A new Friday fugue, running through this month, considering the ways in which our working lives appear on the pages of novels and short stories. Some of my favourite novels spend a good amount of time considering the good amount of time that we spend in our workplaces. Joshua Ferris'
Many of the themes which resurface in Alice Munro's fiction play an important role in "Working for a Living". 2006; Vintage, 2008 One of the first which strikes readers is the question of town versus country, which plays such a predominant role in both Lives of Girls and
My grandmother attended All Saints Church. Although I was not a devout child, I have many happy memories surrounding that small brick building: bazaars and bake sales, pancake suppers and holiday lunches. Biblioasis, 2014 None of my happy memories reside in the pews or at the altar, however; they are
Angie Adbou handles multiple narrative voices very well. Readers familiar with her earlier novels, The Bone Cage (2008) and The Canterbury Trail (2011) will know this, having inhabited narratives from varying perspectives. They will also know (as will readers of her 2006 collection of short stories, Anything Boys Can Do) that
As much as these stories focus on solitary characters who observe, from the margins, they long for something else; Walt and Mr. Jones are ultimately preoccupied with relationships. Goose Lane Editions, 2014 Margaret Sweatman's Mr. Jones openly confronts duplicity. "His life had been contrary, a series of duplications: two homes; a father who’d
