The Biggest Female in the World

In this collection of arresting stories, we are plunged into the dreams, delights and delusions of contemporary life and love. Her characters frequently seek solace through the power of the imagination, finding release in fantasy worlds. Escape, whether make-believe or literal, is an all-important theme. A girl escapes her own wedding by hiding in a cleaner's cupboard and exchanging her bridal gown for a pair of workmen's overalls. A frustrated woman finds sexual satisfaction with a gang of workmen re-tarmacing the road, before returning dutifully home. An elderly widow climbs a vapour-trail left by a passing plane, to rejoin her husband (on what would be their 58th wedding anniversary) in some transcendent, shining world.

A common thread is conflict: conflict between desire and impotence, freedom and suppression, rational thought and a belief in the miraculous. In such ambiguous territory, happy endings may be few but there is always hope, in even the darkest stories, of self-fulfilment and personal redemption.

Perriam's wide-ranging humanity, coupled with her lively mix of comedy and menace, makes this, her fourth collection, a deeply satisfying read.


Genre: Literary Fiction