Page 31 - ARUBA TODAY

PEOPLE/ARTS Tuesday 11 april 2017
A31

Wife of a swindler pays the price

in ‘Widow of Wall Street’

SAMANTHA CRITCHELL poses them right at the questions about the hours
Associated Press start. Yet as this compelling he started to spend away
How could she? How could story unfolds, you realize from home — and the of-
the wife of a Wall Street nothing is as uncomplicat- fice — and certainly no
swindler, a Bernie Madoff ed as it seems, especially questions about how they
type, not walk out the door when you’ve been married so quickly moved up the
at first word that her hus- almost 50 years and you economic ladder from their
band has cheated their take so seriously your mari- Brooklyn, New York, roots to
family, friends and hun- tal vows because you felt the Greenwich, Connecti-
dreds of others out of their both gratitude and debt cut, charity-gala circuit.
life savings? How could when you uttered those And, even when she might
she defend him to her own words. Phoebe Pierce have paused to have one
children, who lost it all with — frail, petite and pretty of those passing thoughts,
dad? Phoebe — went through she convinced herself that
And, come to think of it, most of her adult life with her commitment to being
how could she have not blinders on, not because good, doing good and
known this crime was be- she wasn’t smart or capa- spreading good made up
ing committed in front of ble to take Jake to task, but for the corners that she
her on a daily basis, as she because she felt she owed eventually began to sus-
collected beautiful homes, him for a mistake she made pect Jake was cutting.
boats and cars, and ac- during their courtship that But as the Pierces’ prob-
coutrements of artwork, he never knew about. lems snowball out of con-
fine crystal and a designer Of course, her daily life trol, Phoebe never plays
wardrobe? wasn’t too shabby, and the victim, and it is her will-
Those questions seem like for many years she lived by ingness to take responsibil-
no-brainers, and in “The the mantra that ignorance ity for Jake’s deplorable This cover image released by Atria shows “The Widow of Wall
Widow of Wall Street,” au- is bliss. No questions about actions that makes her a Street,” a novel by Randy Susan Meyers.
thor Randy Susan Meyers his business dealings, no heroine in the end.q Associated Press