Loneliness and Entrapment

Over the course of the collection’s six short stories, the author explores issues of loneliness and entrapment within various relational contexts. All of the short stories feature interpersonal relationships which leave the primary characters feeling claustrophobic and alienated. Marriage offers the characters the opportunity for conventional stability and security. However, the institution also threatens to stifle many of the characters’ true natures, feelings, and identities. In “A Woman’s Hand,” for example, Evelyn and Harold Fazackerley’s marriage is defined by their secret feelings for other people. While Harold’s character is gay and is harboring feelings for his childhood friend Clem Dowson, Evelyn’s character feels trapped by her husband’s closeted sexuality and her own interest in her childhood friend Nesta Pine. Both characters are constantly held by “the social obligations” which have inspired their union and which hold them spiritually...