Fay Weldon tells the story of a common-law marriage in crisis while skewering two other institutions of reverence and repression: psychiatry and the British middle class
After ten years of living with Spicer, Annette is finally pregnant; her first book is about to be published; and her common-law marriage is unraveling—or, rather, it starts to after Spicer goes into psychotherapy. Suddenly, Spicer is taking up astrology, finding constant fault with Annette, and making cruel sexual demands. To humor him, Annette seeks psychiatric help as well—until her therapist makes her life a living hell. As battle rages between them, Annette learns a lot about herself and the man she thought she knew. Trouble is a piercing novel that perforates Jungian therapy and the mind games played in the name of science, while capturing the painful disintegration of a relationship.