Significant Others (Tales of the City, Book 5)

 ARMISTEAD MAUPIN

Synopsis: Tranquility reigns in the ancient redwood forest until a women-only music festival sets up camp downriver from an all-male retreat for the ruling class. Among those entangled in the ensuing mayhem are a lovesick nurseryman, a panic-stricken philanderer, and the world's most beautiful fat woman. SIGNIFICANT OTHERS is Armistead Maupin's cunningly observed meditation on marriage, friendship, and sexual nostalgia.

First line: Brian's internal clock almost always woke him at four fifty-six, giving him four whole minutes to luxuriate in the naked human body next to him.

Stats for my copy: Trade paperback, published by HarperCollins Publishers, Inc, 1994; 322 pages; bought at Half Price Books.

My thoughts: I read the first three books in this series in 2010, then finally read the fourth book, BABYCAKES, a few months ago. I've enjoyed all of them, and this one was no exception. I finished it awhile back and I don't even know why I've taken so long to write my review, but I may be a little fuzzy on the details now as my memory is not the best.

Of the main characters from previous books, the focus here is on Brian, Michael, DeDe and D'or. Brian and Mary Ann have moved to a fancy high rise up the hill, and I was disappointed in the person Mary Ann had become. As a local celebrity, she's very focused on her career and success, and the move was due to her desire to live in a setting that she deemed more appropriate for a woman in her position. Brian is a stay at home dad, and while he loves taking care of their daughter, he's become a little discontented. Then he learns that an old lover, a woman who he cheated on Mary Ann with in the past, has AIDS, and he becomes a big bundle of stress, worrying that he might be infected, and might have infected Mary Ann, and how to tell her. He decides not to until the results of his test come back, which means he needs to be away from her for those ten days as he has no way to explain to her why he can't have sex with her until he has his test results.

While hanging out with Michael, who is still mourning Jon, they meet Thack, who is in town on vacation. Michael and Thack dance around each other, but in the wake of the burgeoning AIDS epidemic Michael has been hesitant to be intimate with anyone. It's just too risky. However, he's really attracted to Thack, and when he and Brian decide to go to a friend's cabin in the woods, the perfect getaway for Brian, Michael invites Thack to go with them.

Meanwhile, DeDe and D'or head to Wimminwood, a women's music festival out in the middle of nowhere, while DeDe's stepfather, Booter, attends a men's retreat nearby. Pretty much all the women at Wimminwood are lesbians, while the men's retreat is full of rich entitled men where a gay man would probably not be openly welcomed. I never cared much for D'or in the previous books, and I didn't care much for her here either. Her character just grates on me, and she and DeDe seem to squabble a lot. I seriously thought they might end up splitting up.

A new character introduced is Wren Douglas, a plus size woman often referred to as the most beautiful fat woman. She's written a book celebrating being a fat woman in today's (well, the today of that time) world, and is in town to be interviewed by Mary Anne while on her book tour. She was a refreshing addition to the cast, getting involved with Booter, and then with Michael, Brian and Thack when Booter stashes her in a cabin nearby so he can sneak away from his retreat on occasion to visit her.

SIGNIFICANT OTHERS treats the threat of AIDS quite seriously without being heavy handed or too depressing. And at the very end, Mary Anne seemed to soften up a little, so I have hope that in the next book she'll come to her senses and realizes what a snob she's become. Maupin's writing is crisp and involving, and he's wonderful at dialogue. I have the next book, SURE OF YOU, waiting for me, thankfully.

The Life & Loves of a She Devil

FAY WELDON

Back cover synopsis: What can a woman do when her husband accuses her of being a “she-devil” and leaves her for another woman? Especially if that woman is six foot two, has a jutting jaw, a hooked nose and moles on her chin. And her rival is petite, ultra-feminine and a successful novelist....

First line: Mary Fisher lives in a High Tower, on the edge of the sea: she writes a great deal about the nature of love.

Stats for my copy: Mass market paperback, published by Hodder & Stoughton, 1983; 240 pages; given to me by a BookCrossing member.

My thoughts: I was swept up and enchanted by this book almost from the first page, although towards the end the enchantment wore off. Ruth is described as a large, lumbering, plain, not pretty or attractive at all woman married to Bobbo, whom she loves. Bobbo is having a not secret affair with Mary Fisher, who is Ruth's opposite in every way imaginable, and whom he loves. After a family dinner with his parents goes horribly wrong, Bobbo decides he's had enough, tells Ruth she's a she devil, packs his bags, and moves in with Mary Fisher. Thus begins Ruth's road to revenge.*

Some chapters are told in first person point of view with Ruth as the narrator, other chapters are in third person. The writing is what drew me in. The author has a distinctive voice, regardless of which point of view is being used at the time. It's almost lyrical, sort of in the vein of an old fashioned fairytale set in modern times.

Ruth's plan to take down Mary Fisher and Bobbo is very long reaching, with plenty of planning and manipulation. At first I felt sympathetic towards Ruth. She is a woman scorned, a woman who's husband ignored her and took her for granted and then tossed her aside. Her heart has been broken, her life destroyed. But as she carried out her Machiavellian plan, she became so ruthless, so cruel, so hard hearted, that it became difficult to feel sympathy for her, and instead I moved more towards being Team Mary Fisher. At that point the book lost it's enchantment for me, and I was ready for the story to be over and done with.

Still, I very much want to read more from Ms. Weldon, and maybe more about her as she seems a very interesting person.

 

*I looked up Ms. Weldon on Wikipedia, which says that she says this book is about envy, not about revenge. That quote led me to Google Ms. Weldon, where I found a very interesting interview with her, Fay Weldon: 'All that anti-man stuff is no longer appropriate'.