The Riddle of the Fly: & Other Stories

by Elizabeth Enright

A collection of short stories, very much intended for adults but with elements that will seem familiar to fans of her children's books.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction

184 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1959

About the author

Elizabeth Wright Enright Gillham was an American writer of children's books, an illustrator, writer of short stories for adults, literary critic and teacher of creative writing. Perhaps best known as the Newbery Medal-winning author of Thimble Summer (1938) and the Newbery runner-up Gone-Away Lake (1957), she also wrote the popular Melendy quartet (1941 to 1951). A Newbery Medal laureate and a multiple winner of the O. Henry Award, her short stories and articles for adults appeared in many popular magazines and have been reprinted in anthologies and textbooks.
In 2012 Gone-Away Lake was ranked number 42 among all-time children's novels in a survey published by School Library Journal, a monthly with primarily U.S. audience. The first two Melendy books also made the Top 100, The Saturdays and The Four-Story Mistake.

Reviews

[Elliza · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful writing by a grotesquely underrated writer. She is of the Cheever/Portnoy/Salinger/Vidal/Albee era with a beautifully complex linkage to memorists, feminist writing, and that odd and lovely pool of women's autobiographies. One of my favorite parts of her adult writing is seeing the links to her incredibly gorgeous children's books.

Her point of view is American, but inflected by life in Europe and a bohemian childhood (her parents were both artists in Manhattan and Chicago in the early half of the 20th century). She has the most subtle, perfect details. One can see the fine artist she also was in her writing technique; there is painterly detail, always exact and right. She has gentle compassion linked to a sharp sense of humor. While Enright can see and write of the bleak and sad (a common characteristic in writers of her era) there is underlying tenderness in her observation of humanity and the world that keeps even the saddest aspects of her work from being overwhelming. Enright also manages, as few do, to write well of the happy, the ecstatic, transcendence, the beauty of ordinary.

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

Here are eight stories -- are they funny, scary, tragic, scary, confusing, or just strange? All the tales seem quaintly dated to a bygone American era of train journeys, milkmen, and sleeping caps. If I have a singular criticism it is the monoculture of tone of each narrator that indicate a class loyalty to the society of upper class girls and women -- aloof amidst the complacent attitude of the times towards the genteel subjugation of women and the attitude that those who labor for a living should probably be pitied.
Aside from the socio-historic context, the stories have vivid descriptions of characters and settings. A common theme are signs, names, epigraphs, and signifiers that create a signature. It's a bit old fashioned, but it's also an enjoyable couple of hours of reading.

[Matthew Elmslie · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's not like she can't write. But you read this grownup stuff of Enright's and you realize why it's her books for kids that are still remembered: they're fun and idyllic as opposed to being dreary and plotless and Significant. I've read this and Doublefields among the books she wrote for adults and I think I'm going to stop there.