Every Day is To-Day

Having never read any of Gertrude Stein’s work before I was excited to read these short stories. Her writing style is fascinating, colorful and yes repetitive but so current and insightful. I am thinking specifically of Flirting at The Bon Marche and how it speaks to the tediousness of life and shopping. I loved it. How insightful for today’s world. Her stories of Matisse and Picasso were also amazing because they were part of her bohemian lifestyle and her appreciation of modern art. Her repetition and refrain are often playful. As Stein would want us to do, please keep an open mind and enjoy the world through her short stories. Thank you #NetGalley for the advanced copy of #EveryDayIsToday.

Between the French-flapped covers of this elegant paperback collection, readers will rediscover Gertrude Stein as the bearer of a joyfully radical literary vision. A bold experimenter, her writing sparks with vitality, relishing in rhythm, repetition, sound and colour in its central vision: to prise apart language and association and find thrilling new ways to express the true essence of her subject with charming joie de vivre.

Stein considered her shorter writings to be the truest expressions of her enrapturing style. Her fascination with people and personalities can be located in expressive portraits of close friends Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Cezanne, Jean Cocteau, and Juan Gris, whilst her decades-long relationship with Alice B. Toklas is immortalised with shimmering eroticism. There are also playful meditations on her unique writing process, conveying her serious delight in meddling with conventions of grammar and composition.

My first time reading Gertrude Stein's works.

Many readers have heard of Gertrude Stein, maybe because of Alice or the friendships that she developed with those in the "lost generation," or maybe because of her famous rose quote. But how many have actually read what she has to say?

For everyone, here is a terrific collection of Stein's essays. Some of the pieces are about the well-known, including Matisse, Cezanne and Picasso. A few others are titled Flirting at the Bon Marche, Ladies Voices and Identity of a Poem. I found so many of these to be interesting.

Dip in anywhere. Get to know how Stein thinks.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Pushkin Press for this title. All opinions are my own.