Publisher's Weekly
Thompson is a woman's writer: the majority of these sensitive, rather wistful stories are about the small, intimate moments that sustain women in their relationships with others. In ''Robert's Song,'' a woman hears a song on the radio written by a former lover, now a rock-and-roll star, which sparks memories of a torrid relationship. ''The Stud'' portrays a man's relationship with his son, whom he fathered with a feminist. In every sense a stud, he was cold-bloodly chosen because he could be characterized as ''highly intelligent . . . physically sound. . . not bad looking . . . and nonaggressive.'' In ''Dreams of a New Mother,'' a woman nursing her newborn is overcome by fatigue and visited by a kaleidoscopic series of nightmares. Thompson is particularly good at describing the uneasy truce that exists between women, their husbands, children and lovers. The writing is traditional, accessible and strong; this is a collection worth noting. (September 1)
Library Journal
Less stories than psychoanalytical vignettes, the selections in both these books make for difficult reading. Permeated by a stylish and self-conscious brand of insight, the tales are heavy with introspection and light on action. Thompson, the better storyteller of the two, adeptly renders a child's point of view in ''The Afternoon of the Poetess'' but sinks to self-indulgence in the embarrassing ''Dreams of a New Mother.'' She is capable of good characterization and touching dialogue, as in her portrayal of an eccentric aunt and in the fragile relationship between a father and his adolescent daughter on a camping trip. Her treatment of a bitter feminist's relationship with the ineffectual father of her child is witty and insightful. McKinley's stories are contrived and often absurd. His book opens on an airplane with the ridiculous in-flight monologue of a middle-aged salesman and includes several similarly artificial scenarios that strain for strangeness. The characters analyze and are analyzed beyond endurance, while the narrator's intrusively superior tone prevails. Thompson is appropriate for large fiction collections, but librarians should pass on McKinley. Leonard Kniffel, Detroit P.L.
Thompson is a woman's writer: the majority of these sensitive, rather wistful stories are about the small, intimate moments that sustain women in their relationships with others. In ''Robert's Song,'' a woman hears a song on the radio written by a former lover, now a rock-and-roll star, which sparks memories of a torrid relationship. ''The Stud'' portrays a man's relationship with his son, whom he fathered with a feminist. In every sense a stud, he was cold-bloodly chosen because he could be characterized as ''highly intelligent . . . physically sound. . . not bad looking . . . and nonaggressive.'' In ''Dreams of a New Mother,'' a woman nursing her newborn is overcome by fatigue and visited by a kaleidoscopic series of nightmares. Thompson is particularly good at describing the uneasy truce that exists between women, their husbands, children and lovers. The writing is traditional, accessible and strong; this is a collection worth noting. (September 1)
Library Journal
Less stories than psychoanalytical vignettes, the selections in both these books make for difficult reading. Permeated by a stylish and self-conscious brand of insight, the tales are heavy with introspection and light on action. Thompson, the better storyteller of the two, adeptly renders a child's point of view in ''The Afternoon of the Poetess'' but sinks to self-indulgence in the embarrassing ''Dreams of a New Mother.'' She is capable of good characterization and touching dialogue, as in her portrayal of an eccentric aunt and in the fragile relationship between a father and his adolescent daughter on a camping trip. Her treatment of a bitter feminist's relationship with the ineffectual father of her child is witty and insightful. McKinley's stories are contrived and often absurd. His book opens on an airplane with the ridiculous in-flight monologue of a middle-aged salesman and includes several similarly artificial scenarios that strain for strangeness. The characters analyze and are analyzed beyond endurance, while the narrator's intrusively superior tone prevails. Thompson is appropriate for large fiction collections, but librarians should pass on McKinley. Leonard Kniffel, Detroit P.L.
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