Strange Bliss

Strange Bliss by Katherine Mansfield. Pushkin Press

While perusing books to read I came across the name Katherine Mansfield. It’s a name familiar to me but I couldn’t honestly say I was familiar with her work. And so I decided Strange Bliss could be my introduction. This book is a curated collection of six short stories.

Both the first and last stories are the longest ones and feature the Burnell family. They both follow a similar format of being sequences of snapshots over the course of a day. In the first, “Prelude” the family is moving into a more rural location and we see the move through the eyes of various family members, including the three young daughters in the family. In the last story, “At the Bay”, the family is on holiday and it’s an account of a day in the life where we sneak a look at all of them at various points, from the morning while waiting for patriarch Stan to depart for work until the end of the day when the sun sets and we see scenes that are a bit more private.

The other stories are much shorter but still quite interesting. I think the one I liked best was “The Daughters of the Late Colonel”. Two spinster sisters have lived with their father all their lives and then he dies. The impact on the women is both freedom and fear as they must now embark on a life without the father in charge.

I also found “How Pearl Button Was Kidnapped” fascinating as two women come along and find Pearl near the road and just take her along with them like it’s the most natural thing. Pearl seems to think of it as an adventure that ends when the blue people show up to take her home.

In many cases, we actually get inside the heads of the women in the stories and know what they are thinking. Their hopes, desires, dislikes, and frustrations are all on display as we look into the lives being lead. There are male characters but they seem to be less developed with the focus on the female ones.

I should make note that these stories were written in the early 20th century and so some of the language used may make the reader a bit uncomfortable in modern times. One notable example is a reference to the Chinaman’s shop, which would have seemed normal when written but definitely does not stand up in today’s society.

Overall I’m quite satisfied with my introduction and give this four stars. I would like to thank Netgalley and Pushkin Press for providing an advanced reader copy for free. I am providing this review voluntarily.