Synopses & Reviews
Norma Fontaine lives in a perfect woman's world of handy tips and sensible advice. Whether it's choosing the right foundation garment or practicing feminine allure through meticulous grooming, Norma measures life by the standards set in the magazines she reads. So when she bumps into Mr. Hands and he suggests taking tea at the Excella cafe how could she possibly refuse? What could be more exhilarating, or more appropriate?
But Norma discovers quickly that the world is far less delightful and more sinister than she had ever supposed. And while her brother Roy seems to fare better and his romance with the girl from the newsagent's blossoms, it is not long before dark secrets threaten everything he cares for. Norma must decide if she is prepared to sacrifice life in a woman's world for the sake of the young couple's everlasting happiness.
For five years Rawle labored 17 hours a day, seven days a week, assembling 40,000 fragments of text from women's magazines to produce a tale that moves with the pace of a thriller, with as many cliffhanging chapter endings and swerves of story. The magazines, whose blended recipe of romance and practicality provide the source material, date from the early 1960s, and are full of toothpaste ads, rhapsodic riffs of garment ecstasy, admonitions about cads and layabouts...but, more poignantly with hindsight, offer a young man, seeking to be recognized as a woman, solid rules to obey. But falling in love with a crisply coiffed woman makes it difficult for this young man to be able to follow two sets of rules at once...
Review
"[A] page-turning thriller that's utterly original yet retains the sensibility of its source material." Very Short List
Review
"The most wildly original novel produced in this country in the past decade....This book is a work of genius." The Times (UK)
Review
"An exquisitely wayward work of art and outright comic masterpiece....Charming, chilling, sinister, surreal and utterly unforgettable." The Scotsman (UK)
Review
"Sparkles with linguistic mischief while detailing a moving and psychologically acute story." Metro (UK)
Review
"A brilliant invention, allowing full lyrical use of the available material, which Rawle gathers and pleats into rhapsodic riffs of garment ecstasy....A tale that moves with the pace of a thriller, with as many cliffhanging chapter endings and swerves of story....Woman's World may prove to be metafiction's first bestseller." Guardian (UK)
Synopsis
A stunning visual tour de force, Woman's World is also a powerful reflection on society's definition of what it means to be a woman.
Synopsis
Norma Fontaine lives in a world of handy tips and sensible advice. Whether it's choosing the right girdle or honing her feminine allure, she measures life by the standards set in womens magazines. But Norma discovers that the real world is less delightful and more sinister than portrayed in the glossies. When dark secrets threaten her brothers blossoming romance, Norma must decide whether to sacrifice life in a woman's world for the sake of her brothers happiness. As her decision is slowly revealed, readers realize that, like life in the magazines, Norma isnt quite what she seems. Painstakingly assembled from 40,000 fragments of text snipped from womens magazines, this strange and wonderful tale moves at the breakneck pace of a pulp thriller. A stunning visual tour de force, Womans World is also a powerful reflection on societys definition of what it means to be a woman.
About the Author
Graham Rawle (London, UK) is a collage artist and writer. His weekly Lost Consonants series appeared in
The Guardian "Weekend" magazine for 15 years. He has produced other regular series for
The Observer and
The Sunday Telegraph Magazine. Among his published books are
The Wonder Book of Fun,
Lying Doggo, and
Diary of an Amateur Photographer.
He has lectured and exhibited his work internationally, heading the design team that created the "Hi-Life" supermarket installation for EXPO 2000 in Hanover. As director of the Niff Institute, in 2001 he created a range of limited edition art pieces that form the Niff Actuals product range.
Graham lives and works in London and is a regular visiting lecturer on the MA Sequential Design and Illustration course at the University of Brighton. He is married to an American woman and is a frequent visitor to Minneapolis MN.