Published: 17 December 2021
Last updated: 5 March 2024
A bad year ends with an abundance of good books. Aviva Lowy finds some holiday cheer on the shelves of your real or virtual bookstore
Today a Woman Went Mad in the Supermarket - Hilma Wolitzer (Bloomsbury)
Is the gift of writing hereditary? I hoped so when I opened this book by the 91-year-old mother of one of my favourite American novelists, Meg Wolitzer. And I wasn’t disappointed.
Of course, this isn’t the first publication from Wolitzer senior, who has built her own impressive and awarded reputation over 50 years for short stories, novels and fiction for young readers. It’s just that I wasn’t aware of her.
So what a delight to be introduced to this poet of the quotidian. As Wolitzer writes of Howard and Paulie, the enduring New York couple who feature in most of the short stories in this collection, their daily life seemed like it would go on forever in “that exquisitely boring and beautiful way”.
Except, it doesn’t. While most of these stories have appeared over the years, in some form, in magazines such as Esquire and New American Review, the final piece, The Great Escape, is new. Chronicling the death of Howard from Covid-19, it mirrors the real-life experience of Wolitzer, who lost her husband Morty to the virus.
This is beautiful writing and a joy to read. It’s also very funny. Take her line about Howard, banned when Paulie hosts book club, who “skulked off to the bedroom like a grounded teenager”. Or a depressed Howard, shuffling in for breakfast, “still convalescing from his childhood”.
Year Book - Seth Rogen (Hachette)
