Trouble

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Annette Horrocks has every reason to be happy. She lives in a lovely London house with her devoted husband, Spicer; her first novel is about to be published; and after ten years of trying, she is finally pregnant. But Spicer is cruel and distant. He used to dismiss psychiatry, yet now he spouts New Age astrology and accuses Annette of murdering his inner child. Worse, Annette's friend Gilda discloses that Spicer is having an affair. Annette thinks she is going mad, and that's not even the end of it. Trouble is fay Weldon's bracing, enticing return to the vengeful mode of The Life and Loves of a She-Devil—and a reminder that, while marriage has been a nightmare through the ages, now husbands have psychiatrists to make it worse.From Publishers WeeklyPregnant 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. From Library JournalThe 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., ColumbiaCopyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.