I bought this when my favourite used book store (call out for Russel Books in Victoria, BC!) didn't have Fay Weldon's Booker-nominated Praxis, but this caught my eye. It opens with:

Doris Dubois is twenty-three years younger than I am. She is slimmer than I am, and more clever. She has a degree in economics, and hosts a TV arts programme. She lives in a big house with a swimming pool at the end of a country lane. It used to be mine...I tried to kill her once, but failed.

And from there we're off on a satirical, fast-paced romp through wealthy London circa 2000. Grace has survived having her world yanked out from under her feet and a stint in prison, but maybe now the winds will blow her way. In her mid-fifties (and poorer than she expected to be at this age) she's not about to get riled by her ex-husband's new wife, "Britain's sweetheart," who is gunning for her. A younger man is smitten with Grace, and their relationship gives him the mature gravitas he craves, and Grace shocks everyone with her increasing youthfulness. In the meantime, despite all their efforts, things aren't going so well for the Ex- and his new Mrs.

This story is undoubtedly slanted in Grace's favour, but the author makes interesting shifts in points of view, and sometimes in unexpected places. Sort of like when you're watching a movie and the camera quickly catches a secondary-character's reaction to something that the main character might not see. It was odd, but it worked.

The other thing that was odd was the names: Doris Dubois (she pulled this surname out of her butt, it's actually something Eastern European) and the young lover-artist Walter Wells -- these two are around 30, which means they are slightly younger than me (in 2000), and "Doris" and "Walter" read much older. It turns out there was a literary reason for Doris, and I guess the Walter character just really wanted to be older. It took some adjusting from me though. And then there was a secondary character in the same age range named "Ethel." All very odd. The weirdest name, by far, was the ex-husband. Barley Salt. I first read it as "Bailey," but then realized, no, it's Barley. Okay, never heard that given name. And the surname Salt is not exactly common. Now put them together. They are both things we eat. Oats Pepper. Rice Nutmeg. Like I said, odd.

Recommended for: People who like social satire. Readers who don't like to read about rich people will hate this. ( )

El millonario Bariey Salt acaba de casarse con Doris Dubois, una famosa y seductora presentadora de televisión, pero todavía no ha logrado deshacerse de la furia de su ex mujer, Grace McNab, quien acaba de salir de la cárcel por intentar embestir con su Jaguar a Doris cuando ésta salía del supermercado. Los tres coinciden en una fiesta donde se subasta un retrato de la anfitriona realizado por Walter Wells en el que aparece un collar magníficamente trabajado y tallado por los prestigiosos joyeros de Bulgari. Doris cree que merece tener un collar como el del retrato...

Uproar in the life of an upwardly mobile property developer, his ex-wife and the jealous current one (the creator of most of the uproar). Peripheral characters from the British Government, the BBC, high-class jewellers and the art world. Frank about marital disharmony and sex for the middle-aged, easy to read, mostly amusing but with more serious undertones. ( )

A brilliant and subversive satire - a modern day retelling of The Picture of Dorian Gray. Weldon's insight into London society is acute and merciless: her eye for human wickedness and romantic folly is reminiscent of Jane Austen at her best, ( )