For centuries, sculptors and architects have been fascinated with caryatids, the sculpted female figures used as support columns for classical buildings. But there are also human caryatids, metaphorical pillars of society.
In Caryatids, author Michaele Benedict offers thirty-four remarkable short stories of transformation and survival that show lovers, teachers, artists and thieves supporting their various causes, but sometimes just getting fed up and walking away from the job.
In the story "Caryatids," the statues speak. "The Diener" reveals how the letter "Y" can sum up everything that's wrong.
"A Moving Target" tells how a college psychology teacher is haunted by the ghost of Sigmund Freud-and by a number of hopeful ladies.
Poppa does his best to take care of his motherless girls in "Poppa's Fiddle."
Annie becomes obsessed with trash after she loses the baby in "Temporary, Like Achilles," Fleurette leads the good life on the French Riviera in "The Violin of Ingres," and in "Michal's Story" we learn about the first wife of King David, bought with a hundred Philistine foreskins.
Who, in the words of Thomas Jefferson, would want to hold up a floor for others to dance upon? Caryatids suggests some answers.
About the Author: Michaele Benedict was a Tennessee Press Association scholar at the University of Tennessee and worked as a writer and editor on the Knoxville News Sentinel, the Spokesman-Review in Spokane, Washington, the Athens (Greece) News, and World Magazine at the United Nations.
After receiving a music-themed degree at San Francisco State University, she taught music at Skyline College in San Bruno, California, while continuing freelance writing and operations at her small press, Thomas Paine Ditto Works.
Her other books include Searching for Anna, Byline, and The Thrilling Adventures of Number Eighteen. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband, a cellist.
