Thirteen: Stories

by Ursule Molinaro

Fugitive drug dealers and disincarnated spirits, vengeful lovers and rebel slaves, French executioners and runaway aristocrats populate the stories of this new collection by Ursule Molinaro. Representing Molinaro’s most exceptional short fiction of the last twenty years, these mesmerizing tales take us into private worlds where the bizarre is a quietly insistent force and "extreme states of mind can be hidden from ordinary perception and from one’s own consciousness...an unbalanced, violent world where the distance between people is always too wide for them to cross" (Kirkus Reviews). "Molinaro observes her characters," in the estimation of Publisher’s Weekly, "with unusual acuity," presenting these thirteen stories in a brisk, straightforward, inimitable style.

122 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 1989

About the author

Ursule Molinaro (1916, Paris -10 July 2000, New York City) was a prolific novelist, playwright, translator and visual artist, the author of 12 novels, two collections of short prose works, innumerable short stories for literary magazines and dozens of translations from the French and German. She lived and wrote in French in Paris until shortly after World War II, when she came to New York in 1949 to work as a multilingual proofreader for the newly formed United Nations. Just a few years later, having realized that she would stay in the United States, she made the decision to systematically retrain herself not only to write, but to dream, think, and speak, in the language of her new soil. In the latter part of her life, she developed a method for teaching creative writing that relied wholly upon the oral and taught creative writing at several universities and in her home until her death in 2000.

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Bill Hsu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Buddy (re)read with Marc. Marc's review here.

I believe I discovered Molinaro when Samuel Delany mentioned her in an article or interview. The typographic irregularities may seem gimmicky at first, but I like how they guide the pace of my reading, sometimes to comic effect. Normally I would read the first sentence of "Remote Control" in my usual low-key, regular way, but I pretty much jumped in anticipation with the last 3 words squeezed together. Marc calls this #MolinaroanSyncopation. Love the sustained discomfort and humor, and the ending that just cuts off.

In "A Late-Summer Stranger to Herself", I remember well the story of the naked aunt and visiting nephew, but not the frame. Molinaro is so witty and self-deprecating, and I like the surprising mix of domesticity, unexpected disruptions, and (possible) sex. I can relate to the obsessive self-analysis and agonizing, though I hope I'm not that pathological.

"AC-DC" was a blast. Those leopard undershorts! I'm not quite sure what the intruder's story was, and what happened upstairs. Again the narrator has sex on her mind, but is so ambivalent about it she doesn't get any in the story. In retrospect, I'm interpreting the title as slang for being sexually flexible; I hardly see this usage in our gender-fluid times. My reading of the story: the young guy was a sex worker (hence the expensive accoutrements) hired by the husband for an S/M tryst gone wrong, who was happy to seduce the wife. Ok, maybe this wasn't intended by Molinaro, but it's certainly a highly entertaining interpretation!

Marc wrote some excellent notes on "Rites of Non-Requital". Maybe he'll update his review to include them.

Perhaps a slight mid-collection dip after the first 3 stories, then "Reassembling a Lady...". I love the marvelous conceit of the dead narrator throwing shade at the shoppers at his own estate sale ! And the three Freds, and the crossdressing, hilarious.

"Rumours/Murky Halos": one of Molinaro's historical pieces, but incorporates healthy doses of what I love in her more contemporary stories: obsession, black humor, sex (of course). Speculations are murky, but reality is crazy. More crossdressing, and I loved the reveal with the executioner and younger apprentice.

"Shadowplay on Snow": I tend not to be a fan of multi-generational sagas. But this still has Molinaro's humor, and an unexpected dark turn near the end.

Not sure what to make of the last story. But overall this was a fun re-read with Marc!

[S̶e̶a̶n̶ · Rating 2 out of 5]

(2.5) There were a few standouts, but I found Molinaro's stylistic quirks to be a distraction and as a result the last few stories ran together. Others just passed through my mind like water through a sieve. Thumbs down on the affectation of ampersands in place of 'and'. Some good black humour and dark endings, though.

[Marc · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm getting a little burnt out on short story collections simply because of some contest reading lists I tried to tackle this year, but I was delighted to wade through this slim collection with the added benefit of it being a buddy read with Bill (his review here; very helpful to piece together references I might have missed and trade notes on how we interpreted certain stories and approaches). I've only read her novels before, but Molinaro excels at the short form, as well.

None of these are too long and all have Molinaro's signature syncopation and quirky/weird bend. Many take on female desire while also dealing with relationships between lovers with considerable age differences. But when I say "quirks" I mean things like a lover who turns into a motorcycle ("The Cyclotaur") or a man who tries to bring suicide to the masses ("Dr. Arnold Biedermeier's Suicide Parlors") as he himself feels he's turning into an ear. But Molinaro makes them all relatable for the reader (I mean, who doesn't have their great-grandmother's beloved femur as a family heirloom of sorts?!!).

Favorites included:
- "A Late-Summer Stranger to Herself"
- "Remote Control"
- "AC-DC"
- "Rites of Non-Requital"
- "Reassembling a Lady Named Fred"
- "Rumors/Murky Haloes"
- "Shadowplay on Snow"