You Should Have Known by Jean Hanff Korelitz Book Review

 You Should Have Known 

By Jean Hanff Korelitz

Published Year: 2014

Page Count: 425 pages

Medium Used: iPad Air 

Genre: Psychological Thriller, Suspense, Murder Mystery, Detectives, Drama, 2026-read. 

Rating : 5/5 😇😇😇🤗🤗

Grace Reinhart Sachs had been married to Jonathan Sachs for over eighteen years. They have a young son of eleven, Henry who is very well behaving, well mannered kid for his age. Grace is a psychotherapist, counseling in marriage issues and has a private practice in New York. Jonathan is a pediatric oncologist, dealing with cancer cases in children. Grace considers hers to be a happy family and herself, lacking in nothing. She is a very understanding and accommodating wife who gives her husband his space and time to deal with his work. The main character is Grace and we see a third person's perspective of her life and circumstances in the unraveling plotline. According to her, Jonathan is often gripped with pain and misery of other people, usually his patients and their families. Or he is off, away from the family, attending some conference, somewhere. So his work consumes him and fills his world. Grace attends to her patients and takes care of Henry - his studies at Rearden school, his violin classes after school, cooking and cleaning after him. She is a doting mother and a loyal wife. Through her practice over years, she has gained enough wisdom over the common reasons for failure of a marriage  and puts her findings and suggestions into a self help book called 'You Should Have Known'. It drives the point that women are often blindsided by their attraction and desire for the man that they fail to see or heed the red flags that would be blaring right from the start. They should have seen the flaws when they met for the first time, talking and exchanging their interests or at some point during their dating history. She admonishes these women and warns them to take their instincts seriously. It is much simpler to cancel a wedding than a marriage with kids involved. Little does Grace know what is awaiting her and her son! 

Rearden is a private school catering to the highly privileged and wealthy kids of Newyork. Sometimes they offer scholarships for the needy but worthy candidates. Grace and other moms form a committee to set up a benefit, auctioning items and thus raising money for the scholarships. One other member of the committee is Malaga Alves, a pregnant woman, nursing/suckling a young daughter and her son Miguel is a student at Rearden on scholarship. A few days after the benefit, a horrendous event rocks the school and its students. Miguel's mother, Malaga Alves, is  brutally murdered at her home and her grisly body is found by her son. Police and investigators enter the fray. When they reach Grace and start questioning the whereabouts of her husband, she is perplexed. She doesn't understand how her "flawless" and "compassionate " husband, who has never even met Miss Malaga,could be involved. Then slowly, as information comes knocking on her unsuspecting senses, she comes to grips with the facts that her "idealized" husband is not all that perfect. He becomes the prime suspect in the murder - not only did he have ample chance for committing the murder, but also the motive. He is a shady man - always has been. Grace has just put blinders over her eyes when it came to matters relating to him. He is a charmer who wormed himself into the graces of people he was interested in! Over the next few months, escaping with her son to their summer house in Connecticut, she pieces through a lot of his deception and blatant lies he told to her over the years. She reconnects with her estranged bestie from childhood who stopped talking to her after her hasty marriage, eighteen years ago, to Jonathan. She reestablishes emotional bond with both her parents and Jonathan's parents, about whom he painted a very inadequate picture. These are egregious and emotionally harrowing experiences but she is a strong woman who comes out of them, reformed and wiser.

I picked this book after I learnt that the Nicole Kidman starring TV show, The Undoing, is based on it. I think this story is quite different from the usual crime, detective books out there. There are the usual elements of a grisly murder, an open and serious police investigation, an absconding perpetrator but then the major focus lies on the main character, Grace, coming to terms with her life post her marriage life to a deceptive husband who is also the accused in the murder. For the large part, she avoids finding out the truth behind the accusations. She doesn't want to see the facts in the face and acknowledge that her husband has been unfaithful to her. As time passes,she changes, becomes braver and then grapples with the throes of a failed marriage. She does it for her son and herself. I liked how, instead of being called a hypocrite, for writing her book on how women can be blinded, she herself has been a long standing victim. Frankly, I believe in what the author/Grace convey through the book. It is often possible to see through, how a marriage would turn out, right from the start. Newly fallen in love couples are often dizzy and madly attracted that they just push aside the warning signs,throwing caution to the wind. There is no one really perfect anywhere but it is really the responsibility of a woman for herself and the family she creates to be vigilant atleast for the most to obvious red flags!! I also liked Grace a lot. I usually don't like many FMCs but she is so relatable and genuine. Do check this out. Brilliant character development. Unless something changes, Hugh Grant can't be the right choice for a darkly deceptive husband. Will watch the series for sure!! Cheers 🍻