Worst Fears [Paperback]

Fay Weldon (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 7, 1997

From the hilarious opening to the satisfying final conflagration, Fay Weldon's Worst Fears is a taut, scathing revelation of the nature of marital intimacy. When Alexandra returns from her stint on the London stage to find her husband mysteriously dead of a heart attack and her female friends ominously invested in smoothing out all the complications of the tragedy, she begins to be suspicious. At first she attributes this to grief, then to paranoia. But she soon finds herself starting to crack, crank-calling her friends' psychiatrist, attacking people with kitchen chairs and breaking into their houses, searching furiously for evidence to confirm her husband's rampant adultery and her own worst fears. "A snappy whodunit of the heart....one of Weldon's best novels yet." -- The New York Times Book Review; "With a dash of murder mystery and a wink at Isben's grim tales of ruined marriages, this splendid and spiteful novel shows Fay Weldon to be in as fine form as ever." -- The Philadelphia Inquirer; "A hundred years hence, if people can still read, Weldon's books will likely have the unblunted edge of Jane Austen, an unsentimental Baedeker guide to sexual manners in an ill-mannered age. Fay Weldon breaks taboos like tape at a marathon, and she hasn't stopped running yet." -- Los Angeles Times.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The 21st novel by the "quintessential anti-romance novelist" Fay Weldon, Worst Fears focuses on Alexandra Ludd, a minor actress whose seemingly idyllic life in the West Country in England is turned upside-down when her husband Ned dies of a heart attack. Alexandra learns that not only was her marriage a sham, but that her friends and family are not as loyal as they seemed. When at the funeral her husband's mistress, Jenny, receives more sympathy than Alexandra and even her dog, Diamond, snubs her, Alexandra realizes it is she who has been shallow and vain, and embarks on a journey to discover what really sustains romantic love. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

In Weldon's fictional universe, a character's worst fears are often not the half of it: the horrific reality of the situations in which her protagonists find themselves often go beyond anything they could have imagined. This is certainly true of Alexandra Ludd, a successful stage actress who is performing in Ibsen's A Doll's House when her husband, Ned, a theater critic, dies in their country house. Alexandra takes a leave of absence from the London production, only to find that her friends in the country all seem to be engaged in some kind of cover-up regarding the circumstances of Ned's death. It gradually becomes clear to Alexandra that her husband lived a very different and more promiscuous life than she'd ever suspected. As always, Weldon's fast-paced black comedy is as compulsively readable as it is unpleasant, but Alexandra's utter failure to have perceived any hint of her husband's real nature makes her remarkably unobservant, and her treatment of their son, Sascha, makes her seem outright cold-blooded, while those around her are malicious and spiteful to the point of sadism. The plot, which essentially adheres to Murphy's law with only a couple of unpredictable detours, lacks the cleverness or complexity to be found in such previous Weldon books about women scorned as The Lives and Loves of a She-Devil and Trouble. But even average Weldon is full of delights, and admirers of her witty malevolence will find much here to enjoy loathing.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press; 1st Pbk. Ed edition (May 7, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0871136821
• ISBN-13: 978-0871136824
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.7 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,220,838 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars From bad to worse., June 22, 2007

By 

S. S. Crawford "Reading Fiend" (Duluth, MN United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Worst Fears (Paperback)

First, Alexandra takes absolutely forever to get out of denial about the character of her husband--not credible at all. I don't believe anyone is that stupid. The reader is shouting, "You moron!" The lead character and story start out bad (Alex is even mean to the dog) and then all the characters and the story go downhill from there. Her late husband, her friends, and even her mother become more abominable. Injustice piles upon injustice. A. doesn't do any of the things we are rooting for her to do to make things right. She's appalling, utterly shallow and inert, and the ending is a terrible waste. The only excuse I could think of for such an awful story is that Ms. Weldon had bad things done to her and this was her revenge. P.S. I didn't find any humor. There was irony, sarcasm, bitterness, but not humor.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A loss of innocence., January 1, 2002

By 

algo41 "algo41" (philadelphia, pa United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Worst Fears (Paperback)

An actress, seemingly in a wonderful marriage, gradually learns the truth after her husband dies of a sudden heart attack. She emerges unbowed, if less innocent. The prose is Weldon at her best: simple, but sparkling with sharp edges. While the book reflects Weldon's sardonic view of human relationships, it is light, humorous, and even affirming at the same time. Worst Fears is the opposite of those books with unsatisfactory endings: not only does the plot eventually make sense, but the behavior of the characters, which at times seems contrived, also comes to make complete sense.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars another little gem, December 6, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Worst Fears (Paperback)

fay weldon is the most honest person alive when it comes to describing human nature and the funniest i've ever read. she is like a dose of cold water over the sappy tv sitcom type of books that make the best seller lists. her tart tongue can skewer even the most complacent hypocrite, and the most sanctimounius new-ager. she runs the gamit. she is very funny as she reveals peoples true natures and when the heroine begins to explode in bewliderment and rage, well, who can blame her for stealing her husbands mistress's phone diary and calling up a plumber and instructing her to go to the mistresses house at 600am. trust me a more sancitmounous other woman never existed, and the ending, i wont spoil it for you but it is a satisfying ending. fay weldon, thank you for telling the truth,and in such a funny way!