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I fell in love with Virginia Woolf’s works only a few months ago and couldn’t get enough of her words so far, be it books, short stories, letters or diary entries (I’ve yet to read her essays, but I’m definitely planning to!). It’s just an intoxicating feeling to be able to take a look into the complicated mind of this fascinating, complex writer.
That’s why I couldn’t wait to read this book, which is an excerpt from her Complete Shorter Prose.
And really, the author proves her mastery once more in these short stories. Even more than in the longer prose, she shows her talent for throwing the reader off the scent and creating drama in small, everyday things.
Again I was completely and utterly enchanted by the power of her language. For example, her flower description in Kew Gardens is as intoxicating as a poem of maybe an Impressionist painting.
And of course I loved Slater’s Pins Have No Points, her “little story about Sapphism for the Americans�, as she wrote to Vita Sackville-West in 1927.
But: In her story An Unwritten Novel, SHE USES THE N-WORD!!!
Yes, I know that it’s actually not the author speaking, but the thoughts of a character in the story. Yes, I know that the story was written more than a hundred years ago and it was a different time. Yes, I know that VW was a member of the educated middle-class in England who grew up with different rules, ideas and ideals than people do today.
But dear Ms Woolf, despite everything, I think we REALLY need to talk about racism (and classism anyway)! Because in my opinion, using this word is okay under absolutely NO circumstances � and it was wrong back then, too! Which you, as the brilliant thinker you were, should have known as well.
I confess that my heart hurt a lot reading it, maybe even more so as the word is used in such a casual way here. I guess that was basically the moment my literary heroine was knocked off her pedestal � But I’ve been doing my very best to refuse to fall out of love because of her mistake, even though it’s unforgivable.
The rest of the stories are powerful, beautiful, profound, funny, tragic and poignant as ever.
4 Stars, with an uneasy feeling.