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 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…
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…
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.
