The Cloning of Joanna May
by Fay Weldon
On This Page
Description
Fay Weldon delivers a brilliant novel that lays bare the secret hearts of women and men When Joanna May's husband, nuclear entrepreneur Carl, discovered that she was having an affair, he filed for divorced and had her lover killed. Now, sixty-year-old Joanna has no children and lives with her decades-younger gardener, a wannabe rock star. Carl, who also lives with a much younger partner, has never quite recovered from the affair--and Joanna is about to discover just how tightly he's held on. show more Thirty years ago, when Joanna thought she was having an abortion, Carl and her gynecologist conducted a terrifying experiment. The result? Jane, Gina, Julie, and Alice; one person replicated four times. And all of them, Joanna included, are suffering at the hands of the men in their lives. The Cloning of Joanna May is a spellbinding novel about the elusive nature of identity, the consequences of playing God, and the ongoing struggle for power between women and men. show lessTags
Recommendations
Member Recommendations
Member Reviews
Cool premise, bizarre execution. Set in the aftermath of the Chernobyl disaster, a 60-year-old divorcee discovers her ex-husband secretly had her cloned 30 years ago. Her four clone daughters, who were implanted in different women and grew up in very different family situations, make the discovery at about the same time. Soul-searching ensues. It should've been fascinating but--alas!--this is one of those stories where all the characters come across as caricatures. Also, the whole book is written in this artificial, disjointed, jarring style that I didn't particularly enjoy. I think Weldon crafted her characters and delivery this way to achieve a certain effect, but personally, I found it unsatisfying.
This could be the next step on from Ira Levin's The Stepford Wives. The perfect woman. But this one has intelligence. Its a story of how she leaves her creator, her lover, and her adventures on her way to taking over the world. Its quite amusing to see the sex industry from the point of view of one who has no knowledge of morals. The end of the story is predictable, somewhat disappointing, but actually the only possible end.
I tried to read this several times but I just could not get into it. My daughter was also unable to get into it. Hopefully somebody else will enjoy it more.
Ratings
Members
- Recently Added By
Published Reviews
In her latest novel, Ms. Weldon manages to boot the archenemy, boredom, out of her characters' lives as handily as she does from her readers', and it's a reasonable bet that she's had a good time doing it. Her book is part satire, part social commentary, part comedy of manners, part fantasy, but its true charm is that it ultimately refuses to be anything but itself - which is surely welcome show more relief to readers who might have begun to fear that dreary minimalist clones would lurk behind every book jacket forever. show less
added by KayCliff
Lists
BBC Radio 4 Bookclub
340 works; 13 members
Books Tagged Clones
14 works; 6 members
Author Information
101+ Works 9,249 Members
Fay Weldon was born in Worcester, England on September 22, 1931. She read economics and psychology at the University of St. Andrews. She worked as a propaganda writer for the British Foreign Office and then as an advertising copywriter for various firms in London before making writing a full-time career. Her work includes over twenty novels, five show more collections of short stories, several children's books, non-fiction books, and a number of plays written for television, radio and the stage. Her collections of short stories include Mischief and Nothing to Wear and Nowhere to Hide. She wrote a memoir entitled Auto Da Fay and non-fiction book entitled What Makes Women Happy. She wrote the pilot episode for the television series Upstairs Downstairs. Her first novel, The Fat Woman's Joke, was published in 1967. Her other novels include Praxis, The Life and Loves of a She-Devil, Puffball, Rhode Island Blues, Mantrapped, She May Not Leave, The Spa Decameron, Habits of the House, Long Live the King, and The New Countess. Wicked Women won the PEN/Macmillan Silver Pen Award. She was awarded a CBE in 2001. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Some Editions
Work Relationships
Is contained in
Has the adaptation
Common Knowledge
- Original publication date
- 1989
- People/Characters
- Joanna May; Carl May
- Related movies
- The Cloning of Joanna May (1992 | IMDb)
- First words
- This has been a year of strange events: some wonderful, some terrible.
- Quotations
- It is the custom of intelligent and competent men to marry women less intelligent and less competent than themselves. So mothers often have daughters brighter than they, and fathers have sons more stupid.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)I do love him. Never stopped.
- Original language
- English
- Canonical DDC/MDS
- 823.914
- Canonical LCC
- PR6073.E374
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 361
- Popularity
- 86,852
- Reviews
- 3
- Rating
- (3.26)
- Languages
- 8 — Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Norwegian (Bokmål), Swedish
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 31
- ASINs
- 9
