| Enid Shomer won the Gold medal of the Florida 2007 book awards in the general fiction category for her collection of short stories, Tourist Season. The Random House Trade paperback version contains an interview with Enid Shomer, and a Reader’s Guide. Shomer wrote this collection of stories about women for women, which makes it difficult for this reviewer to judge the material. I had difficulty relating to most of the stories.
Some of the stories lean towards the avant garde with lots of hidden meaning. In “Fill in the Blank,” Garland McKinney a burgeoning sociopath relates her story while filling out a personality type assessment. As she completes the assessment Garland explores her personal relationships and her social values. Later in Tourist Season, the reader once again encounters Garland McKinney in “Sweethearts”, and discovers why she is encountering her socialization difficulties.
“The Hottest Spot on Earth,” I just didn’t get it. The story is set in Las Vegas at a Slash novel convention. The story opens with Captain Kirk and Commander Spock having sex on the bridge of the Starship Enterprise. In addition to the story being about the Slash novel industry, I think the story was also about the various groups that comprise the women’s rights movement, and the major differences between those groups that are threatening to tear the movement apart. But then again, maybe I am reading too much into it.
Shomer’s stories also challenge social norms and prejudices that have impacted women throughout recent history. The stories span from World War II to current times. In “Tourist Season,” the short story from which the name of the book was derived, Frieda deals with a number of issues. The story looks at aging and sexuality as well as the loss of social value and self-esteem of retired people. But Shomer takes it one step further, and shows that some women due to societal restrictions never had the opportunity to obtain social value and self-esteem through the development of their own career.
In “The Summer of Questions,” the story relates an affair between two cousins working in D.C. during the summer of 1966 around the time of social upheaval in our country. They both have some jobs working at the same firm, and have not spent much time together because their two families are estranged. But the underlying story describes the career opportunities differences between men and women prior to that time, and how different the work place was for men and women.
Tourist Season should not be considered an easy read; it has many layers of meaning covering women’s rights, aging, self-worth, and familial obligations. Shomer uses a large amount of symbolism, and I probably only scratched the surface. The reader will definitely want to use the reader’s guide in the back of the book.
BGS 6/1/2008
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