The War of the Roses

Pulphouse Short Story Paperbacks #28

by Karen Joy Fowler

Genres: Fiction

43 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

About the author

Karen Joy Fowler is the New York Times bestselling author of seven novels and three short story collections. Her 2004 novel, The Jane Austen Book Club, spent thirteen weeks on the New York Times bestsellers list and was a New York Times Notable Book. Fowler’s previous novel, Sister Noon, was a finalist for the 2001 PEN/Faulkner Award for fiction. Her debut novel, Sarah Canary, won the Commonwealth medal for best first novel by a Californian, was listed for the Irish Times International Fiction Prize as well as the Bay Area Book Reviewers Prize, and was a New York Times Notable Book. Fowler’s short story collection Black Glass won the World Fantasy Award in 1999, and her collection What I Didn’t See won the World Fantasy Award in 2011. Her most recent novel We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves, won the 2014 PEN/Faulkner Award for fiction and was short-listed for the 2014 Man Booker Prize. Her new novel Booth published in March 2022.

She is the co-founder of the Otherwise Award and the current president of the Clarion Foundation (also known as Clarion San Diego). Fowler and her husband, who have two grown children and seven grandchildren, live in Santa Cruz, California. Fowler also supports a chimp named Caesar who lives at the Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary in Sierra Leone.

Reviews

[Bookish Enchantment (Katherine Quirke) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the most extreme of cases of separation/divorce and you can only hope it really does not happen.

A terrific read. I started out feeling sorry for Oliver but in the end I was just intrigued at how crazy and stupid the human race can get.

This book is fast paced and easy to read. Full of black humor you will find it more entertaining as it goes on.

[Marta · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good but not grate

[Dustin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite poignant, reminds me of Le Guin or of Joan Slonczewski's A Door Into Ocean in the way it melds the protagonist's internal mental life with the social events outside her.