War of the Roses - the Children

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Warren Adler just published a sequel toThe War of the Roses calledThe War of the Roses - The Children. I had a chance to interview him about his book and the implications of divorce.

1. What inspired you to write the original book, The War of the Roses?

The idea for The War of the Roses came to me at a dinner party in Washington in 1979. One of our female friends was dating a lawyer, who was her guest at the party. At some point, he looked at his watch and announced that he had to get home or his wife would lock him out of the house. When asked why, he said he was in the process of getting a divorce and was living under the same roof and sharing facilities and that part of the agreement was a strict set of rules on coming and goings and the division of living quarters. It is always difficult to describe to people how a story idea enters a novelist’s consciousness. By the time I began to write The War of the Roses I had already published nine novels and my antenna must have been feverishly searching for a new idea. The dilemma expressed by this dinner guest was the “eureka” moment.

2. Why the follow-up focusing on the children?

It is estimated that 50% of all North-American children will experience the divorce of their parents before they turn 18, while 50% of the children of divorced parents in the U.S. will experience the breakup of their own marriages. It is the dilemma of our times, a tragedy of epic proportions, as more and more parents opt to break up the bedrock of a civilized society, the family. We are only beginning to get a glimpse into the long-term consequences of a traumatic divorce upon children.

In the original novel, Josh and Eve were the children on the scene in the immediate aftermath of their parents’ demise by the falling chandelier. I then began to speculate what might happen to the children who had lived through such a contentious and ultimately, fatal battle between their parents. Surely, children who live through these events must be profoundly affected. The War of the Roses – The Children is a product of that speculation.

3) Why are these books important to read?

Until this day I continue to receive comments, letters and e-mails from people who have read The War of the Roses or seen the movie, many expressing thanks to me for changing their lives in some way. Some have confessed that they had abandoned any idea of fighting over property in the course of their own divorces. Best of all, some have told me that it caused their reconciliation. While divorces in the U.S. have lowered since the 1980’s, divorce rates over the world, especially in countries like Russia, South Korea, Belgium, and Sweden are soaring. Indeed, the very concept of “family” is at risk. Like The War of the Roses many of my works (Twilight Child, and more recently The Serpent’s Bite) deal with family dynamics, spousal relationships, and how family dysfunction is passed down generations. My hope is that the influence of the original story will endure through The War of the Roses-the Children.

5) What do you think is the important take-away from the book in terms of parents who might be in the midst of divorce?

I think this question is better answered by those readers who have claimed The War of the Roses – The Children as a ‘must read’ for divorcing parents. I describe the ‘nesting process’ in divorce, and that seems to hit a chord with many readers who are divorced with children or have been children of divorce themselves.