SOURCE: "Secrets Accidentally Spilled," in Los Angeles Times Book Review, May 26, 1996, p. 7.

[In the following favorable review of Women in Their Beds, George praises the vivid precision of Berriault's work.]

In stories that are part trance, part cinema, Gina Berriault writes about the beds we make and are forced to lie in. She explores he choices we squeeze ourselves into, like shoes much too tight; the choices forced upon us by ill timing or unfortunate station.

The homeless "sidewalk sleeper" of "Who Is It Can Tell Me Who I Am" shuffling into a San Francisco library with scraps of poetry stuffed into his pockets, demands an explanation. At least someone who can shed light on the enigma of himself. He locks his gaze on a librarian, Alberto Perera, who is peppered with affectation, but full of book-learned philosophy.

Perera, standing at the dawn of retirement—without much self-confrontation...