A Three-Tiered Pastel Dream: Stories

by Lesley Trites

A career-focused woman finds her life taken off course by an unexpected pregnancy. A troubled doctor abandons her family on her daughter’s birthday, the three-tiered pastel layer cake in the passenger seat beside her. A young mother must contend with how to explain her husband’s suicide to their child. In her first story collection, Lesley Trites digs bravely into the dilemmas faced by contemporary women who must be everything to everyone. Written with keen insight and deep affection, Lesley Trites’s A Three-Tiered Pastel Dream unearths pearls of wisdom from the secret lives of everyday women.

Genres: Short Stories

180 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2017

Reviews

[Lire.Papier · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5*
Un livre que j'ai choisi à la librairie par pur hasard. J'ai décidé de prendre un livre selon sa couverture et le titre sans lire le résumé.
Une belle découverte. Je n'avais jamais entendu parler de ce roman.
Quelques histoires à l'intérieur m'ont déçu mais en général j'ai bien aimé .
Un livre à lire tranquillement.

[Ami Sands · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a powerful collection of stories that gets inside the minds, hearts and souls of its women characters who grapple with love, sex, conflicts about becoming mothers and other big issues. The strongest pieces in this volume, such as the title story, are vivid, disturbing, and moving journeys into the terrain of mental illness. The prose is supple and fine with startling images and the stories will stay with you long after you close the covers of this slim volume.

[Tehmina Khan · Rating 5 out of 5]

"That's okay," I said, because I didn't yet know how to tell him it wasn't."

I am in love with Lesley Trites's collection of short stories. I believe it's because she has written what rings true. Her stories are of women living their lives, navigating through work, marriage, motherhood, and relationships. The world she writes of, is so different from mine, both past and present, and yet, so much resonates. These stories are as beautiful as the cover.
If you like short stories as much as I do or if you simply admire good writing, please do pick up this book. I wish more writers wrote stories like these- stories that are about everything and nothing. Stories that discuss big issues through particular details.

"Lightening, aneurysms, pregnancies: it's all beyond my control. I put my hands on my belly and try to stabilize the stars. I stay there for a while, listening to others clearing the dishes downstairs. My stomach feels strangely full, and it clenches, gripped by familiar fear. I tell myself lightening can't strike a third time."

[Natasha Dubé · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bought it for the beautiful cover then realized it was by a fellow Frederictonian! Really enjoyed this collection of short stories, especially the title story, Fulminology and Rituals. A good way to start a new reading year. 3/5!

[Mike · Rating 2 out of 5]

The short stories were very similar and repetitive - same characters in the same predicaments.

[Tin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some stories were interesting and striking while others felt drab and dragging.

[Anne Caverhill · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection is my favourite kind of short stories...being introduced to characters, experiencing a snapshot of their life and then wanting to "know more" when the story ended. Lesley Trites reminds me of The way Helen Simpson writes, daring to put on paper what the rest of us might only think or not even realize as a feeling She names it and then nails it. Highly recommend!

[Meg]

Lovely collection of short stories, contemporary women. I can't pick a favorite!