The Life and Loves of a She Devil

From the book cover:
When Ruth Patchett discovers her husband is having a passionate affair with the lovely romantic novelist Mary Fisher, she is so seized by envy she becomes truly diabolic, embarking on a course of destruction which brings those around her their just desserts and herself an amazing reward. This is the fantasy of the wronged woman made real: wild, funny, true.
--------------

Fay Weldon got it wrong. This novel ought to be titled 'The Lives and Love of a She Devil', cause a she-devil may have many lives but she will never have more than one love - herself.

I really enjoyed the first half of this novel. Ruth was easy to identify with, being a giantess myself. I'm 5'9.5'' in a country where the average female is 5' 3.5"; I'm use to feeling like a giantess. To be 6'2" would probably be 10 times more isolating.

What's the moral of this story? There is not one virtuous character. Mary Fisher is redeemed, somewhat. She takes care of her mother and Bobbo's children despite their imposition on the life she worked to create for herself. Despite her love for Bobbo, she does eventually realize that love is not justification for bad behaviour. Mary Fisher's redemption is one of many bitter-sweet themes in this novel. It goes to show that people do learn from their indiscretions.

What's disappointing about this novel is that Ruth gets everything she wants but doesn't learn any real lessons about accepting herself. I would have preferred to see her get her revenge and then realize that it's not that sweet, but I guess that would be a clichéd end.

One of the more remarkable things about this novel are the deep, multi-layered characters Weldon creates. With their interaction with Ruth, each character evolves, although not always for the better. Ruth improves the physical and financial circumstances for many of the secondary characters, while leaving them emotionally weaken and in a darker spiritual place. But I suppose that's what she-devils do.

According to online dictionaries, a she-devil is a woman regarded as extremely wicked or cruel. Ruth is a she-devil. She is cold, unfeeling, diabolical and manipulative. Among her greatest acts of cruelty are abandoning her own children despite knowing the pain of being abandoned by her own parents, convincing other women to sell their children, framing her husband for a crime he didn't commit, manipulating the judge into giving her husband a harsh sentence, and seducing a priest into breaking his vow of celibacy.

Ruth breaks at least six of the ten commandments.

The Life and Loves of a She Devil is a nice easy read about a woman scorned and her revenge on her husband and his mistress. It is both chic-lit and fantasy.

3/5

Trailer for the 1989 movie based of Fay Weldon's The Life and Loves of a She Devil. Roseanne Barr stars as Ruth and Meryl Streep stars as Mary Fisher. While entertaining this film is not as good as the novel, it leaves a lot of the story untold.