1. Light-hearted: A struggling people-pleaser exaggerates his wife's little foibles-- which seem big to him-- for comic effect.
2. Dark: Struggling people-pleaser unwittingly married a bona fide narcissist who has nearly completed molding him in her image.
Either one would be humor. But the piece never really sets the tone (is she really badmouthing people at parties? Is he?) and so it comes off as wishy-washy.
We can't know how much of this is true in the author's marriage, so a reading that hinges on figuring that out doesn't take us anywhere. The reader is not playing the role of the author's marriage counselor. I think we're supposed to read it for our own reaction, our competing reactions of recognition and denial and the resulting conversation in our heads.
The piece is ridiculous. It's ridiculous because it's an exaggeration. But it's also ridiculous because we're ridiculous.
I see that it's humor.
But what is the joke?
1. Light-hearted: A struggling people-pleaser exaggerates his wife's little foibles-- which seem big to him-- for comic effect.
2. Dark: Struggling people-pleaser unwittingly married a bona fide narcissist who has nearly completed molding him in her image.
Either one would be humor. But the piece never really sets the tone (is she really badmouthing people at parties? Is he?) and so it comes off as wishy-washy.