Yesterday I finished reading all thirteen stories in Today a Woman Went Mad in the Supermarket by Hilma Wolitzer. I have read only a few short story collections by a single author, and this one is my favorite so far.
The title story was published in 1966. It is about a woman having a breakdown in the grocery story with her two small children. It shows the reactions and actions of the people in the store, and is very affecting.
Eight of the stories in the book are vignettes of events in the life of a couple, Howard and Paulie (Paulette), starting with a story about the birth of their first child. Some of these are funny, some are sad, and all are told from the point of view of the wife.
Several of the stories at the end of the book are sad, very sad, but still very good reads. "Mother" is set in earlier times, starting in the years following the Great War. A woman who never expected to marry and had given up on having a child delivers a premature baby at a time when that situation was much more difficult to handle.
Most of the stories in this book were published in various magazines in the 1970s, and they reflect the time when they were written.
The very last story, "The Great Escape," was written in 2020 and brings Howard and Paulie into the time of Covid. It is both an uplifting story and devastating.
Check out this review by Kerrie at Mysteries in Paradise. Kerrie lists all the stories and includes the date that each was published. In the book, the date is included at the end of each story, but I had not noticed that the order of the stories in the book is a different order than publication date.
Also see Patti's review at Patricia Abbott (pattinase), which inspired me to read this book.
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Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2020
Length: 179 pages
Format: Hardcover
Setting: USA
Genre: Short Story collection
Source: I purchased my copy.