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…
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 “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…
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.
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…
