Tales I Tell My Mother

3.5/5 ( ratings)

Tales I Tell My Mother is a unique book; through it emerge five strong and distinct fictional voices, female and feminist, and testing both those definitions every step of the way. It is a book which everyone interested in fiction or politics must read.

The 15 stories were written as a collaborative project over 18 months, involving critical and political discussion about the issues which concerned the authors as women, writers, feminists and socialists. Some of these discussions are represented by five short essays which raise important questions for our time about the relationships between fiction, language, aesthetics and politics.

Together they explore the experiences of contemporary women in a variety of short story forms, ranging from the openly polemical to the more traditionally subjective, from social realism to the more experimental.

The book is divided into three sections: in the first, stories about work, abortion, sexuality, and discrimination filter the writers’ everyday experience as feminists. In the second, stories about sexuality, politics and group dynamics are offered as a direct engagement with the varied politics of the women’s liberation movement; and in the third section the use of myth, relationships with men, motherhood and art offer a new perspective on the everyday lives of women in a society where the roles of both sexes are under close scrutiny.

Contents:
Introduction / Zoë Fairbairns --
Feminist fiction and language / Michelene Wandor --
Bus ticket / Zoë Fairbairns --
Womb with a view / Michele Roberts --
The right hand on the day of judgement / Valerie Miner --
Just lie back and think of the empire / Michele Roberts --
Acts of violence / Zoë Fairbairns --
Feminist fiction and politics / Valerie Miner --
After the ball was over / Sara Maitland --
Martha and Mary raise consciousness from the dead / Michele Roberts --
The freedom of Rosemary Patan / Valerie Miner --
Keep it clean / Michelene Wandor --
Parallel lines / Sara Maitland --
Feminist fiction and aesthetics / Sara Maitland --
Afterlife / Valerie Miner --
Radio times / Michelene Wandor --
Time, gentlemen / Michelene Wandor --
You only have to say / Zoë Fairbairns --
Penelope / Sara Maitland.