Houghton Mifflin, 1986 "I want everything back, the way it was. But there is no point to it, this wanting." So says the narrator, whom we know as Offred. But that's not her real name. And it doesn't feel to her that this is her real life, what
Judith Viorst’s It’s Hard to be Hip Over Thirty and Other Tragedies of Married Life New American Library, 1968 (Also published by Persephone Books, No. 12) When I was a girl, I used to pull Judith Viorst’s slim volumes off my mother’s bookshelves, but I was always disappointed. And, no
They don't have to be lumped in with your vegetables, with what you think is good for you: there are some terrific short story collections just waiting to shatter your expectations of the form. Ivan Coyote's Missed Her Arsenal Pulp, 2010 These stories are very short (usually 4 pages), so
Timothy Findley's Spadework (2001) This is an author who has been particularly important to me. In that peculiar way in which someone with whom you have had virtually no contact can affect you more than people with whom you have spent years of your life. So I delayed reading his
Thomas King’s Truth and Bright Water Harper-Flamingo, 1999 Truth is the railroad town on one side of the river, in the United States; Bright Water is the reserve on the other side of the river, in Canada. Once there had been a plan to build a bridge, but something went
