Leader of the Band: A Novel

Fay Weldon mines the fields of sexuality, procreation, and astronomy in her liberating novel about the ongoing quest for self-fulfillmentSandra Harris - wife, astronomer (known for discovering the planet Athena) , television phenomenon, and "professional searcher after truth" - has had an epiphany. She leaves her boring attorney husband and runs off with Mad Jack Stubbs, her trumpet-playing lover, and his groupie entourage, for a tour of Southern France. Pursued by her husband, Mad Jack's wife, and the paparazzi, Sandra lives entirely for the moment - and great sex. In between, she ponders her past (institutionalized mother, Nazi war criminal father) while trying to ignore the deafening tick of her biological clock. Fay Weldon's novel is a mirror held up to the face of its reader; an illuminating, reflective tale about sex, ambition, and the love that makes fools of us all.