The Woman Who — Kelly Cherry

The seven stories in The Woman Who take a close and sharp look at the complex relationships between art and reality, between imagination and identity. They offer illuminating glimpses of that old and continuing mystery, the creating mind. Kate, an editor, must stabilize her sense of self after being shaken by the brute fact of Soviet constraint. Lindy, a photographer, is trying to find herself in New York City. Nan, a writer, assembles a self from the materials of her youth in Virginia. Nuance and vibrant prose plunge the reader into the lives and hearts of these vivid characters. The suspenseful last story, "Art and Aberration," brings the three together in a single voice that demonstrates the power of the artistic imagination. Against nothingness, The Woman Who celebrates the flourishing creation, its ability to transfigure thought into object: the objet d'art, the story.