<![CDATA[The Spa]]>

false <![CDATA[The Spa]]>

1868343

<div>Fay Weldon is renowned for her biting humor and devilish prose. In her latest novel, <i>The Spa</i>, Weldon offers a glimpse of the despairs and dalliances of a set of high-powered women who have burned paths through—and sometimes been burned by—their worlds and the men in them. It is the week between Christmas and New Year’s and ten high-achieving ladies are gathered at the expensive Castle Spa. They lounge in the Jacuzzi, sipping champagne, and telling each other the story of their lives, starting with the trophy wife’s tale of her spell in a Greek prison; the brain surgeon’s tale of twins and mistaken identity; the judge’s tale of a sex change that allowed him to experience pleasures from both male and female perspectives. The manicurist, the public speaker, the journalist, the company director, the ex-vicar’s wife, and the screenwriter all share their stories, ending with the stepmother’s tale, a reversal of Cinderella’s fate, with the stepmother as the victim. Sparkling, witty, always sharp-tongued, and occasionally libidinous, <i>The Spa</i> is a darkly funny sketch of a group of women who, despite prejudice, imprisonment, domestic catastrophes, and romantic debacles, have risen to the top of their respective worlds.</div>

1869140

2007

The Spa

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157

102

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In the book a writer is going though ...more...]]> 3 0 false false Sun Aug 24 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed Jul 23 14:46:32 -0700 2008 Tue Aug 26 14:22:09 -0700 2008
The book reads like Chaucer's Tales. With no real plot, it's a conglomeration of descriptions of and stories about characters who find themselves thrown toget...more...]]> 3 0 false false Fri May 30 10:34:24 -0700 2008 Tue May 27 01:08:15 -0700 2008 Fri May 30 10:34:24 -0700 2008 One of the bits of blurb on the back called it a 'witty updating of the decameron', so I looked that up on wikipedia, and yes, indeed, it is a witty updating of the decam...more...]]> 3 0 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Thu Dec 27 19:25:48 -0800 2007 Sun Jan 13 14:27:22 -0800 2008 The Decameron, written by Giovanni Boccaccio, in about 1350 is a collection of novellas, arranged as a story about a group of women and men escaping the plague in Florence, and staying in the countryside, each telling stories for the others' amusement. Weldon's Spa Decameron tells of a group of wom...more...]]> 1 0 false false Sun Nov 23 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Thu Aug 28 22:17:16 -0700 2008 Mon Nov 24 16:53:13 -0800 2008 more...]]> 1 0 false false Sat May 23 06:36:27 -0700 2009 Sat May 23 06:39:21 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Fri Feb 13 07:11:21 -0800 2009 Sun Feb 01 12:47:45 -0800 2009 Fri Feb 13 07:11:21 -0800 2009
So far so good....]]> 1 0 false false Sun Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Thu Jan 29 06:41:16 -0800 2009 Tue Feb 24 09:43:17 -0800 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Wed Feb 25 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Fri Feb 27 10:40:27 -0800 2009 Fri Feb 27 10:44:32 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Wed Feb 25 04:05:23 -0800 2009 Fri Feb 27 18:19:14 -0800 2009 2 0 false false Tue Apr 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed Mar 26 11:11:58 -0700 2008 Wed Apr 02 14:04:49 -0700 2008 more...]]> 1 0 false false Thu Jun 18 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Jun 03 06:02:31 -0700 2009 Thu Jun 18 06:56:22 -0700 2009 2 0 false false Sun Apr 06 08:53:17 -0700 2008 Mon Mar 17 16:12:09 -0700 2008 Sun Apr 06 08:52:34 -0700 2008 0 0 false false Wed Apr 16 07:52:35 -0700 2008 Wed Apr 16 07:53:25 -0700 2008 Tales from the Reading Room. What a bizarre concept! We'll see if it works better than Jane Smiley's TEN DAYS IN THE HILLS, which I could not get into at all.]]> 1 0 false false Thu May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Tue May 20 08:39:37 -0700 2008 Tue May 20 08:42:28 -0700 2008 2 0 false false Wed Apr 30 22:44:18 -0700 2008 Wed Apr 30 22:48:05 -0700 2008 luxury spa break. Spa treatment has been my passion.]]> 2 0 false false Mon Aug 04 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Tue Aug 05 15:17:04 -0700 2008 Tue Aug 05 15:17:59 -0700 2008 1 0 false false Tue Mar 24 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Dec 18 14:48:34 -0800 2008 Mon Mar 30 08:06:14 -0700 2009 1 0 false false Sun Sep 07 00:22:23 -0700 2008 Sun Sep 07 00:22:58 -0700 2008 0 0 false false Tue May 12 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Mar 14 14:31:35 -0700 2009 Tue May 12 20:38:12 -0700 2009 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=1868343