Shirley Kaszenbowski, nee Silverberg, is a middle-aged, middle-class woman in a Holt Renfrew tweed coat, a basic black dress, and a strand of real pearls. She may seem ordinary enough, pricing silk scarves at Eaton's or idling in hotel coffee shops, but in fact she is searching for her lover. He is an elusive figure, a man connected with "The Agency," a powerful technocrat who may or may not have suggested a rendezvous based on a secret code in the National Geographic. Her search takes her to the world of her past as a Jewish immigrant in the Spadina-Dundas area of Toronto. She finds the bakeries and rooming houses of her youth still haunted by survivors of postwar Europe and by her own memories of guilt and loss, while the consolations of art, opera, and pornography offer only echoes of her own illusions and desires. Her strange, wryly funny odyssey ends in a dramatic confrontation scene with her husband and "the other woman," as she trades in her basic black for another chance.
In Basic Black with Pearls, Weinzweig displays her gift for creating sympathetic characters in a slightly surreal, but always recognizable world.
Shirley Kaszenbowski, nee Silverberg, is a middle-aged, middle-class woman in a Holt Renfrew tweed coat, a basic black dress, and a strand of real pearls. She may seem ordinary enough, pricing silk scarves at Eaton's or idling in hotel coffee shops, but in fact she is searching for her lover. He is an elusive figure, a man connected with "The Agency," a powerful technocrat who may or may not have suggested a rendezvous based on a secret code in the National Geographic. Her search takes her to the world of her past as a Jewish immigrant in the Spadina-Dundas area of Toronto. She finds the bakeries and rooming houses of her youth still haunted by survivors of postwar Europe and by her own memories of guilt and loss, while the consolations of art, opera, and pornography offer only echoes of her own illusions and desires. Her strange, wryly funny odyssey ends in a dramatic confrontation scene with her husband and "the other woman," as she trades in her basic black for another chance.
In Basic Black with Pearls, Weinzweig displays her gift for creating sympathetic characters in a slightly surreal, but always recognizable world.
A brilliant, lost feminist classic that is equal parts domestic drama and international intrigue.
Helen Weinzweig (1915 - 2010) was the author of the novels Passing Ceremony and Basic Black with Pearls, winner of the Toronto Book Award. Her short story collection, A View from the Roof, was shortlisted for the Governor General's Literary Award for Fiction. Sarah Weinman is a writer and editor. She recently edited Women Crime Writers: Eight Suspense Novels of the 1940s & 50s and Troubled Daughters, Twisted Wives: Stories from the Trailblazers of Domestic Suspense, which was nominated for an Anthony Award. Weinman has also written articles for several outlets, including The New Republic, The Nation, and the New York Times Magazine. She lives in New York City.
"As dazzlingly splintered and disorienting as a hall of mirrors,
this marvelously inventive sleight-of-pen fantasy may (or may not)
represent the jagged self-image of a middle-aged Canadian
housewife....heavy on scenes from a rotten childhood and lightly
dipped in madness—all of it delivered with spotlight-sharp images
and iron-grey wit. Glittering, uncomfortable, one-of-a-kind
fiction." —Kirkus Reviews
"Celebrated in Canada as a feminist classic, Weinzweig’s searing
1980 novel captures a woman’s awakening to her lover’s
exploitation….Weinzweig’s prose style is sharp, particularly her
dialogue: strange and surprising, it knocks every character
interaction askew.” —Publishers Weekly
“Weinzweig’s absurdist take on the existential novel anchored by
female experience should be required reading.” —Emily M. Keeler,
National Post
"Helen Weinzweig is a crafty writer, with a sure sense of timing;
when the narrator finally manages to turn her back on her
nightmares and pipe dreams, it is a happy ending that rings true."
—The New Yorker
“Helen Weinzweig’s voice is original, her language startling and
graceful, and the story she tells is as moving as a second chance.
Basic Black with Pearls is a portrait of madness and
delight—sensitive, funny and unique.”—Alice Hoffman
"Basic Black with Pearls is certainly a text worthy of a revisit,
its theme of the danger of a limited life sadly as blisteringly
significant as it was 35 years ago. The novel offers little
resolution, and even less clarity, making it an all the more
authentic commentary on the trappings of domestic, suburban life.
The reader is left uncomfortable, disturbed and as lost as Shirley
is—which is, perhaps, the most potent way Weinzweig could deliver
her feminist message." —Stacey May
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