FICTION

Yellow Roses

New York ReLit. Mar. 2024. 208p. ISBN 9781531507350. pap. $19.95. F
COPY ISBN
In her second and final collection, from 1977, Irish American author Cullinan’s expertly crafted short stories illuminate the changing roles and expectations of women, and particularly Catholic women in an increasingly permissive post–Vatican II world. In “The Sum and Substance,” a young woman undergoing surgery for ovarian cysts finds her ideas and beliefs brought up short against the inescapable corporeality of her situation: “The body took the blows. Nothing was lost on it…. The body remembered.” Acutely observed scenes of love and loss often turn on the mutable meaning of objects in “Yellow Roses,” “The Accident,” and “A Foregone Conclusion,” a trio of stories about a woman’s doomed affair with a Protestant married man in which his gifts of roses and an heirloom ring stand as hollow tokens of love that belie their intended significance. On a lighter note, in “Voices of the Dead,” the errant musings of a devout matriarch turn a domestic Easter Mass into a sanctified Tin Pan Alley sing-along. Such moments of everyday transubstantiation are revealed with unforced grace through precisely chosen details and lifelike dialogue.
VERDICT Wise, subtle, and revelatory, Cullinan’s stories rank among the best of Alice Munro, Grace Paley, and Edith Pearlman.
Comment Policy:
  • Be respectful, and do not attack the author, people mentioned in the article, or other commenters. Take on the idea, not the messenger.
  • Don't use obscene, profane, or vulgar language.
  • Stay on point. Comments that stray from the topic at hand may be deleted.
  • Comments may be republished in print, online, or other forms of media.
  • If you see something objectionable, please let us know. Once a comment has been flagged, a staff member will investigate.


RELATED 

ALREADY A SUBSCRIBER?

We are currently offering this content for free. Sign up now to activate your personal profile, where you can save articles for future viewing

ALREADY A SUBSCRIBER?