An easy, enjoyable and interesting read. The style of writing captivated me into the stories and i struggled to put the book down for long intervals!

This collection of short stories is a must for fans of Elizabeth Strout and Meg Wolitzer. They’re dark and spiky glimpses into American domestic life, with the final story bringing it to the present day with the Covid-19 pandemic with devastating effect.

I love collections of short stories and when they inter connect like many of them do in this book I'm even happier. I loved how each of the stories was absolutely of it's time - morals, prejudices and all, but the very last story broke me - I was as invested in the characters just as much as if they'd featured in a 600 page novel & it did make me cry.

Today a Woman Went Mad in the Supermarket is a fairly amusing collection of short stories. While many of the stories were written and initially published during the 1960s and 1970s, Hilma Wolitzer’s style and humour struck me as modern. The issues she touches up also felt surprisingly relevant. The stories read like vignettes and have an almost sitcomesque quality that makes for some diverting reading material.
The scenarios these stories present us with are domestic, and many hone in on the dynamic between husband and wife, highlighting the societal pressures mothers are subjected to. In the title story, a woman witnesses a mother’s breakdown in the supermarket. Later on, we have a story highlighting how traumatic giving birth is that is both humorous and clever.
While I appreciated the author’s wit and her savvy social commentary, I did find that many of these stories, especially the linked ones following the same married couple, to be samey. And, even if I did find them to be relatively entertaining they were not particularly memorable (hence the short review).
Still, if you are in the mood for some funny stories depicting suburban American married life in the 60s and 70s, well, this might be the collection for you.

So you can probably guess what drew me to this book? What a spectacular title for a book. And if I told you that Hilma Wolitzer (mother of Meg), is 91, you’d want to read it even more I bet. To top it off, she’s friends with Judy Blume, one of my favourite authors as a child.

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.

The first seven stories are about a married couple called Paulette (Paulie) and Howard, living in NYC. The stories capture succinctly and with humour, the couple’s quiet and imperfect intimacy and marriage.

There is the title story about the woman having a moment in the supermarket, a story about insomnia, another about infidelity and a comical one about a sex maniac on the loose in their apartment complex. It begins with: “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.”

There are a few stories that follow that don’t feature Paulie and Howard, until then the grand finale, where Wolitzer brings us a new story about Paulie and Howard, set in current pandemic times, with the couple in their twilight years. This last story is a masterpiece, full of wit, wisdom, heart, soul. It made me laugh and cry.

If you love short stories, definitely seek out this wonderful collection out when it’s published in November.

*Today A Woman Went Mad In The Supermarket by Hilma Wolitzer will be published on 11 November 2021 by @bloomsburypublishing. I was delighted to read an advance digital copy of the book courtesy of the publishers via @netgalley.*

A Woman Went Mad in a Supermarket is a collection of short stories that aim to portray characters in mundane but poignant moments in their lives. The title story is about a woman who sees another woman having a breakdown in a supermarket; there's no clever way of describing it- it's short and that's what happens.

The rest of the stories follow in the same manner- we meet the character, they introduce themselves in a round-about way, they describe a moment in their life, they leave.

Like with any collection of stories, some go the full distance and other fall short. I would deem Photographs to be the former, and Love, the latter. Photographs is funny with a sense of really being a human experience, even despite it's jarring time jumps and random thoughts thrown in. Love makes some interesting comments on parenting and separation without ever really saying anything.

Something (and I do mean something for I have no idea what it was) drew me in initially to this quirky set of tales. Reading them, however, removed most of these feelings. The entire thing was a very passive read. There is the odd nice bit of language used or insight given but not enough for me to feel like I got anything from this book.

Actually, that reflects my feelings on this book perfectly- it could be beautifully and cleverly written, but I finished it just thinking I wasn't clever in the right way to be able to understand it.

Going into Today a Woman Went Mad in the Supermarket I hadn’t read any of Hilma Wolitzer’s work. I’m not typically a fan of short story collections, but the bold cover and appealing title caught my eye and I loved the sound of the blurb.

I’m so glad I picked it up! Even though a lot of the stories in this collection were written in the 60s and 70s, Wolitzer’s prose has a contemporary quality to it and her social commentary on female experience remains sadly relevant. The stories were full of wit and warmth and I really enjoyed how they returned to the lives of familiar characters like Paulie and Howard.

Where short story collections usually lose me is that I’ll read one or two and then forget to go back to them, but I found this such a compelling read that it kept me returning to it between stories as I would to a novel, genuinely keen to know what would be next. Highly recommended.

This short story collection, most of which are from the 1960s and 70s, is introduced by Elizabeth Strout and I can see why. Wolitzer’s style is very similar to Strout’s, with straight to the point, sarcastic, and a tiny bit grumpy protagonists. The collection more or less follows the same woman through young adulthood into older age with her husband and family, making it more like a disjointed novel than a set of short stories - again much like Strout has done with Olive Kitteridge. What kind of let Today a Woman Went Mad in the Supermarket down for me was the last story, which brings her protagonist into the present day of Covid tragedy - I just didn’t need that, and had been happily enjoying a look into the past.

Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book. A great collection of imminently readable short stories. Some warmth, some wit and some sadness. Worth a read for fans of short stories and a wide variety of subjects / scenarios!

Today a Woman Went Mad in the Supermarket is a remarkable collection of short stories. Written by Hilma Wolitzer, who is now in her 90s, the stories invites us into the world of what are seemingly ordinary people. Though as Elizabeth Strout writes in her beautiful forward, Wolitzer never believed there is ‘such a thing as ordinary life’ and that ‘all life is extraordinary’. Most of these stories have been previously published in a wide variety of illustrious magazines, with the earliest going back to 1969 and the most recent being written only last year.

The stories explore the lives of women and men, with many focusing on the characters of Paulie and Howard. They are exquisite glimpses into the often hidden domestic sphere. Several of these stories take rather surprising turns (especially Overtime) highlighting the extraordinary in the ordinary. Wolitzer writes with such warmth and compassion, but also great wit and humour. The stories explore what it is to be a mother, a wife and ultimately a woman. Some of them capture a moment in time we have long since moved on from, yet many of the themes and feelings remain the same and are as ever present today.

Particular highlights for me were the titular story, Photographs and the final story The Great Escape, which just broke my heart.

A wonderful collection of stories that are so very worth reading.

I don't read many collections of short stories but I'm really glad I decided to pick this one up. Many of these stories were actually written in the 1960s and 1970s, a time that I didn't live through but that I'm always interested in visiting. Seeing them next to a strikingly more contemporary story at the end was fascinating. In some ways I could see how society had moved on but in others, it was shockingly obvious how little has changed.

Most of the stories focus on women and female issues such as motherhood, keeping up appearances, abortion and objectification. Wolitzer writes quite precise social commentary and I fully believed that she had lived through most of these things herself. I think my favourite stories were the title one, which illustrates the damage that capitalism, societal expectations and the relentless pressure of living a certain way can have on a fragile mind and Mother, which left me with images that I think will haunt me and yet inspire me to write my own stories for a long time.

The introduction from Elizabeth Strout was a great prologue to who Hilma Wolitzer is and the kinds of things to expect from this unique, uncelebrated but talented writer.

'Today a Woman Mad in the Supermarket' is an electric collection of short stories from Hilma Wolitzer, a name I was previously unfamiliar with but am now very happy to know. Hilma, now in her 90's is a prolific writer and astounding fiction author, most of her work being published in the sixties and seventies in every magazine you could think of. Most of these stories were previously published, so I was concerned they'd be dated but they have a classically timeless charm that was exceptionally easy to love.

This collection of stories show several snapshots of the life of a married couple, Paulette and Howard, and a few other characters along the way. We really get to know Paulette and her husband throughout different stages of their lives and it's amazing to see their lives change, especially in the most modern and updated addition to the saga.

These stories are about real life, the boring, the mundane, and how utterly absurd it all is if you look at it objectively. From parenting, family and love, to depression, loss and lockdowns, this story collection looks at the world from a new lens and was a pleasure to read.

"It would all go on forever in that exquisitely boring and beautiful way. But of course it wouldn't, everyone knows that. ”

I was a little confused throughout this book as I wasn’t sure how the different stories and characters merged together and if I should be reading it as one story or as a collection of unrelated short stories? The characters were interesting and the book is beautifully written in the way that it uses subtle humour between the lines and you feel as if you really understand what each character is feeling. I was just a bit disappointed at the end as it seemed to finish abruptly and left me wanting to find out what happened next to Paulie….just as I found myself wanting more throughout the book with the way it was left with other characters. Beautifully written and, maybe it was just me, but I didn’t fully understand the way it developed.

I hadn’t realised this was a collection of short stories and wondered why the first “chapter” was so unrelated to the second. Whoops!
Once I’d realised my mistake I settled in for some powerful stories- all beautifully written, and all provoked a response of either empathy or sympathy. Women are often dealt a horrific hand and some of these are touched upon- it’s no wonder breakdowns happen when you reflect on the load these women were carrying.
A thought provoking and beautiful read.

Came for the Strout foreword,and stayed for the humour,warmth and relatable characters dealing with normal every day things... haven't we all nearly had a breakdown in the supermarket?

It's not all happy and uplifting,but it is all good.

I'm not sure how I've never heard of Wolitzer,but I'm glad I have now.

What a quirky collection of short stories! Written over decades, they spanned from the 1960's to the present day. Each story was unique and touched upon various subject matters such as mental health, pregnancy and marriage. There were some laugh out loud moments, as well as moments of despair and sadness. Wolitzer wove her charm, wit and magic into each story and left me wanting to read more.

Today a Woman Went Mad in the Supermarket by Hilma Wolitzer is a masterful and relatable collection of short stories about daily life and relationships perfect for fans of writers such as Elizabeth Strout. My favourite story was the final one.