Delicate: Stories

by Mary Sojourner

The lives of middle-aged women struggling with jobs and family, friendship and romance, are captured to perfection in this collection of humorous and touching stories set in the contemporary Southwest.

Mary Sojourner writes about hardworking, hard-living, blue-collar women who fight quietly and fiercely to make their way in the world, find love and beauty, and hold on to their hopes. The heroines, most of them over forty, include single moms, aging hippies, women newly awakening to the possibility of love, and women confronting their own mortality.

Bear house --
Absolute proof of the cosmos in life --
Binky --
The most amazing thing --
Luzianne --
Monsters --
Armageddon coffee --
What they write about in other countries --
Riv --
Ranchos Estrellas : where the real West begins --
Squirrel --
My tree --
Officer Magdalena, White Shell Woman, and me --
Hag --
Huevos --
Messin' with the kid --
Betabank --
Delicate

Genres: Short Stories

272 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2001

Reviews

[Olivia Conway]

some of the most beautiful stories i’ve ever read. a strong sense of place and relationships so tender heartbreaking.

[Melanie Ullrich]

I could never consider Mary Sojourner "delicate". Although this book wasn't a memoir, I felt like most of these stories could have been plucked from Sojourner's life. To me it read like a whole book of the "I have this 'friend' that has this or that problem" scenario. This book is obviously geared towards middle-aged woman, and being 25 now, couldn't necessarily relate. I did however feel a great sadness realizing how hard and confusing it has to be to lose your identity as a woman and learn to take on a new role when your kids are grown up and other such changes.

[rose]

I liked her stories, but her voice was too dominant throughout. I like hearing from the author, but not associating every main character with her.

[Lynette Sheppard]

Mary Sojourner's prose illuminates the inner life of women, the fragility and strength of relationships, and the spare beauty of the desert Southwest.