One remarkable feature of Lisa Moore’s short story writing is her versatility. Sometimes her vocabulary is elevated (consider: koan, ferric, sculpin, recalcitrant, scabrous, and histrionic). Sometimes her subject matter is banal. With characters chewing their fish and chips on Signal Hill with their mouths full. (“Skywalk”, the final work
Amabel is just a few years older than young Shirley, who lost her young husband Pete when they were newlyweds in “The Accident”; barely married, not yet disappointed. Had Amabel and Shirley been friends, able to discuss their brief experiences of married life, I wonder how their opinions might
Like the sand dollar that Rhoda’s father slips into his pocket, this is a gritty story. Her sister Joanne repatriated their father, with an air passage to back the claim, and now he has come to live with Joanne. “Then waja come here for?” “Because Regan sent me on
It’s as if Billy, from “The End of the World”, had heard the tragic story of Shirley and Pete Higgins and used it to justify his reluctance to leave Canada. Unlike Billy, Shirley and Pete were thrilled to honeymoon in Europe, thrilled by all the ordinary things made extraordinary
It’s a hot and overcast August morning, too early for the neighbourhood to have awakened. On another morning it might seem peaceful; this morning it feels abandoned. The grass in the park next door is patchy and dry, even though the humidity is high and a woman with two
