SPLITTING

The author of The Life and Loves of a She-Devil offers an incisive, witty portrait of Angelica, whose divorce splinters her personality into several bickering interior voices, including wronged Lady Rice, clever Jelly White, and promiscuous Angel. 50,000 first printing. $50,000 ad/promo. Tour.

Divorce is one kind of split; adding an alternate personality is another. Angelica Rice experiences both sorts in this highly improper sendup of proper English society as Weldon (The Life and Loves of a She-Devil) inventively tweaks stereotypical doting wives, vengeful-goddess types, efficient office workers, saucy sexpots and?per usual?men, by giving Angelica distinct personalities corresponding to each. As a young woman, Angelica isn't entirely neurotic; after a career as a 17-year-old pop star (of "Kinky Virgin" song fame), she weds country gentleman Sir Edwin Rice. Although her well-bred neighbors conduct unseemly affairs in classic comedy-of-manners fashion, Angelica remains loyal to Sir Edwin and styles herself as the prim "Lady Rice." But when, in her 30s, her 16-year marriage founders, Lady Rice experiences the reemergence of her earthy "Angelica" self, as well as the arrival of the pragmatic "Jelly White." Lady Rice is perfectly appalled when a lusty fourth identity seduces her chauffeur, and then a fifth self?a tough guy named "Ajax"?threatens to thrash Sir Edwin. Angelica, we learn, is not so much split as "perforated"?her personalities can cooperate with or challenge each other's actions. Meanwhile, Weldon again proves herself one of a kind, a smart satirist whose playful exploration of psychology reveals society's fault lines and fractures. 50,000 first printing; major ad/promo; author tour; rights: Ed Victor Ltd.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

When it comes to giving acid-tongued appraisals of the relations between the sexes, no one can touch Weldon. Her wickedly entertaining novels mix wildly exaggerated characters and incidents with some hard truths, in this case, about the emotional wreckage left in the wake of divorce. At 17, Angelica White is the lead singer in a successful rock band called the Kinky Virgins. When she meets Edwin Rice, she throws over her wild lifestyle, gains a title, and settles into a castlelike estate in the English countryside. Some years into her marriage, however, Lady Rice's small community is rent by sexual betrayal, and Edwin throws her out and sues for divorce. All of the nagging doubts that plagued Angelica during the course of her marriage split into a deafening chorus of voices, and she is gradually taken over by interior personae, including the dutiful Jelly and the sexually voracious Angel. It's always a pleasure to read a seasoned novelist in peak form; Weldon is in complete control of her material here, effortlessly shifting between laughter and tears. Joanne Wilkinson

Weldon's trademark astringent style and sardonic view of the relationships between men and women, shown to perfection in Life Force (LJ 12/91), are equally well demonstrated in this novel about a woman who goes to pieces when her marriage breaks up. When Lord Edwin Rice unjustly accuses his wife of infidelity and asks for a divorce, her personality "perforates" into four parts, consisting of Angelica, the former rock singer who, as a teenager, loved Edwin and married him; Jelly, the working girl who gets a job with Edwin's lawyer and conveniently misplaces important papers having to do with the divorce; the libertine, Angel, who leads the other three in a series of sexual escapades; and, finally, the prim and proper Lady Rice. The four learn to accommodate their often humorous differences and get on with the process of healing. Both long-time Weldon fans and new readers will enjoy this novel. Recommended for most collections.
-?Nancy Pearl, Washington Ctr. for the Book, Seattle
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.