Sarah Weinman gathers stories here written by women who perhaps did not get the fame and readership they deserved. Some of the writers are more well-known than others, but maybe not for the stories collected here. Here we are calling the stories "domestic suspense" but I notice already that that term is no longer popular. I can see that is still puts fiction written by women and about women in a confining box. Anyway..
"The Heroine" by Patricia Highsmith is a spooky story about a woman hired to be a governess to two small children. It was Highsmith's first published story and it is a strong one. How often does a nanny who is doing her job at the highest level and with the most devotion scare you. This one does. Right from the outset because she has staked so much on getting this job. She doesn't want a day off or even a salary so devoted to this family does she immediately become. She decides she must prove her devotion by rescuing them from some sort of plague. You can read the story in many places online--or have it read to you. Highsmith liked to toy with how a good intention can turn bad.
Dorothy Salisbury Davis' story "Lost Generation" is also a horror story, reminiscent of "The Lottery" in some ways. It carried a warning when it was published in Ellery Queen that it might be too horrific for some readers, but its ideas were important. A school teacher is retained by the school board despite making some political remarks that offended many of the parents of his students. The police come for him like a lynch mob and shoot him in his hallway. His small son, who has already expressed fears of things in the night, flees, leading to a chase.
Here is a charming piece by Sarah Weinman about going to visit Ms. Davis shortly before her death.
10 comments:
Oh, this looks interesting, Patti! The mother/daughter relationship can be so complex, and there are any number of ways it can be handled in a story. It's a really interesting idea for a collection.
It is stories written by women, not as well known as they might have been. The stories cover all sorts of themes.
Nice interview! I remember Davis from Bouchercons and Malice Domestic.
I finished the Junot Diaz and Sherman Alexie collections and will finish the John Dickson Carr today. I have another Diaz and another Tessa Hadley collection waiting, as well as two more Crippen & Landru collections of older stories. This one sounds good. My library doesn't have it but I found a resonable used copy.
I like Alexie's writing and enjoyed these stories. The Diaz was interesting, especially for the one story from a woman's perspective and the last, "The Cheater's Guide to Love." The narrator is caught by his long-time girlfriend, who warned him previously that cheating was the one unforgivable thing she would never forgive. This details his tailspin over the next few years as he will try anything to get her back, and then to move on. He hadn;t just cheated on her once, by the way, but with dozens of other women. So while he is less than sympathetic (as with many other of Diaz's male characters), it is more interesting than him just getting his comeuppance.
This looks good! I'll have to track down a copy.
That Diaz sounds good. Will look for it. Alexie has fallen out of favor for some me-too offense. Can't remember what he did.
According to Wikipedia he was accused of (and later confirmed) sexual harassing several women. That was the first I read of it.
I like his writing. Too bad he has a dark side.
I have enjoyed reading the stories in Troubled Daughters, Twisted Wives. I still have about half of the stories left to read. I read the one by Dorothy Salisbury Davis, and found it unsettling, but haven't yet read the one by Highsmith.
Also very unsettling. But Highsmith always is.
Yeah, simply suspense fiction that takes into account family dynamics isn't unique to women, either. But some of the best of it (most?) has been written by women...perhaps for obvious reasons, including being encouraged to think in those terms as opposed to male writers being discouraged.
Post a Comment