The first is the 2006 edition of Marge Piercy's Sex Wars. I've not read anything of hers, nor does this particular book appeal, though her science-fiction classic Woman on the Edge of Time has been lurking in my teetering stacks for a couple of years. The second is Maeve Brennan's wonderful novella, The Visitor, posthumously published in 2000.
There are a few things worth knowing about Brennan. First, she was a fantastic writer of short stories--see The Rose Garden and The Springs of Affection.
Secondly, she was quite a looker (as I hope you can see from the covers above and below). Thirdly, she had a very interesting life and ended up alone and mad in an asylum, convinced she was married to fellow ex-Dubliner James Joyce. You can find these and other alarming details in Angela Bourke's biography, Homesick at the New Yorker.
Fourthly, she is not the woman of the same name who was one of Philip Larkin's final girlfriends.
UPDATE: That first cover image can also be found on this third book...
Oh yes, The Visitor is terrific. I read it last year and immediately rushed out (well, ambled out) and bought The Rose Garden. I'm not sure the latter's cover is much worthy of comment, and the production quality certainly isn't (I have the same edition you have pictured): it's a print-on-demand title printed by Lightning Source. All floppy and too big, with a hyperglossy cover which gradually curls upwards. Horrible.
ReplyDeleteThat's a shame: my edition is also that edition (from Counterpoint), but not POD, and properly printed and covered. What a shame--she must have slipped from backlist to almost-dead-list.
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