and its characters and slowly realized that I was much more attached to how relatable I found it than I initially thought.
April 19, 2022
A marvel. Fearless but never reckless. Fiercely empathetic but never self-indulgent. Can't recommend highly enough.
July 20, 2023
Captivating. Kept me interested at every page turn.
Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews