Ann S. Epstein writes novels, short stories, memoir, essays, and poems. Please use the links or site menu to go to the HOME PAGE; learn about her NOVELS, SHORT STORIES, MEMOIR, ESSAYS, and POEMS; find interesting facts in BEHIND THE STORY; read REFLECTIONS on writing; check NEWS for updates on publications and related events; see REVIEWS; learn about her END-OF-LIFE DOULA credentials and services; and CONTACT US to send webmail.
Men’s fashion, like women’s, responded to the Depression. Bright colors were replaced by plaids and tweeds in gray, brown, and dark green. Their somberness was partly countered by wide neckties in bold patterns such as stripes, polka dots, and geometric shapes. Male vanity still ruled. A style designed for the Prince of Wales, with padded shoulders and a nipped waist, was adopted by Hollywood stars such as Fred Astaire, Cary Grant, and Gary Cooper, and soon copied by the public. Read more about fashion trends in A Brain. A Heart. The Nerve. (see NOVELS).
Wide lapels and bold ties catered to male vanity in otherwise sober Depression-era styles A Brain. A Heart. The Nerve. (Alternative Book Press) by Ann S. Epstein
In the late 19th and early 20th century, U.S. laundry labor was heavily identified with Chinese Americans. Discrimination, lack of English, and lack of capital kept them out of other careers. Around 1900, one in four ethnic Chinese men in the U.S. worked in a laundry, typically 10-16 hours a day. Read more about Chinese laundry workers and anti-Chinese discrimination in the early 1900s in Tazia and Gemma (see NOVELS).
Laundry work was one of the few job options open to Chinese immigrants 100 years ago
Tazia and Gemma (Vine Leaves Press) by Ann S. Epstein
Adolf Hitler’s mistress Eva Braun (who became his wife less than two days before they committed suicide by cyanide) came from a respectable Bavarian Catholic family, daughter of a school teacher and traditional housewife. She met Hitler when she was 17 and he was 40, and described him to a friend as a “gentleman of a certain age with a funny moustache, light-colored English overcoat, and carrying a big felt hat.” When Braun became Hitler’s companion two years later, she kept up habits he criticized including smoking, sunbathing in the nude, and wearing makeup made of animal products (Hitler was a vegetarian). Disapproving Nazi party officials referred to her as “The Fuhrer’s Whore.” Braun pampered her two Scottish Terriers, named Negus and Stasi, who she featured in home movies. She was an avid photographer who did her own dark room processing, and took many of the pictures and films of Hitler that survived the war. Read more about Nazi Germany and Hitler’s inner circle in A Brain. A Heart. The Nerve. (see NOVELS).
Mistress Eva Braun enjoyed shocking the uptight Adolf Hitler
A Brain. A Heart. The Nerve. (Alternative Book Press) by Ann S. Epstein
My Amazon and Goodreads review of Women Talking (Rating 5) – A Hymn to Women’s Wisdom.Women Talking, by Miriam Toew’s, is exactly what it’s title proclaims: Women debating how to respond to the drugging and sexual assaults perpetrated on them by the men in their closed Mennonite community. They argue about forgiveness and faith, fealty and friendship, and the very essence of femaleness. As women living in isolation they are understandably inward looking in how they process the horrific events perpetrated on them by men they have been raised to love, trust, and, of necessity, depend on. Yet the questions they ask are universal, and their answers contain wisdom that belies a need for worldly knowledge. Where one might expect an anti-religious diatribe, the prose is instead a virtual hymn to the introspective and intellectual power of the devout. Women Talking is a revelation about the horrific crime committed by powerful men bent on burying it. The book is also a challenge to religious stereotypes about the ability of the oppressed and conventionally raised to think and act for themselves —- simply, eloquently, bawdily, critically, and compassionately, as the wise talking women in Women Talking do.
Women Talking by Miriam Toews is a hymn to women’s wisdom
“Read everything … like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master.” – William Faulkner)
In the early 1900s, Chicago was less racially segregated than it is now. However, the first part of Dan Ryan Expressway, built in 1961-62 to make it easier to get downtown, runs between the white west-side “Bridgeport” neighborhood and the “Black Belt” on the east side. Its effect was to divide the city and isolate blacks. Read more Chicago history in Tazia and Gemma (see NOVELS).
Urban blight after Chicago expressway segregates blacks and whites
Tazia and Gemma (Vine Leaves Press) by Ann S. Epstein
I’m pleased to share that my short story “A Fifth Way” is now online at Spank the Carp, Pond (Issue) 50. Here is the log line: In “A Fifth Way,” set in 1922 West Virginia, a precocious young boy begs adults to help avert a tragedy he sees coming, but only the crazy old lady next door believes he is telling the truth. Sample Spank the Carp and read “A Fifth Way.” Learn more about this tale and others in SHORT STORIES.
