Description :
Losses... Life is full of them. Losing your keys, an official document, a postal address...
But it is other kinds of loss that Marianne Sluszny explores in this collection. Those that profoundly shake a person to the core and their emotions, all told from a female perspective. The sudden loss of a loved one struck down by a stroke. The loss of mental faculties in a brilliant executive, which makes his partner realise she has been under his influence throughout their life together. The loss of a certain form of femininity upon the birth of a child, perhaps to discover another. The loss of adolescent illusions, when one is certain of belonging to a generation whose dogmatic certainties will change the world. The loss of a breast ravaged by cancer, and of its erotic riches. The loss of an unfaithful husband, who has become so for his mistress as well...
Yet Marianne Sluszny's short stories are far from melodramatic. Her lucid analyses leave doors open and exude a certain optimism, insofar as the human condition - and particularly that of women - allows.