Another act of literary terrorism from British satirist and live-wire Weldon (The Cloning of Joanna May, 1989, etc.), only this time far more wide-ranging and rabidly polemic than even before. Weldon's subject now is Eleanor Darcy, the high priestess of Darcian Monetarism, a utopian ideology aimed at saving shabby old Thatcherian England from the ills of inflation by phasing out money altogether. The theory, ostensibly the brainchild of Eleanor's second husband (now in prison because of the chaos that ensued when the economic strategy was implemented for one morning only), really came from Eleanor herself, known in the press as Rasputin's Bride. And Eleanor, being interviewed in this novel by two journalists—trim Valerie, writing for the women's rag Aura, and Hugo, of the higher-toned Independent—has thoughts of a world of topics besides money: namechanging, a practice that will be encouraged in Darcy's utopia ("My advice to everyone is to change their names at once if they're the least unhappy with their lives"); sex, the source of all good in the world; Marxism and Catholicism, both palliatives; elocution and miscegenation, two waves of the future, and much more. Piecing together hints from the evasive Eleanor, Valerie concocts a personal biography for her magazine's readers, revealing that Eleanor, born with a caul and originally named Apricot (after the shade of her mother's nightie), is a bigamist, social-climber, and witch who wrecked the lives of the men who loved her. Hugo concentrates on the theoretical, and on Valerie, who becomes his mistress. During the time they're in contact with Eleanor, the two of them leave their spouses and children and shack up together in a Holiday Inn. Once their pieces are finished, though, the affair collapses—presumably a romantic utopia, given too little time. Nonetheless, Eleanor has changed their lives, and will change others, since Hugo starts a religion dedicated to her. An ideological mine-field, with Weldon-as-Eleanor birthing a wild idea a minute. Still, some shrapnel hits home, for what Weldon seems to be saying is that desperate, possibly lunatic measures are called for if we're to transform a desperately sick world.
Pub Date: March 1, 1991
ISBN: 670-83645-1
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.
Life lessons.
Angie Malone, the youngest of a big, warm Italian-American family, returns to her Pacific Northwest hometown to wrestle with various midlife disappointments: her divorce, Papa’s death, a downturn in business at the family restaurant, and, above all, her childlessness. After several miscarriages, she, a successful ad exec, and husband Conlan, a reporter, befriended a pregnant young girl and planned to adopt her baby—and then the birth mother changed her mind. Angie and Conlan drifted apart and soon found they just didn’t love each other anymore. Metaphorically speaking, “her need for a child had been a high tide, an overwhelming force that drowned them. A year ago, she could have kicked to the surface but not now.” Sadder but wiser, Angie goes to work in the struggling family restaurant, bickering with Mama over updating the menu and replacing the ancient waitress. Soon, Angie befriends another young girl, Lauren Ribido, who’s eager to learn and desperately needs a job. Lauren’s family lives on the wrong side of the tracks, and her mother is a promiscuous alcoholic, but Angie knows nothing of this sad story and welcomes Lauren into the DeSaria family circle. The girl listens in, wide-eyed, as the sisters argue and make wisecracks and—gee-whiz—are actually nice to each other. Nothing at all like her relationship with her sluttish mother, who throws Lauren out when boyfriend David, en route to Stanford, gets her pregnant. Will Lauren, who’s just been accepted to USC, let Angie adopt her baby? Well, a bit of a twist at the end keeps things from becoming too predictable.
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.Pub Date: July 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-345-46750-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2004
Less bleak than the subject matter might warrant—Hannah’s default outlook is sunny—but still, a wrenching depiction of war’s...
The traumatic homecoming of a wounded warrior.
The daughter of alcoholics who left her orphaned at 17, Jolene “Jo” Zarkades found her first stable family in the military: She’s served over two decades, first in the army, later with the National Guard. A helicopter pilot stationed near Seattle, Jo copes as competently at home, raising two daughters, Betsy and Lulu, while trying to dismiss her husband Michael’s increasing emotional distance. Jo’s mettle is sorely tested when Michael informs her flatly that he no longer loves her. Four-year-old Lulu clamors for attention while preteen Betsy, mean-girl-in-training, dismisses as dweeby her former best friend, Seth, son of Jo’s confidante and fellow pilot, Tami. Amid these challenges comes the ultimate one: Jo and Tami are deployed to Iraq. Michael, with the help of his mother, has to take over the household duties, and he rapidly learns that parenting is much harder than his wife made it look. As Michael prepares to defend a PTSD-afflicted veteran charged with Murder I for killing his wife during a dissociative blackout, he begins to understand what Jolene is facing and to revisit his true feelings for her. When her helicopter is shot down under insurgent fire, Jo rescues Tami from the wreck, but a young crewman is killed. Tami remains in a coma and Jo, whose leg has been amputated, returns home to a difficult rehabilitation on several fronts. Her nightmares in which she relives the crash and other horrors she witnessed, and her pain, have turned Jo into a person her daughters now fear (which in the case of bratty Betsy may not be such a bad thing). Jo can't forgive Michael for his rash words. Worse, she is beginning to remind Michael more and more of his homicide client. Characterization can be cursory: Michael’s earlier callousness, left largely unexplained, undercuts the pathos of his later change of heart.
Less bleak than the subject matter might warrant—Hannah’s default outlook is sunny—but still, a wrenching depiction of war’s aftermath.Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-312-57720-9
Page Count: 400
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Dec. 18, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2012
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