The stories in this dazzling new collection look at what happens when people's personal coping skills go awry. These are people who discover their anchor-chain has broken: characters safe in the world of self-deception or even self-delusion, forced to face the fact that their main line of defense has become their greatest weakness.
From the caretaker of a prairie amusement park to the lone occupant of a collapsing Newfoundland town, from the a traveling sports-drink marketer with a pressing need to get off the road to an elevator inspector who finds himself losing his marriage, these are people whose lives are spinning wildly out of control as they try to navigate their way through their rapidly changing worlds.
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My Review:
The twelve short stories in this collection have more in common than the theme of coping skills gone awry. They all feature a slice of Canadian life. Most of the stories are set in Atlantic Canada - a region that seems to inspire a lot of Canadian literature.
The thing I admire most about this collection is Russell Wangersky's writing style and his ability to set the scene quickly while giving the reader enough information to become emotionally involved in each of the short stories. Most of the stories are 20 pages or less, yet almost every single story came to a gut-wrenching climax that led me to ask 'How would I cope in a similar situation?'
At the end of the day, I think being able to throw ourselves into someone's else story is why most of us read. Thus, I'm adding Russell Wangersky's Whirl Away on my 5ers list.
5
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