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Home Schooling: Stories
From the acclaimed author of Visible Light comes a collection of seven outstanding stories, each set against the rural landscape of Vancouver Island and the cities of the Pacific Northwest. In these stories the memories and dreams of characters are examined, revealing them to be both cages and keys to the cages. The life-lessons learned by the characters are often as compl...more
Hardcover, 224 pages
Published
February 3rd 2009
by Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
(first published July 2006)
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I had some trouble getting into this collection of short stories, I remember, starting it and then laying it aside a couple of times. There was something nebulous and unresolved about the worlds being presented that didn't fit with my own needs for clear directions at the time; I found the landscapes and characters well evoked but disturbingly unclear as to significance. (That, of course, is entirely likely to have been the author's intention.) But the last time I tried, the accomplished writing...more
I don't normally read short stories, they tend to feel very conscious of their limited space, and the characters are often empty names on pages to me. Home Schooling is nothing like that. Each story offers up, in beautiful, lyrical prose, intense details about the characters, their pasts, their issues, their relationships, yet nothing is crammed, none of the stories are full of junk - there's not a single wasted or irrelevant sentence.
There are common elements running through these ...more
There are common elements running through these ...more
Beautifully written book I read too long ago to make very specific comments. However, the story "What Saffi Knows" has stuck with me the several years since I read it. It was almost too difficult to get through but a masterpiece of literary exploration.
It's a book of short stories or more like 'vignettes' because they seem to cut into a moment of the story and leave at a moment, there doesn't seem to be a start or finish to each story. Her prose is fantastic and visual, but I find myself going back and re-reading parts because I haven't been properly 'introduced' to the characters because of the structure of the short story. An interesting collection and interesting way to present a story though. She's a good writer. I'd be interested to see w...more
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Edition irrelevant.2009-02-05
Julielenore
rated it
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review of another edition
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Canadians, women
Shelves:
short-stories
This is a book of short stories mostly set in B.C and Washington state. I enjoyed the first story "What Saffi knows" the most. It is about a young girl in the 60's, and the young boy who has gone missing from the small town where she lives.
I also enjoyed "felt skies" tremendously, which focuses on a mother daughter relationship, the love/hate relationship mothers and daughters can have. I could not finish the title story, I am funny like that, life is to short ...more
I also enjoyed "felt skies" tremendously, which focuses on a mother daughter relationship, the love/hate relationship mothers and daughters can have. I could not finish the title story, I am funny like that, life is to short ...more
Beautiful, complex stories of people searching for answers in relationships and in their lives. Themes of memory and truth lead to endings that are satisfying even when seemingly lacking in resolution. I loved this book.
Very nice, but every story feels as if it's chopped off in the middle. That's not an entirely bad thing--Windley can write, and I'd happily read a long, juicy novel by her.
Seriously, what is wrong with me? I can't seem to finish a book lately--unless it's audio. I need I lobotomy! (Or did I have one, and just forgot?)
Crystal-clear prose, real drama, and distinct characters make every story in this collection worth reading.
BC Book Prizes
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review of another edition
Shelves:
2007-prizes,
ethel-wilson-fiction-prize
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