Splitting

A Novel

Multiple personality disorder gets a modern makeover in Fay Weldon’s wickedly subversive, hilarious send-up of English traditions and divorce

Lady Angelica Rice used to be a teenage rock sensation called Kinky Virgin. She gave it up to marry fat, lazy, near-destitute Sir Edwin Rice—and that’s when Angelica’s “splitting” began: a chorus of four women in her head, each one demanding to be heard. Now, after eleven years—during which she spent all her money restoring Edwin’s crumbling ancestral manse to its former glory—he’s suing her for divorce. He accuses Angelica of making excessive sexual demands, refusing to bear children, taking drugs, and failing to provide proper food for his guests—all of which are lies. But what’s worse is that she still loves him.

Egged on by her avenging alter egos—meek Jelly, shattered Lady Rice, sexually insatiable Angel, and practical Angelica—she gets her revenge in this seminal novel about marriage, divorce, and one woman’s liberating leap into free fall.