Ex-Wife

By Ursula Parrott

Book Overview

An instant bestseller when it was published anonymously in 1929, Ex-Wife is the story of a divorce and its aftermath that scandalized the Jazz Age--and still resonates today.

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.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 194602256X
• ISBN13: 9781946022561
• Release Date: May 2023
• Publisher: McNally Editions
• Length: 232 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.0" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Things Almost Never Change

I wanted to purchase a copy of this book when I became interested in a completely selfish amature study of pre-Production Code films. After viewing "The Divorcee," I knew I had to get a copy of the book upon which the movie was based. What I didn't expect however, is that for an intallment-authored magazine story, a common form of entertainment for the masses prior to television, written in 1929, very little seems to have changed. Much of the dialogue still occurs in 2003 and you find yourself relying on the prohibition life of New York to keep you in the proper era while reading. Although not a feminist book (it actually petitions against feminism in jibing ways), it does show independant qualities in women entwined with very human emotions. The book is not among the great literature of our time, but does demonstrate an historical perspective that is quite fascinating.