You'll Enjoy It When You Get There: the Stories of Elizabeth Taylor / 428 pp.

What a thrill to find this among our new books: an esteemed English novelist and short-story writer from mid-twentieth century whose work has been overlooked in the U.S. in recent years.  (And no, she was never married to Richard Burton; that was another Elizabeth T.)  These stories, written between 1950 and 1975 and many published first in The New Yorker, are, to this reader, fantastic.  They are 'small' stories set in middle-class homes in suburban England, but Taylor's powers of observation are tremendous.  Many critics describe her claustrophobic marriages dark and twisted; I found her descriptions rather compassionate instead.  Consider this description, from Sisters: "...the massive, mottled flesh beneath, creased, as it must be, from its rigid confinement, or the suspender imprints at the top of her tapering legs.  Her navel would be full of talcum powder."  It sounds cruel, but as the story plays out, it's clear that Taylor is beyond mere mockery.  Brilliant and subtle, Elizabeth Taylor gets my vote!