Book review: Fay Weldon deploys her inimitably indiscreet voice for the 34th time
The British writer likes to let the reader into the secrets of her creations, in this case a doomed middle-class family in the years before the second world war
by Fay Weldon
Head of Zeus
2.5/5 stars
Fans will immediately fall in with that familiar voice speaking directly and chummily to the reader in Fay Weldon’s 34th novel, Before the War.
It reminds you throughout that this is only a book. Weldon takes huge pleasure in the god-like aspects of authorship, and likes to let the reader in on the secrets of her creation. It’s a technique she has honed over many years, and she is completely at ease with it. Near the beginning, she gives a nod to Kurt Vonnegut, another writer who liked to accompany his readers in this way.
“So it goes,” she quotes appreciatively, after a wry series of massive spoilers: “She is standing in her shapeless clothes … with no idea at all of what I have in store for her. I will give her an easy death. It’s the least I can do. She will drift away painlessly from loss of blood giving birth to twin daughters a day after their apparently safe delivery. Ergometrine was not isolated until 1935.”