Sea Lovers by Valerie Martin

Sea Lovers

Valerie Martin

A wonderful, beautifully written series of short stories about what it is like to be a woman. Two stories refer to mythical creatures - a mermaid and a centaur - but all of them are about how we survive our lives, about the subterfuges that we have to take in order to preserve our privacy, our dignity and our self-respect. And especially about how women have to do these things in what is a patriarchal society. Not easy, but very worthwhile.

Extract
I went straight home, but it took nearly two hours. The subway was backed up; a train had caught fire between Fourteenth Street and Astor Place. I kept thinking of what Anspach had said, and it made my blood pressure soar. What a self-serving bastard, I thought. As crude as a caveman. I particularly hated his remark about feeling Maria up on the subway. I never had. I never would have.
Parallels
  • Tanglewood Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne
  • Mexico in Words by Gabriel Orozco
  • Love, Sex, Travel, Musik by Rodge Glass