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Women In Their Beds: Thirty-Five Stories
-In these 35 stories, one struggles to find a sentence that is anything less than jewel-box perfect.- --The New York Times Book Review
Gina Berriault is known for the complexity and compassion with which she weaves her characters, and her stories are such models of economy that they seem almost telepathic. In this reissue of her collected stories--twenty years after its first publication--with a new introduction by renowned author and devoted Berriault advocate Peter Orner--we see the deft hand of this well-loved master of the short story at its best.
Berriault employs her vital sensibility--sometimes subtly ironic and sometimes achingly raw--to touch on the inevitability of suffering and the nature of individuality, daring to see into the essence of our predicaments. What moves us? What dictates our behavior? What alters us? Her writing is spare, evanescent, pulsing with life and shimmering with life's strange hope. Her stories illustrate the depth of her emotional understanding.
-Half the women in the world are right now in bed, theirs or somebody else's, whether it's night or day, whether they want to be or not...- With Women in Their Beds, Berriault's prose--moving, honest, and wise--achieves a mastery of the short story form that was in evidence every step of her long career. She was a completely modern writer, blessed with an exquisite sense of the potency of words and the ability to create moments of empathy that are both disturbing and mysteriously amusing.
Gina Berriault is known for the complexity and compassion with which she weaves her characters, and her stories are such models of economy that they seem almost telepathic. In this reissue of her collected stories--twenty years after its first publication--with a new introduction by renowned author and devoted Berriault advocate Peter Orner--we see the deft hand of this well-loved master of the short story at its best.
Berriault employs her vital sensibility--sometimes subtly ironic and sometimes achingly raw--to touch on the inevitability of suffering and the nature of individuality, daring to see into the essence of our predicaments. What moves us? What dictates our behavior? What alters us? Her writing is spare, evanescent, pulsing with life and shimmering with life's strange hope. Her stories illustrate the depth of her emotional understanding.
-Half the women in the world are right now in bed, theirs or somebody else's, whether it's night or day, whether they want to be or not...- With Women in Their Beds, Berriault's prose--moving, honest, and wise--achieves a mastery of the short story form that was in evidence every step of her long career. She was a completely modern writer, blessed with an exquisite sense of the potency of words and the ability to create moments of empathy that are both disturbing and mysteriously amusing.
416 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 1996
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6359 people want to read
About the author
Gina Berriault
30 books45 followersBerriault was born in Long Beach, California, to Russian-Jewish immigrant parents. Her father was a freelance writer and Berriault took her inspiration from him, using his stand-up typewriter to write her first stories while still in grammar school.
Berriault had a prolific writing career, which included stories, novels and screenplays. Her writing tended to focus on life in and around San Francisco. She published four novels and three collections of short stories, including Women in Their Beds: New & Selected Stories (1996), which won the PEN/Faulkner Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Bay Area Book Reviewers Award. In 1997 Berriault was chosen as winner of the Rea Award for the Short Story, for outstanding achievement in that genre.
Berriault taught writing at the Iowa Writers Workshop and San Francisco State University. She also received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, a Guggenheim Fellowship, an Ingram-Merrill Fellowship, a Commonwealth Gold Medal for Literature, the Pushcart Prize and several O'Henry prizes.
She adapted her short story "The Stone Boy" for a film of the same title, released in 1984.[2] The same story had previously been adapted by another writer for a 1960 television presentation.[
Berriault had a prolific writing career, which included stories, novels and screenplays. Her writing tended to focus on life in and around San Francisco. She published four novels and three collections of short stories, including Women in Their Beds: New & Selected Stories (1996), which won the PEN/Faulkner Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Bay Area Book Reviewers Award. In 1997 Berriault was chosen as winner of the Rea Award for the Short Story, for outstanding achievement in that genre.
Berriault taught writing at the Iowa Writers Workshop and San Francisco State University. She also received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, a Guggenheim Fellowship, an Ingram-Merrill Fellowship, a Commonwealth Gold Medal for Literature, the Pushcart Prize and several O'Henry prizes.
She adapted her short story "The Stone Boy" for a film of the same title, released in 1984.[2] The same story had previously been adapted by another writer for a 1960 television presentation.[
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June 3, 2025
STORIE DI ORDINARIA DISUMANITÀ
Non è stata una scrittrice facile da conquistare, non per me.
Questa “scrittrice per scrittori” ha richiesto più tempo di quanto immaginassi per farsi penetrare: i primi tre racconti sono trascorsi lasciandomi perplesso, e freddo.
Poi, con l’incipit del quarto, è iniziata l’avventura. La magia:
Quando Milo Jukovich aveva diciannove anni si presentò a suo padre. L’incontro avvenne alla cerimonia di scoprimento dei “Tre angeli”, un’opera del padre, sui gradini della cattedrale più signorile di Los Angeles, alla presenza dell’arcivescovo, di alcune star del cinema, del sindaco e di un’intera fila di preti in fondo.
Così inizia Le vite dei santi.
Garry Winogrand: Los Angeles, 1980-’83.
Quello seguente, intitolato semplicemente Zenobia, comincia così:
Arrogante come dio che diede la vita a Adamo ed Eva e scrisse i loro nomi bella Bibbia, mi hai dato la vita e hai segnato il mio nome su un libro.
Chi parla è proprio Zenobia, meglio nota come Zeena, moglie di Ethan Frome, cugina di Mattie, colei che la mandò via di casa quando capì che c’era del pericoloso tenero tra lei e suo marito: in sette/otto pagine Berriault riscrive il bel romanzo della Wharton dal punto di vista della moglie, affascinante nuova prospettiva.
Albertie-Marguerite Carré: La donna con il vestito rosa (1870 circa), Metropolitan Museum, New York.
Arriva poi il racconto che Nicola Manuppelli nella sua preziosa postfazione intitolata “La donna col vestito di parole”, un titolo denso di riverberi, descrive così:
Con un’economia di parole e una capacità di bilanciarle incredibili… brevissimo, intenso, spiazzante, elegante. Un racconto che può essere considerato, senza dubbio, una delle short stories più belle di sempre: una figlia, un padre, una madre, un’altra donna – o meglio, una ragazza che è diventata donna, con tutto ciò che ne consegue – un party e quella che dovrebbe essere una festa di compleanno segreta. Tutto questo crea un gioco di specchi, riflessi, riflessioni spaventosamente efficace. Non a caso per descrivere i suoi racconti è stata usata la parola ’gemme’.
Poco più di tre pagine, davvero una gemma.
Come è scritto ovunque si parli di lei, i premi nella vita della Berriault sono arrivati tardi, a settant’anni. Il successo di pubblico, quello vero, mi pare che lo si stia ancora aspettando. È sempre stata molto amata e stimata dai suoi colleghi, su tutti Andre Dubus (padre), Richard Yates, Richard Ford. Yates ha chiamato sua figlia Gina proprio in onore di questa scrittrice che lui adorava, sulla quale ha scritto anche un saggio.
C’è davvero qualcosa di unico, particolare, originale nella sua prosa, un mix protratto di “tragico e ironico (con punte di umorismo dissacrante), la sensazione che ogni parola abbia riverberi, che lei sappia dare forma alle cose, e ancora più sappia andare dentro, intorno, sopra, sotto le cose, un gesto, un sorriso.
Non posso dire che sia nato un amore tra me e Berriault: la maggior parte dei suoi racconti mi sono risultati ostici. Ma con la distinta sensazione che rileggerli può mostrarmi altri aspetti, altri angoli sfuggiti alla prima lettura. E con la curiosità di leggere ancora di questa donna che ha scritto molto, ma pubblicato poco, addirittura nulla per vent’anni: quattro romanzi, tre raccolte di racconti.
Non è stata una scrittrice facile da conquistare, non per me.
Questa “scrittrice per scrittori” ha richiesto più tempo di quanto immaginassi per farsi penetrare: i primi tre racconti sono trascorsi lasciandomi perplesso, e freddo.
Poi, con l’incipit del quarto, è iniziata l’avventura. La magia:
Quando Milo Jukovich aveva diciannove anni si presentò a suo padre. L’incontro avvenne alla cerimonia di scoprimento dei “Tre angeli”, un’opera del padre, sui gradini della cattedrale più signorile di Los Angeles, alla presenza dell’arcivescovo, di alcune star del cinema, del sindaco e di un’intera fila di preti in fondo.
Così inizia Le vite dei santi.
Garry Winogrand: Los Angeles, 1980-’83.
Quello seguente, intitolato semplicemente Zenobia, comincia così:
Arrogante come dio che diede la vita a Adamo ed Eva e scrisse i loro nomi bella Bibbia, mi hai dato la vita e hai segnato il mio nome su un libro.
Chi parla è proprio Zenobia, meglio nota come Zeena, moglie di Ethan Frome, cugina di Mattie, colei che la mandò via di casa quando capì che c’era del pericoloso tenero tra lei e suo marito: in sette/otto pagine Berriault riscrive il bel romanzo della Wharton dal punto di vista della moglie, affascinante nuova prospettiva.
Albertie-Marguerite Carré: La donna con il vestito rosa (1870 circa), Metropolitan Museum, New York.
Arriva poi il racconto che Nicola Manuppelli nella sua preziosa postfazione intitolata “La donna col vestito di parole”, un titolo denso di riverberi, descrive così:
Con un’economia di parole e una capacità di bilanciarle incredibili… brevissimo, intenso, spiazzante, elegante. Un racconto che può essere considerato, senza dubbio, una delle short stories più belle di sempre: una figlia, un padre, una madre, un’altra donna – o meglio, una ragazza che è diventata donna, con tutto ciò che ne consegue – un party e quella che dovrebbe essere una festa di compleanno segreta. Tutto questo crea un gioco di specchi, riflessi, riflessioni spaventosamente efficace. Non a caso per descrivere i suoi racconti è stata usata la parola ’gemme’.
Poco più di tre pagine, davvero una gemma.
Come è scritto ovunque si parli di lei, i premi nella vita della Berriault sono arrivati tardi, a settant’anni. Il successo di pubblico, quello vero, mi pare che lo si stia ancora aspettando. È sempre stata molto amata e stimata dai suoi colleghi, su tutti Andre Dubus (padre), Richard Yates, Richard Ford. Yates ha chiamato sua figlia Gina proprio in onore di questa scrittrice che lui adorava, sulla quale ha scritto anche un saggio.
C’è davvero qualcosa di unico, particolare, originale nella sua prosa, un mix protratto di “tragico e ironico (con punte di umorismo dissacrante), la sensazione che ogni parola abbia riverberi, che lei sappia dare forma alle cose, e ancora più sappia andare dentro, intorno, sopra, sotto le cose, un gesto, un sorriso.
Non posso dire che sia nato un amore tra me e Berriault: la maggior parte dei suoi racconti mi sono risultati ostici. Ma con la distinta sensazione che rileggerli può mostrarmi altri aspetti, altri angoli sfuggiti alla prima lettura. E con la curiosità di leggere ancora di questa donna che ha scritto molto, ma pubblicato poco, addirittura nulla per vent’anni: quattro romanzi, tre raccolte di racconti.
January 15, 2022
Don’t let my 4-star rating fool you. These stories are not for everyone. Very few of the 35 stories that make up this collection leave you with any feeling of completion, with any clear sense of what the story was about. I took a long time to read this collection because I realized, early on, that for me the best approach was to take some time after each story to think about it; but even with that approach, I can’t say I came to a lot of firm conclusions. For many, stories of this type are likely be frustrating, unfulfilling and unentertaining.
I was incredibly impressed with how much “living” Gina Berriault could pack into a few pages. Her characters, their surroundings and their interactions were brought to life with so few words, and yet you felt an enormous amount of detail had been provided. I would search back through the paragraphs of a particular story and realize that in a few words, Gina Berriault had told me big chunks of a character’s history. However, not much happens in most of these stories. Or at least what does happen does not appear noteworthy or momentous.
A few stories that had a big impact on me:
Here is an excerpt from Zenobia, to give you a feel for Berriault’s prose. This is Zenobia speaking to Edith Wharton:
I recognize that I could use many of the stories in the collection as examples of what I liked. I think Gina Berriault was a very talented lady who approached her art in a unique way. I enjoyed her stories, but I hesitate to recommend the collection.
I was incredibly impressed with how much “living” Gina Berriault could pack into a few pages. Her characters, their surroundings and their interactions were brought to life with so few words, and yet you felt an enormous amount of detail had been provided. I would search back through the paragraphs of a particular story and realize that in a few words, Gina Berriault had told me big chunks of a character’s history. However, not much happens in most of these stories. Or at least what does happen does not appear noteworthy or momentous.
A few stories that had a big impact on me:
"The Stone Boy" is Berriault’s most famous story, as it has been recreated in film twice. There was a moment in this story when I just had to set it down and walk away. I went and did something else and came back to it later.
In the story "The Cove" a family is shopping for a house with a realtor’s help on an island that provides access to the sea. They buy a house and enjoy this beautiful setting and its access to the water, until something happens. We next see the same realtor showing the house to another family. What did the realtor know before the first family purchased the house? Would he relate past events to the family now considering the house?
My favorite story, though, was "Zenobia". For those of you who have read Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton, this is that story told from Zenobia or Zeena’s point of view. I thought the change in perspective was highly entertaining and would recommend this story as a companion read to Ethan Frome.
Here is an excerpt from Zenobia, to give you a feel for Berriault’s prose. This is Zenobia speaking to Edith Wharton:
“Where I’ll begin is where you began, though now the truth will be told. Winter, yes, it was winter, ice hard under the snow and the trees encased in ice, when I was brought into his house to tend his mother. And I did tend her, hand and foot, as I had done for so many others, and when she was buried out there under the snow, why then he asked me to marry him and stay on. Yes, it was winter and you were right, a young man of twenty-one would not have asked me if it were spring, seven years older than him, and come into his life in that winter of his mother’s dying. I did not belong in the spring, I was condemned to remain in that winter of his memory, and the aches of winter got into me.”
“Night after night he turned his back on me. Year after year we lay side by side, untouching. I was not born mean, meanness set in, took its time like a disease. Meanness came and filled up the spaces where his love was not. But how shamelessly, Edith, you made the most of my meanness.”
I recognize that I could use many of the stories in the collection as examples of what I liked. I think Gina Berriault was a very talented lady who approached her art in a unique way. I enjoyed her stories, but I hesitate to recommend the collection.
November 15, 2015
I wish Gina Berriault were still alive so I could thank her for these beautiful stories. The title story is set in a hospital where the women are literally lying in their beds, a situation and a title that perhaps had its origins in that phrase we were all told as young women--"You've made your bed and now you have to lie in it."
I don't know much about the author's life, only that she lived in the San Francisco area. I know that she won the National Book Award and that she was a very private person. But, if you are a short story writer, you would do well to grab a copy of this book from Alibris. Study her sentences. Study where her stories begin and end. Each story in this collection is a miracle of compression.
If you like Alice Munro, you will enjoy Gina Berriault.
I don't know much about the author's life, only that she lived in the San Francisco area. I know that she won the National Book Award and that she was a very private person. But, if you are a short story writer, you would do well to grab a copy of this book from Alibris. Study her sentences. Study where her stories begin and end. Each story in this collection is a miracle of compression.
If you like Alice Munro, you will enjoy Gina Berriault.
October 3, 2019
Every other year or so I come across some great North American woman short story writer with a full body of work for me to immerse myself in. Recently there's been Edith Pearlman, Lucia Berlin and Joy Williams, and now Berriault. She wasn't completely new to me, I had read a story, the little masterpiece The Stone Boy in Points of View ( fabulous anthology) in 2013. Not sure why it took so long to get round to reading a collection because that story was stunning. And so are several others here, a new and selected stories collection. She is subtle, worldly, nuanced, accurate, beautiful. She plays you like a flute. Together with Violette Leduc, another recent discovery, she will be my go-to author for a year or two at least while I re-read her elegant, sharp, wide ranging, loving and observant pieces. So happy to have found her.
I noticed this quoted by another GR review, and it serves well to illustrate her style: "The cat...stepped among the dishes in the manner of a prince slumming along narrow, winding streets."... and .. "Mayda reached for (the cat), lifting it from the table and setting it down on the floor, not attempting to take it into her lap, for it had the inviolable weight of someone else's property."
I noticed this quoted by another GR review, and it serves well to illustrate her style: "The cat...stepped among the dishes in the manner of a prince slumming along narrow, winding streets."... and .. "Mayda reached for (the cat), lifting it from the table and setting it down on the floor, not attempting to take it into her lap, for it had the inviolable weight of someone else's property."
September 17, 2017
Disclaimer: I’m not a great reader of short stories. This is in part because, as a writer, I struggle with short fiction more than I do with novellas and novels.
That being said, I found this collection when cleaning my bookshelves recently, and I’m glad I finally got a chance to read it. It came highly recommended by a friend of mine with excellent taste and I have to say I wasn’t disappointed.
It’s nearly impossible for me to review short story collections; there’s either too much to say about each individual story, or too little to say about the work as a whole. I’m going to keep this short, with a few things I appreciated about Women in Their Beds—
* Berriault, like a good short story writer, explores many facets of human nature throughout the stories, from youth to old age, from masculinity to the plights of, as the title suggests, women in their beds
* I connected with certain stories on a really deep level, which made up for the fact that the point of other stories seemed to fly right over my head; that being said, I feel that this collection could speak to any kind of reader.
* Berriault has a supreme gift for description that made me terrified to ever write again.
* there was an obvious effort, here, to write about all different kinds of people, including people of color, those living in poverty, the elderly, immigrants, etc. which made for some surprisingly diverse reading material.
Overall: I recommend this in small doses.
I think I would’ve enjoyed the collection a lot more if I had read it differently. My reading style is to sit down and binge the book until I can’t hold my eyes open anymore, but that strategy doesn’t really work with short stories. This is the kind of book you keep on your coffee table for a month or so, pick it up here and there, maybe reading one story at a time and then giving yourself time to really reflect on it. Perhaps, had I actually taken the time this book deserves, I’d be able to appreciate it a bit more. All in all, definitely worthy reading, assuming you’re up for taking it slowly.
That being said, I found this collection when cleaning my bookshelves recently, and I’m glad I finally got a chance to read it. It came highly recommended by a friend of mine with excellent taste and I have to say I wasn’t disappointed.
It’s nearly impossible for me to review short story collections; there’s either too much to say about each individual story, or too little to say about the work as a whole. I’m going to keep this short, with a few things I appreciated about Women in Their Beds—
* Berriault, like a good short story writer, explores many facets of human nature throughout the stories, from youth to old age, from masculinity to the plights of, as the title suggests, women in their beds
* I connected with certain stories on a really deep level, which made up for the fact that the point of other stories seemed to fly right over my head; that being said, I feel that this collection could speak to any kind of reader.
* Berriault has a supreme gift for description that made me terrified to ever write again.
* there was an obvious effort, here, to write about all different kinds of people, including people of color, those living in poverty, the elderly, immigrants, etc. which made for some surprisingly diverse reading material.
Overall: I recommend this in small doses.
I think I would’ve enjoyed the collection a lot more if I had read it differently. My reading style is to sit down and binge the book until I can’t hold my eyes open anymore, but that strategy doesn’t really work with short stories. This is the kind of book you keep on your coffee table for a month or so, pick it up here and there, maybe reading one story at a time and then giving yourself time to really reflect on it. Perhaps, had I actually taken the time this book deserves, I’d be able to appreciate it a bit more. All in all, definitely worthy reading, assuming you’re up for taking it slowly.
June 13, 2022
3.5 stars. A collection of 35 short stories about ordinary people, providing interesting revelations of human nature. Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award. I found ‘Stolen Pleasures’ intriguing. The reader gains snippets of information about two elderly sisters. Fleur is a very unusual character. ‘The Overcoat’ is an odd story about a man seeing his separated parents for the first time in 16 years. ‘Lives of the Saints’ is about Milo Jukovich visiting his father’s sculptures in different locations. His father distances himself from Milo in an unusual way. 'The Stone Boy' is about Arnold, a nine year old, who accidentally shoots his fifteen year old brother dead. Arnold's reaction is to remain stoney faced and fairly non communicative. 'Anna Lisa's Nose' is about Anna being the only member of her large family to have a nose job. All her siblings have huge hooked noses. In 'Felis Catus', a married couple who take in some cats, try to adapt to the husband having a bad asthma reaction to the cats.
The writing is very good, with many evocative sentences. All the stories maintained my interest but I do not expect I will remember them for long. A good read with only a couple of ‘wow’ moments!
This book was first published in 1996.
The writing is very good, with many evocative sentences. All the stories maintained my interest but I do not expect I will remember them for long. A good read with only a couple of ‘wow’ moments!
This book was first published in 1996.
March 20, 2022
I have to admit I was a little hesitant to read this book. I wasn't sure what to think from the provocative title combined with the picture of a semi nude woman on the cover I thought it could be in the erotica genre but since it was a Penn/Faulkner winner as well as National Book Critics Circle winner I thought I would go ahead and try it. Well surprise! It was nothing like what the cover would suggest but was actually a book of exceptional short stories. Berriault's writing was extraordinary and her stories were mostly about people on the edge of society, the down and outs and the outcasts. Some of the better stories were: "Lives of the Saints" about the son of a sculptor but the sculptor would not admit to being the father, "Soul and Money" about a man who had been a radical idealist in his youth but had changed as he became older, "The Stone Boy" about a boy who accidentally shot his brother and "The Cove" about a family who bought an expensive beach house. An excellent collection of short stories.
July 5, 2020
Maravillosos.Lxs protagonistas de cada cuento —en su mayoría mujeres— caminan sobre un hilo casi imperceptible que separa lo que son de lo que pudieron ser. A través de historias cotidianas pero con un innegable tinte siniestro y a veces sobrenatural, la autora nos hace oír sus pasos sobre un suelo sin geografía, una suerte de laberinto repleto de espejos en que ellxs transitan intentando reconocerse.
Me entristece la poca difusión que tiene su obra, espero que con esta traducción al español (la primera) pueda habitar muchas bibliotecas y acompañe a muchos lectorxs a la cama.
Me entristece la poca difusión que tiene su obra, espero que con esta traducción al español (la primera) pueda habitar muchas bibliotecas y acompañe a muchos lectorxs a la cama.
March 17, 2024
Berriault’s writing seemed to be like she had a notebook filled with pretty fragments that came to her mind throughout the day that she later tried to insert into whatever she was writing at the time without asking “does this work with whole?”
I think she really loved writing imagery but didn’t know how to create a cohesive picture at times. Her descriptive word choice was often distracting; when I read the book aloud, I felt like I was hiccuping at random parts of a sentence and had to start over when really I was just bewildered at how she decided to describe something. Took me out of whatever I was reading.
I liked: Stone Boy, the Cove, and the Island of Ven
I think she really loved writing imagery but didn’t know how to create a cohesive picture at times. Her descriptive word choice was often distracting; when I read the book aloud, I felt like I was hiccuping at random parts of a sentence and had to start over when really I was just bewildered at how she decided to describe something. Took me out of whatever I was reading.
I liked: Stone Boy, the Cove, and the Island of Ven
January 15, 2020
Primo libro dell'anno. Racconti. Dovrebbero battere la Munro secondo Ford. Per me non la battono ma hanno comunque colpito nel segno.
August 6, 2019
Persone sole, abbandonate, che cercano o hanno cercato una chance nella vita, che hanno perso gli ideali e che magari si sono rifugiate in Dio. Un'umanità struggente che però vive. Tra questi racconti mi piace citare Zenobia, un punto di vista particolare sulla storia del romanzo Ethan Frome e su Edith Wharton, con un incipit favoloso.
May 31, 2022
This collection of short stories feature mid-20th century Americans, many set in and around San Francisco. The stories focus on the relationships between ordinary people. These were well written, but none wowed me with some profound insight. I doubt I will remember them for long. 3.5 stars
October 20, 2024
AL FIN. bueno le puse 2 estrellas porque las últimas 3 o 4 historias me gustaron más que todas las otras. no sé si es que no las entendí o qué pero bueno, le tenía mucha expectativa que no se dio. also, esas mujeres en la cama, están con nosotros en esta habitación?
November 4, 2012
What a lovely collection of stories! Normally, I’ve made it a practice to read short story collections one story at a time as an interlude in between larger works, but this one, I could not read just one...I looked forward to reading the next one just as eagerly as I would the next chapter of a fascinating novel. Each story was a genuine gem; precise and simple; ordinary, yet extraordinary; quietly bittersweet without being too terribly sentimental; tragic and comic, for the dark to exist, there must be light...this is so well done. I’m so happy to have found her. I’ve dog-eared many pages, and could quote many favorites, but I will do only this one, from the very last page:
“She was wakened in the night by the strangers at the old mother’s garden party. Visions of light and of luminous strangers in that light, that was what the dying saw. She knew who they were, those strangers. They were the first of all the many strangers in your life, the ones there when you come out of the dark womb into the amazing light of earth, and never to be seen again in just that way until your last hours. She got up and walked about, barefoot, careful to make no sound that would intrude on that gather of strangers in the little room, below.” – page 342, "The Light at Birth", Gina Berriault
“She was wakened in the night by the strangers at the old mother’s garden party. Visions of light and of luminous strangers in that light, that was what the dying saw. She knew who they were, those strangers. They were the first of all the many strangers in your life, the ones there when you come out of the dark womb into the amazing light of earth, and never to be seen again in just that way until your last hours. She got up and walked about, barefoot, careful to make no sound that would intrude on that gather of strangers in the little room, below.” – page 342, "The Light at Birth", Gina Berriault
May 12, 2019
A composition of short stories bring to life repressed parts within a women.. Most recommended
August 28, 2022
Gina Berriault was one of the greatest USA short story writers of all time. I enjoy bringing her work to the attention of new readers, especially because the responses I receive back are always positive. Berriault is simply one of the best writers I have ever read. The writer Robert Stone said of her, "Her writing, line for line, is the most emotionally precise I know and her stories are among the wisest and most heartbreaking in American fiction."
Her editor, Jack Shoemaker of Counterpoint Press, was quoted in SF Gate, "To find another writer of such emotional depth and range, one thinks of Babel or Tolstoy, Hawthorne or Henry James. No praise can ever quite measure her accomplishments in the short story." This 1996 collection, Women In Their Beds, was her last book before she passed in 1999. There is truly a lifetime of incredible work within these pages.
Berriault published four novels and three collections of short stories. As you can see from the stickers on the book cover above, Women In Their Beds won the PEN/Faulkner Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the Rea Award for the Short Story. She also received a Guggenheim Fellowship, a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, and two Commonwealth Medals for Literature. Berriault's short story The Stone Boy was made into a 1984 film starring Robert Duvall and Glenn Close. She taught at S.F. State and the University of Iowa, received a Radcliffe Fellowship, an Ingram Merrill Fellowship, and the Bay Area Book Reviewer's Award.
Reading Berriault is a pleasure. There is not a misplaced word. She never wastes your time or shows off. She has a story to tell and she gets to it. Her descriptions are artful without calling attention to the artist.
I recommend to start reading not at the beginning of this collection, but in the section of "selected" stories, the last twenty-five stories in the book. When you come back to the first ten stories, you will see that something has subtly changed. Time feels compressed. When she chooses to do so, she is able to distill a novel's worth of detail into one short story. I feel her impatience in these last ten stories. She takes risks to create urgency. It is as if the storyteller is afraid her characters will run away or abandon her before she finishes telling the story. It feels like she knows she is running out of time.
Her longtime companion was Leonard Gardner the author of the acclaimed novel Fat City and a screenwriter. He produced and wrote for the TV show NYPD Blue.
I read this collection on Kindle and then ordered the paperback book. I needed to see the words on the paper. Her work lives on. She was a master. Honest and true.
Her editor, Jack Shoemaker of Counterpoint Press, was quoted in SF Gate, "To find another writer of such emotional depth and range, one thinks of Babel or Tolstoy, Hawthorne or Henry James. No praise can ever quite measure her accomplishments in the short story." This 1996 collection, Women In Their Beds, was her last book before she passed in 1999. There is truly a lifetime of incredible work within these pages.
Berriault published four novels and three collections of short stories. As you can see from the stickers on the book cover above, Women In Their Beds won the PEN/Faulkner Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the Rea Award for the Short Story. She also received a Guggenheim Fellowship, a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, and two Commonwealth Medals for Literature. Berriault's short story The Stone Boy was made into a 1984 film starring Robert Duvall and Glenn Close. She taught at S.F. State and the University of Iowa, received a Radcliffe Fellowship, an Ingram Merrill Fellowship, and the Bay Area Book Reviewer's Award.
Reading Berriault is a pleasure. There is not a misplaced word. She never wastes your time or shows off. She has a story to tell and she gets to it. Her descriptions are artful without calling attention to the artist.
I recommend to start reading not at the beginning of this collection, but in the section of "selected" stories, the last twenty-five stories in the book. When you come back to the first ten stories, you will see that something has subtly changed. Time feels compressed. When she chooses to do so, she is able to distill a novel's worth of detail into one short story. I feel her impatience in these last ten stories. She takes risks to create urgency. It is as if the storyteller is afraid her characters will run away or abandon her before she finishes telling the story. It feels like she knows she is running out of time.
Her longtime companion was Leonard Gardner the author of the acclaimed novel Fat City and a screenwriter. He produced and wrote for the TV show NYPD Blue.
I read this collection on Kindle and then ordered the paperback book. I needed to see the words on the paper. Her work lives on. She was a master. Honest and true.
July 30, 2013
In selecting Gina Berriault, the 1997 Rea Award Jurors, Cynthia Ozick, Tobias Wolff, and Andre Dubus said:
"Gina Berriault is one of America's most accomplished masters of short fiction. Her stories astonish - not only in their range of character and incident, but in their worldliness, their swift and surprising turns, their penetration into palpable love and grief and hope. Her sentences are excitingly, startlingly juxtaposed; and though her language is plain, the complexity of her knowing leads one into mysteries deeper than tears. To discover Berriault is to voyage into uncharted amazements."
This also won the Pen/Faulkner and National Book Critics Circle Award...but I only found a handful of them to be very readable. There are flashes of absolute wonder and brilliance throughout these stories...but many of them are just too poetic for the good of the story; I found a few unreadable.
Love this, while it's fresh in my mind: "The cat...stepped among the dishes in the manner of a prince slumming along narrow, winding streets."
and,
"Mayda reached for (the cat), lifting it from the table and setting it down on the floor, not attempting to take it into her lap, for it had the inviolable weight of someone else's property."
"Gina Berriault is one of America's most accomplished masters of short fiction. Her stories astonish - not only in their range of character and incident, but in their worldliness, their swift and surprising turns, their penetration into palpable love and grief and hope. Her sentences are excitingly, startlingly juxtaposed; and though her language is plain, the complexity of her knowing leads one into mysteries deeper than tears. To discover Berriault is to voyage into uncharted amazements."
This also won the Pen/Faulkner and National Book Critics Circle Award...but I only found a handful of them to be very readable. There are flashes of absolute wonder and brilliance throughout these stories...but many of them are just too poetic for the good of the story; I found a few unreadable.
Love this, while it's fresh in my mind: "The cat...stepped among the dishes in the manner of a prince slumming along narrow, winding streets."
and,
"Mayda reached for (the cat), lifting it from the table and setting it down on the floor, not attempting to take it into her lap, for it had the inviolable weight of someone else's property."
June 30, 2019
I didn't get into all of these, but my favorites ("Who Is It Can Tell Me Who I Am?," "The Island of Ven," and "The Light at Birth,") had. a way of gracefully, believably tipping from the mundane into the cosmic.
January 19, 2021
I bought this book two years ago. Since the moment I started reading her stories I realized that I could not waste these readings by going through them all at once; instead, I have been carrying this book around with me wherever I go, reading a story or two when the time feels Right. It's like a beautiful, compassionate, constant companion, one that I would be loathe to let go of, and which I recommend to anyone who asks. The breadth and depth of each one of these stories is astounding. No word is out of place, every character is understood, every setting livable breathable.
No matter how many short stories I have read and loved, from dozens of countries, there is no short story writer that has impacted me greater than Gina Berriault.
Would recommend, 11/10.
No matter how many short stories I have read and loved, from dozens of countries, there is no short story writer that has impacted me greater than Gina Berriault.
Would recommend, 11/10.
Want to read
November 26, 2014These are extraorinarily well written stories. So far I've read "Women in their Beds," which is hilarious and moving; "Who Can Tell Me Who I Am?" about a librarian and his slow blossoming compassion; "A Dream of Fair Women," in which the staff of an Indian restaurant buckle under the strain of serving a famous critic.
July 27, 2022
I am completely obsessed now with Gina Berriault. I've seen her described as a "writer's writer"and it's true. Her sentences are oceanic, her awareness of human nature stunning. Gorgeous prose. Can't wait to track down all her work.
January 26, 2020
Superb collection of short stories from a master of the form. The title story is unforgettable. Excellent character development.
May 17, 2019
Thank you Goodreads and George Saunders’ reading list for making me aware of the remarkable but hidden Gina Berriault. Every story is a self-contained masterpiece in its own right, including my least favorite which fleshes out a poorly served character from Ethan Frome while simultaneously taking Wharton to task for her treatment of aforementioned character. To be honest, the only reason it’s my least favorite is because I have no familiarity with the source other than the general plot. The remaining stories however, take even what would seem to be dull plots (an author seeking out a more famous author for example) and flesh out the characters while taking language and story in unexpected directions. Hopefully, more readers will become aware of Gina Berriault and her works will be celebrated as classics.
November 15, 2024
Though she passed away in 1999, Gina Berriault remains a true master of the short story. She did so much with so little, each story a compression of moments, feelings, and revelations. The Stone Boy remains one of my favorite stories of all time.
But.
I couldn't finish it. While each story is a wonder in and of itself, the cumulative effect is a bit debilitating. Because all of these stories are bleak. Really bleak. So while I felt like a fat, happy puppy diving in, I also felt as though I were getting closer to being put down after about halfway through. I just couldn't finish it.
• 5 stars for the uncommonly beautiful writing and compression of emotions.
• 2 stars for how it made me want to put my head in an oven because it's so depressing.
• 3.5 stars overall, though that might change if I ever find the will to finish this soul-crushing masterpiece.
But.
I couldn't finish it. While each story is a wonder in and of itself, the cumulative effect is a bit debilitating. Because all of these stories are bleak. Really bleak. So while I felt like a fat, happy puppy diving in, I also felt as though I were getting closer to being put down after about halfway through. I just couldn't finish it.
• 5 stars for the uncommonly beautiful writing and compression of emotions.
• 2 stars for how it made me want to put my head in an oven because it's so depressing.
• 3.5 stars overall, though that might change if I ever find the will to finish this soul-crushing masterpiece.
Want to read
May 15, 20121) Women in Their Beds
2) Who Is It Can Tell Me Who I Am?
3) A Dream of Fair Women
4) Soul and Money
5) The Island of Ven
6) Lives of the Saints
7) Stolen Pleasures
8) The Overcoat
9) Zenobia
10) The Woman in the Rose-Colored Dress
11) Nights in the Gardens of Spain
12) Bastille Day
13) God and the Article Writer
14) Wilderness Fire
15) The Bystander
16) Death of a Lesser Man
17) The Search for J. Kruper
18) The Birthday Party
19) The Cove
20) Sublime Child
21) Around the Dear Ruin
22) The Diary of K.W.
24) The Stone Boy
25) Anna Lisa's Nose
26) Works of the Imagination
27) The Mistress
28) Lonesome Road
29) Myra
30) The Houses of the City
31) Nocturne
32) Like a Motherless Child
33) The Science of Life
34) Felis Catus
35) The Light at Birth
2) Who Is It Can Tell Me Who I Am?
3) A Dream of Fair Women
4) Soul and Money
5) The Island of Ven
6) Lives of the Saints
7) Stolen Pleasures
8) The Overcoat
9) Zenobia
10) The Woman in the Rose-Colored Dress
11) Nights in the Gardens of Spain
12) Bastille Day
13) God and the Article Writer
14) Wilderness Fire
15) The Bystander
16) Death of a Lesser Man
17) The Search for J. Kruper
18) The Birthday Party
19) The Cove
20) Sublime Child
21) Around the Dear Ruin
22) The Diary of K.W.
24) The Stone Boy
25) Anna Lisa's Nose
26) Works of the Imagination
27) The Mistress
28) Lonesome Road
29) Myra
30) The Houses of the City
31) Nocturne
32) Like a Motherless Child
33) The Science of Life
34) Felis Catus
35) The Light at Birth
October 24, 2021
There's a gently quiet, icy, subdued elegance to Berriault's writing that nobody has ever captured before or since. Reading her as a youth felt like lying wounded and waiting to die on a heap of cold, damp, yellow leaves, breathing in the crisp autumn air, feeling consciousness coming into sharper focus, patiently counting the minutes as the child slowly faded away and the adult started to take form. This is the book you find at the jagged edge of the sleeping mountain, where the bland and placid side of the ordinary and the common meets the mysterious abyss that lies just beyond the obvious.
October 21, 2023
Descubrí a esta recientemente traducida y escurridiza autora a través de las recomendaciones de un Wallapopero muy lector y librero y me animé a leerla por su aparición en el manual de Peter Orner. Los cuentos realistas y muy humanos me han gustado mucho. Especialmente 'El chico de piedra', 'Muerte de un hombre insignificante' y 'La vida de los santos'. Tiene alma de retratista y para ponerte en la piel de sus personasjes y se disfrutan muchos esas sensaciones que contienen sus cuentos. No sé si traducirán algo más como, 'La pasión infinita de la expectativa', ojalá.
November 8, 2012
Apparently Gina Berriault is a writer's writer. Apparently that translates to over-the-top tragic and literary and descriptive prose, and impossible to read. I read two stories and I couldn't bring myself to finish more. I thought I'd really love this--but "craft' for the sake of craft is well, boring.
Which is to say: there's probably a reason this book won so many awards and yet no one knows who Gina Berriault is.
Which is to say: there's probably a reason this book won so many awards and yet no one knows who Gina Berriault is.
September 12, 2020
I've read many but not all of the many stories in this collection. wow I sure have LOVED them. Looking forward to reading more. thanks to George Saunders for his many great books - but also for recommending THIS great book!
April 22, 2013
I couldn't finish this book. The writing style would be wonderful, if the stories weren't so banal. It comes of simple, yet pretentious.
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