You Should Have Known, by Jean Hanff Korelitz (2014)
This is a pretty generic psychological thriller about a marriage gone south. The protagonist, Grace Sachs, is a couples’ therapist on the verge of having her first book published. In her therapy practice, she reminds couples that the red flags in their relationship were present from the beginning. She seemingly has the perfect life ~ a loving husband, who is a pediatric oncologist, a thriving practice, an apartment in the right section of New York, and a beautiful pre-teen son, who is attending the “right” prep school.
One of the students in her son class is a scholarship student. When this boy’s mother is found murdered, Grace is forced to re-examine the relationships in her life. No one she has loved is who they seem.
We soon learn that her husband, Jonathan, had been fired from his job several months earlier, but he failed to inform Grace. He then becomes the prime suspect in the murder investigation. He vanishes with all of the jewelry that once belonged to Grace’s mother. Only then does Grace begin to question her life with her husband. Why didn’t Jonathan’s parents attend their wedding? Was Jonathan’s home life as a child really as cruel and as cold as Grace has been led to believe?
One thing I found annoying about this book is the author’s brand-name dropping. While Grace isn’t in the same wealth class as most of the parents in her son’s school, she clearly is not lacking for money. She laments about only having one Birkin handbag, when other mothers have several. Really? Maybe being that shallow is why she missed the red-flags in her life.
The book was interesting enough to keep my attention, but not great literature, and I will probably not read other books by this author.
This book was made into a mini-series entitled The Undoing, starring Hugh Grant and Nicole Kidman.
Read: April 22, 2021
3 Stars
