Book Review: The Builder’s Wife

Reviewed by Elizabeth Reiser

An emotive memoir about the concept of home and how it relates to faith and family

Eileen Bader Williams starts her second memoir, The Builder’s Wife, with the fascinating fact that she and her husband were one of 2000 couples married at Madison Square Garden through a religious movement known as the Unification Church. This anecdote cleverly pulls the audience into her story about love, faith, and home from the jump. 

Williams then fast-forwards her audience to 2020 and the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, this is not a story about the pandemic. Instead, we are immersed in the highs and lows of her marriage. Her husband uproots them—a frequent event throughout their marriage—and moves them to Vermont. 

As her frustration with her husband’s lack of consultation on important matters grows, Williams reflects on the other challenges they have faced throughout their marriage, alternating between past and present. Much of the focus falls on their time living in Washington state near her husband’s family.

While her husband immediately feels at home in Washington and has a full and busy life, Williams is lonely and isolated. From soda being called pop to a father-in-law consistently annoyed by her, the author struggles to fit in. The reader witnesses her battle with depression as she struggles to connect with others and longs for the East Coast. Anyone who has dealt with similar will feel the pangs of heartbreak here. 

As Williams copes, her attention shifts to the difficult relationships she has with her spouse, mother, and father-in-law. This provides a personal and refreshingly honest look at the author, as she doesn’t try to hide her flaws. Pessimism and poor communication skills may frustrate some readers, but when Williams decides to find herself outside of her marriage by returning to school, the audience starts to see positive changes in how she approaches life and her family, and the story gains momentum. 

Religion is deeply important in this personal story. Readers with a strong sense of faith will feel great kinship with Williams and feel for the dilemmas in her marriage mixed with what she has been taught in the church. 

Williams has penned a touching memoir with The Builder’s Wife, suitable for readers facing similar struggles and valuing faith as a guiding force in life. Mothers and wives who have struggled to find themselves outside of their role in the home will also find it supportive to know that they’re not in the journey alone.

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