Stay Me, Oh Comfort Me: Journals and Stories, 1933-1941

The introduction by her sister states that Fisher, who died at age 83 in 1992, pulled these eclectic choices together to complete her earlier memoirs, To Begin Again . Culled from journals, correspondences and short stories, these were intended to describe Fisher's life ``as it really happened to her and as she felt it at the time,'' according to Barr. After their fruitful years in France, Fisher and her husband Al rode out the bleak Depression years with their families in California. They later traveled in Switzerland in the company of their friend, Dillwyn (``Timmy'') Parrish, but the threesome broke up when the author and Parrish fell in love. In 1937, after her divorce from Al, the two married, but their union was ill-fated: intolerable pain from an incurable disease drove Parrish to suicide in 1941. The elegantly earthy style of the book is familiar, as is Fisher's theme: the need for good food and love. But as in the title story about the narrator's meeting with an alcoholic friend and her wealthy lesbian lover, there is a certain chilly distance to the narrator's descriptions of the disintegration of her once sparkling boarding school chum, one which hints at a ruthless persona not often seen in the usually wise and witty Fisher. (Dec.)