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The uncannily relevant, deliciously clear-eyed collected stories of critically acclaimed, award-winning 'American literary treasure' (Boston Globe), ripe for rediscovery, with a foreword by Elizabeth Strout.Hilma Wolitzer, now 90 years old, has gained a reputation as a writer who 'raises ordinary people and everyday occurrences to a new height.' (
Washington Post).
These collected short stories, most of them originally published in magazines 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 motherhood, and in several linked stories throughout, the relationship between the narrator and her husband unfolds in often hilarious vignettes.
Zeroing in on the domestic sphere and ordinary life with wit, candour, grace, and an acutely observant eye, this collection reintroduces a beloved writer to be embraced by a whole new generation of readers.
About the author
Hilma Wolitzer is a recipient of Guggenheim and National Endowment for the Arts fellowships, an American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Literature, and a Barnes & Noble Writers for Writers Award. She has taught at the Iowa Writers' Workshop, New York University, Columbia University, and the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference. Her first published story appeared when she was thirty-six, and her first novel eight years later. Her many stories and novels have drawn critical praise for illuminating the dark interiors of the American home. She lives in New York City.
Summary
A TIME 'New Books You Should Read'
A People magazine 'Book of the Week'
A New York Times Editors' Choice
With a foreword by Elizabeth Strout
'Electric: with wit, with rage, with grief, with the kind of prose that makes you both laugh and thrill to the darker, spikier emotions just barely visible under the bright surface. What a wonderful collection of stories' Lauren Groff
Another day! And then another and another and another. It seemed as if it would all go on forever in that exquisitely boring and beautiful way. But of course it wouldn't; everyone knows that.
In this collection, Hilma Wolitzer invites us inside the private world of domestic bliss, seen mostly through the lens of Paulie and Howard's gloriously ordinary marriage.
From hasty weddings to meddlesome neighbours, ex-wives who just won't leave, to sleepless nights spent worrying about unanswered chainmail, Wolitzer captures the tensions, contradictions and unexpected detours of daily life with wit, candour and an acutely observant eye.
Including stories first published in magazines in the 1960s and 1970s - alongside new writing from Wolitzer, now in her nineties - Today a Woman Went Mad in the Supermarket reintroduces a beloved writer to be embraced by a new generation of readers.
'A fascinating time capsule of womanhood, marriage and motherhood over the last century . A fabulous book' Emma Straub
'Immensely gratifying, poignant, funny . Breathtaking' Elizabeth Strout, from the foreword
Foreword
The uncannily relevant, deliciously clear-eyed collected stories of critically acclaimed, award-winning 'American literary treasure' (Boston Globe), ripe for rediscovery, with a foreword by Elizabeth Strout.
Additional text
Witty and wonderful, these insightful stories are about the imperfections of everyday life . [Her characters] find the sunny, funny moments that transform the ordinary into the extraordinary
