A review by bookishwendy
The Garden Party and Other Stories by Katherine Mansfield

3.0

This was a soothing and enjoyable story collection. Like most of my experiences with collections, many of these have a very similar style--in this case very slice-of-life every-day experiences among various families in early 20th century colonial Britain. There is often an undercurrent (or over-current) of class distinction, or people in unsatisfied marriages, and I found that the stories I liked best were the ones that were a little more morbid and elliptical, and that didn't come out and proclaim the "point" up front. Actually, I found the famous Garden Party story not as interesting as, say, the one about the dead colonel's daughters, or the confessions of the lady's maid. Good for a rainy day.