Vertigo

Women between mothers and daughters, between husbands and possible lovers and lovers of their husbands; women dressed up bright as children so their own children won't lose them, women watching the grey elegance of the Parisiennes; women between countries and languages, between the rich and the poor; women terrifyingly aware of their place or lack of it - the vertigo of empty space. These women observe everyone including themselves and those nearest to them with a keen eye and in a deceptively calm tone, which starts to strain against deeper and less- controlled feelings. Joanna Walsh finds her own particular tone in the wry and intimate stories of Vertigo. She probes difficult relationships and utters rarely voiced truths, as her stories gather a cumulative force that pulls us under their deceptively calm surfaces.