A thought-provoking volume for anyone interested in the evolution of women’s fiction.
This volume, consisting of three examples of short fiction by almost-forgotten 19th-century author Davis along with Olsen's biographical essay about her, first appeared in 1972 at the height of second-wave feminism.
Born in 1831, Davis spent most of her first 30 years as an obedient member of her wealthy Wheeling, West Virginia, family, though she was deeply affected by her “acquaintance with” radical reformer Francis LeMoyne while at finishing school in Washington, Pennsylvania. Then, in 1861, she published the title novella, about Hugh Wolfe, a lowly ironworker who possesses natural artistic talent, and his hunchbacked cousin, Deb, who silently loves him and inadvertently causes his ruin after misunderstanding some thoughtless words from wealthy visitors to the mill. Harding (not yet Mrs. Davis) became a literary darling for her realistic portrayal of the proletariat. Olsen makes clear that while Davis continued publishing fiction after she married until her death at 79, her embrace of her position in society as subservient wife and devoted mother battled against her literary ambitions. The two other stories here concern women facing that struggle. “The Wife’s Story,” written during Davis’ first pregnancy, concerns a woman deciding whether or not to leave her marriage to pursue her musical talent; Davis concocts an unsatisfactory double ending of tragedy and happy complacency that exposes her own ambivalence. In a later story, “Anne,” an older woman, outwardly successful in business and at home, briefly leaves her family to seek the creative dreams of her youth; the sense of the vibrant girl she once was becomes all the more moving when she returns home with her illusions about artists and intellectuals shattered. Davis was no Louisa May Alcott, but Olsen argues that her writing about women’s needs for both love and self-fulfillment was groundbreaking. The stories themselves are less noteworthy than Olsen’s biography of a writer grappling with issues she’d still face today.
A thought-provoking volume for anyone interested in the evolution of women’s fiction.Pub Date: Aug. 18, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-936932-88-7
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Feminist Press
Review Posted Online: June 16, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2020
Through palpable tension balanced with glimmers of hope, Hoover beautifully captures the heartbreak and joy of starting over.
The sequel to It Ends With Us (2016) shows the aftermath of domestic violence through the eyes of a single mother.
Lily Bloom is still running a flower shop; her abusive ex-husband, Ryle Kincaid, is still a surgeon. But now they’re co-parenting a daughter, Emerson, who's almost a year old. Lily won’t send Emerson to her father’s house overnight until she’s old enough to talk—“So she can tell me if something happens”—but she doesn’t want to fight for full custody lest it become an expensive legal drama or, worse, a physical fight. When Lily runs into Atlas Corrigan, a childhood friend who also came from an abusive family, she hopes their friendship can blossom into love. (For new readers, their history unfolds in heartfelt diary entries that Lily addresses to Finding Nemo star Ellen DeGeneres as she considers how Atlas was a calming presence during her turbulent childhood.) Atlas, who is single and running a restaurant, feels the same way. But even though she’s divorced, Lily isn’t exactly free. Behind Ryle’s veneer of civility are his jealousy and resentment. Lily has to plan her dates carefully to avoid a confrontation. Meanwhile, Atlas’ mother returns with shocking news. In between, Lily and Atlas steal away for romantic moments that are even sweeter for their authenticity as Lily struggles with child care, breastfeeding, and running a business while trying to find time for herself.
Through palpable tension balanced with glimmers of hope, Hoover beautifully captures the heartbreak and joy of starting over.Pub Date: Oct. 18, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-668-00122-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2022
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
A fresh, funny, ambitious, and nuanced take on some of our oldest existential questions. Cannot wait for the TV series.
What would you do if you knew when you were going to die?
In the first page and a half of her latest page-turner, bestselling Australian author Moriarty introduces a large cast of fascinating characters, all seated on a flight to Sydney that’s delayed on the tarmac. There’s the “bespectacled hipster” with his arm in a cast; a very pregnant woman; a young mom with a screaming infant and a sweaty toddler; a bride and groom, still in their wedding clothes; a surly 6-year-old forced to miss a laser-tag party; a darling elderly couple; a chatty tourist pair; several others. No one even notices the woman who will later become a household name as the “Death Lady” until she hops up from her seat and begins to deliver predictions to each of them about the age they’ll be when they die and the cause of their deaths. Age 30, assault, for the hipster. Age 7, drowning, for the baby in arms. Age 43, workplace accident, for a 42-year-old civil engineer. Self-harm, age 28, for the lovely flight attendant, who is that day celebrating her 28th birthday. Over the next 126 chapters (some just a paragraph), you will get to know all these people, and their reactions to the news of their demise, very well. Best of all, you will get to know Cherry Lockwood, the Death Lady, and the life that brought her to this day. Is it true, as she repeatedly intones on the plane, that “fate won’t be fought”? Does this novel support the idea that clairvoyance is real? Does it find a means to logically dismiss the whole thing? Or is it some complex amalgam of these possibilities? Sorry, you won’t find that out here, and in fact not until you’ve turned all 500-plus pages. The story is a brilliant, charming, and invigorating illustration of its closing quote from Elisabeth Kübler-Ross (we’re not going to spill that either).
A fresh, funny, ambitious, and nuanced take on some of our oldest existential questions. Cannot wait for the TV series.Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2024
ISBN: 9780593798607
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2024
PERSPECTIVES
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