The Life and Loves of a She Devil

Re-read - a dark, funny, fable of revenge, and what it means to be a woman, what happens if someone who's always played by the rules (good wife, good mother, good woman) is given permission to break every rule in the book, and what they do with the power this brings! Fay Weldon writes brilliantly and whilst the setting may have dated a little the tensions in sex and gender relations remain.

Fay Weldon’s most famous book, which got a lot of attention through a high-profile BBC television adaptation in 1986 (with Patricia Hodge and Julie T Wallace) and a not very successful Hollywood movie a few years later (Meryl Streep and Roseanne Barr).

When her husband abandons her for the petite and pretty romantic novelist Mary Fisher, Ruth takes revenge on the two of them — and on a world in which there seems to be no room for women who don’t meet the norms of conventional attractiveness — with a subtle and involved plot that takes many years of careful preparation to put into place. It’s a gloriously over-the-top comic fantasy of a character who goes from meek housewife to power-woman driven only by the strength of her own show more anger, and it draws on heavy doses of Chaucer and Moll Flanders as well as second-wave feminism in getting there. And, of course, like Chaucer, Defoe and Fielding, the comedy is there to feed us a few home truths about things that are wrong with the society we live in.

Weldon goes to some lengths to avoid being geographically specific — there are judges with wigs and prices in dollars, but generic placenames that could fit any English-speaking country. This is obviously meant to reinforce the idea that what we are reading is not a realistic novel set in some defined time and place, but a morality tale for all times and places. The effect of that seems to be more distracting than otherwise, though — we keep stopping to make sense of discordant bits of information, where we probably wouldn’t even have noticed them if the references had been consistently British or Australian or US.

Fun, perhaps especially because it now feels so very 1980s! show less

I read this book as an assignment for a literature class on constructed bodies. It's definitely very interesting and I immensely enjoyed the way in which it was written. The heroine is more accurately an anti-heroine, spending an unknown amount of time formulating an intricate but brilliant form of revenge against her disloyal husband and his pretty mistress. The way in which the book is written makes it seem as though the book itself is being created, piece by piece, simultaneously with the myriad creation of Ruth. It is a novel about the other half of the world; those that are not glamorous, charming, and graceful. It is about a longing to blend in, rather than to stick out, and a scathing discourse on society's obsession with looks, show more and abhorrence and fear of ugliness. show less

I can understand why some people would hate this book. At first I thought I might. I believe the problem I had was in bringing my memory of the movie (starring Roseanne and Meryl Streep) into my reading experience. I had expectations of how this book would play out and it did not follow that path. I expected a humourous book. It is, in fact, very dark. I had expectations of plot lines that did not occur. I had expectations of characters that were drawn very differently than they are in the movie.

If you read the book with no expectations, you will find yourself drawn into the dark, bizarre world of Ruth. Ruth is intent on revenge and will do anything to see that happen. Faye Weldon has drawn an amazing character in Ruth and it was show more fascinating seeing how far she would go to enact her revenge.

This was a very strange book but it is one of the most interesting books I have read this year and it will go on my favourite reads of the year list. Highly recommended. show less

Oddly interesting

The story is both fascinating and appalling. None of the characters are very likeable. Basically a story about a woman whose husband wrongs her. She sets a diabolical plan in motion to not only destroy him but to completely reinvent herself.

This was entertaining enough, but I'm afraid I was just never taken in by either the plot or any of the characters. The ideas were interesting, but the execution and lack of suspense just left me feeling unengaged. I could read the book, or not, and I mostly read it as a time-killer. I might try Weldon again if a blurb really sounded up my alley, but I'm afraid this wasn't anything in particular that I'd recommend on to other readers.

This book was written in a very interesting manner......

The protagonist, Ruth writes about her rival Mary Fisher: "Mary Fisher lives in a high tower...., Mary Fisher is forty-three and accustomed to love....."

Ruth's husband Bobbo has left clumsy, unattractive Ruth & their children for the love of his life, Mary Fisher. Mary Fisher is a self-centered romance writer of many lovers.

Ruth seeks revenge on Bobbo & Mary Fisher and in the process becomes a "She-Devil" with glittering eyes.

Although the book begins on a tragic note and stays sad for the first several chapters, once Ruth has made her transformation the book becomes funny.... Ruth's revenge is methodical, well thought out, and perfectly executed.

I Remember this now! It was made show more into a movie with Rosanne Barr & Meryl Streep......

I have never before read Fay Weldon and I'm thinking that I just might read another of her books.

I want to thank (I can't remember) who it was in the group who read & reviewed this....I wouldn't have read it otherwise, had it not been for you! show less