Trouble: A Novel [Hardcover]

Fay Weldon (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 1993

Betrayal and manipulation loom menacingly as pregnant writer Annette Horrocks tries to deal with her husband, who may be having an affair and who is suddenly dabbling in New Age psychobabble, claiming that Annette is killing his inner child. 25,000 first printing. $20,000 ad/promo.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Pregnant and about to publish her first novel, Annette Horrock finds that her husband is making her seemingly perfect life a perfect hell.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

From Library Journal

The prolific British author easily entices her readers into feeling sympathy for Annette, who has been happily married for ten years to Spicer, a wine merchant. She is pregnant with their first child and also about to deliver her first novel when the trouble commences. Influenced by a New Age astrologist/psychiatrist he once would have scorned, Spicer becomes increasingly abusive toward his wife. Annette is transformed into a type of woman familiar to Weldon readers: someone so intensely focused on maintaining even a bad relationship that she is unable to see the harm she is inflicting on herself. Not quite as funny as such earlier works as The Life and Loves of a She-Devil ( LJ 11/1/84) but still recommended for most collections. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 6/1/93.
- Faye A. Chadwell, Univ. of South Carolina Lib., Columbia
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Viking Adult; First Edition edition (October 1, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 067084148X
• ISBN-13: 978-0670841486
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,849,732 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Acidly-written, from the heart., June 8, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Trouble: A Novel (Paperback)

This novel, entitled "Affliction' in the UK, was torn apart by most critics over here when it first appeared. The reason? It was too close to the truth, which is a rather odd criticism of a novel. Weldon's own marriage of 30 years had ended in a bitter divorce that was more or less carried out in public. In my view this actually adds fire to the book, which is breathtakingly unputdownable. The mental torture, the phoney therapy, the increasing impossibility for the female protagonist of distinguishing fact from fiction, the negation of memory and the horror of isolation ring absolutely true, and make for a gripping read that will pierce the heart of anyone who has ever experienced the breaking-down of a relationship. Through all of this, Weldon maintains her inimitable ironic detachment and her blacker than black sense of humour. A fiery, miniature masterpiece.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Scathing commentary on male/female relations., August 24, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Trouble: A Novel (Paperback)

Very witty novel written almost entirely in dialogue, which show the lengths a psychobabbler husband, Spicer will go to to destroy the psyche of of his wife, Annette. Weldon again demonstrates wittily and savagly the way the war between the sexes has not ended with Bluebeard. "Best" friends, neigbors, mothers, etc. all have agendas of their own, and not kind ones, either. Spicer goes so far as to tape record Annetes phone calls to his office, and then play them on the loudspeaker for the benefit of his secretary, Wendy. Wendy is quick to tell Annette, I support you Annette, even if you do have a history of emotional problems. Spicer is brilliantly drawn as a mind-destroying monster to end all monsters, but the books ending is weak, and unsatisfying, without the typical rallying of the heroine and her "revenge-getting" tactics one finds in so many other of Weldons books. This ending is a very limp, rather sad solution to Annetes problems, but a very funny read until then. Try Worst Fears, also by Weldon, for a satisfying ending to a much-abused heroines retaliation on her "nearest and dearest"?

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Makes your adrenaline go way up!, April 15, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Trouble: A Novel (Paperback)

The way hubby Spicer re-interprets everything his worried wife tries to say or do to save their - up to now - normally happy marriage as an assault to himself, the way he turns around and acts sweet the minute she either does what he wants or seems ready to leave him, only to mingle stones among the pralines and ruin it again, so that in the end she almost belives everything he insinuates makes your skin crawl and your adrenaline go up. On the other hand this is a book without the typical Weldon finish of the woman's revenge, which helps to make her books so enjoyable, despite the bitter criticism of (not only male) behaviour, that many women recognize from their own experience.