the shared properties of water and stars

Noctuary Press, 2013
$14.00
ISBN: 978-0988805194


"THE SHARED PROPERTIES OF WATER AND STARS' dreamy suburbia is a good choice for anyone looking for pieces that create worlds or are looking for crafted interior spaces to inhabit outside the self. Filled with story archetypes and pieces from fairy tales, each piece acts as a poetic landscape or stage, where the objects and settings are just important as the players. Amongst cheery houses and quaint ghosts, Bowen's characters move both sullenly and wildly, marking the complexity of their status as human beings. Their sadness resonates through dimensions, and their world exists surely as ours does, reflecting like a lake. Fairy tales haven't always been happy, and Bowen is reminding her readers this by digging up the darker roots. The outdoors cannot be fenced in."

—Heavy Feather Review

"“The stories told here have a vaguely Victorian feel; this is a world where domesticity has a sinister edge, where the plight of being female is keenly felt. We are surrounded by too much furniture and kitchen utensils, lipstick and dresses. But the utensils are filthy and the laundry is dirty; the light bulbs are bare. Amid this brokenness, there is a forced calmness in these female characters, but we as readers can especially feel the nasty storm brewing underneath.”

—Lisa Cole



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