Challenge 14: A Book Set In Summer

Ida's book: "The Yellow Wallpaper" (and other stories) by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (Dover Publications, 1997)

So! It's been quite a while since I've given any thought to this reading challenge, and I am only slightly cross with myself about it. I moved back to my home country, became unemployed, then employed again, and all the while I re-read some of my favourite books. Probably a bit of a coping mechanism: if life is chaos, it's nice to return to a familiar place and familiar characters, to not be surprised by anything.

But life has calmed down a bit now, and the reading challenge has been nagging for at least a month. Yesterday I read a short story, sort of by accident, and then realised that it was set in summer, and that it would therefore fulfil challenge number 14: A book set in summer! So I am now back in the game, with The Yellow Wallpaper.

The book (if you can call it that) is short. But my God is it well-written! The story is about a woman confined to a room by her doctor-husband, because of her nervous breakdown, but of course it only makes it worse, and of course, her confinement should be read metaphorically (after all this is a feminist text!).
The woman's descend into madness is gradual, and you can't help but follow her, it's not until the end that you realise you've been sucked in and that's what makes it so good.

It's part of a collection of some of her other stories, which I will now promptly go read!