Girls of Tender Age, Chapter Nine
Chapter Nine of Girls of Tender Age treats a visit to the downtown Hartford department store G. Fox, a visit that can’t possibly have been duplicated any time in the store’s history. Continue reading Girls of Tender Age, Chapter Nine
Tag Archives: Catholicism
from Girls of Tender Age
In Girls of Tender Age (2006), Tirone Smith drew on the memories of a Hartford childhood and the tragedy that haunted it. In Chapter Seven we meet her autistic and beloved brother Tyler, a portrait of the Charter Oak Terrace housing project in its early days, and a hilarious piano-moving scene. Continue reading from Girls of Tender Age
“Awhirl in a Kaleidoscope of City Memories”
With five novels and three mysteries under her belt, Tirone Smith had established a sterling reputation by 2002 when she was asked by Hartford Courant Books Editor Carole Goldberg to write the keynote essay for the newspaper’s first annual Literary Supplement, which focused on Hartford authors. A phone call from a reader helped lead to her acclaimed memoir, Girls of Tender Age. Continue reading “Awhirl in a Kaleidoscope of City Memories”
from A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court
Clemens’s fascination with English history developed with his visits to the country and his research for The Prince and the Pauper (1881), a tale of a royal and a commoner changing places so each could find out what he had been envying. He was fascinated by the Elizabethan period and its wholesome frankness about sex and bodily functions, which he celebrated in a short obscene work called 1601: Conversation as it Was by the Social Fireside, in the Time of the Tudors. The book was concealed to all but select male friends, but is now freely readable on the Internet. Continue reading from A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court
The Mischievous Sinfulness of Mother Coakley
“The Mischievous Sinfulness of Mother Coakley,” a thoroughly reworked version of his New Yorker story “Mother Coakley’s Reform” (March 18, 1944), is an example of Gill’s exploration of the life of Catholic clergy in his fiction and is set in a monastery in a Carolina town. The narrative tone is warm and somewhat whimsical in telling the story of a nun struggling with sins of pride, envy, and greed stemming from, of all things, her competitiveness on the tennis court and a priest facing two specific weaknesses of his own. The hopefulness of faith and the capacity for change make this a meaningful pairing with “The Knife.” Continue reading The Mischievous Sinfulness of Mother Coakley
The Knife
“The Knife,” originally published in The New Yorker (March 16, 1940), is described by John Updike as “a desolating sketch of faith’s clash with reality.” Themes familiar in Gill’s fiction and derived from personal experience motivate this story: namely, coping with the untimely death of a young mother and the role of Catholicism in that process. Continue reading The Knife
The Trouble of One House
The chapters selected for this anthology come late in the book. Elizabeth has just died and family members arrive that evening to visit. These two chapters explore the tensions in the family and the internal conflicts experienced by Elizabeth’s husband, Doctor Thomas Rowan. Readers may find it helpful to refer to the cast of characters below for an orientation to the selected chapters. Continue reading The Trouble of One House