Fay Weldon
Novels


Splitting Atlantic Monthly Press First American Edition, 1995 First published in Great Britain by Flamingo (HarperCollins), 1995
From the book jacket: The award-wining author of such dark and hilarious satires on the war between the sexes and the married state of The Life and Loves of a She-Devil and Trouble, Fay Weldon now adds to her oeuvre Splitting, a wickedly incisive portrait of divorce. Splitting swoops with dizzying ease among the conflicting perspectives of a woman whose personality, in the face of her impending divorce, has slivered into a chorus of bickering interior voices, each with its own very distinct tastes and agendas. Ranging from former teen pop star to hapless titled wife, Angelica runs riot over London and its environs, chauffeured by the roguishly handsome Ram - who managed to sleep with all of her selves, sometimes simultaneously. A sharp and funny portrait of divorce, Splitting captures brilliantly the chaotic rhythms of a woman in crisis as it chronicles Angelica's disintegration into a handful of "perforated" personalities. No one writes with shrewder insight about women and that ambiguous and overriding presence in their lives, men, than Fay Weldon. This is a journey rich with her wit, wisdom, and very original narrative power. Bio from the book jacket: Fay Weldon was born in England, raised in New Zealand, and received her M.A. in economics and psychology from St. Andrew's University in Scotland. She is the author of The Live and Loves of a She-Devil, The Hearts and Lives of Men, Praxis, Puffball, Darcy's Utopia, and Down Among the Women, as well as many other novels and plays and three books of nonfiction. She lives in London.
Comments by Fay Weldon from the Weldon-Discuss discussion list: "Splitting split into two versions. Version A is the one published in England . Version B in the U.S. This happened more or less accidentally. Usually I write a novel through from beginning to end, but this one was written over a period of two years, in sections, which I then pieced together, split ends and all, leaving out large chunks, in what seemed to me at the time a satisfactory manner. In Version A, the personality, if you leave out the bits which appeared in her under trauma (and many might think were neurotic) disappeared altogether as she came to terms with them, leaving her almost non-existent and invisible. That is to say, she existed as the sum of her troubles: my feeling being at the time that that is what we all are. There simply isn't any original self. (So by inference you'd better not waste too much time 'finding yourself' because you'll never find yourself in!) I delivered the manusrcipt to my UK publishers thinking this was it, finished . A couple of months later I re-pieced the MSS together (feeling more cheerful, I suppose) and this time when she got rid of the trauma she was her true self, busy and sensible and un-neurotic. (Though I thought rather boring) I sent it to the US publishers and said to my English publishers 'oh by the way there's a further draft' The US publishers loved their version (b): but the UK publishers insisted on doing the first version (a), which they preferred. So there you are! I think the UK version is the right one and Version B was a revision too far, but if you write a novel called Spitting it is all too like to split itself, so I deferred to fate." With best wishes, FAY WELDON

Splitting
Atlantic Monthly Press
First American Edition, 1995
First published in Great Britain by Flamingo (HarperCollins), 1995

From the book jacket:
The award-wining author of such dark and hilarious satires on the war between the sexes and the married state of The Life and Loves of a She-Devil and Trouble, Fay Weldon now adds to her oeuvre Splitting, a wickedly incisive portrait of divorce.
Splitting swoops with dizzying ease among the conflicting perspectives of a woman whose personality, in the face of her impending divorce, has slivered into a chorus of bickering interior voices, each with its own very distinct tastes and agendas. Ranging from former teen pop star to hapless titled wife, Angelica runs riot over London and its environs, chauffeured by the roguishly handsome Ram - who managed to sleep with all of her selves, sometimes simultaneously.
A sharp and funny portrait of divorce, Splitting captures brilliantly the chaotic rhythms of a woman in crisis as it chronicles Angelica's disintegration into a handful of "perforated" personalities. No one writes with shrewder insight about women and that ambiguous and overriding presence in their lives, men, than Fay Weldon. This is a journey rich with her wit, wisdom, and very original narrative power.
Bio from the book jacket:
Fay Weldon was born in England, raised in New Zealand, and received her M.A. in economics and psychology from St. Andrew's University in Scotland. She is the author of The Live and Loves of a She-Devil, The Hearts and Lives of Men, Praxis, Puffball, Darcy's Utopia, and Down Among the Women, as well as many other novels and plays and three books of nonfiction. She lives in London.

Comments by Fay Weldon from the Weldon-Discuss discussion list:
"Splitting split into two versions. Version A is the one published in England . Version B in the U.S. This happened more or less accidentally. Usually I write a novel through from beginning to end, but this one was written over a period of two years, in sections, which I then pieced together, split ends and all, leaving out large chunks, in what seemed to me at the time a satisfactory manner.
In Version A, the personality, if you leave out the bits which appeared in her under trauma (and many might think were neurotic) disappeared altogether as she came to terms with them, leaving her almost non-existent and invisible. That is to say, she existed as the sum of her troubles: my feeling being at the time that that is what we all are. There simply isn't any original self. (So by inference you'd better not waste too much time 'finding yourself' because you'll never find yourself in!) I delivered the manusrcipt to my UK publishers thinking this was it, finished . A couple of months later I re-pieced the MSS together (feeling more cheerful, I suppose) and this time when she got rid of the trauma she was her true self, busy and sensible and un-neurotic. (Though I thought rather boring) I sent it to the US publishers and said to my English publishers 'oh by the way there's a further draft' The US publishers loved their version (b): but the UK publishers insisted on doing the first version (a), which they preferred. So there you are! I think the UK version is the right one and Version B was a revision too far, but if you write a novel called Spitting it is all too like to split itself, so I deferred to fate."
With best wishes,
FAY WELDON

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