Review: The War of the Roses by Warren Adler

The War of the Roses by Warren Adler

My Quick Take: I had a great time with this wickedly outrageous novel.

Thanks to Random House Canada for a gifted copy.

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I received a copy of Warren Adler’s 1981 novel The War of the Roses as a co-promotion with the movie remake The Roses this year starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Olivia Colman. There is, of course, a 1989 movie starring Kathleen Turner and Michael Douglas. I’m pretty sure I may have seen that one sometime in my youth, and those actors are such an iconic duo that now reading this makes me want to see the 1989 version, and I suppose the 2025 version too.

All that to say I had no idea that the movies were based on a novel and I certainly hadn’t read it. It’s the simple story of a happily married couple with two kids who have secured their spots on the American dream train. The family’s awesomeness is at an apex during a family dinner at which success after success for mom Barbara, dad Jonathan, teen Eve and tween Josh is celebrated. It’s an over the top feast of self-congratulation and material success, and as soon as I read it, I knew that it would all come crashing down.

And it does, when Barbara wakes to her inner feminist spirit and realizes she’s all out of love and has sacrificed her life for Jonathan, who takes his legal career and his loving family as his due. Divorce is imminent, and it turns out each party wants the house, full of antiques they spent years collecting.

I had the feeling early on that I was about to watch some sort of novelistic equivalent to a reality TV show where I was going to have the very human satisfaction of watching these beautiful and privileged people tear everything down. Or, perhaps in the 1980/90s equivalent, it would be the equivalent of binge-watching Jerry Springer or Sally Jessy Raphael for a couple of days straight (for those who remember those halcyon days of daytime TV). I questioned myself for feeling just a bit gleeful, but perhaps that’s just how literary catharsis feels sometimes.

I tried to figure out who was right and wrong here, but for me it was a losing proposition. I don’t think that’s the point. Both mom and dad Rose had legitimate points of view and they both did egregious things. I had to remind myself to read this in the context of 1981, and that helped. The role of men and women in a relationship were less flexible, and during the course of the Roses’ twenty year relationship largely in the 1960s and 70s, these roles had begun to change.

In the end, this was more than just a cathartic spectacle, which became clear as I continued to read. It’s a dark satiric comedy that explores our relationship to the economy of things rather than people, a critique of materialism in an age where material success meant societal triumph. In a 2025 world, I can’t help but think of hyperpolarisation and how Barbara and Jonathan become blinded to reality, cemented in their positions with no compromise possible. I had to check my incredulity at many points. “Why would they do that?” I asked myself many times. But that’s the point: it’s a cautionary tale.

One character, Ann, does the work of the observer, who maintains a level head, even as she can’t help herself from dipping her toe into the Roses’ dysfunction. I liked her, and it was refreshing to have that third-party point of view to reaffirm the absurdity of the situation.

I make the themes sound serious, but honestly I just had a lot of fun with this. I liked the way it was written: it starts with a completely reasonable backstory, charming even, if over the top saccharine, as I noted above. It’s an American fairytale, albeit a privileged white-person one (which may be a bit of the point). And even the beginning stages of the divorce proceedings were interesting but tame. However, Adler writes this as a distinct crescendo, ramping up the outrageous factor and the unbelievability chapter by chapter. It becomes, dare I say, a horror novel by the end.

And I will give it credit, too, for one particular plot point that made me comment, “No way!” out loud as I read it, near the end. Audacious and awful, really, and kind of essential, now that I’ve finished the book. And the ending is also extremely appropriate.

I wouldn’t have thought to put this book on my list of October “spooky season” reads, as it’s not actually a horror novel, but I think I’ll include it because it actually is, in its way, horror-adjacent. Overall, I’d recommend this book. It’s outrageous fun and reads very quickly, and was a fantastic palate-cleanser between heavier books. I see that Adler wrote many books in his lifetime, and I wonder if any other of his will be as fun as this one was to read.

Have you read it? What did you think? And should I watch the movies?