Good Women: Three Novellas [Paperback]

Jane Stevenson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 6, 2006

Jane Stevenson enchanted readers with her first collection of novellas, Several Deceptions, which the New York Times lauded as an "elegant, surprising collection that delights with its verve and intelligence." With Good Women, she returns to the form that secured her reputation as a compelling and diabolically clever prose stylist. In this trio of audacious stories with a common theme, she investigates just what it means for a woman to be good. From a widow keen on gardening who becomes radicalized late in life, to a housewife on a murderous mission from God, to an adulterous couple who leave their spouses and begin a new life together, only to find that they cannot stand each other, these novellas ably demonstrate why The New Yorker extolled Stevenson as a "meticulous fabulist." In stories reminiscent of Roald Dahl's, Stevenson treats the notion of feminine virtue in her singular, emblematic style with sexy, subversive results, deliciously detailing what happens when good girls go bad.

Jane Stevenson was born in London and brought up in London, Beijing, and Bonn. She teaches literature and history at the University of Aberdeen. She is the author of Several Deceptions, a collection of four novellas; a novel, London Bridges; and the acclaimed historical trilogy made up of the novels The Winter Queen, The Shadow King, and The Empress of the Last Days. Stevenson lives in Aberdeenshire, Scotland.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

When push comes to shove, good women eventually turn nasty in this provocative trio from the British author of Several Deceptions. As Alice finds herself being maneuvered out of her home by her grasping daughter-in-law—who also covets her magnificent garden—the dreamy, artistic grandmother harvests the best plants and cuttings, then puts a grand plan into action. In "Walking with Angels," no one is more surprised than Wenda when two celestial messengers of God show up in her tidy corner of Sheffield and encourage her to become a spiritual guide to the needy masses. This is the best of the trilogy, and Wenda's evolution is comical but genuine. It's all well and good when the angels help her set up a moneymaking Web site, but Wenda is in a quandary when the little cherubs order a dismal fate for her sulky, unsupportive spouse. Less successful is "Light My Fire," where an illicit encounter on a train leads architect David to leave his wife and children and hole up in a Scottish manse-cum-money pit with sexpot Freda, who then reveals how spoiled, low-class and self-centered she really is. Stevenson's voices are distinct, and her eye for detail keen, making these short forays into ordinary lives anything but. (Jan. 6)
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From Booklist

Stevenson is the author of a well-received historical trilogy, which includes The Winter Queen(2002), The Shadow King (2003), and The Empress of the Last Days (2004), about the seventeenth-century queen, Elizabeth of Bohemia. Another of her previous books, Several Deceptions (2000), revealed her poise with another fictional genre, the novella; four were gathered in that book. In her new book, she collects three more novellas, and her comfort with the form has developed into radiant talent. In a rich, vibrant narrative voice mixed with wry wit and a keen eye for personal foibles, she isolates instances when women exert themselves in individual ways: in "Light My Fire," a woman marries the man she's having an affair with, only to then feel trapped; in "Walking with Angels," a woman begins seeing angels, and her life is radically altered; and in "Garden Guerrillas," a new widow stands up to her grown son and his expectations of how she should lead her life now. Each woman's grit is drawn with nuance and sympathy. Brad Hooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Paperback: 232 pages
• Publisher: Mariner Books; First Paperback Edition edition (January 6, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0618462171
• ISBN-13: 978-0618462179
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.6 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #970,394 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Three Funny and Sharp Novellas, November 20, 2006

By 

A. Ross (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Good Women: Three Novellas (Paperback)

I had read and greatly enjoyed Stevenson's novel "London Bridges" several years ago, so when I saw this, I picked it up, and am I ever glad I did. Each of the three witty and sharp novellas collected here features a titular "good woman" at its core. Although in the first story the woman is somewhat of a maneater, in the latter two stories, traditional housewives take the center stage. However, this is an entirely feminist book, because when the men in their lives let them down, they fight back. Which is not to say this is a polemical book, or a simplistic, black and white one. A lot of moral ambiguity and human weakness is mixed into these stories, and that's a large part of what makes them so compelling.

"Light My Fire" is narrated by a somewhat dodgy middle-aged, married-with-kids architect who's a partner in a firm specializing in high-end home renovations in Scotland. A chance meeting with a sexy married woman on a train leads them into an affair and ultimately a new life together. Alas, this new life of theirs also involves moving into a decrepit 14th-century Scottish stone fort/house. His running suave patter of narration is entirely engaging while comically revealing his selfishness, contempt, and snobbery. And yet one can't help but feel somewhat sorry for him when the well-foreshadowed denouement arrives. This kind of faceted character construction is what makes all three stories so excellent.

"Walking with Angels" takes place in the totally average small suburban Sheffield home of a couple in their 30s, where the husband works long hard days, and the plain wife splits her time between a grocery store job and keeping house. Their comfortable domestic life is changed forever when she starts to see two angels. This leads her to explore her spiritual side, which then leads her into alternative therapy and healing. But when she wants to start her own business, her husband grows increasingly nasty and the marriage degenerates. There's a lot of comedy as she struggles to come to terms with her new "gifts" and tries to integrate them into her regular life. It would have been easy to make treat the ending as glib dark comedy, but Stevenson is more subtle than that.

The final story is in some ways, the most conventional. A 60something widower slowly comes to the realization that her son and daughter-in-law want to force her out of the Kew Gardens family home, which belongs to all of them via a trust. She reflects on how she subsumed her own personality into the role of being a housewife, mother, and top notch gardener. As her family brings increasing pressure to bear, she is forced to confront her own past behavior in the face of expectations, and with the help of an old friend, creates a new reality for herself (while also crafting some very creative revenge on her daughter-in-law). This is a great story for women of all ages, but especially those who love gardening.

Unfortunately for Stevenson, this is not a particularly auspicious time to be an excellent novella writer. In publishing circles, there is a distinct preference for the novel over the short story collection. However, the short story at least has a chance to shine in a magazine or literary quarterly. Novellas are caught between the two worlds and are thus very unpopular as a form. One might draw the conclusion then, that any novella collection which actually makes it into print must then be very very good. And in this case, one would be absolutely correct.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hugely Witty and Delightful, February 8, 2007

By 

Christine Arvidson (NC, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Good Women: Three Novellas (Paperback)

It's impossible not to recognize how much pure fun Jane Stevenson must have had writing these tales. My copy is beyond dog-eared from having been passed among friends and colleagues at work. The dialogue is supremely witty, the twists diabolical, and the skewering everyone gets is both lightly sympathetic and well-deserved. To say they are smartly told is a giant understatement. It makes me want to secretly smirk just writing about the writing!