March 15, 2018
The characters in The Lives and Loves of a She Devil (1983), Weldon's groundbreaking novel of jealousy and vengeance, return with some notable additions in this updated sequel. She-Devil Ruth Patchett is now in her dotage, slowly relinquishing control of her feminist empire to her perkily capable assistant, Valerie Valeria. Bobbo, Ruth's philandering ex-husband, is dying of dementia in an upper chamber of the High Tower complex, in a quirky nod to Charlotte Bront�'s Mrs. Rochester. And Mary Fisher's ghost still rattles the windows and blows up a gale. As Valerie plans a celebration of Ruth's impending eighty-fifth birthday, she manipulates Ruth's estranged grandson, Tyler, into participating, with one significant twist: he must transition from male to female or risk losing his sizable inheritance. Weldon's freakishly eccentric antiheroes and antiheroines enliven this contemporary manifesto on power, transformation, and the illusion of authority.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)