Women in Their Beds: New and Selected Stories

Rating:
Summary: The Truth about "Women" and its Awards
Review: A customer offering a review below suggests that only "a P.R. ploy" could account for the acclaim surrounding "Women in Their Beds." I reviewed the book for The Nation, and was so overwhelmed by its beauty that I reviewed it a second time, in Hungry Mind Review. I can tell interested readers that, far from having benefited from a P.R. plot, this collection received virtually no publicity whatsoever. It was published by a small press in DC, Counterpoint, and its author, Gina Berriault, was remembered only by San Francisco literati of the early 60s--she'd published several books, then disappeared. When Counterpoint published the present volume, it went unreviewed for months. When it was presented as a candidate to the National Book Critics Circle panel of judges, many of them had heard neither of the book nor of Berriault. By the time they'd all read it, however, word was spreading and reviews were appearing. The NBCC judges were uniformly blown away (read the minutes of the meeting: blown away). Readers who can only be "cheered up" by stories of good things happening to good people, or who read to escape reality will find the stories in "Women" not to their taste. But readers who like fiction that deepens their perception of reality, who are "cheered up" by integrity and honesty and beauty and truth in the face of the mysteries and heartache of the world--they will read this book with great joy. That it succeeded without publicity in a world utterly dependent on publicity (if not altogether created by it) makes the book even sweeter.

Rating:
Summary: The Truth about "Women" and its Awards
Review: A customer offering a review below suggests that only "a P.R. ploy" could account for the acclaim surrounding "Women in Their Beds." I reviewed the book for The Nation, and was so overwhelmed by its beauty that I reviewed it a second time, in Hungry Mind Review. I can tell interested readers that, far from having benefited from a P.R. plot, this collection received virtually no publicity whatsoever. It was published by a small press in DC, Counterpoint, and its author, Gina Berriault, was remembered only by San Francisco literati of the early 60s--she'd published several books, then disappeared. When Counterpoint published the present volume, it went unreviewed for months. When it was presented as a candidate to the National Book Critics Circle panel of judges, many of them had heard neither of the book nor of Berriault. By the time they'd all read it, however, word was spreading and reviews were appearing. The NBCC judges were uniformly blown away (read the minutes of the meeting: blown away). Readers who can only be "cheered up" by stories of good things happening to good people, or who read to escape reality will find the stories in "Women" not to their taste. But readers who like fiction that deepens their perception of reality, who are "cheered up" by integrity and honesty and beauty and truth in the face of the mysteries and heartache of the world--they will read this book with great joy. That it succeeded without publicity in a world utterly dependent on publicity (if not altogether created by it) makes the book even sweeter.

Rating:
Summary: Women in Their Beds is full of light
Review: Gina Berriault is fantastically gifted writer. She writes with enormous subtlety and understatement BUT... it is true that due to the density and the "melancholy" and "malaise" present in many of her stories it's possible to O.D. if the reader doesn't come up for air. This is not to say that this book is not a "MUST OWN" particularly for anyone who would like to know more about people living in the Bay Area, and Cali, the Pacific Northwest. It is also a "must own" for writers and I suspect that if you don't allow yourself to become overwhelmed with your own expectations but go with the vision the writer has given you, you may come away with a bit of a different view of the world than you started with before trying this book of shorts, (great also that one can choose, hmm what would I like to read today?) expected.

Drenched in Reality. Recommended.

Rating:
Summary: IT IS HARD TO READ BERRIAULT WITHOUT BREAKS
Review: Gina Berriault is fantastically gifted writer. She writes with enormous subtlety and understatement BUT... it is true that due to the density and the "melancholy" and "malaise" present in many of her stories it's possible to O.D. if the reader doesn't come up for air. This is not to say that this book is not a "MUST OWN" particularly for anyone who would like to know more about people living in the Bay Area, and Cali, the Pacific Northwest. It is also a "must own" for writers and I suspect that if you don't allow yourself to become overwhelmed with your own expectations but go with the vision the writer has given you, you may come away with a bit of a different view of the world than you started with before trying this book of shorts, (great also that one can choose, hmm what would I like to read today?) expected.

Drenched in Reality. Recommended.

Rating:
Summary: How to read
Review: How do I want to begin this? It seems the majority of the complaints leveled against this wonderful collection of short stories centers around the 'lack of plot'. Now, while not wishing to do a disservice to plot, which has its place and uses and wonderments, I do not think it is the reason to read a book. (Usually I am more eloquent than this, but there is this ghoulish little boy screaming in my ear and the taste of death has been in my mouth for the past 4 days, so I am a bit out-of-sorts, so please forgive me) Everyone says that the book is beautifully written... THEN THAT IS THE REASON FOR READING IT!! Great writing is what makes literature, and it contains plot, character, emotions, joy, everything a reader needs within itself. If you can't see all of these in this book, then you haven't quite learned how to read, and aren't completely aware of the power of language. This collection is astonishing in its depth and breadth of writing, and Berriault's breathtaking prose drives each story, giving it wings to soar above other books which focus on plot, or offer the reader some trite 'meaning of life' or answer to one of life's questions. Berriault is a writer who is above such absolutes and doesn't subscribe the the 'how-to' theory of fiction. I will promote this collection until the day I die, and hopefully afterwards as well.

Rating:
Summary: The Miracle of Humanity Depicted
Review: I picked up this book from the bargain bin and have given five copies of it as gifts since then.. It is truly one of the most beautiful books I have ever read. Yes, some of the stories are sad. They are meant to be. Some of the stories left me with chills (most notably "The Cove"); their subtlety, perception and depth are breathtaking, often heartbreaking.

Reading to escape seems like a giant waste of time to me. We have been given these stories, these little windows to a soul, to help us see each human we meet as a fascinating miracle waiting to be revealed to an unflinching eye.

I am grateful for the moment I picked this book from the half price bin.

Rating:
Summary: The Miracle of Humanity Depicted
Review: I picked up this book from the bargain bin and have given five copies of it as gifts since then.. It is truly one of the most beautiful books I have ever read. Yes, some of the stories are sad. They are meant to be. Some of the stories left me with chills (most notably "The Cove"); their subtlety, perception and depth are breathtaking, often heartbreaking.

Reading to escape seems like a giant waste of time to me. We have been given these stories, these little windows to a soul, to help us see each human we meet as a fascinating miracle waiting to be revealed to an unflinching eye.

I am grateful for the moment I picked this book from the half price bin.

Rating:
Summary: Beautiful writing
Review: Interestingly, the first few and last few stories in this collection are not enjoyable or interesting.

The majority of the collection however, is filled with amazing tales and beautiful prose. In sometimes only 7 pages, Berriault creates characters that seem so real. The stories typically don't climax or resolve, but they leave you thinking about their implications.



Rating:
Summary: Bring on the Berriault!
Review: There are some extremely fine stories in this collection, many of them happily exhumed from the lovely vault where they have been slumbering since going out of print."The Stone Boy", for example, buys us a ticket into the mind and heart of a boy who has killed his own brother; readers cannot soon forget the sizzling words used to convey his feelings. "The Diary of K.W." places the indigent heart of a desperate woman squarely beneath the lens of the Berriault microscope; there is a brilliance to this examination which few writers attain. And "The Infinite Passion of Expectation" takes flight in a mere few pages, a dumbfounding literary portrayal of what it can mean to hold out for love. All styles are uneven, however, and this collection is not spared that fact. "Felis Catus", though charming, is little more than a cozy cat story purring in front of the fire. "The Search for J. Kruper", though swiftly-moving and engaging, would seem to be an ultimately pointless tale told with words of wonder. Berriault's dialog jewels seldom glitter, and her narrative style can be daunting as a coast-to-coast trek. If she were a planet, her atmosphere would be in places quite dense--but glittering worlds lie below, just under the cloud cover of occasional verbal heaviness. May the success of this collection encourage its author to send us even more that stuns; in the line-up of San Francisco phenomena, she's as breathtaking as the Golden Gate Bridge.

Rating:
Summary: not stories but episodes
Review: Yes, Berriault is a skilled writer who can create diverse and believable characters and situations. But as the previous reviewer said, if you read the whole book within a short time it's just too depressing!

I also felt obscurely dissatisfied with each individual story. I think it's because they aren't really stories -- they are episodes, or descriptions of situations, with little development and no 'closure'. To a devotee of Alice Munro, who packs a novel's worth of material into a short story, this just isn't enough!