Obscure 20th century writer Djuna Barnes wrote three stories under the pseudonym Lydia Steptoe from 1922 to 1924 and they’re collected in this dinky little paperback apparently for the first time. And they suck!
A 14 year old girl tries it on with an older man – but not if her ma has anything to say about it! A 14 year old boy is lured into the forest during a hunting trip – with disastrous results! A 40 year old woman falls for a younger man. Zzz…
It’s not that they’re badly written but there’s really nothing to them. They feature characters proud of being sexual liberated – and that’s about it. Little happens that’s remotely interesting, the stories are much too short to leave an impression and Barnes isn’t saying or doing anything remarkable or original with her writing.
I can’t imagine this collection appealing to anyone. I can see why I never heard of this writer before!
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