If one is curious about the lives of women, one can do no better than read Weldon. Her major subject is the experience of women…. But she is not tedious about the rich texture of everyday female existence she creates…. Weldon's [fictional world] exists because she most often selects the telling and the funny, the absurd and the horrifying. (pp. 5-6)

Instead of relying on a single minutely analyzed protagonist, she creates numerous vividly individualized women within the same work whose lives intertwine. Weldon's fiction often mirrors the insights of feminist theorists about the nature and situation of women: love does not last, marriage is not happy, motherhood is not serene. Her multiple female characters function particularly well to make convincing a fictional world which indirectly questions many traditional assumptions. The experiences of her characters complement each other and, therefore, validate each other as well….

Yet Weldon does...