The fat woman's joke door Fay Weldon

0.1 Bibliography:

Title: The Fat Woman’s Joke
Author: Fay Weldon
Publisher: Coronet Books
Year of publication: 1967
Number of pages: 1430.2 Summary full:

When Esther and her husband go on a diet, everything changes. Alan feels young again and begins an affair with his secretary, Susan, who only fancies him because he is a writer. Esther on the contrary finds out her life is quite useless, the only thing she does all day is cook and eat, but since she is on a diet, there is no point in cooking, and she is forbidden to eat. Eventually she leaves Alan, and tells Phyllis her story, this is also when the story is told, afterwards. When she tells her story, she implies to Phyllis she slept with Gerry, Phyllis' husband, who cheats on her all the time. To get revenge Phyllis sleeps with Alan, but afterwards she regrets it. Meanwhile Susan has her own frustrations, William, her former lover, has left her to go to his wife, and also Alan doesn't want a permanent relationship with her. Eventually Susan goes to Peter, Esther son, whom she tells her story.
At the end of the story Esther tells that the real reason she left Alan is because she felt useless, Peter had grown up, there was no use for her anymore. On the last day of the diet, Alan and Esther have a horrible fight and Alan tries to strangle Esther because she tried to eat a biscuit and wouldn't let him leave and she called him a impotent balding old man. The next day Alan comes back, and asks Esther to come with him and go home. Esther goes with him.

1.3 A: Author B: Subject

A: Author:
The writer of The Fat Woman’s Joke is Fay Weldon. She was supposed to be born in New Zealand, but instead was born in England in 1931. When she was 5 weeks old, she and her mother returned to New Zealand. Fay studies economics and psychology at the university of St. Andrews in Scotland. Other novels she wrote are Female friends (1974), Remember me (1976), Little Sisters (1977), Praxis (1978) and Puffball (1980)

B: Subject:

The subject of the fat woman’s joke is love affairs. Almost everybody in this book has an affair. Alan has an affair with Susan and Gerry sleeps almost with every woman he knows.

Analysis:

Title:
The title is about the fact that she doesn't fight to get Alan back. Actually she doesn't have to do anything but go away and do what she wants to do. Later it becomes clear that she has done something like this before, than she left Alan for other men, now she leaves him for food.
Genre:
The fat woman’s joke is a social and a realistic novel, because …
Social, because relationships and affairs are social issue’s. And a realistic novel, because it can happened everybody.
Theme:
The theme of the book is marriage and love affairs, because:
Marriage: Esther and Alan are married.
Love affairs: Alan and Susan have an affair.
Characters:
Esther: The main character of the book is Esther, she has left Alan, because he has an affair with Susan. Esther has a weight problem and has no intention to lose weight.
Alan: Alan has been married to Esther for a very long time. He has an affair with Susan, His secretary. Alan is sleeping with Phyllis too.
Phyllis: She is a friend of Esther. Phyllis is married to Gerry. Gerry has an affair with his ex too, but Phyllis doesn’t want to leave him. Phyllis is sleeping with Alan, because she is thinking Esther is sleeping with her husband Gerry, bit it isn’t true.
Gerry: Gerry is married to Phyllis, he sleeps with almost every woman he knows. It is uncertain if he also slept with Esther, but she denies it. It is known that Gerry has always liked Esther a lot.
Susan: Alan has an affair with her. Susan has an affair with him, because she found Alan is great in bed and not because his character or his looks.
Brenda: Brenda is Susan's friend. There is not many information about her.
Peter: Peter is Esther’s and Alan’s son, he is married with a wife that doesn't mind when he cheats on her. Peter sleeps with Susan.
Time aspects:
The story can takes place in every time, and it’s chronological told.
Point of view:
The story is told from different perspectives, from Esther’s, Phyllis’, Brenda’s etc. point.
Setting:
The story is set in England. Most of the story plays in Esther's house. There is also Susan's house in Hampstead where also a large part of the story takes place.

Assignment number 13:

28 March, 2004

Dear Fay Weldon,

My name is ……………….and I from Holland. I’m writing this letter, because I want to tell you what my opinion is about this book and I would like to ask you some questions about this book, The Fat Woman’s Joke.

The Fat Woman’s Joke was a very nice book to read. What I found very good is that the story is told from different perspectives. So you can read how the other characters think and how they react, what they say about love affairs and what you need to do when you husband has an affair with his secretary. When a story is told from so many characters is not only positive, but you have to concentrate you very good, but when you didn’t do this, you don’t understand where the story is going about. Now I would like to ask you some questions about this book.
- Why do you have written this book from different perspectives?
- Why do you have chosen for so many characters?
- Why do you have chosen for the themes love affairs and marriage problems?
- Why do you have chosen for the title: The Fat Woman’s joke?
- And why do you have chosen to write a book about a couple, which have a weight problem and affairs?
I hope you can answer my questions and I wish you the best with writing.

Yours sincerely,

………………….