Ursula Wilfriede Schneider

Iridescent Stumbles Ursula Wilfriede Schneider

In opposition to Elizabeth Bowen, the superbly gifted Irish-English short story writer, who was not enticed by the idea of art as self-expression, other novelists believe that writing is autobiographical. The characters in the six stories that comprise Iridescent Stumbles are based on actual encounters. Their physical and psychological make-ups vary. Men and women either appear as shadowy reflections or are more sharply exposed depending upon the background into which they are set. In The upstairs Studio a woman, no longer in her thirties and her younger lover, a well over six feet tall runner, go late at night to their hide-out, an artist's studio in a semi rural location. During their love-making the enticing female's body appears in dreamlike sequences as a coveted symbol of a medieval monk's forbidden sexual cravings, and also changes into Selene who seduces Endymion in his sleep. In the runner's arms his inamorata whispers about a swim in the shark-infested Red Sea where she's encircled by a pod of dolphins that resemble a gam of sharks. The lovers erotic trysts end when the sprinter gets married again and his second young wife produces two healthy offspring. If a reader has enjoyed The upstairs Studio, he/she will most likely take pleasure too in March Mornings and Nights (a second richly varied love story), Hawaii (a mother-daughter team taking thrilling glimpses at the Aloha State's intrinsic, natural splendor and the diversity of Kanaka Maoli people), Tous les jours d'Europe (fictionalizes a woman's journey into past personal occurrences in Europe), Lush Summer Days at Gaby's in the Birkshires (recalls annual holidays spent in Masschusetts) and Arizona with Sabine (explores parts of the United States enticing West). The author's style, the signature, if not the soul of a writer, so slippery, so hard to catch, remains the same. Her style unerringly aims for its most important goal: beauty.