This is a collection of mostly previously published stories, by Hilma Wolitzer with an introduction by Elizabeth Strout. The stories are full of insight, humour, wit, curiosity, empathy, and wisdom. The title story tells of Mrs Shirley Lewis, with her young children in the supermarket, being pushed towards the brink of insanity; she has a husband who has little understanding of her. Other tales feature Paulette and Howard, now into their 90s, and talk of their relationship and marriage over the years.

Hilma Wolitzer excels at turning the everyday things, the humdrum and the apparently normal, and showing them in a different light. She covers traumatic childhoods, relationships, parenting, motherhood, marriage, general living, love, loss, grief, and what-ifs, among others. A tremendously good read.

I received a complimentary copy of this novel at my request from Bloomsbury Publishing via NetGalley. This review is my own unbiased opinion.

Sometimes humorous, sometimes sad, always interesting, this collection of short stories is all about the "domestic bliss" in the 60's and 70's. A snapshot of a woman's life in a different era.

Not all the stories grabbed me, so I skipped a few, to be honest.

Still, worth a read.

I loved this collection of short stories - I hadn’t realised when they were written originally (mostly 60s and 70s) and they still sound fresh today. I loved following Howard and Paulette through several of these stories and the 2020 instalment absolutely knocked the wind out of me - amazing that the author is still writing this beautifully over the age of 90. Highly recommended and thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

The book is a collection of short stories written and published by the author in the 60s and 70s in various publications, and brought right up to date with a brand new story at the end that was the best in the whole collection.

Loved having the opportunity to read this title. Really interesting and well written. Would definitely recommend!

I’ll be honest, this wasn’t what I expected as went into it blind thinking it was going to be along the lines of the Why Mummy ….. series!

It is in fact a collection of short stories about ‘domestic bliss’ mostly set in the 60’s and 70’s centred around the marriage of Paulie and Howard

The writing is thought provoking, sometimes humorous, sometimes moving

I loved this stories, snapshots of another age and of women in the past. It was a sort of travelling back in time and seeing what meant being a women.
I was expecting something funny, this is quite sad but I loved it nonetheless.
I discovered a new to me excellent author and thoroughly enjoyed this reading experience.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Today a Woman Went Mad in a Supermarket is a delightful collection of short stories that all packed a punch. I'm not usually a fan of the short story and tend to be harsh when reviewing collections. However, there wasn't one story in this collection that didn't keep me hooked.

One particular story really had a powerful impact. It was set during the pandemic and im still bruised after reading it. Very powerful stuff.

A great collection.

Today a Woman Went Mad in a Supermarket by Ahimla Wolitzer is available now.

For more information regarding Himla Wolitzer (@BloomsburyBooks) please visit www.bloomsbury.com.

"I'm too sophisticated in things psychological (isn't everyone today) to think that one goes mad at a moment's notice. There are insipid beginnings to a nervous breakdown... Yet something seems very right to me about going mad in a supermarket."

Hilma Wolitzer delivered a great selection of short stories about the downright difficulties of modern life. That the majority of the tales were written in the 60's and 70's was astounding - despite every development and improvement we see in life, not much has really changed.

The book is short and sweet, although no stories left me pondering and reflecting. It's a sweet collection for cleansing the palate.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.

I hadn't heard of Hilma Wolitzer but was enticed by the recommendation and foreword by Elizabeth Strout, and then realised that she is the mother of Meg Wolitzer, author of novels including The Wife. Hilma Wolitzer is likewise a brilliant writer, and this is a wonderful collection of her stories spanning over 50 years. Her stories are funny, wise and big-hearted but also pulse with the longings and frustrations underlying the ordinary lives of her female characters.

In her foreword, Strout focuses on the ordinary and the extraordinary in Wolitzer's writing, and this is evident in all of these stories. Her female characters have rich inner lives and find both humour and pathos in even the most mundane aspects of the world around them. Many of her stories follow married couple Paulie and Howard, and although we only see snapshots of their relationship, it feels fully realised. In one story, Paulie narrates how "We couldn't afford real analysis, so we did each other instead" each evening in the living room - but this "best time of the day" is disrupted when Howard's ex-wife Reenie ends up sleeping on their sofa. Paulie's reactions to events are often amusingly unexpected, as we see in this story and others. The opening lines of "The Sex Maniac" perhaps provide the best example of this: "Everybody said that there was a sex maniac loose in the complex and I thought - it's about time. It had been a long asexual winter."

But there are also achingly poignant moments: in "Mother", twenty-eight-year-old spinster Helen reflects that "the very worst thing ... was not human misery, but its nakedness, and the naked witness of others. And as her father knew her hidden heart, so she knew his." A decade later and married, she finds herself alone in a maternity ward having given birth to a premature baby, and Wolitzer's description of her situation is heartrending in its loneliness and confusion. And perhaps most movingly of all, we are reunited with Paulie and Howard in their nineties as they experience the Covid pandemic - a powerful end to this stunning collection.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an uncorrected proof of this book to review.

I received this book from Netgalley in return for a review.
I admit I chose this book for the title. I had no idea it was a book of short stories written over many decades by an author I’d never heard of.
It takes an amazing writer to draw you in to every story with just a few words. Every story was relatable, usually based on middle aged women going about their life, but with some really interesting twists of life.
One couple is visited a few times and the book finishes in the modern day in the middle of the pandemic. It’s beautifully written as are all the stories. I wish there were more.

This pensive collection of short stories dissects domesticity with wit and sharp observation, beginning with the fantastical titular circumstance and ending on a more somber note.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and felt invested in the marriage of recurring characters Howard and Paulette. Even though many of the stories were written by Wolitzer in the eighties, the trials and tribulations do not age. These timeless toils are just as relevant and identifiable today.

I found the last chapter, The Great Escape, about the impact of COVID on the elderly (who are already acutely aware of their age and health) rather emotional, being a reality we all continue to live.

Another theme I admired throughout the stories is sexuality. Many tales of married life seem to almost deny pleasure and intimacy. Yet Wolitzer very much advocates the opposite, that even a couple in their maturing years can still feel deep passion for each other.

A really beautiful book from start to finish with some unforgettable quotes. I’ve knocked one star off as I would have loved to read more about Howard and Paulette than the other stories’ characters!

I found these short stories funny and heartwarming. The stories with the married couple, Howard and Paulie, were very entertaining. I found this a quick and easy read.

My first collection of short stories in a while! The title story and many others were originally released back in the 60s and 70s, with this collection having the addition of a new story that brings the characters up to the present day. The title story is centered on a woman losing control under the pressures and strains of new motherhood, and the others follow the lives of the same woman, her husband, and their daily lives together.

The stories are all centered on the domestic sphere and I enjoyed the way that the minutiae of every day is examined closely with warmth and a sharp wit. The title sounds humorous, but there's a sad undertone to the first story as I think everyone can relate to a moment of feeling completely overwhelmed by life and not knowing where to start. This has reminded me why I enjoy short stories and I'll definitely be reading more after this!

How could I resist a title like that? This is a book of short stories mostly originally published in the 1960's and 70's.They are rather of their time. I used to read a lot of short stories when I was younger but they seem to have gone out of fashion a bit. The first (title) story and the last story "The Great Escape" were the best. Several of the stories are about Paulette, Howard and their family (I kept thinking I bet Elizabeth Strout has read these). I found it all a bit hit and miss. Most of the stories started really well but kind of petered out or just didn't go anywhere. I'm glad I read them, but I didn't find them stunning.

This was an intriguing collection of stories, which I didn’t realise had been published previously during the 60s and 70s. Wolitzer examines the everyday and ordinary people, yet she makes it interesting and almost extraordinary at times. Her writing sparkles throughout each story with her keen observations which draws you in as a reader.

Many of the stories feature Paulette and Howard. From their wedding to children to the present-day during the global pandemic, we watch as their relationship changes and develops. Their last story together is one that is heartbreaking to read but was an apt ending to their story together.

This is a timeless collection of stories. Finding out that she wrote these decades previously, I was genuinely shocked. Wolitzer discusses many aspects of domestic life, with a strong emphasis on a woman’s point of view.

An exquisite collection of short stories on domestic life - the strains of marriage, the tensions between husband and wife, and what people will endure to maintain harmony. The foreword is written by Elizabeth Strout and the stories remind me of Strout’s everyday elegance, the ability to find anguish and beauty both in the mundane. ⁣⁣⁣⁣
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Except for the last one, these stories were written in the 60s and 70s, and yet feel acerbically accurate on contemporary relationships between men and women. In one, a woman being catcalled reflects on how what has previously seemed like ‘a kind of harmless, universal foreplay…now seems like such primitive behavior, one step beyond chest thumping. She feels much worse than annoyed, imposed upon. Who asked for this?’⁣⁣⁣⁣
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The bulk of the stories centre on one couple, Howard and Paulie⁣, and revising them as the years past they begin to feel like old friends. We meet them as young lovers unable to take their hands off each other, see them through infidelity and depression, and revisit them again in 2020 as the pandemic strikes. This is the latest and most heart-wrenching of Wolitzer’s stories and yet - so soon after (during) the event - does not feel like a drag to read. ⁣⁣
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In a story about a daughter finding a husband to escape her father, Wolitzer writes that ‘the very worst thing, she was certain, was not human misery, but its nakedness, and the naked witness of others. And as her father knew her hidden heart, so she knew his’. Wolitzer writes with the wisdom of an author who knows our hidden hearts, and who reveals them in their nakedness - with kindness and with understanding. ⁣
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#TodayAWomanWentMadInTheSupermarket #HilmaWolitzer

Surprisingly, I have never come across the writer Hilma Wolitzer, this is a stunning collection of mostly previously published stories, with an introduction by the wonderful Elizabeth Strout. Wolitzer turns the ordinary into the extraordinary, relating the eternally timeless experiences of what it is to be human, skilfully making the reader feel as if her storytelling is personal to them. The stories here are full of warmth, humour, wit, insight, pathos, curiosity, empathy, heart and wisdom. The title story is the first one, it sets the standard high, as it tells of Mrs Shirley Lewis, with her young children holding onto to her for dear life in the supermarket, being pushed towards the edges of insanity with the unbearable burdens of being a mother and a wife to a husband who understands little, and is of no help whatsoever. It is told through the eye of a bystander who tries to help, an empathetic woman.

Many of the stories are of Paulette and Howard, their relationship and marriage over the years, from the very beginnings and the ending with the last tale, The Great Escape, which resonates with our contemporary global ills of Covid-19 and the death and grief it brings. The couple having eased into their 90s, with forgiveness, with all the issues that arise with getting older in terms of health and disintegrating bodies, having endured the ups and downs of their marriage, including infidelity, the raising of their children, and the joys of grandchildren. In the early years they had Howard's first wife, Reenie, a hypochondriac, unable to let go of him, sleeping on their couch. There is Howard's depression, Paulie giving birth, and her insomnia. There are the difficulties of having to adjust to a life without a father, wide ranging reflections of our bodies, and the desperate desire to encounter the sex maniac on the loose at a time when love is in short supply.

Wolitzer has a keen and observant eye for the little things, the everyday, the apparently normal, and have us see it anew, with compassion and with a far greater appreciation. She covers traumatic childhoods, relationships, pregnancy, being a parent, a mother, marriage, the joys, pain, and heartbreak of living, love, loss, grief, the understandable restless wonderings of what else life could have been, and forgiveness. This superb short collection is a remarkable read, and showcases the talents of a gifted author that I am delighted to have discovered. Highly recommended. Many thanks to the publisher for an ARC.

I loved discovering the work of Hilma Wolizter which until now has not been on my radar. I absolutely loved the opening story and the foreword by Elizabeth Strout. One very experienced wordsmith introducing the other. The perfect pairing! The stories are tender observations on domestic suburban and family life honed by a lifetime of considered observation. I highly recommend taking your time and enjoying a slow read. It will bring you a moment's respite in these fast changing times.

I didn't realise this was a collection of short stories - but that was 100% my fault as I didn't read the blurb properly before requesting (ironic, no?).

Unexpectedly enjoyable, I usually find it difficult to read short stories as by the time I find myself immersed and invested, the story is over.

Perhaps a little cliched but it was the first story that resonated with me the most, the title piece 'Today a woman went mad in the supermarket'. It set me thinking, what would happen if that happened in real life, if I stumbled upon someone going through that.
To my shame I'm not 100% sure how I'd react, but I like to think I'd try and be as understanding and as compassionate.