What do You think about The Lone Pilgrim (2001)?
It must take real skill to write a collection of love stories which (mostly) end happily and for them not to be overly sentimental or cloying, but Laurie Colwin makes it look effortless in these astute, intelligent and exquisitely written tales. Despite the 1970s New York and Boston settings, Colwin has (as I think has been noted before) much in common with Jane Austen, including her generosity of spirit and her wit, though Austen of course never wrote any hilarious stories about potheads! Anyway, on the basis of this book Colwin goes straight on to my select but ever-growing list of authors by whom I Must Read Everything (which sadly isn't that much - five novels and three collections - due to her untimely death in 1992).
—David
I really enjoyed this collection of short stories that were written in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Some of the references are dated and kind of fun to read--references to pay phones, smoking in offices and public places, slide rules. The stories are witty and well-written, and the characters are memorable. My favorite stories were "A Mythological Study" and "Saint Anthony and the Desert". I debated between 3 and 4 stars for this book and in actuality I would have liked to give it 3 1/2 stars.
—Terri Jacobson
All of Colwin's books, several each of short stories and novels, are wonderful and I can't recommend them highly enough. I actually bought many of her books in hardcover, something rare for me! They are all about life and love in Manhattan. She has been described as having "very acute sensibilities," whatever those are and has also been compared to Jane Austen. Her first novel is Happy All the Time, which is about two couples who are related and are friends. My favorite book of short stories is The Lone Pilgrim; my favorite novel is Family Happiness, which resulted from a short story in The Lone Pilgrim. Many stories were published in The New Yorker and she wrote for Gourmet and published 2 books of her articles on food that originally appeared in Gourmet, entitled Home Cooking and More Home Cooking. She died in mid-'92. If you search under her name on the web, you can still find odes to her writing. I have all her books and do re-read them. Her books are a delight to read.
—Lesli
