Wicked Women: Stories - Hardcover

Weldon, Fay

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0871136813 ISBN 13: 9780871136817

Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Pr, 1997

Synopsis

Twenty stories profile therapists who blithely destroy marriages and family ties, husbands and lovers whose greatest cruelty is their indifference, and clever women navigating the perils and pitfalls of domesticity.

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Reviews

The antagonists who populate these 20 stories are indeed very wicked (no surprise to readers of Weldon's 21 novels, including Worst Fears, 1996), but they're not always women. Both sexes and all ages come in for some merry tweaking by this master of sexual satire--making this outing a familiar pleasure for old fans and a thoroughly satisfying introduction for newcomers. When Defoe Desmond's middle-aged wife confronts him about his affair in ``End of the Line,'' she's covered with white ash (she happens to be cleaning the fireplace), and when she kisses him she leaves the ashy mark of death on his cheek. What better indicator that it's time for Defoe to bail out with the fiendishly seductive Weena Dodds, a New Age Times journalist itching to move into the manor house? Weena is certainly evil (she specializes in married men, taking pleasure in ruining their lives and leaving them begging as she moves on to greener pastures), but there comes a day when even the cleverest siren racks up one too many enemies. On the other hand, it's sometimes the man who turns out to be cold- blooded, as in ``Wasted Lives,'' whose film-executive narrator casually dumps his Eastern European mistress the moment he learns that she's pregnant with his child. In ``Valediction,'' an aging couple's children show their true colors by trying to push said parents out of the family home. And in ``Through a Dustbin, Darkly,'' a ghost works her vengeance by pushing her former husband's young second wife to burn down the house they live in. Every kind of evil that lurks in the heart is gleefully explored in all its permutations here, and somehow it all ends up very cheering--wherein lies Weldon's tremendous talent. Though the stories date from as far back as 1972, and in one or two cases their age shows, there are far more hits than misses in this unsentimental education in the war between the sexes. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

In these 20 stories, some previously published, Weldon continues to pursue the themes of love, relationships, and family with the humor and poignancy that have made her other writings (e.g., Worst Fears, LJ 5/15/96) so engaging. Delivering these themes with varying degress of satire, sincerity, and subtlety, she offers intricate moments in the lives of defeated lovers, insecure cuckolds, perplexed offspring, daring widow/ers, keen children, and underdogs who overcome the oppression of love. Weldon brings together all facets of the relationship race with a unique mastery, using sharp and cultivated prose. Recommended for all libraries.
-?Judith A. Akalaitis, Chicago, Ill.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Readers can always count on Weldon's fiction for sophisticated entertainment, and her latest book, a collection of short stories, will not fail them. Although not especially known for her work in the short form, she shows her usual flair for pungent delivery of social commentary. Her frank, funny, and painfully truthful stories--piquant examinations of the annoyances and even dilemmas of contemporary life--feature imaginative contexts as framework and brilliant word choice as material. In one story, a past affair rears its risky head ("The past may be another country, but there are frequent international flights from there to here"); in another, the relationship between a man and his long-distance mistress has changed with the times, much like the eastern European city in which she lives (a thinly disguised Prague). In yet another story, a woman's dream conjures up her grandmother, with whom she shares her fears about her marriage. This marvelously enticing collection could well bring hesitant short story readers to an appreciation of the form. Brad Hooper

Edition details

• Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Pr
• Publication date: 1997
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0871136813
• ISBN 13: 9780871136817
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 309