Tag Archives: marriage

Life Span by Molly Giles: A Review

Posted on June 20, 2024 by Gabriella West

Molly Giles is best known as a gifted short-story writer, but this late-in-life memoir produces a different kind of sparkle. It’s a more vulnerable tale than her polished fiction, and the flashes of rage and ambivalence that reoccur throughout the … Continue reading →

Posted in creativity and its discontents, Reviews, San Francisco | Tagged abuse, alcoholism, California writers, Creative Writing, dysfunctional parents, Golden Gate Bridge, marriage, memoir, men, Molly Giles, San Francisco State University, short stories, teaching, Woodacre, writing, WTAW Press | Leave a comment

The Letters of Shirley Jackson—a Preview!

Posted on August 23, 2021 by Gabriella West

I’ve been busy reading the delightful, yet somewhat vexing Letters of Shirley Jackson (Random House, 672 pp., $14.99 on Kindle) and writing a long review of it! Finding a home (irony alert, as Shirley was always focused on the physical … Continue reading →

Posted in creativity and its discontents, News, Reviews, Writing | Tagged 1950s, cruelty, dysfunctional relationships, female breadwinners, feminism, husbands, marriage, mental health, Morris Minors, Shirley Jackson, The Internet Review of Books, The Letters of Shirley Jackson, Vermont, women writers, women's lives | Leave a comment

Review: Becoming Mrs. Lewis

Posted on October 16, 2018 by Gabriella West

Becoming Mrs. Lewis, Patti Callahan’s just-published novel (Thomas Nelson; $25.99), is a fictional take on the story of poet Joy Davidman (1915-1960) and writer and academic CS Lewis. I had previously seen and adored the film Shadowlands, so I came … Continue reading →

Posted in creativity and its discontents, Reviews, Writing | Tagged 20th-century women writers, Becoming Mrs. Lewis, C.S. Lewis, cancer, literary legacy, love, marriage, Oxford, Patti Callahan, poet, review, Thomas Nelson, tragedy | Leave a comment

The Downhill Slide: Two Literary Biographies

Posted on December 18, 2016 by Gabriella West

Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life by Ruth Franklin Manderley Forever: A Biography of Daphne du Maurier by Tatiana de Rosnay Literary biography can be such a depressing genre, although I read it, I realize, to feel vicariously alive, to really … Continue reading →

Posted in creativity and its discontents, LGBT, Reviews, Writing | Tagged 1950s, anxiety, barbiturates, bisexuality, Cornwall, Daphne du Maurier, daughters, dominance, Dublin, feminist, France, Gertrude Lawrence, ghosts, haunted lives, lesbian, life, literary biography, London, marriage, Menabilly, mothers, old age, Rebecca, Ruth Franklin, Shirley Jackson, Stanley Edgar Hyman, Tatiana de Rosnay, truth, Vermont, women's lives | 3 Comments

Queerly Beloved: a review

Posted on May 17, 2014 by Gabriella West

I’ve always been fascinated by gender diversity. A memoir has just been published that explores what happens when one partner in a long-term lesbian relationship transitions to being a man. What surprised me about Queerly Beloved (Bold Strokes Books, May 2014, $9.99 … Continue reading →