Wicked Women (Weldon, Fay)

Fay Weldon is a writer who understands the value of holding a grudge. Who can forget the years-long vengeance the heroine of her best-known book, The Life and Loves of a She-Devil, exacted on her faithless husband and the romance writer who stole him from her? Even the physical extremes to which Weldon's scorned wife goes in order to remake herself in the image of her rival--including broken bones and plastic surgery--are worth it when she finally succeeds in destroying their lives. Horrifying as the conceit might seem in real life, Weldon's fictional revenge, whether served hot or cold, is a most tasty dish. In Wicked Women, a collection of short stories, Fay Weldon continues her one-writer crusade to ensure that bad people get exactly what's coming to them.

But if Fay Weldon's stories are dark, they are also savagely satirical. In "Santa Claus's New Clothes," the children of a recently divorced father have some telling questions for their not-so-nice new stepmother, who also happens to be their father's former therapist. In "Not Even a Blood Relation," a mother turns the tables on her three heartless daughters in a manner sure to delight the reader. Weldon has a clear-eyed view of right and wrong--not for her are the concepts of no-fault divorce or infidelity without consequence--and in her fiction, if not in life, victims receive Fay Weldon's fierce brand of justice.