Rhode Island Blues - Hardcover

Weldon, Fay

3.28

262 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0002258498 ISBN 13: 9780002258494

Publisher: Flamingo - HarperCollins Publishers, 2000

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Weldon on top form; Weldon tackling love, sex, ageing, death; Weldon at her wittiest best; Weldon unparalleled. Sophia is a 34-year-old film editor living in Soho. Her only living relation (she thinks), her grandmother Felicity, is an 83-year-old widow (several times) living in smart Connecticut. Sophia is torn between her delight in her freedom and a nagging desire for the family ties which everyone else grumbles about: casual sex is all very well, but who do you spend Christmas with? Her current bed-mate seems to be in love with a glamorous Hollywood film star (not that Sophia cares, of course: she's a New Woman); her mad mother is dead. All she has is Felicity. But Felicity is not your average granny. Temperamental, sophisticated, chic (and alarmingly eccentric), she has seen much of life, love and sex and is totally prepared to see more. Even if it is from a twilight home (The Golden Bowl Complex for Creative Retirement)...Twilight is not at all Felicity's idea of fun; and quite possibly she has more idea of fun than her granddaughter. As the two women's stories unravel, the past rears up with all its grimness and irony: but points the way to a future which may redeem them both.

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From the Inside Flap:

Smart, sexy, and infinitely charming, Rhode Island Blues tells the story of Sophia Moore, a loveless and guarded thirty-four-year-old film editor in London who believes her only living relative is her stormy and wild grandmother, Felicity. Troubled by her mother's long-ago suicide and her father's abandonment, Sophia overworks, incessantly contemplates her past, and continues a flat sexual affair with the famous director of her latest film. But when she travels to Rhode Island to help her grandmother settle into a retirement center, she begins to unravel mysteries about her family history that she never knew, while finding relatives she had no idea existed.

Fay Weldon's extraordinary wit lights up every page. Staggeringly beautiful and honest, Rhode Island Blues tells a story of longing, love, and, ultimately, forgiveness, as it holds a magnifying glass to the human heart.

"Weldon's gift for spiking her witty and rompingly entertaining fiction with incisive social critiques flow unabated in her newest novel, a whirlwind drama of sexual politics and family secrets.... Smart and funny, Weldon's boldly plotted and finely crafted tale deftly satirizes our infinite capacity for self-delusion."--Booklist

"Felicity's escapades and Sophia's investigations alike reveal a familiar cast of villains...whose selfishness, greed, and cruelty Weldon's joyously caustic cadences hammer as they frolic and tickle the humorously humane readers she invites us to be."--Kirkus Reviews

Fay Weldon was born in England, was raised in New Zealand, and received her master's in economics and psychology from St. Andrews University in Scotland. She is the author of Big Girls Don't Cry, Wicked Women, Splitting, and The Life and Loves of a She-Devil, among many other novels, plays, and two books of nonfiction.

About the Author:

Fay Weldon was born and raised in New Zealand. Her novels and short stories best-sell around the world and wherever they go are awarded great critical acclaim. Her film and TV work wins enthusiastic viewers by the million, worldwide.

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