
震撼爵士年代的驚世作品!
離婚的後果是什麼?
雙薪夫婦、抽菸飲酒、享受生活,Peter和Patricia的結合,在1924年可謂相當新潮。
對於在婚姻之外的愛情,兩人秉持誠信原則,不欺瞞且尊重彼此,直到Peter得知,在這段開放式關係裡,自己的好友成了Patricia的愛人。一次次的猜忌與爭執逐漸升溫成衝突,Peter開始以暴力逼迫Patricia離婚。
向來極力壓抑對丈夫風流韻事的忌妒,但當她向他坦承自己也有情人時,怎就無可挽回地走上了離婚一途?知名百貨公司的廣告文案負責人Patricia,從愛情事業兩得意的新時代女性一夕之間成了「婚姻失敗的棄婦」,錯愕又心碎的Patricia開始學著接受自己的新身分:前妻,一個「失去某人的愛、失去婚姻,不再『完整』」的女人,並重新摸索如何生活。
作者Ursula Parrott以一段破裂的婚姻,映照出在消費與享樂文化興起、道德與性別框架看似鬆動的一戰戰後,女性面對的另一輪矛盾處境:即便經濟獨立、眼界開闊而渴望冒險,卻仍難以拋卻社會眼光與規訓。
在那個紙醉金迷的爵士年代,伴隨地下酒吧的樂聲與喧鬧的,是魚與熊掌般難以兼得的家庭及事業、來自社會的雙重標準 (相較Patricia向丈夫坦白的後果,做著同樣行為的Peter幾乎未受任何指責),以及暴力的內(家庭)與外(社會)夾擊,作者的尖銳與近乎殘酷的幽默,讓本書於1929年匿名出版即造成轟動,後更被改編為電影《The Divorcee》。
An instant bestseller when it was published anonymously in 1929—the story of a divorce and its aftermath, which scandalized the Jazz Age.
It's 1924, and Peter and Patricia have what looks to be a very modern marriage. Both drink. Both smoke. Both work, Patricia as a head copywriter at a major department store. When it comes to sex with other people, both believe in “the honesty policy.” Until they don‘t. Or, at least, until Peter doesn‘t—and a shell-shocked, lovesick Patricia finds herself starting out all over again, but this time around as a different kind of single woman: the ex-wife.
An instant bestseller when it was published anonymously in 1929, Ex-Wife captures the speakeasies, night clubs, and parties that defined Jazz Age New York—alongside the morning-after aspirin and calisthenics, the lunch-hour visits to the gym, the girl-talk, and the freedoms and anguish of solitude. It also casts a cool eye on the bedrooms and the doctor’s offices where, despite rising hemlines, the men still call the shots. The result is a unique view of what its author Ursula Parrott called “the era of the one-night stand”: an era very much like our own.