This review is for those who've seen the movie.
This review contains SPOILERS for the book.
I was happily watching a favorite comedy, 'She Devil' starring Meryl Streep, Roseanne Barr, and Ed Bagley Jr. when suddenly something caught my eye that I'd never noticed before; "Based on the novel by Fay Weldon." Immediately, I ran out and bought the book. Because of this, my review contains references to both book and movie.
Ruth is a woman ignored her whole life, even by her own parents. She's the ugly duckling who never turned into a swan; an object of pity, not love. Ruth hates being tall; tall women get the modeling jobs, but not tall women like Ruth. Ruth Patchett is 6'2" tall, square jawed, four moles on her face, heavy boned, clumsy, ungainly, and emotional. She's also in love ... in love with Hate, and in love with her husband "bobbo", who in turn is in love with Mary Fisher, a petite and rich romance novelist. Mary Fisher lives in a converted lighthouse on the sea's edge, a romantic setting for a romantic woman in love.
Yes, Ruth burns her house down after Bob leaves and drops the kids off with him, then sets about ruining Bob's life until his short prison stay makes him realize how worthy a wife she was, with the happy hinting that life goes on and somehow they'll work it out. That's there the movie and the book part ways. The movie is a true comedy, highly worthy of a purchase for your humor library of DVD's. The book has humor in it, but the book is dark and filled with tragedy and intense self hatred manifested in every way possible.
The Ruth played by Rosanne Barr in the movie was overweight, an easily fixable condition, as was the mole she had removed from her face. The Ruth in the book is genetically ugly, not so easily fixed. Having been unloved by her own parents and kicked out of the house at age 16 so her step-father could use her room for his train sets, her self-loathing is deeply ingrained from childhood up. Her and Bobbo's marriage is pretty much arranged by his parents, whom Ruth was working for, to get Bobbo out of the house so they could go back to living in hotels as they preferred. Bobbo explains to Ruth they have an open marriage, and proceeds to tell Ruth of every affair he has, calling her his "best friend" as he shares how much love he holds for Mary Fisher. But when he finally announces he's divorcing Ruth to marry Mary, Ruth's compliance snaps.
In the book, Ruth burns her house down and drops the kids off at Mary Fisher's, then leaves them for good. She never returns for her own children, and never feels a pang of regret for doing it. Her own self hatred is too intense, her own feelings is that she was a bad mother and not worth having the children to begin with. She doesn't particularly like her children simply because they are a part of her. She sleeps with men who mean nothing to her, then finds employment at the nursing home Mary Fisher's mother, Pearl, is residing. After seeing to it that Pearl is returned to Mary Fisher's "palace by the sea" by emptying bedpans on her mattress (incontinence is not allowed at the home - this book was written in 1983, pre-Depends times)
Put on your glasses, with shades the color of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, and take a good look at Ruth. Ruth herself steals money from Bobbo's accounts, using their joint fund he'd previously cleared out. Ruth finds a man who can help her change identities, and becomes first Vesta Rose, then Polly Patch, then multiple other identities. She uses every person whose life she moves through, both sexually and emotionally, both male and female, to achieve her goals. But her goal is confusing until close to the end: Ruth wants to be the one woman Bobbo wants to be married to, and have Bobbo love her, so Ruth must be Mary Fisher. Literally.
While Mary Fisher's lifestyle declines (she and Bobbo never did marry because Ruth Patchett was a "missing person" so Bobbo couldn't legally divorce her) she's forced to care for Bobbo's children during his incarceration, and for her mother. The real estate market is down; she's lost all her other houses to carrying the legal debts incurred by Bobbo, and now must sell her crumbling lighthouse below market level price. She grows old and fades, her books don't fare as well, and above all, she gets cancer. When Mary Fisher dies, she is reborn; through extensive and life threatening plastic surgeries. Her house is bought by a mysterious millionaires who's money has done quite well in the investment markets. Mary Fisher lives on.
All the blurbs call it "bright and funny". It's not. It's very dark, humorous at times, but a black look at the human condition. This isn't a book of revenge, it's a book of self-hatred so intense that it's pathological. This is a sad book, a bitter book, a book about a women who's accepted by others but not by herself. A woman who goes to dangerous and life-threatening procedures to completely alter herself into another woman's physical projection. My five stars for this book are deserved. It's a well written journey into self-imposed hell, a hell without the boundaries of shame or degradation or regret. Every word is another step. You must pick up this book and read it, for your own good. There is humor but it's very dark, and I myself would call this a horror story and align it with Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. I simply cannot get this absorbing book out of my mind. You want humor, watch the movie, you want tragedy, read the book. Solid 5 stars, definitely worth a purchase. Enjoy!
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