Prizes: The Selected Stories of Janet Frame Book

These are some of the most interesting short stories I've read so far. My most favorite stories came from "The Reservoir: Stories and Sketches" and "You Are Now Entering the Human Heart".

Her style is poetic and flowy, and her protagonists are well-conditioned for this style as they often carry on heavy undertones in their leisure (like, when Deanna in "They Never Looked Back" was disgusted by the fish she had to gut and resented her inability to adopt naturally the pioneer lifestyle; or how Edith in "The Teacup" went frantic when she saw Bill's teacup was misplaced when she had set everything in order for him to live comfortably, hoping her domestic affections would catch his attention so she could finally settle down comfortably, too).

"Prizes", "The Bull Calf", both with young female protagonists, and "The Bath" had huge staying power. All had themes of alienation due to the seemingly practical rituals of growing up -- and in the case of "The Bath", growing old. Frame isn't straight-forward with her message in these, unlike the fable-y story of the "Two Sheep" which had more conventional theories, but not necessarily flat. Her telling of loneliness and terror in growing up, growing old, are loyal to the honest madness of regular life. Her characters often are submerged in intense feelings they don't completely understand, or try to even deconstruct, and have had their shells broken by the real world.