A collection of witty short stories addresses women's issues from the perpective of women throughout history, from four struggling sisters in fourth-century Lycia, to the woes of a contemporary insomniac secretary. A first collection.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Library Journal
The women in this first collection of stories are tough and true to life; they are equally savage to one another as they are to their men, who often have them locked in nasty relationships. The best stories in this vein--"Give Me Daughters Any Day," "What Are Neighbors For," and "An Interesting Condition"--concern closed circles of women who neatly mow each other down, sometimes for the sheer sport of it. Peppered with arresting juxtapositions and similes, Simpson's slick and funny prose brings a new perspective to age-old problems such as poor body image, the pains of childbirth, and failed love affairs. Through her deft caricatures, Simpson also gives us an amusing view of working-class Britain. For large fiction collections.
- Rita Ciresi, Pennsylvania State Univ., University Park
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
- Rita Ciresi, Pennsylvania State Univ., University Park
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Kirkus Reviews
Beautiful young Englishwomen and the men who disappoint them populate this tart and bitter debut collection by a former model and Vogue staff writer living in London--winner of the Somerset Maugham Award. ``I lay on the bed looking over my shoulder through a tangle of hair, across my dipping breast down to thighs like swan's wings. I felt electric and wanted him to look at me. But he slept within seconds.'' Much is expected of the men in Simpson's stories and next to nothing is received as a succession of young women living in both ancient and modern England fume over their martyrdom at the hands of love. In ``Zoe and the Pedagogues,'' a self-effacing student sullenly tolerates her professor lover's habit of treating her as a kind of pet; in ``The Bed,'' a depressed secretary risks enraging her drab young cohabiter by buying a magnificent new bed; in ``Good Friday, 1663,'' a 17th-century teenager dissects the hateful qualities of her new, much older husband while waiting to give birth to another man's child. In Simpson's world, sex is seen as a despicable business transaction (``Are you sure your friend Jim values you at your true worth?'' a wealthy wife asks her younger neighbor in ``A Shining Example'' shortly before she makes a pass at her) or as a self-imposed form of solitary confinement (``I don't know what he thinks about,'' the narrator says of her husband in the title story. `' `If only he could talk,' as old people say of their pets''), and men can be counted on to lie, steal, disappear after a single night or, worse, remain to prove themselves unutterably dull. Pessimistic images (the vacationing heroine of ``The Seafarer'' unpacks her clothes into ``a wardrobe no bigger than a coffin'') and dreary settings accumulate until the fate of the final, quasi-Kafkaesque story's heroine--death by hanging--comes as absolutely no surprise. ``Don't be morbid,'' snaps the condemned woman's mother shortly before the book's abrupt conclusion. Sound advice, too late. Simpson's talent should improve with age. -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
its like i'm overhearing closed door talk amongst women,
By A Customer
This review is from: Four Bare Legs In A Bed (Hardcover)
chose this book for free cause i bought something else. while some of the stories come across as it's hard to be a woman whine they aren't. a clear collection of the thoughts behind maybe silent faces of women in relationships. personal likes "labour " and "escape clauses". some are slightly flowery and subtle. this is not a book about sex as the title may suggest, rather an almost not quite opposite. as a guy some parts made me nervous and provoked thought.
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