Product Description

This collection of short stories dealing with the perils of love, sex, and marrage includes "In the Great War," "The School Run," and "The Sad Life of the Rich"

From Publishers Weekly

British novelist Weldon ( The Hearts and Lives of Men ) here continues her monologues on the oppression of Woman; even when her characters converse, there is little or no interaction. "It's the women's movement that's done it. All those assertive women going about!" one female character tells another, explaining male impotence. And her interlocutor replies that she also is not assertive, but "a traditional woman." This work, "Christmas Lists--A Seasonal Story," and several others, including the title piece, portray the downfall of such earnest, old-fashioned women with compassion and perspicacity. Other tales, such as "And Then Turn out the Light," begin with a particular conceit ("In Newcastle, New South Wales, they have the highest hysterectomy rate in the entire world") that quickly becomes strained. For Weldon, the "Great War" is not WW I, but occurred "in the fifties, when women were at war with women." Despite some excellent writing, these variations on a theme lose their luster as Weldon's typically arch humor wears thin with repetition.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Readers with a taste for spice in their literary fare should try these two books. The fantastic situations they offer stretch one's willing suspension of disbelief but ultimately reward with the provocative revision of old assumptions. Few authors could or would address the morality of abortion and genetic engineering in a comic novel, but Weldon succeeds in her tale of wild, sexy Sandra, a famous astronomer of bizarre parentage, who at 42 abandons career and husband to run away with the eponymous Leader, also married. Their stop for a jazz gig in France is an interlude haunted in every sense, alternating hysterically between romp and catharsis. Most of the 12 stories in Polaris are more subdued. The title story explores marital and other bonds within the peculiar society of modern submariners. The young bride of "In the Great War" finds that she has more in common with her stepdaughters than with her husband. "The School Run" neatly inverts some stock sentiments about victims of obsessive love. Unrestrained comedy reigns in the final selection, "Redundant! Or the Wife's Revenge," in which an ill-assorted group engages in a slapstick search for Mr./Ms. Right, all in a plastic surgery ward. Diverting, well crafted, and recommended.

- Starr E. Smith, Georgetown Univ. Lib., Washington, D.C.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.