Author(s): Hilma Wolitzer

Short Stories | Read our reviews! | Humour & Satire | USA

AKirkus Must-Read Fiction Book Coming This Fall
APeople magazine "Book of the Week"
ANew York TimesEditors' Choice
AKirkus Reviews"Fully Booked" Editors' Pick

The uncannily relevant, deliciously clear-eyed collected stories of a critically acclaimed, award-winning "American literary treasure" (Boston Globe), ripe for rediscovery--with a foreword by Elizabeth Strout.

From her many well-loved novels, Hilma Wolitzer--now ninety-one years old and at the top of her game--has gained a reputation as one of our best fiction writers, who "raises ordinary people and everyday occurrences to a new height." (Washington Post) These collected short stories--most of them originally published in magazines includingEsquire and the Saturday Evening Post, in the 1960s and 1970s, along with a new story that brings her early characters into the present--are evocative of an era that still resonates deeply today.

In the title story, a bystander tries to soothe a woman who seems to have cracked under the pressures of her life. And in several linked stories throughout, the relationship between the narrator and her husband unfolds in telling and often hilarious vignettes. Of their time and yet timeless, Wolitzer's stories zero in on the domestic sphere with wit, candor, grace, and an acutely observant eye. Brilliantly capturing the tensions and contradictions of daily life,Today a Woman Went Mad in the Supermarket is full of heart and insight, providing a lens into a world that was often unseen at the time, and often overlooked now--reintroducing a beloved writer to be embraced by a whole new generation of readers.

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STELLA'S REVIEW:
A short story entitled 'Today A Woman Went Mad in the Supermarket' seems more prescient than ever. Initially published in the mid-60s this is classic housewife syndrome. A woman, two small children clutching her legs, is stopped stock-still blocking the aisle. “She turned slowly, and the two small children clinging to her skirt held on and tightened the cloth across her hips.” Hilma Wolitzer, the author of five novels and numerous short stories, gets the pitch just right. You can see this desperate mother frozen in her weariness, pocketbook clutched under her arm, unable to respond to her son’s quiet pee-pee plea nor the soon-to-be heavily pregnant narrator attempting to help. Mr A, the supermarket owner, seems to be at a loss also. As the narrator and Mr A. vie for the position of rescuer, a crowd of women gather at the end of the aisle, curious, judgemental, wanting their story too, but not wanting to get too close to the action. “..a tall, raw-boned woman in a Girl Scout leader uniform walked closer. “'I don’t know her  .. but I know who she is … her name is Shirley Lewis. Mrs Harold Lewis,' she whispered, and then fell back into the crowd of women, like a guilty informer.” These brief descriptions and snippets of conversation reveal layers of social hierarchy, nuanced gender politics and darkly humourous tragedy. Wolitzer sets up the scenes with panache, spiky emotions fizz on the page alongside both ridiculous situations and everyday loss and love. These stories, predominantly written through the 60s and 70s, are as relevant now as then, and many of the stories float in and out of the lives of a couple, from their youthful sexual explorations (the classic shotgun wedding), family life, and middle-age, culminating in a freshly penned story set in 2020. Paulette's and Harold’s lives are narrated through the witty voice and observant eye of Paulette, as she negotiates childbirth, affairs and boredom. Wolitzer’s lightness of touch is anything but superficial — each quotidian moment reveals a little more about the complexities of relationships and life’s unavoidable contradictions. The wonderful story, 'Mrs X', has Paulie reaching for the children’s binoculars so she is able to spy on her husband down in the apartment building playground. She is unable to see the expression on his face, but her observations reward her with much knowledge. Of course, when he returns indoors, children wrapped around him, the conversation between husband and wife is as ordinary as ever.  Boredom and fantasy come into their own in 'The Sex Maniac'. “Everybody said there was a sex maniac on the loose in the complex and I thought — it’s about time. It had been a long asexual winter.” That he is never seen, merely a figment of gossip, makes it all the more exciting for the bored housewives and the local men flexing their protective muscles. The stories, while episodic in nature, build to envelop issues that sit at the heart of close relationships: between lovers, of family members and the impact of childhood on adult behaviour. Delightful to read, this newly published collection is a gem and a great introduction to Hilma Wolitzer’s writing.