Mrs. Stevens Hears the Mermaids Singing [Paperback]

May Sarton's ninth novel explores a woman's struggle to reconcile the claims of life and art, to transmute passion and pain into poetry. As it opens, Hilary Stevens, a renowned poet in her seventies, is talking with Mar, an intense young man who has sought her out and whose passionate despair reminds her of herself when young. Mar has had an unhappy love affair with a man. Bewildered by both his sexuality and his writing talent, he flings his anguish against Hilarys brusque, sympathetic intelligence.The plot of this short novel is deceptively simple, the mood subtle, the feeling intense. And the music of Miss Sartons prose leaves compelling echoes in ones mind.