August 9, 2004
Women's relationships—with their mothers, their lovers, their culture and their own sexuality—are the subject of the 14 stories (written over nearly 20 years) in this fine collection. Freed, the author of five novels (The Mirror
; House of Women
; etc.), creates achingly real women and lovingly rendered misfits, and she reports straightforwardly and without judgment on their unconventional urges and questionable decisions. "Under the House" recounts a young girl's first sexual encounter with a traveling knife sharpener in the crawl space under her house and her subsequent memories of what should have been a traumatic event for her but was in fact something much more ambiguous. "The Widow's Daughter" tells of a young woman, possibly abused as a child, discovering and then flaunting her sexual power, much to her mother's horror. In the affecting title story, a middle-aged woman ponders how "half a lifetime of appropriate men can leave a woman parched for adventure." She dates two eccentric men but, finding herself still longing for the exotic, travels to Asia. On her way back, she meets a friend who's taken the opposite tack, marrying for convenience ("Quite acceptable, once you get over the death of the heart"). A few of these stories are schematic in their briefness, but most are quietly devastating and deeply resonant. Agent, Jennifer Rudolph Walsh at William Morris.
August 1, 2004
The apparent simplicity of each story belies the shocking power and underscores the soothing beauty resonating throughout Freed's luminous collection. United by women--some haughty, some humble, others imperious or innocent--the stories insinuate themselves into one's consciousness, to be revisited again and again in moments of quiet contemplation and utter delight. From the impervious arrogance of a recently widowed matron who now sees her manservant in a new light in "William," to a young girl's abrupt loss of innocence in "Under the House," Freed's stories dramatically yet subtly acknowledge the ever-shifting dynamics of our most essential relationships. Wives and lovers, mothers and daughters, Freed's women are complex amalgams of conflicting emotions, yet they all, seemingly, know their true essence and live their lives accordingly: witness Charlotte in "An Error of Desire," or Irma in "The Widow's Daughter." Whether celebrating love or contemplating loss, Freed delights by providing the reader with singular moments of unbridled surprise and poignant affirmation in a stunning and satisfying volume.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2004, American Library Association.)