Envy the reader of Before the War who has never read anything by Fay Weldon. That reader is about to be changed by Weldon’s trademark voice.”
—The Washington Post
“[A] maelstrom of twisty plot points, complicated entanglements, [and] pregnancies of ambiguous etiology….fascinating.”
—New York Times Book Review
"Featuring a cast of oddball characters and astute observations about courtship, family, and what it means to be human, Weldon’s novel crackles with erudite writing evocative of the time period. This is a complex character study filled with wit and wisdom about family, society, and the restrictions both can place on women."
—Publishers Weekly
“Interjections of authorial opinion and wit entertain."
—Kirkus
“Witty descriptions of human foibles and humorously self-referential style.”
—Library Journal
"A romp of a read full of Weldon wit and wisdom, as well as sumptuous period detail, gawky, oversized Vivvie is a wonderfully offbeat heroine while her mother Adela makes a brilliantly ghastly villain."
—Daily Mail (UK)
“A wise and witty story about a family that is as dysfunctional as the history of the world in the 1920s and 1930s but filled with sharp observations about life as we live it now.”
—The Times (UK)
“A cool, sparkling, delicious book.”
—The Australian
"A daredevil combination of farce and satire, pathos and bathos, written in a post-modernist, self-referential style, which effervesces its eccentric way through 300 mesmerizing pages that carry shades of Oscar Wilde, Evelyn Waugh, P. G. Wodehouse and John Fowles.
—The Times Literary Supplement (UK)
“Looking down on her cast from amused heights, Weldon punctures their pretensions and double standards with piquant observations [and] keeps a detached eye on the power politics of their relationships”
—The Guardian
