American author Edith Pearlman’s fifth volume of short stories, Honeydew (2014), collects 20 pieces of literary domestic fiction. According to The New York Times, "The stories in Honeydew excel at capturing the complex and surprising turns in seemingly ordinary lives." The first story, "Tenderfoot," focuses on Paige, a 49-year-old, childless widow who owns a pedicure parlor called Tenderfoot, which she lives above. Bobby, a newly arrived neighbor who teaches art history at the local college, takes an interest in Paige and her varied clientele. After months of watching her from afar, Bobby asks her for a foot treatment. During the pedicure, he has an erection which he hides under a book. As Paige exfoliates his feet, Bobby recalls his ex-wife, Renee, from whom he separated after an argument relating to a car they saw in the aftermath of an accident. Renee insisted on turning around to see if the people in the automobile were still alive, but Bobby refused. After the pedicure, Bobby sees Renee standing outside his apartment building. In the second story, "Dream Children," Willa, a nanny of West Indian descent discovers a series of watercolor artwork painted by the affluent father of a family who employs her. Though Willa is homesick and frequently annoyed by the customs and preferences of the wealthy New Yorkers she works for, the artwork gives her an opening into understanding the family's patriarch and empathizing with him. "Castle 4" chronicles the intricate romantic connections between six people at a Boston hospital known as the Castle. A fairytale motif is utilized in which the patients are "beautiful ladies-in-waiting" and the surgeons are "dragons." At the end of the story, a shy anesthesiologist "marries" a terminally ill cancer patient on her deathbed in a strange wedding ritual. "Stone" is about Ingrid, a twice-widowed 72-year-old who makes an impulsive decision to leave New York for the Southern United States to work as a bookkeeper for Chris, a carpenter and her first husband's nephew. Even though Chris is thirty years younger than Ingrid, a sexual attraction develops between them. When it is time for Ingrid to return to New York, Chris begs her to stay. Not wanting Chris to see her grow old and withered, Ingrid resigns herself to returning to New York alone. Unlike most of the stories, "Her Cousin Jamie" takes place in the past, in mid-20th-century America. The story chronicles a torrid but disastrous love affair between a middle-aged man and a much younger woman. "Blessed Harry" concerns the Flaxbaum family who lives in the fictional Boston suburb of Godolphin, which is loosely modeled on the author's home of Brookline, Massachusetts. The family's patriarch, Myron Flaxbaum, is a Latin teacher who receives an invitation to give a lecture in London called "The Mystery of Life and Death." As Myron debates whether to accept the invitation, he and his wife, Bonnie discuss the metaphysical implications of the lecture topic. Bonnie peers into the future to a time long past her own death when the last of her children dies. This does not upset Bonnie, however. She vows to continue enjoying life for however long "death let[s] you live." The next story, "Puck," concerns Rennie, an antique dealer who, as a woman known for "discretion and restraint," is often asked by her clients to give life advice. Rennie returns as a protagonist in the following story, "Assisted Living." Here, Rennie's elderly assistant and best friend, Muffy suffers a bad fall on the job. As Rennie watches over Muffy in her hospital bed, she finds herself strangely envious of the older woman. "What the Axe Forgets the Tree Remembers," follows Gabrielle, a wealthy and self-absorbed 50-year-old woman who decides on a whim to volunteer for the local chapter of the Society Against Female Mutilation. During one meeting, Gabrielle meets and befriends Selene, a Somali immigrant who at a young age was a victim of genital mutilation. In "The Golden Swan," two sisters named Bella and Robin receive tickets for a trip on a cruise liner as a college graduation gift from their grandfather. Bella considers the cruise to be over-stimulating. Moreover, she feels guilty about the mute servants who toil on the cruise ship while she is supposed to have fun. As a result, Bella spends most of the cruise vacation in the library, usually alone. Ann, a real estate agent realizes in "Cul-de-Sac" that she misses her overbearing neighbor after she moves away from Godolphin, even though Ann always complained about her. In "Deliverance," the author offers a rough retelling of the Garadene Swine parable in the Bible, in which Jesus exorcizes the demon Legion out of a man, transforming the demon into a herd of pigs who drown themselves in the Sea of Galilee. In the final story, "Honeydew," the headmistress at a private school becomes pregnant with the child of a married father of one of her students. The student in question, meanwhile, suffers from anorexia.

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Edith Pearlman

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Short Story Collection

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