I really liked a bunch of the stories, a couple in the middle didn't do it for me though. Overall, she managed to take some stories that feel mundane/are not extraordinary and make them feel special. ( )

Lean, but not mean in the least—rather the stories, which date from 1966 to 2020, are all muscle and heart, domestic but not in the least fussy. I love Wolitzer's understanding of how compassion and humor fit seamlessly together. ( )

What a wonderful collection of short stories. I absolutely adored this book. "Today a Woman Went Mad in the Supermarket" offers a series of short stories, mostly written in the first person, describing seemingly ordinary day-to-day incidents in women's lives. I laughed, cried, cheered. ( )

The majority, but not all, of these collected short stories are related to a "loosely autobiographical couple", Paulie and Howard. I began reading them, expecting, for some reason, them to be humerous, but in reality they are not. For readers of this blog, I should point out, nor are they crime fiction. They spring rather from the ordinary events of life, of things that have happened, or nearly happened to us.

Events capture the characters, entrap them, and then sometimes there is humour and quirkiness, as they struggle to release themselves.

These stories were written and published over a period of five decades, and in themselves reflect what was important in American society in that time.

For me the most memorable is the last, the author writing in and about the year of the Covid-19 pandemic. ( )

Short stories are great to read during the week, when time to relax can only be snatched in small amounts. However, with this collection by Hilma Wolitzer, it was difficult to choose between ‘one more story’ and lights out!

Hilma Wolitzer (Meg Wolitzer’s mum) is now in her nineties, and in my opinion, should be up there with writers like Anne Tyler. She writes about everyday life and normal people with a keen eye that makes it all incredibly interesting. It’s about the little things, and the odd things that can happen to anyone. The stories become more powerful from what is not said, such as the title story. Yes, a woman does have a breakdown in the supermarket, but it’s the many things that the narrator and reader don’t know about that make the story stronger. Exactly what happened to the woman? What happens next?

Many of the stories are about Paulie and Howard, who were forced to marry after she became pregnant. Yet it’s a love for the ages as the stories follow them through their lives, good and bad. There is the excitement of a flasher in the apartment complex and the wistfulness of looking at display homes. The most powerful story of the entire collection is one written last year (most of the stories were written in the 1960s and 70s), called The Great Escape. In this story, Paulie and Howard are elderly, living a quiet life in their New York apartment dictated by medical appointments. Then comes 2020 and the sudden need for masks and Zoom…it’s a beautiful story that is heartbreaking.

To be honest, I had never heard of Hilma Wolitzer until now and I wonder what rock I’ve been living under. Her writing captures the essence of the era and emotions, small and big, like the pettiness of a husband who doesn’t help to a partner arrested for a crime. I’d love to see more of her work republished to capture a new era of readers.

Thank you to Bloomsbury for the copy of this book. My review is honest.

http://samstillreading.wordpress.com ( )