My favorite is the one by Peter Boxall, although he tends to favor the most recent stuff, twenty-first century ultra modern, some of which I find almost indecipherable. This must have been audacious stuff back in 1965, with its frank depiction of feminine carnality, but today it seems dated.

This review is a complete spoiler, so if you have not read the book and plan to, you might want to read it first. Bored London house wife Ellen, 28 years old, has divorced her husband and lives in London with her eight-year-old son. Her ex husband has taken their son away on holiday and Ellen decides that maybe a holiday is what she also needs.When her husband takes their son on a camping trip she bounces around her house for a bit, has a desultory sexual encounter with a conflicted neighbor, and then decides to go somewhere exciting. The Summer Before the Dark’ by Doris Lessing: A well-educated woman contemplates her future after 20 years of marriage and motherhood at a time when having a career wasn’t open to all. She is the recipient of many awards, including the Irish PEN Lifetime Achievement Award, the American National Arts Gold Medal, the Frank O'Connor Prize, the PEN/Nabokov Award For Achievement in International Literature, and the David Cohen Prize for Literature. I’ve read a handful of Edna O’Brien’s novels in the past, but August is a Wicked Month is by far my favourite.

Embora a escrita seja muito mais simples e linear, a sua capacidade de surpreender e de tocar aspectos brutais da vida de uma forma crua e ao mesmo tempo tão verdadeira que nos arrebata, está cá. It’s about a young Irish woman with an eight year old son who’s been separated from her husband for a year. Later she meets a group of wealthy party-goers who explore the Riviera, beaches, restaurants and a fabulous French mansion. A short novel, it is nevertheless jam-packed with the O'Brien's trademark haunting prose - in her best works ( House of Splendid Isolation, In the Forest), her trance-like writing is both comforting and harrowing - often at the very same time. In France she flirts with almost every male she sees, including the man sitting beside her on the plane, but her her choices are poor and nothing works out as she would.A good introduction to O'Brien for those who don't know her work, and a yearning look back at her early work for those who do. The title is regularly mentioned to this day by commentators on topics ranging from business and politics to fashion and weather. The character of Ellen is so unformed, her hair color keeps changing, and I don't mean because she dyes it.