In flashback and from the depths of her basement apartment in Earls Court, Esther describes the history of her marital disaster--in between her consumption of chocolate cake, tinned fruit, sweet sherry, and a host of other highcalorie confections. Funny, bizarre, and painful in equal doses, this novel, like her other works Down among the Women and Female Friends, examines the role of womanhood. The time is the mid1960s when sex role stereotypes were being examined and rejected, and The Fat Woman's Joke miraculously reflects the passions, humor, and anger of an era when women's selfanalysis entailed a healthy dose of disruption. Weldon depicts the rage and outrage of that era while examining the interplay of pain and humor that so often characterizes changing romantic relationships.