This cynical saga of Alexandra Ludd's slow awakening to her dead husband's perfidy isn't particularly easy reading. The style of writing in the book is deceptively simple, almost like a folk tale or maybe an Aga saga at the beginning, clipped sentences and characters with vaguely ludicrous names give a distancing effect. However a lot is going on inside the covers, as well as under them.
It is a very middle class tale which dates it, 1980's or early 90's in feel, nobody seems obsessed with mobiles and computers. I was determined to finish it, the story line was engaging and the character of Alexandra (nobody calls her Alex) is deeply drawn. I needed to know if she survived the traumas, the tension was gripping . It's riddled with black humour, I just wish I'd been able to enjoy it more. Fay Weldon's genre is bleakly humorous stories of individual women trapped in oppressive situations caused by the patriarchal structure of British society. She does it very well, within a small social spectrum, and Worst Fears fits right in.
