- Paperback: 336 pages
- Publisher: Quercus (5 Mar 2009)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1847247857
- ISBN-13: 978-1847247858
- Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 12.7 x 2.5 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 453,306 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
The Stepmother's Diary
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More About the Author
Product Description
Review
It is rare to come across a contemporary novel written with as much panache … wholly convincing and involving - Observer
Spans the spectrum of family relationships... profound, alarming, funny and wise … Weldon is writing at the top of her game - Daily Telegraph
Spans the spectrum of family relationships... profound, alarming, funny and wise … Weldon is writing at the top of her game - Daily Telegraph
The Independent
Her prose, never flabby, grows leaner with each book. It's impressive what she achieves with so few words
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I was quite enjoying this book UNTIL the chapter where Sappho is taking the contraceptive pill daily for around a year believing it to be a multivitamin. I can suspend disbelief just enough to accept that she might, given all other pressures, not notice that it is rather small for a multivitamin (!), but she wouldn't actually be having periods! At this point she is actively trying to conceive, is seeing a specialist (whose first question would surely have been about her periods!), and her husband is being asked to take a sperm test. "At the end of a year she saw the doctor... He did blood tests and said there was rather a lot of oestrogen around, and he supposed she had stopped taking the contraceptive pills he had prescibed her some time back and she said yes, she was not an idiot." Well neither am I, and this part of the tale totally ruined the book for me.
6 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
'I read my daughter's diary the other day. Let me share with you. You may think you know pretty much what's going on in your own family. Believe me, you do not. You think truly awful things only happen in other countries, other cultures, far away: but they also happen in your own back yard, to the nicest people, and at the hands of others who believe that they too are perfectly sane and nice, the kind who sort the household waste and try to save Africa.'
Weldon has always been good at dysfunctional families, money and property and this is a return to form, giving us the point of view of Sappho, the stepmother but not the wicked stepmother familiar from fairy tales.
Weldon uses the device of the story being reviewed and analysed by Emily, mother to Sappho as she reads her daughter's diary. Emily, a psychoanalyst had warned her daughter that the archetype had changed - that `wicked stepdaughters are more common now that wicked stepmothers ever were.' However, it is a function of a Weldon novel that warnings are never heeded and Emily marries Gavin, formerly husband to Isolde.
There are the usual turnarounds you see in Weldon - the man who becomes a financial drain the moment the knot is tied, the theft of talent and the dissipation of money and success. Weldon builds suspense through the twists and turns of these situations and as they deteriorate the reader cringes.
Somehow she does it all better here and with more wit and style than she has done for a while.
Weldon has always been good at dysfunctional families, money and property and this is a return to form, giving us the point of view of Sappho, the stepmother but not the wicked stepmother familiar from fairy tales.
Weldon uses the device of the story being reviewed and analysed by Emily, mother to Sappho as she reads her daughter's diary. Emily, a psychoanalyst had warned her daughter that the archetype had changed - that `wicked stepdaughters are more common now that wicked stepmothers ever were.' However, it is a function of a Weldon novel that warnings are never heeded and Emily marries Gavin, formerly husband to Isolde.
There are the usual turnarounds you see in Weldon - the man who becomes a financial drain the moment the knot is tied, the theft of talent and the dissipation of money and success. Weldon builds suspense through the twists and turns of these situations and as they deteriorate the reader cringes.
Somehow she does it all better here and with more wit and style than she has done for a while.
Format:Hardcover
For a moment I thought Fay Weldon was getting back to the good old days and I was in for a treat, but then it all fell apart. I got the impression she'd been taking a course on psychoanalysis and just wanted to show what she'd learned. And I agree with the previous reviewer - mistaking contraceptive pills for vitamins goes a bit beyond belief. A very disappointing read from a very clever writer who needs to get back to her old style of writing rather than churning out mass market productions.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Bit of a slow burner but worth it once you get used to the style
The novel takes the form of a mother reading her daughter's diary and commenting on them along the way. Read more
Published on 8 Dec 2009 by Janie U
Not even worthy of one star
This was one of , if not the, worst book I've read all year. Totally unbelievable characters - does anyone really speak or behave like that in real life? Read more
Published on 31 May 2009 by C. Hughes
BORING!
I read 2-3 books a week, from all areas of literature. It has almost NEVER happened that I've stopped reading a book after 50 or so pages but I did with this book. Read more
Published on 11 May 2009 by D. Alper
A hoot
A funny and witty story that keeps you hooked. More Weldon-esque characters or charicatures to grapple with. Thoroughly enjoyable read.
Published on 4 Feb 2009 by Tilly Thumb
Too much Freud
The story becomes acceptable only if one is fully converted to Freud and Jung. There are other ways of looking at the human predicament
Michael Stevens
Michael Stevens
Published on 13 Jan 2009 by Michael stevens
Vintage Weldon
Some writers start their careers with a bang and then fizzle out, but not Fay Weldon. She's on sparkling form in this book with a mixture of humour and horror. Read more
Published on 28 Nov 2008 by Bluebell
Original and entertaining as ever!
Fay Weldon is indeed on fantastic form in this highly entertaining novel. She is endlessly inventive, remarkably perceptive, and always a great joy to read.
Published on 26 Sep 2008 by Rebecca
A real treat!
This is vintage Fay Weldon, she is at the peak of her powers. I loved this book.
Published on 15 Sep 2008 by J. Evans
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