Jean Stafford Critical Essay | Critical Review by Irving Malin

Critical Review by Irving Malin

SOURCE: A review of The Collected Stories of Jean Stafford, in Commonweal, Vol. XC, No. 6, April 25, 1969, pp. 174-75.

Below, Malin examines three of Stafford's short stories, noting that her "poised, beautiful style" is a "perfect frame . . . for the hideous withdrawals, self-deceptions, and perversions of her heroines. "

Perhaps the clue to Miss Stafford's obsessive themes and images can be found in the last line of "I Love Someone": "My friends and I have managed my life with the best of taste and all that is lacking at this banquet where the appointments are so elegant is something to eat."

Her thirty stories deal with the warped "management" of life. They are arranged in four sections—"The Innocents Abroad"; "The Bostonians, and Other Manifestations of the American Scene"; "Cowboys and Indians, and Magic Mountains"; and "Manhattan Island"—but they tend to return to (or begin with) an...
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