In the short story “Midwestern Primitive,” Bert Statzer tries to impress others by imitating East Coast fashions and styles while her mother, Mrs. Honenschuh, a German farm wife (and widow), insists on being totally herself. Bert frets over…
In “Mrs. Kemper,” Suckow explores how lack of the assurance of love can keep a person from blooming. Mrs. Kemper is just such a woman. She comes to Iowa from the East as a young woman to teach in the high school. She is cultured, but shy,…
In Suckow’s short story “The Renters,” honest, hardworking renter Fred Mutchler and his wife face a series of misfortunes. Their bad luck is enhanced by the fact that “Old Lady Hunt,” who lives in town, would rather have her grand…
This is the story of two sisters - Toldene and Henrietta. Toldene lives a contented spinster life with her cat. Her widowed sister, Henrietta, lives next door with her daughter and daughter's family. She does not share her sister's calm self-content.
The Kramer Girls is a story about three sisters, and the choices they make. It is written by Ruth Suckow, who is sometimes called a regional writer and at other times called a realistic writer. She has a gift for dialogue and description that still…
Character study of a sensitive, ambitious girl in a small Iowa town. She is the only girl in a small, fairly well-to-do family and has always been expected "to do something" - what it is to be she gropingly tries to find out. Very realistic,…
In this striking story, a family is stunned at "Grandma's" appearance in her casket. Who is this person, her three married daughters wonder. She had lived their life so long---never her own. They "never thought of her a a person in herself." But her…
Albert Vogel was a bachelor who lived a quiet life working in his Uncle Will's store. He was very proud of the fact that years before he had loaned his friend Joe eleven dollars to go to Chicago and earn his fortune years before. Joe had become very…