Amazon.co.uk Review
Rebecca Miller's Personal Velocity offers a wry take on work, sex and relationships in the lives of seven people in search of what it means to be a 21st-century woman. Sharp and intimate, these stories are a capsule wardrobe of contemporary American femininity, from off-the-peg urban identities pre-packaged by a designer label to battered, homeless survivors whose lives are held together only by their own emotional stamina. Cookery book editor Greta dumps her husband for fame and pointy alligator flats, artist Louisa squeezes out her lovers faster than tubes of paint and pregnant Paula picks up a young hitchhiker on a rainy night.

Miller brings a clear and unsentimental eye to her characters, and pleasing brevity of style and compressed drama to her prose. Flawed and admirable, terrified and fearless, cavalier and overanxious by turns--the vagaries of personality are encompassed in this poised debut. Many a reader may catch a fleeting glimpse of her own contradictory reflections in Miller's intense snapshots of modern women. --Rachel Holmes

Guardian, February 2, 2002
'This is an excellent book; a future award-winner, if the gods are just.'

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews   Tightly crafted, beautifully written short stories, 6 Jan 2002 By A Customer This review is from: Personal Velocity (Paperback) ...Rebecca Miller, daughter of playwright Arthur Miller, has crafted seven short stories. Each story deals with a different female protagonist, and each, though different and distinct, is related to the others by the complexity of her character and the honesty of her observations. There is, for example, Greta, a cookbook editor in her late 20's, who only needs to look at her less-than-extraordinary husband's boring, inexpensive shoes to know that she will leave him. Or Bryna, a cleaning woman, living with her kind but spectacularly undynamic husband Milt and Milt's ferociously bitter mother; Bryna's dreams are contained within the made-up media interviews she imagines she's participating in. Miller's stories are not perfect. But they're damned close and well, well, well worth the read.  Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? (Report this) › See all customer reviews...		Search Customer Reviews Only search this product's reviews

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