Victoria Patterson

Victoria Patterson is the author of Drift, a book of stories, and three novels: This Vacant Paradise, The Peerless Four, and The Little Brother. Her second collection of stories, The Secret Habit of Sorrow, published July 2018.

Articles

Black Lives Matter in Small Towns, Too
Victoria Patterson talks about flashpoints and performative progressive politics in South Pasadena.
Victoria PattersonJul 27, 2020
Smash-up: Edith Wharton’s Ethan Frome
Edith Wharton's novel, "Ethan Frome," reflects the author's unsatisfactory marriage and illustrates how people become trapped by reality's obligations.
Victoria PattersonAug 29, 2018
Edith Wharton’s The Custom of the Country: Undine Spragg is the Female Donald Trump
A look at Edith Wharton's "The Custom of the Country" reveals how the main character, Undine Spragg, bears a striking resemblance to President Donald Trump.
Victoria PattersonAug 16, 2018
Edith Wharton's Characters Were Products of Their Environment
Victoria Patterson explores Edith Wharton's keen sensibility to write characters who were flawed products of their environment.
Victoria PattersonJul 30, 2018
A Nice Hobby, Like Knitting: On Barbara Pym
Now recognized as a master for her wry, comic novels of spinsters and clergymen, Barbara Pym was unpublished until the very end of her life.
Victoria PattersonJul 16, 2015
- Fiction
Minding Other People’s Business: On Dawn Powell
Powell had bad luck, and she received less attention than her male colleagues, but throughout it all, she kept writing.
Victoria PattersonApr 14, 2015
- Biography & Autobiography
- Fiction
Fatally Cleaved
On Merritt Tierce’s Love Me Back
Victoria PattersonSep 17, 2014
No Girls Allowed: On “Queens of Noise”
The Runaways: punk icons, feminist icons, hard-rock icons.
Victoria PattersonSep 1, 2013
- Music
The Strangeness of Reality: Chris Kraus’s Summer of Love
Victoria PattersonOct 14, 2012
Not Pretty: On Edith Wharton and Jonathan Franzen
Do we even have to say that physical beauty is beside the point when discussing the work of a major author?
Victoria PattersonFeb 25, 2012