story: “House of Women”

author: Susan Minot

year: 1991

where: the gold sofa

note: This story was brilliant not only for its evocative descriptions of coastal nature, but also because of its blatant realism about how women talking together can manage to “resurrect” our ex-boyfriends, lovers, and husbands.

a line: “By the time the thunder had grown faint the lawn was crowded with them, scores of them, patiently gathered in front of our house.”

theme(s): Women, friendship, recovery, memory, men and women, relationships