A WOMAN'S GUIDE TO ADULTERY

by Carol Clewlow ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 1, 1988

The tone is alternately wry and snappish in this sardonic first novel, and the message is as sharp as a bulletin from the Surgeon General: Warning! Adultery leaves women in pain. Rose, the 38-year-old narrat, is a student of English literature who becomes involved with her married tutor, Paul. As it happens, Rose's best friends--Jo, Helen, and Jennifer--are also having affairs with men who are married--or almost married. Jennifer's lover, sensitive poet David, is merely shacked up with his longtime girlfriend, Francie. Rose feels compassion for Francie and for Paul's wife, Monica. In fact, as she watches all these affairs, including her own, with a skeptic's eye, it's clear to her that the women are always tones who get hurt. ""We don't pick them because they're married,"" Jo explains to Rose. ""We pick them because they're the best of the bunch and if they're the best of the bunch they're bound to be married."" If Paul, David, and company represent the best of the bunch, however, it's grim commentary--as Clewlow intends it to be. The men here are selfish or weak or alcoholic--and sometimes all of the above. Astute Rose sees all this. She sees all the hazards of adultery, but her cleareyed vision doesn't save her. She stumbles right in--and when she falls, it's with a resounding thud. Clewlow's writing is powerful if elliptical, and Rose comes to life without being quite all there--we never know why she's in school at age 38 or what she did before. Still, Clewlow is strong and successful in telling her cautionary tale, and the book is bracing, in the way of a tonic--though, like most tonics, it leaves a bitter aftertaste.

Pub Date: Feb. 1, 1988

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Poseidon/Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 1988

Categories: FICTION