Oh, My Darling

by Shaena Lambert

Here are ten remarkable stories about contemporary life, family, children and love. They highlight the secret streams that run through relationships: the moments of revelation, the subtle acts of revenge, and the lengths we will go for love.

The stories includes a couple who plan an environmental protest by placing the husband inside a cage in front of an aquarium; a middle-aged mother who gets embroiled with a young man, as she tries to understand her son’s addiction; a boy on a Caribbean island who tries to deal with his father’s Nazi past; an old man who obsesses over the size of his coffin and whether he can be transported in it down his narrow apartment stairs; and a couple who uncover their secret fate at the Delphic Oracle in Greece.

Passionate and precise, these stories are infused with an uncommon originality. This is writing of the very first order by one of Canada’s best writers.

Genres: Short Stories, Canada, Fiction

200 pages, Hardcover

First published September 3, 2013

About the author

I started writing fiction in 1992, when my son was a toddler, a leap into the unknown, and frightening, as at that time I was a single mother. But with the help of an explorations grant from the Canada Council, I was able to keep writing. I have lived in Vancouver, Toronto, New York and the Okanagan, but for the last decade I have been back on the West Coast, in Vancouver, where many of my stories are set, living with my husband, Bob Penner, and my two (now grown ) children. I've written four books, Petra, Oh, My Darling , Radiance, and The Falling Woman, stories. My work has been nominated for the Danuta Gleed, Rogers Writers Trust, Ethel Wilson and Evergreen awards, Frank O'Connor Award for the Short Story and been published in Canada, the UK, Germany and Australia. I also teach writing on a freelance basis -- please visit my website, for thoughts on writiing.

Reviews

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have been a fan of Shaena Lambert for many years, so opened my advance copy of Oh, My Darling, her new book of stories, expecting pure enjoyment. I was not disappointed, because Lambert's writing gives the reader great pleasure. Few writers use such nuanced and precise language, or have such command over the demanding short story form. I can understand why “The War Between the Men and the Women” was chosen for Best Canadian Stories and Ploughshares magazine, and singled out as a “notable story” by Best American Stories.

Each story in this collection is like a mysterious, slippery fish that is played out on a slender line of plot, reeled in, let out again, then hauled quickly to a silvery finish. Lambert is one of the masters of the short story in Canada and reminds me that short stories are literary in the best sense, an art as well as a craft. Many of the stories in Oh, My Darling are about the interplay between men and women. In one of my favourites, "In Delphi", we engage with the raw isolation at the core of human relationships in prose as fine as E.M. Forster's in Passage to India.

[Jolieke Weijmer · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sommige verhalen waren leuk maar de meesten echt akelig muah

[Rena Graham · Rating 5 out of 5]

These stories perfectly reflect the complexity of what it means to be human and in relationship. I loved the inventiveness, the perfectly correct endings that you didn't see coming and mostly, the voice in which they were written.

[Eva Stachniak · Rating 5 out of 5]

Shaena Lambert is a wise and thoughtful writer. She is an astute observer of domestic dramas, of aging, of motherhood, of revelations that come at most unexpected moments. Her characters are the people we recognize. They are among us, they are us, or they can be us. Their moments of understanding, of coming to terms with their shortcomings are beautifully rendered, with quiet wisdom that sears your heart.

I love short stories. At their best they do exactly what "Oh, My Darling" does. They condense experience and render it in beautiful, concise sentences. They are like poems with their economy, but also like novels with their depth and scope. They they us live another's live, for a moment, make us fellow travellers to people who matter because, through them, we reach this quite moment of reflection which makes reading such a deep pleasure.

[Claudia Casper · Rating 5 out of 5]

What I love about this book, besides the excellence of the writing, the sharp humour, the lovely form of the stories, and the lean spareness of everything, is that Lambert rips away the veil of banality surrounding middle-aged women's lives and reveals the raw primal depth of urgent meaning, loss, danger, richocheting through their lives at every turn. The stakes could not be higher.
I watched journalist Liane Faulder read this book also, unable to put it down, gripped by intensity of experience and language.

[Ann Douglas · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can't remember which of my GoodReads friends recommended Shaena Lambert's short stories to me, but I owe that person a big thank you. This book was incredible -- the kind of book you dive into and can't stop reading until you've finished it. The stories are powerful -- physically and emotionally vivid. I am looking forward to reading Lambert's other short fiction collection and her novel as well.

[Alexis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Holy crap! This collection of short stories knocked me out of the water. Fantastic.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have been a fan of Shaena Lambert for many years, so opened my advance copy of Oh, My Darling, her new book of stories, expecting pure enjoyment. I was not disappointed, because Lambert's writing gives the reader great pleasure. Few writers use such nuanced and precise language, or have such command over the demanding short story form. I can understand why “The War Between the Men and the Women” was chosen for Best Canadian Stories and Ploughshares magazine, and singled out as a “notable story” by Best American Stories.

Each story in this collection is like a mysterious, slippery fish that is played out on a slender line of plot, reeled in, let out again, then hauled quickly to a silvery finish. Lambert is one of the masters of the short story in Canada and reminds me that short stories are literary in the best sense, an art as well as a craft. Many of the stories in Oh, My Darling are about the interplay between men and women. In one of my favourites, "In Delphi", we engage with the raw isolation at the core of human relationships in prose as fine as E.M. Forster's in Passage to India.

[Nikki · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lambert has some intelligent stories here, some interesting comments and twist endings. On the other hand, her characters feel emotionally monochromatic and 90% of her men are portrayed as fumbling and emotionally-repressed. Overall the writing feels a little one-note to me. I wish there could have been a diversity in voice that would have lent a lot to the text, in my opinion. I don't hold it against her too much, however, because I feel like short stories collections are inevitably one-note as they're meant to have single identities but very few writers have a genuine multiplicity of voices to employ. This phenomenon renders the short story collection something I'm frequently frustrated with but this is certainly one of the better endeavors I've read.

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection of short stories shines a spotlight on families at points of crisis or challenge, and reveals the complicated nature of being a part of the human race. Shaena turns familiar situations on their heads, and dares us as readers to travel with her to new territories. My two faves in here are “Crow Ride” and “The Wind.” Oh, what a beautiful and intense collection. Probably my top pick for a story collection in 2013. (Perhaps a tie with Tenth of December by George Saunders.)

[Andrea MacPherson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful stories tackling death and destruction, love and loss, all the messy, entagled moments in life. "the War Between the Men and the Women" and "The Wind" were standouts for me.

There is a feeling of sameness in some of the stories (voice), and the endings might benefit from another best or two, but overall gorgeous work.

[Suzanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Compelling short stories; Will def read her other books. @Marcia, many are set in Vancouver.