Let’s say that the title carries the summary of this book, although I would add that it contains also a nice dose of humour. There are seven short stories, quite different from each other but somehow linked through the protagonists or the specific theme of the story. You will find violence and kindness, love and hate, sex and platonic love intertwined throughout the book. Women are at the forefront of all the stories. I particularly liked “My Emphasis”, where an English writer has to put up all summer with her boisterous French neighbours and the strong desire to kill them all. This story contrasted with others that were very dark and gloomy. I loved these short stories.
“Women’s lives are the dark continent, not our sexual selves. You can peer at our bodies, legs splayed open, whenever you like. Our bodies present a deceptively simple script. But our desires, so often unuttered, are fluid, protean, inconstant. We cannot be measured; we cannot be assessed. Our inner lives are the hidden space.”
Contents
Stalker / Sophia Walters Shaw / Small Arms / Moving / The Strike / Paris / My Emphasis