Title: Words of an angry woman
Product review: The book's rear cover tells us that Marjorie Bowen "spent the early part of her working life providing for a demanding and ungrateful family." An examination of her writing appears to demonstrate just how much that experience embittered her.The stories are well-enough written, and demonstrate a deft touch with the sort of non-explicit horror that marks the period. In ones or twos, the stories are excellent. However, I don't suggest sitting down with the intention of reading the book cover-to-cover, as the effect would prove painful. Each of the stories leads to some unfortunate conclusion, a little reminder of the pain of human interaction or existence itself. The innocent and the guilty alike come to bad ends, as a human or cosmic malice seems designed to overtake all.A Freudian might feast on the clues to unhappiness found in Bowen's short stories; the rest of us might just note that heavy current of bitterness that pervades them.
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