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A Day In The Life Of A Smiling Woman: Complete Short Stories (2011)

by Margaret Drabble(Favorite Author)

3.68 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

0547550405 (ISBN13: 9780547550404)

languge

English

genre

Fiction

publisher

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

review 1: Well what did I think? This is a book of melancholy stories by a writer who has lived most of her life with bouts of depression. It is a book of stories about women at the various stages of their lives experiencing small moments of connection or illumination. Strangely for the most part I found the men much more engaging. Also it I'd a book by a middle class academic woman about middle class academic women who are interested in lichen and Wordsworth and wandering about in the West Country. I read the majority of Drabble's novels in my late teens when my own moodiness and love of English Literature provided a connection, especially when her main characters were involved with the media or theatre. Now I am glad I find most of her main characters dreary and self absorbed, som... moreetimes almost comatose in their lack of connection with the real world of women today who may not have read The Prelude or noted a particular species of plant in an old cottage garden but have diverse and challenging lives that Drabble codes not to conceive of. Despite all this I enjoyed the quaintness and nativity of the stories and celebrated my own difference
review 2: One can't help but admire Drabble's craft but few of her women are actually compelling characters, most have too much stiff upper lip to be really interesting. The first story, 'Hassan's Tower', appears in other collections but it is not as interesting as the title story which is truly appalling and therefore more readable. When Drabble actually breaches her own good taste and creates a woman with bodily functions the stories allow the reader to empathize and recognize pieces of her own heart. less

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