Ex-Wife

Thank you Faber for the netgalley proof of  "Ex-Wife" by Ursula Parrott , first published in the 1920ies, now rediscovered. I absolutely loved it, on my shelf of favorite novels of the year!

Spiked with great, smart one liners and wit, it reminded me a lot of the incomparable Dorothy Parker. Somewhat autobiographical Parrott describes her own life in 1920ties NY  through Patricia,   a new type of woman, recent divorcee in her twenties,  with a broken heart and career of her own plus a neverending parade of men taking her and her girlfriends out every day. How on earth did they survive on so little sleep and so much booze ? I fell in love with the  language of the novel and of course Pat and her girlfriends, whose chief goal was to stand by each other thru thick and thin and to be married again by age 30 , preferable to a wealthy man. A fabulous read, fresh and true even after 100 years, go out and buy it when it is published in August.

I’ve heard so much about this book and Ursula Parrot but it was impossible to get a copy here in the UK. I was so pleased to hear about this new Faber edition and thank you so much Faber for letting me read this netgalley proof.

A delightful slice of New York City in the roaring 20s, Ex-Wife tells the story of Patricia and her marriage to Peter. It’s a story of love, marriage, relationships and the ups and downs of life.

Patricia narrates, recalling the four years of marriage to Peter and how it came to a messy end (both played a part but Peter is a real piece of work). We follow her as she grieves the demise of her marriage, befriending the wonderful Lucia in the process. By the end of the journey I was so enamoured with Patricia, I really felt for her and the sacrifices she made.

The story and its themes feel modern almost one hundred years after its first publication, which says a lot for how far we’ve travelled in terms of the way women are viewed and treated. It’s a compelling read which packs an emotional punch!

I have been recommending this book non-stop! It was such a funny, raucous, poignant read. It reminded me of Elaine Dundy’s The Dud Avocado and I completely fell in love with the charming, yet flawed characters.

"The feeling of running, of having been running endlessly, so that I was breathless, yet must go on running forever, seemed to sum up my life."

A ball, and a blast, a comedy and a tragedy. Set in 1920s New York, and originally published in 1929, this book will get inevitable comparisons to F Scott Fitzgerald (the drinking and misbehaving being very Great Gatsby-esque) and Dorothy Parker (for the wryly funny, self-aware female narrator), but what it actually felt like to me was a precursor to Nora Ephron's 'Heartburn'. It's the story of a woman who is sadly too clever for her own good - or rather, for the constraining patriarchal society she lives in - who must define and redefine herself after the collapse of her marriage. Standing on the cusp of modernity, but still with the forbidding 19th Century hanging over her past, Patricia tries to see herself as a character, to comment on her life as if it's happening to someone else; and yet she yet stays aware, with a quiet creeping dread that bursts through the comic facade, that she isn't sure who she really is, and all her witty lines and mannerisms, her deflections and deceptions, are techniques designed to stop herself, as much as anyone else, from finding out what's under the surface. The ex-wife is a "persona", as the ingenue was and the grand dame will be: but beneath this mask, what else? And why was the mask put on in the first place?

This is also a love story, as much as it's a portrait of a time and of a certain kind of "new woman". But it's equally a story of the self, like Rachel Cusk's semi-absent, identity-less narrator in 'Outline', the bohemian vagrants of Jean Rhys's early novels, and the many "lost young woman" books that have sprung up in the wake of Conversations with Friends and Fleabag. As a librarian, when people come looking for books in that genre, I've usually recommended writers like Eve Babitz as "originators" of the trope, but Ursula Parrott will definitely be joining that list, and 'Ex-Wife' would work well in a display targeted at readers of novelists like Coco Mellors, Monica Heisey, and Halle Butler..

As long as I live, I don’t think I’ll forget this book. The most modern, the most of its time, the most universal, the most painful pleasure of a novel. I adored it.

I enjoyed Ex-Wife tremendously and whilst many novels are heralded for being ahead of their time, this one genuinely fits the bill. The beginning is so funny and self-aware and I absolutely adored Pat as a protagonist and narrator. I will admit that I felt it started to sag from around two thirds in, mainly because I didn’t particularly buy Pat’s quite sudden adoration for Noel, but I’m a massive cynic. Incidentally, Noel’s wife as a character was very well drawn and memorable. Overall, I would definitely recommend this novel as a bold precursor to the darkly funny sad girl millennial era.

Glad this autofiction from the 1920’s was re-published. Ex-Wife is the upsetting mid twenties adulting of a woman who has early relationship trauma. Concerned with the sex lives, romances and friendships of women, Ex-Wife is a delayed coming of age of an initially unsympathetic narrator. Portrayal of clothes and career life of the jobbing writer in magazine advertising notable, as are scraps of conversation. note: Brief non-explicit racist references to Harlem social life as experienced by the white narrator.

I had heard a lot about this novel when McNally 're-published it and was keen to read it, but it was difficult to get a copy here, so I was very pleased to hear that Faber were going to be 're-publishing too.

It is the semi autobiographical account of Pat, who starts off separated from her husband, and becomes an ex-wife halfway through. Set in 1920's New York, she hits the town; moving in with another ex-wife they work during the day, and evenings are spent with a series of men in restaurants and spearheaded where a lot of alcohol is consumed. she is desperate to hold on to her husband initially, but as the novel progresses she begins to see that the relationship is doomed.

It felt quite cynical and jaded, but hearing about the authors life, that is unsurprising, and despite this it is witty and largely easy to read, though I did find the middle sagged a bit. The setting was interesting to me, it's not one I read about very often. I'm very glad I finally got to read it, and it's one I'm sure to re-read at some point in the future.

*Many thanks to Netgalley and Faber for a review copy in exchange for an honest opinion.*

The fact that this book was published in 1929 is utterly mind blowing to me. It is so utterly timeless!

Patricia is 24 years old when her husband decides he doesn’t want to be married anymore. She resists until she can’t and moves in with a divorced friend. From there she starts LIVING. Making enough money in advertising to keep her in fine fashion, spending time out on the town with her friends and having dalliances with whatever men take her fancy.

Peter, the ex-husband, is truly awful. Just despicable every time he turns up! And I think one of the joys of this book is seeing Patricia really live her life after him. In a way I maybe naively didn’t believe women could in the 1920s? But this is New York baby!

This is utterly delicious. I mean it is extremely sad in parts and your heart aches for Patty, don’t get me wrong. I’m just delighted that this has been republished and I had the chance to read it. I would really recommend you read it too!

'This book is not so much a celebration of the unconventional woman as it is a roadmap of the dangers that might befall her' [foreword]

It's mid-1920s, New York, and Patricia has become an Ex-Wife, 'Not every woman who used to be married is one. There are women about whom it is more significant to know...this or that..then to know they were once married to someone else'. The Great War has ended, women have finally got the right to vote and divorce is a straight-forward thing. No longer do men or women need to feel that they are forever lumbered with a mediocre choice or a 'handbrake' to independence. So, although Pat didn't seek a divorce, she gets a great job in advertising, shares an apartment with a fellow divorcee, and hits the town every night. However, despite being doggedly social and pickling her liver with scotch endlessly, she is not only a tad lonely, she realises that living with all the independence of a man, doesn't garner the same respect as one. The social hypocrisy dawns on her, 'The principal thing that relieving women from the dullness of domesticity did, was to relieve men from any necessity of offering stability in return for love, fidelity and so on. Women used to have status, a relative security. Now they have the status of any prostitute, success while their looks hold out'. Patricia comes to terms with her new label, over time, but sadly at the cost of 'dewy' youth.

Ursuala's son, in the book's afterword, describes his mother's story as confessional. To have lived such a life, as well as to publish such a story, a hundred years ago, gives some perspective on just how outlandish it must've been, and yet how nothing much has changed - underscored by the fact that it is being re-published. I found Ex-Wife such a fascinating insight into the glamourous, yet tumultuous times of that era, as well as the courage to be so forthright in her novel.

Absorbing 20s divorce/single working woman saga.

Never heard of the book, never heard of the author, but I'm now a fan. And I also want to see the film based on this. Reading the short biography of Parrott at the start, it felt like I was about to delve inside a life of a hundred years ago and the world of the Flapper.

What a reality it was. Two 20-somethings in a marriage where they're struggling to get by, a slip up and confession and it's recriminations, guilt, abuse, separation and love lost... but the following chapters take our now Ex Wife through life in the 1920s, the clothes, the expectations, the society, the drinking, the morals. Wow.

While I know this doesn't mirror the author's life, I can only assume she's written herself into some of the characters, their witty bon mots and choices, their evenings of debauchery and fun.

Eye-opening and flowed like water (or gin?) through the eyes. Love a period piece and bit of history, this felt like a window to the time and place.

With thanks to Netgalley for providing a sample reading copy.

It's an excellent book, there's fun and a lot of good banters. The portrait of Young Bright Things like they were that reminds us that women were still the weakest link
Due to health issues cannot write a proper review now even if I enjoyed this book. A proper review will follow
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine