Tale for the Mirror: A Novella and Other Stories

By: Hortense Calisher

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Synopsis: Hortense Calisher delivers another collection of provocative prose, on par with that of Henry James and John UpdikeA novella plus twelve short vignettes, Tale for the Mirror demonstrates Hortense Calisher&’s masterful use of language in an exploration of the human condition. In the title novella, a suburban man in the Hudson River Valley analyzes his life and discovers the importance of stories after a sage Indian mystic moves into his neighborhood.Laced with wit and pathos, the evocative shorter pieces include the galvanizing &“The Scream on Fifty-seventh Street,&” a textured tale of a widow who overhears an incident outside her window, compelling her to solve a mystery while coming to terms with her own loneliness in an unsentimental city. &“The Rehabilitation of Ginevra Leake&” is the farcical story of a homely girl from a proper Southern family who finds a home in the Communist party. In &“The Seacoast of Bohemia,&” a successful Manhattan man comes to terms with the fact that he&’ll never have children.Tale for the Mirror peers into private lives with precision and perception, as only Hortense Calisher could.

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