Iridescent Stumbles

In opposition to Elizabeth Bowen, the superbly gifted Irish-English short story writer, who was not enticed by the idea of art as self-expression, other novelists believe that writing is autobiographical. The characters in the six stories that comprise Iridescent Stumbles are based on actual encounters. Their physical and psychological make-ups vary. Men and women either appear as shadowy reflections or are more sharply exposed depending upon the background into which they are set. In The upstairs Studio a woman, no longer in her thirties and her younger lover, a well over six feet tall runner, go late at night to their hide-out, an artist s studio in a semi rural location. During their love-making the enticing female s body appears in dreamlike sequences as a coveted symbol of a medieval monk s forbidden sexual cravings, and also changes into Selene who seduces Endymion in his sleep. In the runner s arms his inamorata whispers about a swim in the shark-infested Red Sea where she s encircled by a pod of dolphins that resemble a gam of sharks. The lovers erotic trysts end when the sprinter gets married again and his second young wife produces two healthy offspring. If a reader has enjoyed The upstairs Studio, he/she will most likely take pleasure too in March Mornings and Nights (a second richly varied love story), Hawaii (a mother-daughter team taking thrilling glimpses at the Aloha State s intrinsic, natural splendor and the diversity of Kanaka Maoli people), Tous les jours d Europe (fictionalizes a woman s journey into past personal occurrences in Europe), Lush Summer Days at Gaby s in the Birkshires (recalls annual holidays spent in Masschusetts) and Arizona with Sabine (explores parts of the United States enticing West). The author s style, the signature, if not the soul of a writer, so slippery, so hard to catch, remains the same. Her style unerringly aims for its most important goal: beauty.