Tell Me a Riddle (Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Tillie Olsen
- First Published: 1961
- Type of Work: Novella
- Genres: Realism, Short fiction
- Subjects: Freedom, Mothers, Parents and children, Love or romance, Marriage, Immigration or emigration, Old age or elderly people, Retirement
- Locales: United States
Tell Me a Riddle is Tillie Olsen's greatest achievement as a writer of fiction. This novella expands upon themes that Olsen developed in her earlier stories and adds new insights into relationships between married couples and the experiences of women.
The initial conflict in the novella is between Eva and her husband, David. Now that they have reared their family and all the children have established their own homes all over the country, their forty-seven-year marriage reaches a point of crisis. Eva's husband wants to sell the house and move into a retirement home, the...
[The entire page is 1315 words long]
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