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Singling Out the Couples
A princess, perfect in every way except one, arrives in London from a land of milk and honey and sets up home in a Notting Hill tower block. Her self-appointed mission - to break up couples in love. Men in love with women, men in love with men, and women in love with one another, in her beautiful hand she holds the ripe peach of love and deftly squeezes it dry. For what she lacks is a heart . . .
248 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1998
3 people are currently reading
104 people want to read
About the author
Stella Duffy
67 books185 followersStella Duffy was born in London and grew up in New Zealand. She has lived and worked in London since the mid-1980s. She has written seventeen novels, over seventy short stories, and devised and/or written fourteen plays. The Room of Lost Things and State of Happiness were both longlisted for the Orange Prize, and she has twice won Stonewall Writer of the Year. She has twice won the CWA Short Story Dagger. Stella is the co-founder of the Fun Palaces campaign for cultural democracy. Her latest novel is Lullaby Beach (Virago).
She is also a yoga teacher, teaching workshops in yoga for writing, and a trainee Existential Psychotherapist, her ongoing doctoral research is in the embodied experience of being postmenopausal.
She is also a yoga teacher, teaching workshops in yoga for writing, and a trainee Existential Psychotherapist, her ongoing doctoral research is in the embodied experience of being postmenopausal.
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
June 27, 2025
Wtf did I just read?
August 23, 2012
Loved the concept of this book, loved the imagery, loved the piss take of contemporary London life, loved the brother.
Hated the ending, maybe that's just me ???
Hated the ending, maybe that's just me ???
June 28, 2025
I really enjoyed the first part of the book and loved its premise - breaking up those perfect couples by making one of them become unfaithful!! It was all very enjoyable until it went into fantasy princesses and princes which I did not get at all. I thought it might have been a metaphor for something else, particularly when the princess keeps on cutting out her heart, but I just didn't get it. In the end, it was pretty disappointing.
November 27, 2024
I loved this book for the first 3/4, I thought it was really interesting and abstract and I loved the style, but as soon as the prince got involved I definitely lost interest and ultimately didn't finish it.
October 27, 2017
This book is described as a darkly post-modern fairy-tale. it's also very funny!
November 7, 2022
Whimsical.
June 24, 2024
3.5 A whimsical, somewhat raunchy fairytale of a book.
October 20, 2016
Very clever
May 9, 2013
The book is rather intriguing in terms of plot and writing style. It explores the fragility of relationships, specifically those formed on the basis of love, through a princess from another dimension that considers her mission to break those relationships up.
The writing style is very fluid, with a lot of imagery and visuals. However it gets rather tedious and tiring to read with little variation in writing technique, and is almost slippery rather than fluid. But what makes it rare is the cynical, dark, brooding undertones, subtle and implicit, running silently parallel to the concrete happenings in the lives of the character.
The references to many fairytales cannot be missed, and the author's intent in doing so does add to the cynical undertones. At first it hints at Sleeping Beauty with a princess that has no compassion because the Compassion Fairy was late to the blessing family. Then it gradually starts to read like a version of the Disney movie Enchanted with the characters travelling across their fantasy realms with so much ease and Prince David's initial awe and wonderment at the human world does remind of Giselle's fascination with our strange, foreign world, and also reminds of Ariel the mermaid's enthusiasm with getting legs. And the rather dense and slow King seems to have been inspiration from the nursery song "Sing a Song of Sixpence" with the King frustrated at his Counting House and much rather eating his bread and honey.
But while all these references are fun to spot, they are not the point of the book, which is rather a pity, as there seems to be a lot of sub themes fighting for attention throughout the book with not much development on any one other than the main theme of relationships, and it all ends up a bit distracting and convoluted.
The characters are disappointingly one dimensional too most of the time. Character development is perhaps hindered by the clinical handling of the book where stereotypes are attached to each character and consistently perpetuated throughout the book, getting a bit stifling.
The ending was consistent with the cynical handling of the story, but admittedly disappointing.
It is not a bad book, and rather fun to read, but at the same time, it could have been so much more and initially was full of promise for more.
The writing style is very fluid, with a lot of imagery and visuals. However it gets rather tedious and tiring to read with little variation in writing technique, and is almost slippery rather than fluid. But what makes it rare is the cynical, dark, brooding undertones, subtle and implicit, running silently parallel to the concrete happenings in the lives of the character.
The references to many fairytales cannot be missed, and the author's intent in doing so does add to the cynical undertones. At first it hints at Sleeping Beauty with a princess that has no compassion because the Compassion Fairy was late to the blessing family. Then it gradually starts to read like a version of the Disney movie Enchanted with the characters travelling across their fantasy realms with so much ease and Prince David's initial awe and wonderment at the human world does remind of Giselle's fascination with our strange, foreign world, and also reminds of Ariel the mermaid's enthusiasm with getting legs. And the rather dense and slow King seems to have been inspiration from the nursery song "Sing a Song of Sixpence" with the King frustrated at his Counting House and much rather eating his bread and honey.
But while all these references are fun to spot, they are not the point of the book, which is rather a pity, as there seems to be a lot of sub themes fighting for attention throughout the book with not much development on any one other than the main theme of relationships, and it all ends up a bit distracting and convoluted.
The characters are disappointingly one dimensional too most of the time. Character development is perhaps hindered by the clinical handling of the book where stereotypes are attached to each character and consistently perpetuated throughout the book, getting a bit stifling.
The ending was consistent with the cynical handling of the story, but admittedly disappointing.
It is not a bad book, and rather fun to read, but at the same time, it could have been so much more and initially was full of promise for more.
February 13, 2015
What a strange little book this was. Singling Out The Couples is told in the style of a modern-day fairytale told from the perspective of evil Princess Cushla as she runs around Notting Hill splitting up couples -- fiancés, spouses, long-term relationships, both hetero and homosexual -- and breaking hearts because she herself has no heart and wants to be Queen. The book does a great job of exposing the fragility, pretension and smug narcism of couple-love and is often witty and funny in its cynicism. The writing style, themes and point Duffy seemed to be making very much reminded me of another book I read this year called Friction by Joe Stretch. Of course because Duffy is female her book gets the chick-lit cover whilst Stretch gets something bold and artistic...
The ending was... odd. Very odd. And for me, personally, it did ruin the rest of the book.
Very very strange book. But I did like it. Worth a read, especially if you hate couply couples.
The ending was... odd. Very odd. And for me, personally, it did ruin the rest of the book.
Very very strange book. But I did like it. Worth a read, especially if you hate couply couples.
March 13, 2026
I got 'Singling out the Couples' (1998) as a gift from my best friend, probably 20 years ago. I waited to read it until now, and didn't get much further than 30 pages. This was a present to who I was 20 years ago, chosen by a friend 20 years ago, with humorous tales about love disasters in middle-class London of over 20 years ago. Not a bad book, definitely not, but I can't bring it up to go on with it.
August 29, 2015
The first third of this book is excellent. An unusual take on jealousy and the "perfect relationship", in a magical realistic style. Sadly, it then becomes increasingly tedious - somewhere around the entry of David - and rumbles to a disatisfactory conclusion unalloyed much in the way of mitigating factors, such as inventive weirdness.
January 30, 2012
Libro inutile ed irritante. Qualche spunto narrativo interessante e stile piacevole ma la storia assurda ed irreale che dovrebbe funzionare da filo conduttore è surreale e senza senso. Irritante e incomprensibile. Che avrà voluto dire???
September 24, 2010
Good up to the end. It was fun, but then a big let down.
May 27, 2012
What a truthful book.
July 22, 2013
I read this book several years ago, but absolutely loved it! I need to find another copy and re read it. It was written in such an original, creative way.
October 13, 2018
Really enjoyed it. Quite a bizarre tale, but wickedly thought out and executed. Easy read.
June 25, 2015
Gulped this down in four hours on a sun lounger while waiting to go the airport - such a gorgeously written, wicked fairy tale for modern 'romance'. Absolutely brilliant book.
August 16, 2015
Odd fairy tale references and too much swearing. Which for me is saying something because I'm pretty foul mouthed. Original tale though.
May 24, 2016
This may well be Duffy's best book. It has all the bite of Fay Weldon's early and middle books, but a lyricism and wicked humour all Duffy's own. I was challenged and delighted in turn.
August 9, 2016
Clever, witty, entertaining.
May 9, 2017
The first chapter was funny. The first part was good. But then it just worse and worse and worse and the ending was awful and horrible.
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews