A review of three Dorothy Parker Short Stories!

The first Dorothy Parker book I could get my hands on was her collection called Laments for the Living.  I have enjoyed them more than I thought I would. There is a definite style to her stories. They are either all or mostly dialogue, or full of description about the setting. These stories have given me an idea about her perspective on life. Relationships are portrayed negatively and women are weak and foolish.

                The first story I read was called “Arrangement in Black and White”. This story is written in her style of being mostly dialogue.  It’s a nameless woman at a party babbling to her host about wanting to meet this well know black musician named Walter Williams. The woman goes on to describe about how she is not a racist person, unlike her husband and likes black people. The strength of this story comes from that fact that through her dialogue the woman proves that she has all the racist notions about black people as her husband does, she is just polite about it.

                The next story is called “The Sexes.” It is similar to a later story in the collection. It is the conversation between a couple that eventually becomes an argument.  As I said earlier relationship issues are a theme that Parker spends a lot of time discussing. The dialogue in this story gradually builds from a man and a woman having an argument to a full blown fight. The woman accuses her boyfriend of wanting to see another woman. He tries to calm her down to no avail. The woman herself is flighty and silly. The ending is ambiguous. I think it ends with him beating her.  Parker had troubled marriages and relationships, so it would not surprise me it she was beaten too.

                The third story is my favorite. It is called “The Wonderful Old Gentleman.” It is a perfect combination of Parker’s use of imagery and dialogue. It begins with a description of a room.  It made me feel like I was really there.  The room is described as trying to be elegant, but ends up looking like “a home chamber of horror, modified for family use.” The wonderful old gentleman has moved in with a married couple, the Bains and lives as a tenant. It is revealed that he is Mrs. Bains’ father. He has moved in with his daughter, due to his health.  He is suffering from what has to dementia or Alzheimer’s.  The main plot of the story is the conversation that Mr. and Mrs. Bains have with Mrs. Bains’ wealthy sister.  The sister tries to ignore that she has left her father in the care of her poor sister and that she should have helped out more.  Mrs. Whittaker, the sister thinks that her father’s failing state of mind is funny. This story is sad, and it reaches out to me because I am seeing my Grandfather fall apart from dementia and how my mother and aunt are both trying their hardest to make sure he’s cared for.

                Dorothy Parkers stories are short and fun to read, I will be writing more reviews of her book next week. Questions are welcome! 

Its Dorothy Parker Quote Time!

I found a Video of a few of Dorothy Parker's one liners. I know she has several more that are really funny. I like the one in here about how "You can't teach an old dogma new tricks." Her quotes show that she was a satirist when it came to life and its mores.

What are your favorites from here?

All about Dorothy Parker!

Hello Everyone!

Welcome to my first true blog post.  Its current purpose is to spend the semester analyzing the life and works of the infamous writer Dorothy Parker. I first heard of Dorothy Parker because she has a “cameo” in the stage musical “Thoroughly Modern Millie.” I was in that show and I because curious about who she was. My mother told me that she was a 20’s writer known for her wit. I knew I wanted to learn about her when I saw her on the list of authors I could write about this semester.  I am looking forward to the challenge of digging deeper in to her works.

The following information I found about her is from her Wikipedia page. Which can be found here.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothy_Parker#cite_note-56

Dorothy Parker was born on August 22, 1893 in New Jersey. She had an unhappy childhood. Her mother died when she was a young child and her father remarried a woman she despised and she claimed that he was abusive. She went to Catholic School until she was kicked out because of her fiery personality.  Her formal education ended when she was thirteen years old and she worked as a piano player at a dancing school and started writing.

Her career got a break in 1914 when she had one of her poems published in Vanity Fair and shortly afterward got a job writing for Vogue.  Parker then moved on and worked for Vanity Fair reviewing plays. She and several of her contemporaries created the Algonquin Round Table. They met for lunch every day and discussed various topics and several of them published the conversations they had. Parker then gained a reputation as a wit.

Parker is most famous for her short stories most of which discuss the downfalls of romance and the possible release of suicide. I found a copy of her short stories called Laments for the Living. I have not gotten far into it, but the first two I read are full of snappy dialogue and dark undertones. Along with her short stories she is known for her poetry. During her most productive period she had around 300 poems published in various magazines of the day.

Dorothy Parker‘s personal life was difficult. She was married three times, twice to the same man. All of her marriages were mostly unhappy. She had numerous affairs and aborted a pregnancy that resulted because of one. (OK guys.1920’s abortions? That pretty scary) She suffered from alcoholism and survived several suicide attempts.

Another interesting fact about Dorothy Parker is that she was a very liberal person. She was put on the Hollywood blacklist and the Red Channels claimed that she as a communist in 1950. On a lighter note she left her money to the Martin Luther King Foundation and after King’s death the money went to the NAACP.

This article has given me a lot of insight into Dorothy Parker.  I will be writing a review and analysis of some of her short stories next week.  Any questions or comments?