The Vanishing Princess

by Jenny Diski

This is a collection of stories. They move between differing locations - Caribbean paradises, seedy apartments, fairytale towers - and explore subjects both contemporary and complex.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Feminism, British Literature, Book Club, 20th Century, Short Story Collection

192 pages

First published May 8, 1995

About the author

Jenny Diski was a British writer. Diski was a prolific writer of fiction and nonfiction articles, reviews and books. She was awarded the 2003 Thomas Cook Travel Book Award for Stranger on a Train: Daydreaming and Smoking around America With Interruptions.

Reviews

[Caecilia Saori · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Vanishing Princess is a Melange of stories, beautifully rich in colour. You will find fairy tales in this literary treasure box but also, ramblings of a woman who strolls the streets of her city, looking forward to feeding the ducks in the park. Then, a mother floating on an air mattress, for the first time consciously noticing the wrongs of her relationship.
So much more.

I lived with each single one of her stories. Regardless of content or choice of style, she had me with her writing. If I say, it felt as if Diski’s flow of thoughts resembled mine - does that make sense? Why else, would it feel this comfortable to read.
📖 More Diski, please.

[jenni · Rating 4 out of 5]

sweetly supple and satisfactory storytelling with perceptive insights into what could be one of the collection's main characters - lustful, misanthropic femininity. masterful is their gorgeous brevity and in diski's faculty for invention. it feels like these stories were sometimes written from me and not just simply for me. a writer i am disappointed to have only just now arrived to.

[rachy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve had a very long, very disorganised to read list for a while. It really just became somewhere to note any book that sounds vaguely interesting to me, or is recommended to me, that I don’t feel inclined to immediately seek out. Over the years it’s become so big that even looking at it becomes overwhelming. With the year coming to an end, I finally decided it’s a good time to finally go through it, to remove any that I might no longer be interested for one reason or another, to find others I might. Diski’s ‘The Vanishing Princess’ was a rediscovery from this list, and I quickly realised that it should never have been put away there.

I can’t overstate how much fun these stories were, subversive and meta in interesting ways that I haven’t really seen executed to such a high standard before. One of my favourite things she did is that she often took ideas that had such immediate connotations attached, things like infidelity or being committed to an asylum, and asked what if none of those usual things applied in this case? Instead offering such an interesting, alternate deconstruction of them, always in a convincing and appropriately cynical way. All of the stories were equally unique, either in this way or their own. For example, my favourite story of the bunch tells a woman’s life story through a history of the bathrooms she’s owned in the places she’s lived, because her ultimate goal in life is to spend an entire day, undisturbed, in the bath. What a crux of a story, what a construction. Absolutely inspired.

However, all of it would be nothing without Diski’s absolute command of prose. She has her style down to a science and all of these stories felt fearless. The amount of confidence and follow through you need to have in your particular style to make these stories successful is staggering. One flinch could undo them, and Diski never does. There’s also a quality here that’s really difficult to place. As I was reading this collection, it really felt like it was so specifically for me. That it really went to the same places my mind went to, that it was tailored so specifically to my tastes. After I finished the collection, I found a lot of people expressing the same thing. To make one person feel that connection is impressive, to make so many people feel similarly is something to be marvelled at.

So I’ve already ordered another of Diski’s books, because there’s no way I won’t be reading more of her work. There’s no putting the genie back in the bottle, nor would I want to. This is truly one of the most unique short story collections I’ve read, and I don’t know that I’ve read another that has this much appeal in concept and execution in terms of style. Not only that, it’s just so much damn fun. A new favourite, for sure.

[Erin Page · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jenny Diski is a terrific prose stylist. I don't think that anything I have to say in that regard will add to what you can already read in the many reviews of her writing in tons of publications. I've never read any fiction from her before this, and as I began reading this short story collection I was happily surprised at how familiar her writing seemed. Though new to me, I found it was easy to wade into her stories, following her characters and choices, as though she were a writer I'd reach much more of, whose style and devices I recognized. Diski is well-known for her sheer talent and quality, and this book only underscores that.

The stories are varied in subject matter and style and theme. They're all good and interesting-- there truly was not a single story in the twelve that was bad or unwarranted-- but ultimately it was a collection of stories for the sake of having a bunch of them in one place, or so it seemed. A theme, a recognizable purpose to a collection, can set one apart. This is Diski's only collection of short stories and, perhaps, it is because these were all she wanted to publish, so she put them all in one place.

[Arun · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my first experience with Jenny Diski, and I am not disappointed at all. I’m really glad to have discovered her book, overlooked and disguised between the thicker ones in my local library. I can’t believe I almost gave up trying to find something to read before I left to go home. (You know, sometimes it’s so crazy to me how I’ll pick up a random book at the library, and it turns out to be an incredible read. I wonder how my life would be if I hadn’t randomly picked out so many of my favorite books.)

'The Vanishing Princess' is such a satisfying collection of essays, each written with such weirdly beautiful prose. So, so creative written by an author with a very distinctive voice. My absolute favorites are: ‘The Vanishing Princess or The Origin of Cubism’, ‘Housewife’, ‘Strictempo’, ‘Short Circuit’, and ‘On the Existence of Mount Rushmore and Other Improbabilities.’ While I found those five more enjoyable than the rest, every essay has left such a lasting impression. Each story is so unique and dives deep into a world with an unusual but interesting narrative that is so satisfying and pleasing to read in a strange way. I say strange because there are a lot of unsettling moments which makes me know that this collection will be embedded into my memory for quite some time. Even so, the strange content didn’t really matter to me. I just felt very captivated by Diski’s writing. A lot of her characters' thoughts (which also blends with her own) mirrored my own thoughts, so that’s another reason why I think these stories were satisfying to read. I like how she turns the most mundane aspects of existence into something more meaningful and philosophical. I feel like some authors really over-do that to the point where I think to myself, “Okay? Who cares?”, but Diski does it differently. I can’t really describe how she does it, but I love it.

As Heidi Julavits said in the foreword, and this is actually one of my favorite quotes even though it's not even part of the actual essays, “Read Diski for the pleasures of Diski, but also read Diski to learn what we may think, in the future, about how, were we possessed by foresight, we might have better performed our humanity in the now.”

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

Originally published in 1995 and I'm wondering when some of the stories published prior to that were written. I'm not sure if these stories are dated or I just want them to be, all of them are centered on women and so many involve women who are so passive in their lives it was a bit depressing, in the two stories where the women found their freedom it was sexually focused (maybe those were the ones that felt the most dated). The only story where then woman seem to take a active role in her life revolved around having the perfect bathroom and spending an entire day in the bath to the exclusion of any other comforts - a bit odd but I admire her focus. I don't think this collection was for me but the writing is excellent and will be looking to read Diski's other books.

[Ylenia · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was my first experience with Jenny Diski & I'm overall quite satisfied with this collection. I will probably remember one, maybe two, out of these stories but the ones I liked had really fascinating concepts behind them that surprised me. Diski took really simple elements in our everyday lives & transformed them into something interesting.

My faves: Bath Time, Housewife, Shit and Gold, Short Circuit.

*ARC provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review*

[marcia · Rating 2 out of 5]

These short stories are dated. Not that it's necessarily a bad thing: it's just reflected in how the female characters approach their lives. This collection is consistent in that it deals with similar themes throughout. That said, most of the stories just aren't memorable or engaging.

Favorite:
"Bath Time"

[Claire Polders · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best short story collections I’ve ever read. Although the stories are all written in a similar ironic style, with strong and/or unusual female protagonists, each story is unique. Diski flirts with fairytales, with the absurd, but often also stays very close to a dark reality. The prose is also excellent. A collection for readers who love Lydia Davis, Lorrie Moore, A.M. Homes, and Carmen Maria Machado.

[Jacob · Rating 5 out of 5]

This shit is THE BEST. I don't think I'll ever forget some of these stories. Alexandra Kleeman, quoted on the back flap, is right: "Diski does not just take the stories we are told about femininity, domesticity, and love and tell them slant—she burrows deep into their core and rewires the whole machine."

[Chloe · Rating 2 out of 5]

This short story collection had memorable stand outs (The Vanishing Princess, My Brother Stanley, The Lost Princess), but I was struggling to engage with and finish the others. Not sure if it just wasn’t my cup of tea or if the other stories seemed to not go anywhere.

[ems · Rating 3 out of 5]

again, these are good stories by a very technically accomplished author. but none of them moved me.

[Lindsey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very satisfying collection. Though the first three stories aren't the best, the book hits its stride in the middle. Themes of women really leaning in and consciously embracing their neuroticism, and also having moments of accidental clarity on their life choices. If you only read a few: Wide Blue Yonder, Bath Time and Short Circuit.

[Miranda · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Sabelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Have you ever read a book so intimate, seductive, personal, and magical that you believe it was written entirely just for you? Jenny Diski I love you; in another life we could have been twin sisters.

[Ingrid Nelson · Rating 5 out of 5]

5/20 short story collections!

[Angela · Rating 5 out of 5]

richly curious

[Aleah · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 ⭐

[Lizzy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this short story collection!

[Patricia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Creative stories told with a distinctive voice by an author who writes with precision.

Food: Hot chocolate.

[Marina · Rating 5 out of 5]

jenny diski is amazing, i've just been in a bit of a reading slump so it took me a while to read. i want to revisit it when my brain works better :3

[Julia · Rating 4 out of 5]

"There was once a princess who lived in a tower..." begins the first story in Jenny Diski's collection The Vanishing Princess. Yet make no mistake, these stories look less like familiar fairytales and more like the pedestrian mid-life disappointments that inevitably follow the ride off into the sunset; when faded love and breakfast table misogyny and entrapments of high expectation become the norm, and small suburban victories the glory. In a blend of re-imagined fairy tales and contemporary stories of women doing what they can to lay claim to their own lives, Diski's characters are typically imperfect women grappling with the phenomenon of "vanishing"— whether through oppressive happily-ever-after narratives or debilitating neuroses. In a retelling of Rumpelstiltskin, the miller's daughter concocts her own riddle to fool the meddling little man, while in another story a mother spends her entire life's resources to create the perfect bathroom to luxuriate in a long bubble bath. The range in content here is pretty remarkable, as is the tone and character development.

Although Diski's style is generally expository (think very little dialogue), I found myself eager to see how these characters were going to subvert the narratives of their own lives. They often reject what it means to be "female" by pushing back against motherhood, or emotionally dispossessing those who would use them as a jumbo-sized tissue box, but they also typically stop short of ever really fighting the institutions that seek to repress them. Instead, Diski makes her characters disrupt the folds of their world through narrative. It is exciting to see where this both helps and fails them.

[Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Happened upon this by pure chance at the library, just when I had given up on finding anything interesting that day. What a necessary book! Each story felt like it contained a little slice of something from inside me, something that even at my most exhibitionistic, I had never, ever said aloud. Diski is the writer I hoped Angela Carter would be, but fell short of. I love her the way I love Shirley Jackson and Frances Towers-- she has their same darkness and elegance and wryness-- but she's so much more frankly sexual than they were, in a way that feels so threatening and so satisfying. Not a single story in this collection failed to surprise and delight me. I immediately want to read it all over again.

[Angie · Rating 2 out of 5]

A collection of short stories that are very female-centric. Sometimes the result are fascinating and metaphorical and weirdly beautiful (the two Princess tales, the Rumplestiltskin pastiche, the piece on Mt Rushmore). Other times, they just felt too forced and heavy to be enjoyable. Perhaps it is more my taste than anything else but the parade of joyless, neurotic, maladjusted women generally left me cold and bending towards depression. It also didn't help that so often the sympathy I was supposed to feel for the characters sank beneath the distaste I felt for their inactivity and unwillingness to know themselves.

[Linda Robinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Surreal, funny, dark and powerful. Skewed fairytales (although weren't the original stories disturbing?) glances into the psyche of domestic life. Quick sharp story bites that can leave the reader wondering if there are marks on the floor. If you're feeling unsettled, read this book in daylight hours when you have slept well.

[Marianne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Matter of fact, feminist modern Brothers Grimm tales. If there could be a mix of realism and surrealism, this would be it. (Only one story is in fact a fairytale retelling - Rumplestiltskin.) If you like Julia Armfield’s Salt Slow and Alice Munro’s short stories, you’ll like The Vanishing Princess. Summaries/spoilers below:

The Vanishing Princess is about a princess in a tower who is disappeared when two men seduce each other through her (sort of).

Leaper follows a woman who almost witnesses a suicide. The woman falls into a tryst with the leaper’s lover.

My Brother Stanley is a ghost child.

Bath Time is fantastic. Any woman over 25 will enjoy the tale of the longing for a day long bath.

Housewife is a very original version of the stereotypical ‘bored housewife has an affair.’

Strictempo is about ballroom dancing in a mental health hospital.

Shit and Gold is a feminist appropriation of Rumplestiltskin.

Short Circuit is about a woman’s neuroses. Moral of the story: it’s easier to avoid pain than to worry about potential pain, but at what cost?

Wide Blue Yonder is about an anaemic woman whose life just happened without her having made any decisions on it. She floats into the ocean.

On The Existence of Mount Rushmore is flash fiction which explores the moment in which a teacher realises how her most unintelligent student’s mind works.

Sex, Drugs and Rock and Roll is a sweet little vignette of a mother teaching her daughter how to roll and smoke a spliff.

The Old Princess imagines the fairytale princess to whom nothing happens - i.e. no prince rescues her - and therefore no one writes about her.

[Samantha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bought this one for the cover. Not the covered depicted here on Goodreads but a whimsical pink cover that looked like love and the the little bit of fun I needed the summer afternoon I picked this up from the store. It also has those ruffle cut pages that make a book absolutely irresistible to me despite the content.

It did what all good short story books should make you go. Ponder, gasp, think again as to how it all could have ended differently as you flip the final page, wonder if you should move on to the next story or soak it all in, and read through it all a little faster than you felt you should have. And, whenever all short story collections are finished, there always tend to be 1-2 from each story that stick with you and even haunt you long after. For me, one that held close to my ribs far after closing the last page was "Bath Time" that tracks a woman's lifelong journey to take the perfect bath. Much like I related to the title of the work I could also relate to curating the perfect relaxing moment that is sometimes best as a plan and falls a bit flat in the present.

I have not read other Jenny Diski but absolutely intend to, especially because her life in London and in travels sounds fascinating. Pragmatic open-mindedness, the power of acute observation and nonjudgmental documentation of absurdities of humans also captures my attention in film and in reading. While she did not let me down here, some stories fell flat and felt like they were yearning to be more than they presented. Not everybody's read and wouldn't recommend it to everyone.

[Rene Ijzermans · Rating 4 out of 5]

Het begon met een vergissing. Ik meende aanvankelijk een ander schrijfster in handen te hebben, Irene Dische, waarvan me het boek "Vrome leugens" goed was bevallen. Maar ik kon me de stijl die ik onder ogen kreeg niet herinneren. Het bleek idd een andere schrijfster, Jenny Disky dus, en helemaal niet zo slecht. In tegendeel zelfs. Disky toont zich in deze verhalenbundel vooral een meester in innerlijke en uiterlijke observaties. Op het eerste verhaal na zijn het geen vlot lopende verhalen, misschien zelfs wat stroef, maar ieder woord lijkt gewogen en te passen in het geheel. Voor een spetterend drama moet je niet bij haar, maar liefhebbers van subtiel literaire composities kunnen hun hart aan "De prinses in de spiegel" ophalen.

[Valentina · Rating 3 out of 5]

While the "I hate my husband" trope is less common than the "I hate my wife" trope I walked away thinking that everyone should probably just marry someone they actually like or find fulfillment without a marriage.

Nice consistency in themes without beating the reader over the head about them as is easy to do with short story collections: women's desire and lack of guilt about it (including infidelity), anxiety around motherhood, and relationships with selfish men.

3 stars because of 3 stories that carried the rest of the book - the title story, Leaper, and Housewife. Honorable mention to Bath Time. The rest of the stories were just okay, nothing that will stay with me.

[Miriam Bitango · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was my first collection of short stories, and it was overall, average. The writing itself was beautiful and detailed, however, many of the stories were quite bland; they were entertaining to a degree, but were not thoughtful, mysterious, or had a larger effect afterwards. The primary stories that I found the most intriguing were “Leaper”, “On The Existence of Mount Rushmore And Other Improbabilities”, and “The Old Princess”; all of them were thought-provoking and followed simple, yet well-constructed storylines! Overall, I am glad that I read this collection of short stories and perhaps I will come to appreciate them more in the future!