Interspersed with the depressing stories are some vivid depictions of nature.

My favorite characters were Aunt Edna, Ewen, and Chris.

None of the stories are favorites and I skipped the "Half Husky,"
knowing that with all the human deaths, a cruel dog one was likely to follow, ( )

Loved it. ( )

Chronique (souvenirs?) douce amère, en petites touches, presque des nouvelles... beaucoup de charme (la couverture est particulièrement mal choisie) ( )

Strong characters both female and male, with broadly different perspectives throughout. Particular attention of course is paid to the protagonist, young Vanessa, but although perhaps the female characters are the focus, Laurence is fair and generous to the male species as well. The language is also descriptive but not so much that there is a surfeit of verbiage. One feels the indolent breezes of summer and smells the dust, the loneliness of the spinster aunt, and the sorrow of the mother. A wonderful collection of connected stories (so that it's all but a novel). ( )

This is a small book of short stories. But, like The Stone Angel and A Jest of God, they all take place in the fictional town of Manawaka which is a thinly disguised Neepawa, MB where Laurence grew up. According to a Winnipeg Free Press article published at the time of her death in 1987 some people in Neepawa resented the way Laurence portrayed the town. This article says that only a few dozen people attended the memorial service in Neepawa "in sharp contrast to a standing-room-only tribute Friday in Toronto." I am indebted to the person who included a copy of this article in this book. I only found it as I finished the first story so it was a complete surprise to me.

Vanessa McLeod is the central character of the stories. Isabel Huggan, in the afterward to the book, confirms what I suspected i.e. that these stories are autobiographical. Thus, I know quite a bit more about Peggy Wemyss than I did before. Vanessa and Peggy both lost their fathers at a young age. They both tried writing stories from a young age, honing their craft. They both could hardly wait to get out of their small town. Obviously, though, while Peggy while waiting to escape she was also observing all the people, tucking away things that emerged almost 25 years later when this book was written.

It's hard to pick a favourite story because they were all great. I think that the one that affected me the most was probably "The Half-Husky". It's the story of a dog that Vanessa was given by the man who brought birch firewood for the family. Vanessa called him Nanuk in honour of his Husky lineage. Unfortunately Nanuk became the brunt of cruelty perpetrated by the newspaper boy. He became aggressive with anyone outside of the family and had to be euthanized. All these years later I can still feel the outrage Vanessa/Peggy felt. ( )