Perfect ten

It’s now March which means it’s Women's History Month.  To pay tribute to the month I’m listing the names of ten writers which I feel offer inspiring, bold and sometimes even disturbing stories of women — along with what makes them notable. It's important to dig into women’s stories, to experience first-hand how their storytelling evolved. These are my picks.          

Isabel Allende- I once saw her coming out of a Spanish language bookstore in Berlin as I was walking in, and out of respect for her privacy, I smiled. I could kick myself now for not having spoken to her. A gifted storyteller, The House of the Spirits and her other works have a focus on Latin women.  Her stories inspire, haunt and touch on the magical, and mythical in the lives of everyday people.

Zora Neale Hurston- How she maneuvered symbolism and colloquialisms in Their Eyes Were Watching God demonstrated originality and an incredible force of talent. Her work is regarded novel in the entire canon of African American literature. 

Kate Chopin- Her depth of a woman's struggle within oppressive social structures received much public contempt at its first release of The Awakening. Its initial controversy may not be felt today but the depth of a woman’s self-actualization is as applicable today as it was then.  

Lillian Hellman- Her play The Little Foxes is intense.  I can’t say if it’s better as a book or as a performance because I've only read it. The story centers on a dysfunctional family and Hellman does a superb job of exploring the Apollonian and Dionysian struggle through wealthy southerners.   

Flannery O’Connor- She has a distinctive tone. Her prose sings. The songs are dark, tragic and sad. A terrific short-story collection is A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories.  She draws out the internal despair of her characters in a way that makes them feel palpable and real.  

Amy Tan- I don’t know another author who writes about mothers and daughters with more empathy than Tan. In The Bonesetter’s Daughter she depicts tumultuous relationships and most women will recognize enough similarities in the characters feelings and actions that will be eerie.

Jane Austen- Both society and the English language have changed in the nearly 200 years since the publication of Sense & Sensibility. Austen's language is as eloquent, warm, filled with bits of irresistible sarcasm as ever. The plot is very cleverly weaved and her heroines are given a vast space to express their thoughts and feelings, highlighting all the way through the differences between them.

Colette- A flair for drama and role-reversals.  She was divided into idyllic natural tales or dark struggles in love.  On my first voyage to France I was given the paperback Gigi by a girl-friend.  It was surprisingly different than the American musical film I had seen. The story of a girl being groomed into being a courtesan was marked by clever observation and dialogue with an intimate, explicit style. 

Sylvia Plath- Extraordinary psychological insights.  She echoed her own experiences as a rising writer in the early 1950s in The Bell Jar. It chronicles the nervous breakdown of a brilliant, beautiful, enormously talented, successful, writer.  Her prose is clear; well-written; and steeped in isolation as she herself spirals into the darkest recesses of depression.

George Sand- A spectacular pleasure seeker. A mammoth of a book (800 plus pages, I had more patience back then) Consuelo, is the lively adventures of an 18th century Gypsy opera singer. A rare examination between music, religious fervor, love, insanity, travel, while tossing in numerous fascinating historical figures from the 18th century. Lively with powerful plot twists written in a spirit of independence.