I actually haven't read all of the stories in this book; in fact, I've only read the title story, which is really more of a novella. But I love the title story so much that I think it's worth the whole book, even if all of the other stories in it turn out to be terrible, which I doubt that they are. The story is apparently at least somewhat autobiographical (what can I say, I skew towards autobiographical or semi-autobiographical work by women writers) and concerns an American woman who works as a secretary in the British Army during the Second World War. She's in Britain because she married a British man, whom she has since left, and she keeps company with a lot of other jaded stylish sharp-tongued single working women and eventually has a very creepy affair with her supervisor. There's a fascinating tension in the story between the brittle self-possession of her voice and, much of the time, her public demeanor; and her totally abject, passive behavior around the Captain, who eventually is stationed elsewhere. She is somehow abject and passive around him without ever losing her dignity, perhaps because she seems to completely accept the temporary nature of their affair. Also, her affair with the Captain does not mean that the rest of the world recedes for her, and she tells us all about characters in her office and office politics and little office feuds and rituals, and all of this is often very funny. She has a great eye for detail, e.g., a piece of fancy writing paper looks as if it has "been nibbled by very well-behaved mice." The ending of the story is at once low-key and surprising and quietly devastating - a perfect ending, in other words.
Do You like book The Darts Of Cupid: Stories (2003)?
