Boekverslag : Fay Weldon - The Life And Loves Of A She-devil
De taal ervan is Engels en het aantal woorden bedraagt 2123 woorden.
De taal ervan is Engels en het aantal woorden bedraagt 2123 woorden.
1. Explanation of the title:
Ruth thinks she is a She Devil, the book is about her life and her love for Bobbo.
2. Biographical information of the writer.
Fay Weldon was born in Birmingham, brought up in Mew Zealand and educated at Hampstead School for Girls. At the age of twenty, armed with an MA from St. Andrew ´s she took a job at the Foreign Office shuffling papers that sent spies to an uncertain fate in the East Bloc. She left when pregnant with the first of her four sons and subsequently worked for a succession of leading advertising agencies in increasingly exalted positions. Since then she has become one of Britain ´s leading literary writers, screen written successfully for film and television, and in her journalism acquired a reputation for wit and controversy. Her work sells worldwide in translation. After a highly acclaimed BBC television adaptation, THE LIFE AND LOVES OF A SHE DEVIL was made into a Hollywood film starring Roseanne Barr and Meryl Streep.
3. Number of pages and edition
The book has 256 pages. This book was the first published in paperback in 1984, so I think this is the first edition, but it doesn’t say so in this book
4. Theme(s) like love, revenge, friendship, war
The novel is mostly about love and revenge. It is about Ruth Patchett who was left by her man (Bobbo). When Bobbo leaves her because he has an affair with Mary Fisher, she wants revenge. Ruth takes revenge by destroying the lifes of Mary and Bobbo, that’s what the story is about.
5. Setting (where does the story take place)
At the beginning of the book Ruth and Bobbo live together in a house in Eden Grove. Later on Bobbo lives in the High Tower together with Mary Fisher. Ruth lives in all sorts of places, she lives in a house for the aged (Restwood), later on she lives in a prison for the criminally insane (Lucas Hill), afterwards she lives together with a judge, then with Vickie, after that with Father Ferguson and later on in a commune of separatist feminists and finally in a room of the hospital where she gets her plastic surgery.
6. List of main characters and a description of each
Ruth: She’s a fat and ugly woman, around 40 years old. She’s very clumsy, but she is a rather nice women. After Bobbo has left she wants revenge, because she’s very angry. She destroys Bobbo’s and Mary Fisher’s lifes, when doing so she changes her name a couple of times, for example: Vesta Rose, Polly Patch, Molly Wishant, Millie Mason. After she has destroyed Mary and Bobbo ´s lifes she changes her whole body and she looks exactly like Mary Fisher.
Bobbo: He’s a very handsome accountant also about 40 years old. He’s the Mary Fisher’s accountant and has an affair with her, therefore he leaves his wife, Ruth.
He blames Ruth for everything going wrong in his life. He never knew why he married Ruth. After he has left Ruth, he lives with Mary Fisher in the High Tower.
When Ruth has destroyed his whole life, he ends up in prison. When he gets out he is very confused.
Mary: She ´s a lean, pretty and small woman, about 40 years old, she isn’t married. She became very rich by writing novels. She lives in the High Tower, near the sea. In the beginning she is very happy with Bobbo, but she isn’t very happy about Ruth’s children and her mother moving into her house. Mary has to clean everything, because they make such a mess. After that she has to pay Bobbo’s lawyers, because Bobbo went to prison. She loses all her money on Bobbo’s lawyers which makes her even unhappier. In the end Mary is old and very ill, she has cancer and eventually dies.
7. Summary of the plot
Ruth and Bobbo are married and live in Eden Grove (an American suburb) together with their two children, Andy and Nicola, and their pets. Ruth is a very fat and ugly woman and Bobbo had to marry her when he made her pregnant. Bobbo is a handsome and successful accountant. Ruth is intelligent, but she loves to take care of the family. When Bobbo’s parents visit, Ruth clumsily drops the soup and Bobbo yells at her that she is a She-devil and then leaves her for Mary Fisher. She is the total antipole of Ruth, being small, beautiful, and rich. She is a writer of romantic fiction. Ruth wants revenge and she becomes a She-devil.
In the morning she sends her children off to McDonalds, afterwards she sets fire to the house, after that she brings the other pets and the children to Bobbo and Mary.
Later Ruth gets a job as a nurse at Restwood, the nursing home where Mary Fisher’s mother lives. She persuades her to visit her daughter. While Mrs Fisher visits Mary, Ruth tells the supervisor that old Mrs Fisher is incontinent, meaning Mrs Fisher is forced to stay with her daughter. Now Mary Fisher has got to take care of a whole family and her life becomes a mess.
Ruth changes her name into Vesta Rose and buys two certificates of general education. She gets herself a job at the Lucas Hill Hospital for the criminally insane. She meets Nurse Hopkins and she starts having an affair with her. At night she studies accountancy and book-keeping. She goes regularly into Bobbo’s office, because she still has a key. She goes trough the files and transfers money to her personal account in Switzerland, in the end she has 2 million dollars.
With Nurse Hopkins she starts the ‘Vesta Rose Agency’, a company for women who want to find secretarial work. She places Elsie as a secretary in Bobbo’s office, Bobbo has an affair with her and when Elsie is fired, Ruth suggests she should write to May Fisher. Ruth gives Elsie money to start a new life in New Sealand but first she goes to Switzerland to do some financial business for Ruth.
Bobbo is arrested for embezzling money and Mary spends all her money on expensive lawyers. Ruth gives her share in the company to Nurse Hopkins and changes her name into Polly Patch to become a housekeeper at the house of a judge, called Bishop. He is the judge who deals with Bobbo’s case, and is a sadist. Ruth becomes the one he can put all his anger on and she succeeds in having the judge give Bobbo a seven year sentence. The judge becomes a different man and changes his occupation.
In the meantime Ruth has her teeth filed down. While living with Vickie, a pregnant girl with two children , Ruth has her jaw trimmed. She needs to lose a lot of weight and in order to do this she accepts a job as a housekeeper at a priest’s, Father Ferguson. She advises Vickie to sell her children and start a new life. Ruth seduces the priest which makes him a new man. He contacts Mary Fisher about her faith and they have an affair.
In a commune of separatist feminists Ruth loses weight and tells the doctors she wants to look like Mary Fisher. She stays in there clinic where both her doctors fall in love with their creation. After Mary Fisher dies of cancer, Ruth goes to the funeral where Bobbo is also present, but he does not know who is who. Finally she has her legs shortened. She then employs excellent lawyers to get Bobbo out of prison, buys the Hightower and asks Garcia to come back from Spain to be her servant. She is now the one who has lovers to make Bobbo suffer. She never sees her children, Andy gets a job at a gas station and Nicola is a lesbian, who lives with her teacher.
8. Opinion on the book
I quite liked this book, because it's written in a fascinating way, it's not a boring book. I think books about revenge are mostly good. The only thing that I didn’t like about this book, was its length. But, the book wasn’t difficult to read, because of the easy language used. I also liked Ruth, the main character’s in the book, I can see why she wanted revenge. Another good about this book are the many unexpected twists in it, which make the book interesting to read.
9. Quote one passage you liked and one you didn’t like
A passage I liked:
Page 198:
When Molly Wishant applied …... to point this out.
I liked this passage, because Father Ferguson gives a good description of Ruth in this passage,
He tells what he thinks and expects from her in an honest way, so you get a good impression of Ruth.
A passage I didn’t like:
Page 32/33:
These facts, coming to…… know what you mean.
I didn’t like this passage, because Bobbo’s parents are talking about what to do with Ruth. I don’t like that because I think Ruth has to decide it herself.
10. Would you advice other people to read this book?
Yes, I would advice other people to read this book, because this book is interesting and not very difficult to read. The story as such is also interesting, because everybody can imagine the situation in the book. It’s a story about ugly (Ruth) and beautiful (Mary), so I think this book is especially interesting for women, but I think men can also learn something from the book.
10 Important differences between the film and the book:
1. Book: The title of the book is: ‘The Life and Loves of a She Devil’
Film: The title of the film is: ‘She Devil’
I prefer the film, because the title She Devil is interesting, you might think it’s a horror film, but actually it is a drama.
2. Book: Ruth is taller than Bobbo.
Film: Bobbo is taller than Ruth.
I prefer the film, because men are mostly taller than women, so I think the film more realistic in this case.
3. Book: Ruth’s husband is called: Bobbo.
Film: Ruth’s husband is called: Bob.
I prefer the film, because the name Bob is more serious than Bobbo. And because he’s a serious accountant the name Bob is better.
4. Book: When Ruth wants to set fire to the house the kids go to school.
Film: When she wants to set fire to the house, she sends the children to the Mc Donalds.
I prefer the film, because the fact that Ruth sends the kids away, indicates that she wants to set fire to the house immediately and doesn’t want to wait until the children go to school.
5. When Ruth brings the children to Mary Fisher’s High Tower:
Book: Mary and Bob make love on the sofa.
Film: Mary and Bobbo make love in the bath .
I prefer the film, because you know better how Mary lives like in the High Tower.
6. Book: Ruth works in a Prison for the Criminally Insane after she stopped working at the house of the aged: “Restwood”.
Film: Ruth starts her own employment agency “Vesta Rose” immediately after she stopped working at the house of the aged “Restwood”.
I prefer the book, because in the prison Ruth does a lot of things that influence the end of the book/film.
7. Book: Ruth transfers the money from Bobbo’s business account to his personal account herself.
Film: Ruth does the transfer together with Elsie, who had affair with Bob, but Bob dumped her and now she wants revenge.
I prefer the film, because I think it makes sense Elsie wanting revenge.
8. Book: Ruth goes to Switzerland with Elsie to collect 2 million dollar from their joint account and later on she uses it for plastic surgery.
Film: Ruth only transfers 100.000 dollar and she doesn’t use it herself.
I prefer the film, because I think that Ruth deserves the money, because she has suffered.
9. Book: Bobbo is arrested and removed at 3 o’clock in the morning.
Film: Bob is arrested and removed at a party in the High Tower.
I prefer the film, because Bob is arrested in front of a lot of people and I think it’s good Bob is humiliated after what he has done to Ruth.
10. Book: Ruth works at the judge’s house as a housekeeper and directly affects the sentence (she calls herself Polly Patch).
Film: This part is totally ignored, not paying any attention to the judge.
I prefer the book, because Ruth makes the judge give Bobbo seven years in prison in stead of five years, which he deserves.
Conclusion: I prefer the film, as you can see in the comparison above, almost everywhere I prefer the film to the book. I prefer the film, because the story is a lot faster which is better.
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