by Shirley Dees
May 5, 2026
Patient, Female by Julie Schumacher; Milkweed Editions; 264 pages; $26.00.
Many contemporary writers, inspired by classical titans Dostoevsky and Henry James, take a cognitive approach to literature, peeling away the average layers of humanity to expound upon the interior thoughts of the individual, exposing character motive. In this revitalized tradition, Julie Schumacher’s collection of stories in Patient, Female not only takes a seat at this intellectual table, but stands on its own as an illustrious body of psychological realism. By elevating the ordinary and highlighting the everyday complexities of ordinary people, Schumacher creates a collection that speaks directly to the characters’ and readers’ minds, continuing a movement that celebrates the hidden intricacies of the commonplace.
A hallmark of psychological realism is the development and utilization of complicated characters. Schumacher’s cast of subjects, often represented by an intimate third-person narrative style, are just people living ordinary lives who Schumacher elevates with authenticity the more tangled their circumstances become. There are thirteen stories in Patient, Female that each represent characters grappling with tense family dynamics and moral dilemmas, while struggling with identity issues in mid-life. A group of mothers in “Passengers,” “Slow Learner,” and “At the Executioner’s Table,” comprehensively labor through the desire to protect their children and solve their problems, while also navigating the enigmas of marriage, careers, and the societal pressure of parenthood.
The women in “Urn,” and “How My Light Is Spent,” struggle with family relationships and preconceived notions about what is deemed as the morally responsible choice, and the mental anguish that arises when these choices go against the character’s personal desires. Central to both Schumacher’s and Dostoevsky’s work is the relationship between suffering and redemption, creating paths of both psychological torment and reclamation for the characters. Universal experiences of ideological conundrums, crises of faith, and unresolved trauma, thrust Schumacher’s characters into the timeless battle of good versus evil. Depictions of these tensions in narrative form are the same now in Patient, Female as they were nearly two hundred years ago in Dostoevsky’s creations, aligning with contemporary theories on cognitive dissonance.
Schumacher’s characters are teachers, mid-level corporate employees, freelance accountants who are either at the end or middle of strained relationships, most stuck in the staleness of middle life where we find them in media res, in situations that advance their convoluted psychological challenges. One character drives her daughter across the Midwest to an eating disorder treatment center, a trip that is slowly revealed to be an annual expedition. One mother contemplates if she should leave for a planned family vacation even after her eight-year-old daughter pushes a classmate off a jungle gym at recess, causing a head injury and hospital stay. A divorced, financially strained woman must deal with the relationship of her shaky brother’s ensuing antics after their mother dies and he irresponsibly dumps her ashes in a lake in the middle of the night. By complicating the circumstances of these ordinary people, Schumacher authenticates the characters’ actions and thoughts, driving engagement between the reader and the text.
The predominant contribution of Schumacher’s introspective fiction is moral support for the reader’s own universal experiences of psychological discernment. By punctuating complexities of character emotions, Schumacher invigorates empathy in the reader, sparking critical thinking and moral analysis. Schumacher’s message in this collection speaks to the modern-day human reaction to grief, disappointment, fear, and anger when life’s expectations turn out to be the opposite of personal desire, and what happens when we embrace the vulnerability of the unknown future.
By enhancing the labyrinthine of emotions of her characters, Schumacher’s message is bolder, pushing the reader deeper into the psychological warfare of her characters. This effort is clearly wrought out on the page, as is evident in “Hospital Bridge,” where the main character’s internal epiphany is revealed in summation, “…without speaking, she seemed to tell me that I was headed for loss and disappointment, but that even a few glimmers of good fortune would help me withstand them." Furthermore, in “Resurrection Hockey,” Schumacher goes further and uses her character’s internal acumen of a career choice to voice a powerful message about the past and its use to prepare for the future and the desire to reign control over the uncontrollable. “That’s what History is: hindsight and intelligence and information mixed with regret, a pursuit of truth and knowledge after the facts, at a time when truth and knowledge are no longer useful." This same character even wrestles with the consequence of holding this theory with such firmness, thinking to herself, “How did we allow this future to happen?” In the concluding story, we are left with a final philosophical thought piece to cogitate in the main character’s internal monologue, “Is there nowhere to go but toward the future?” The psychological realism taking shape in Schumacher’s prose is as bold and extraordinary as it deserves to be.
In this literary sphere of character-driven emphasis of deep thought, Schumacher earns her distinction as a champion of psychological realism. The author’s ability to elevate the mundane through sophisticated characters with elaborate emotions, posing deep, analytical moral quandaries into the reader’s mind alongside her characters is a feat mastered on the pages of this forthcoming collection. Patient, Female should be on the shelf of every psychological realism student and enthusiast.
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Dignifying the Average: Psychological Realism in Julie Schumacher’s Patient, Female
FICTION REVIEW
Image by Ela Dilara from Pexels
Shirley Dees earned an MFA from the Naslund-Mann Graduate School of Writing at Spalding University in Louisville, Kentucky. Her fiction has appeared in Empty House Press, After Happy Hour Review, Bright Flash Literary, Bangalore Review, and others. When not writing, Shirley is busy supporting staff and student needs at her rural school district, and reading beneath the shade of centuries-old oak trees. She lives in south Texas with her husband, daughter, two princess barn cats, and geriatric pet turtle.
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© 2025 Iron Oak Editions
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© 2026 Iron Oak Editions
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