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 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 the short story “Merritsville,” Mary Redmund’s views are pooh-poohed by her painter-professor husband and his good friend, the Associate Professor of English George Sedwick who criticizes “most women” for lack of a sense of the Ideal. …
In “Mame,” Suckow depicts the story of a daughter left to care for the parents while her sisters and brothers rush to leave town and make better lives for themselves. A story about the coldness of families.
In this story, Elizabeth has just lost her beloved husband and is riddled with pain and suffering from the loss. She goes to visit Miss Gurney, whom she has always admired. Miss Gurney, we learn, first took care of her mother who was injured after a…
In “Charlotte's Marriage,” Suckow again contrasts two women and their choices. Grace VanCamp, a wealthy Iowan “wintering” in California, contrives to look up Charlotte, a girlhood friend Grace always envied. Charlotte always possessed a…
California is questioned as a golden “paradise” in “Auntie Bissel,” published in 1935. Auntie Bissel is a naïve “Midwestern primitive” basking in California. Personal values are raised in this, Suckow's critique of California as…
