Jane Campbell grew up in Africa and studied English Language and Literature at Oxford. She has worked as a Group Analyst, teaching and training and lecturing internationally, for nearly forty years. Cat Brushing is her first book. She lives in Bermuda and Oxford, England.
A New York Times Editors' Choice"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...[An]
excellent, pathbreaking collection." -- New York Times
"A no-holds-barred collection of 13 dirty, doughty and often
wickedly funny stories...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." -- San Francisco
Chronicle"Challenging the stereotypical narrative of older women as
weak or feeble, Campbell, an octogenarian herself, gives life to 13
women in stories centering on their passions, libidos and sense of
self. Denying that invisibility arrives with wrinkles, these women
experience a range of emotion -- joy, heartbreak, trauma, regret
and satisfaction -- while living the lives they want on their own
terms." -- Washington Post"If you would expect an 80-year-old,
first-time author's story collection to be mild and nostalgic,
think again. In this trail-blazing, provocative-in-the-best-way
volume, Campbell upends expectations." -- Oprah Daily, 16 Books Not
to Miss This Fall"Strikingly original... These are characters
rarely focused on in fiction, variously mischievous, wistful and
unabashedly sensual. Campbell, 80, opens a much-needed portal into
how it feels to approach life's end." -- People Magazine"A salient,
imaginative view of the landscape of old age." --
Independent"Well-heeled, silvery-haired and clever, the heroines of
these 13 refreshingly spiky stories from octogenarian author Jane
Campbell are facing up to their futures and reliving their pasts.
Once controlled, elegant and charming, they now are wryly
attempting to take a new stance." -- Daily Mail"An exploration of
libido, passions, and how older women maintain their sense of self
as they fight against stereotypes of what it means to be an older
woman." -- Toronto Star, Best Books of Summer 2022"Campbell debuts
at 80 with an accomplished collection centering the emotional and
psychological lives of the elderly, delivering astute observations
and sharp critiques, and restoring agency to characters who are
routinely robbed of it...Ripe with sensuality, this is full of
vivid portraits." -- Publishers Weekly"[Cat Brushing] maintains a
thorough sense of originality while delivering a stunning range of
works on the inner lives of older women... The baker's dozen of
tales that make up Cat Brushing are all delivered through lean,
incisive, witty prose that calls to mind the calculated directness
of Ernest Hemingway and the furious expressiveness of Joyce Carol
Oates... Within these women's stories of loss, desire, pain and
memory, we discover the feeling of holding onto something primal
even as the world seems determined to forget that side of us. To
capture such complexity in one story is powerful, but for Jane
Campbell to do so 13 times makes Cat Brushing one of the most
compelling fiction collections you'll find this year." -- Bookpage,
starred review"This first collection plumbs the lives, longings,
and ongoing intellectual turmoil of older women in language that's
light but tart and penetrating... A charming and incisive study of
women in late life that will be revelatory to all readers." --
Library Journal, starred review"Octogenarian Jane Campbell may be
"new" to the publishing industry, but her first book, Cat Brushing,
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." -- Shelf Awareness"In these
debut stories, whose author is 80, growing old isn't for the faint
of heart...An affecting collection about the many indignities of
being old." -- Kirkus Reviews"Campbell's writing is intimate and
enveloping, and while main characters may share commonalities,
their stories are quite eclectic. The rare perspective of
Campbell's collection makes this a breath of fresh air." --
Booklist"Stepping into these stories by Jane Campbell feels like
opening a door back into the world. The thrust of life, of longing
and regret, of contempt and forgiveness, it's all here in such
vivid, delicious phrasing. She reads like Eudora Welty's wicked
British cousin, a lot of fun." -- John Freeman, editor of The
Penguin Book of the Modern American Short Story"'...Anything
between my legs is welcome these days, ' says the narrator with a
warm cat on her lap in the title story of Jane Campbell's terrific
debut fiction Cat Brushing. In thirteen revivifying stories,
thirteen candid, empathic portraits of aging women for whom desire
yet smolders, Campbell proves aging is a complex sport. Some mental
agility is required, some wit and wisdom. Befuddlement and remorse
are a part of play, too, but the stories offer the solace of shared
experience and company." -- Christine Schutt, author of Pure
Hollywood "Cat Brushing is a fierce and fascinating debut. I loved
these women who have taken off their gloves to fight life with
their bare hands." -Lily King, author of Writers & Lovers "Jane
Campbell is a wonder! Much will be made of the fact that the author
is publishing her debut at the age of eighty, and that she is
writing about the often transgressive sexual lives of older women.
But it's her clear-eyed vision, rendered in prose as crisp as bone
china, that had me rapt. This book flings open a heretofore
shuttered window, giving us an invigoratingly fresh and absolutely
essential view of the psychology and emotions and appetites of
aging women. Jane Campbell, where have you been? We've needed you
for a very, very long time."-- Jamie Quatro, author of Fire Sermon
"I loved these fresh, wry, strange stories; by turns moving and
unnerving, they disturb expectations of the longings, loves and
ambitions of older women." -- Megan Hunter, author of The
Harpy"Jane Campbell's Cat Brushing is the debut of the decade, an
eighty year old woman laying out the physical and spiritual
struggle of life at its very end. I was haunted by these stories of
older women falling, having strokes, dying--subjects often
flattened into sentimentality--but in Campbell's hands made both
elegant and transgressive. We are striving creatures of intense
desire, Campbell insists, until we are not." -- Darcey Steinke,
author of Flash Count Diary"I laughed out loud in joy and
admiration so many times in this original, surprising book. These
stories felt both deeply familiar to me and far too absent from
many of our culture's stories. Jane Campbell is a refreshing,
compelling new voice." -- Kate Reed Petty, author of True Story
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