... a no-holds-barred collection of 13 dirty, doughty and often wickedly funny stories that cover everything from common misconceptions about aging (no, grandmothers aren’t only there to serve their grandchildren, and, yes, their thinking processes can be just as deep and nuanced as they were at a youthful 30) to erotic desire (or the long-overdue liberation from sexual obligation) to retaining agency as 'an oldie.' The best part? They’re all narrated by mouthy women who are through with being patronized ... Campbell is at her strongest when she combines astute observations about getting older with intimate portraits of humans in need ... isn’t flawless. The choppy sentences and wonky punctuation in sections could use addressing. The shocking endings to some stories don’t always match the well-paced development in the rest of the narrative ... Still, Jane Campbell’s commanding voice — and wise insights about female empowerment, about embracing one’s twilight years and about feeling seen no matter how old you are — is one damn well worth listening to.
It’s not every day you come across an octogenarian’s literary debut, and it’s not every day — or every year — that you encounter a debut as fresh, assured and fun as Jane Campbell’s Cat Brushing from a writer of any age. Though her stories are frequently explicit enough to bring color to your cheeks, Campbell maintains a cool, commanding tone that enhances the effect of her limpid prose ... The stories are varied in approach without being showy about it, and consistently draw novel insight from a few major themes: aging, sexuality, memory, loneliness. Her work merits comparison with that of Edna O’Brien or Muriel Spark, while an uncanny streak running through several of the pieces might bring Daphne du Maurier to mind ... cuts directly against the spirit of this excellent, pathbreaking collection to reduce an elder to a vending machine for wisdom, but with apologies to Campbell, these strike me as words to live by.
Octogenarian Jane Campbell may be 'new' to the publishing industry, but her first book is refreshingly accomplished. The 13 exquisitely drawn short stories in the collection are woven with wit and bold enlightenment. Each meticulously crafted gem focuses on the lives of aging women who grapple with their shrinking places in the world while coming to terms with feelings and failings, choices and losses ... Aspects of regret, mourning, fantasies and lost love infuse these eloquently rendered, skillfully plotted stories that pack a wallop ... in Campbell's wholly original, late-in-life stories, the limitations compelled by age become surprising sources of wisdom and empowered liberation.
