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Home Schooling: Stories
The Giller Prize-nominated Home Schooling marks the American debut of a masterful, award-winning storyteller. Set against the moody landscape of Vancouver Island and the thrumming cities of the Pacific Northwest, Carol Windley’s stories uncover the hidden freight of families: in the title story, two sisters contend with their idealistic father’s sudden inability to provide for their family, and with their attraction to the same boy; in “What Saffi Knows,” a mother returns to a moment in her past when she held the knowledge that might have saved another child, but not the language with which to convey it; and in “Family in Black,” a young woman’s world is permanently changed when her mother abandons her father for a man who embodies everything her mother taught her to despise. Families dissolve and reform in new, startling configurations: ghosts appear, the past intrudes and overwhelms the present, familiar terrain takes on a hostile aspect, and happiness depends on unlikely alliances. With the invisibly perfect craftsmanship of Alice Munro, and the flesh-and-blood sense of place of Annie Proulx, Windley carves out territory all her own in these stories, each one a richly imagined world that will stay with readers for a long time.
224 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2006
7 people are currently reading
121 people want to read
About the author
Carol Windley
5 books29 followersBorn in Tofino, British Columbia and raised in British Columbia and Alberta, Windley's debut short story collection, Visible Light (1993) won the 1993 Bumbershoot Award, and was nominated for the 1993 Governor General's Award for English Fiction and the 1994 Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize.
She followed in 1998 with her first novel, Breathing Underwater. In 2002, Windley won a Western Magazine Award for "What Saffi Knows", which later featured as the opening story in her short story collection Home Schooling (2006). That book was shortlisted for the 2006 Scotiabank Giller Prize.
Windley has also taught creative writing at Malaspina University-College.
She followed in 1998 with her first novel, Breathing Underwater. In 2002, Windley won a Western Magazine Award for "What Saffi Knows", which later featured as the opening story in her short story collection Home Schooling (2006). That book was shortlisted for the 2006 Scotiabank Giller Prize.
Windley has also taught creative writing at Malaspina University-College.
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
September 14, 2008
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 persuaded me into becoming involved in the stories, and I enjoyed each one to the extent that I have given the book four stars.
December 9, 2010
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 what she does with a novel.
February 11, 2013
I chose this as part of my Across-Canada Challenge as I've read so much lit from BC, and wanted to try something different- short stories, Vancouver island, etc.
Well, I sort of figured out why I don't particularly like short stories...it's almost as though there is enough room for a poetic prose, but not enough for me to feel any sort of attachment at all for the protagonist. My feelings continued here, especially with Windley's characters because they are all tragic and issues go unresolved.
She is a lovely writer, to be certain. Challenging and heart-wrenching stories, but not my cup of tea.
Well, I sort of figured out why I don't particularly like short stories...it's almost as though there is enough room for a poetic prose, but not enough for me to feel any sort of attachment at all for the protagonist. My feelings continued here, especially with Windley's characters because they are all tragic and issues go unresolved.
She is a lovely writer, to be certain. Challenging and heart-wrenching stories, but not my cup of tea.
November 14, 2008
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.
September 2, 2016
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.
October 29, 2023
This collection of short stories published in 2006, is set in the Pacific Northwest of the United States and Vancouver Island in Canada. Windley gives readers eight separate stories, filled with loss, disappointment and memories of the past, some filled with unsettling events. The lessons learned here are difficult ones although the stories are not dark and depressing. Most are filled with characters who have much to say and do. Many are young girls about to become women and still unsure of themselves. They make decisions which may appear headed for disaster, but never reach that difficult end.
Most come to some sort of resolution which satisfies those readers who has invested themselves in imagining a time, place and people, and want to reach some kind of closure before leaving them behind. However there is one story with a true cliffhanger.
In the title story “Home Schooling”, a family living on a remote island deals with the closure of a private school their father founded. A young boy who was a talented musician drowned on the property, forcing closure of the school and threatening the family’s livelihood. The mother, a talented pianist who gave up her career to follow her husband and his dreams, is devastated by what has happened. She cared for the young boy, perhaps even more than she cares for her two young daughters. Meanwhile the two girls, one seventeen, the other fifteen, compete for the attentions of a lover they visit on alternate nights.
In “What Saffi Knows”, a young girl knows what has happened to the young boy who went missing from a field, but is unable to tell those who are searching for him. Not only can she not find the words to describe what she saw in her neighbor’s basement, but she believes if she does, it will make it all very real. Perhaps if she stays silent, it will have been only something she dreamed.
In the "Joy of Life", Desiree, a painter at a workshop in Wales begins an affair with a poet, leaving her friend Alex behind to look after her young daughter. Alex longs for the kind of life Desiree is ready to give up, as well as the husband she is leaving behind.
In a "Family in Black", a daughter’s life becomes difficult when her mother leaves her father, choosing instead to be with the kind of man she has always taught her daughter to avoid.
In these stories, set against the wild coastal landscape where Windley grew up and which she so ably and beautifully describes, individuals and families are in transition. However the stories are neither depressing nor gloomy, but instead show individuals and families in transition, adapting to new circumstances and making the best of things.
Some have compared Windley’s work to that of fellow Canadian Alice Munroe. Like Munroe’s work, Windley’s short stories are set in small towns and are often long extended narratives that almost reach the category of a novella.
There can be no doubt about Windley’s writing; it is excellent, filled with detailed metaphors, richly described passages and narratives in which the human and natural world run on similar trajectories.
Short stories have never been by favorite literary format. I find them frustrating, as I become immersed in each and see what I believe is the viable seed for a full-length novel. I feel I just get invested in the plot and begin to appreciate the characters when the writer chooses to bring things to a close. Still, knowing this format is one of the most difficult to write, I keep trying appreciate them and find more and more are becoming pleasantly enjoyable. Exposure over time is helping!
It is clear that many others view Windley as an “up and comer” in this literary category and critics agree, evident for the prizes and awards she has received, including reaching the short list for the prestigious 2006 Giller Prize, firmly placing her in a well-respected group of writers.
Most come to some sort of resolution which satisfies those readers who has invested themselves in imagining a time, place and people, and want to reach some kind of closure before leaving them behind. However there is one story with a true cliffhanger.
In the title story “Home Schooling”, a family living on a remote island deals with the closure of a private school their father founded. A young boy who was a talented musician drowned on the property, forcing closure of the school and threatening the family’s livelihood. The mother, a talented pianist who gave up her career to follow her husband and his dreams, is devastated by what has happened. She cared for the young boy, perhaps even more than she cares for her two young daughters. Meanwhile the two girls, one seventeen, the other fifteen, compete for the attentions of a lover they visit on alternate nights.
In “What Saffi Knows”, a young girl knows what has happened to the young boy who went missing from a field, but is unable to tell those who are searching for him. Not only can she not find the words to describe what she saw in her neighbor’s basement, but she believes if she does, it will make it all very real. Perhaps if she stays silent, it will have been only something she dreamed.
In the "Joy of Life", Desiree, a painter at a workshop in Wales begins an affair with a poet, leaving her friend Alex behind to look after her young daughter. Alex longs for the kind of life Desiree is ready to give up, as well as the husband she is leaving behind.
In a "Family in Black", a daughter’s life becomes difficult when her mother leaves her father, choosing instead to be with the kind of man she has always taught her daughter to avoid.
In these stories, set against the wild coastal landscape where Windley grew up and which she so ably and beautifully describes, individuals and families are in transition. However the stories are neither depressing nor gloomy, but instead show individuals and families in transition, adapting to new circumstances and making the best of things.
Some have compared Windley’s work to that of fellow Canadian Alice Munroe. Like Munroe’s work, Windley’s short stories are set in small towns and are often long extended narratives that almost reach the category of a novella.
There can be no doubt about Windley’s writing; it is excellent, filled with detailed metaphors, richly described passages and narratives in which the human and natural world run on similar trajectories.
Short stories have never been by favorite literary format. I find them frustrating, as I become immersed in each and see what I believe is the viable seed for a full-length novel. I feel I just get invested in the plot and begin to appreciate the characters when the writer chooses to bring things to a close. Still, knowing this format is one of the most difficult to write, I keep trying appreciate them and find more and more are becoming pleasantly enjoyable. Exposure over time is helping!
It is clear that many others view Windley as an “up and comer” in this literary category and critics agree, evident for the prizes and awards she has received, including reaching the short list for the prestigious 2006 Giller Prize, firmly placing her in a well-respected group of writers.
July 12, 2018
SUMMARY:
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 complicated and painful as they are illuminating. In the title story, two sisters fall in love with their math tutor on one of the Gulf Islands, inhabited equally by the ghosts of the misfits and Hollywood stars who came to live there, and the children of an alternative school, run by the girls' criminally optimistic father. In "Sand and Frost," a young girl drops out of UBC, returns home, and discovers that her domineering grandmother is the sole survivor of a shocking act of family violence. In "What Saffi Knows," a child, unable to explain to her self-involved parents, struggles with the knowledge of the whereabouts of another missing child. In these remarkable seven stories, Carol Windley creates a sense of place and of people that breathe the cool wet air of a spring morning on Gabriola Island.
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 complicated and painful as they are illuminating. In the title story, two sisters fall in love with their math tutor on one of the Gulf Islands, inhabited equally by the ghosts of the misfits and Hollywood stars who came to live there, and the children of an alternative school, run by the girls' criminally optimistic father. In "Sand and Frost," a young girl drops out of UBC, returns home, and discovers that her domineering grandmother is the sole survivor of a shocking act of family violence. In "What Saffi Knows," a child, unable to explain to her self-involved parents, struggles with the knowledge of the whereabouts of another missing child. In these remarkable seven stories, Carol Windley creates a sense of place and of people that breathe the cool wet air of a spring morning on Gabriola Island.
March 24, 2022
I loved this book. Some stories were stronger than others but Carol Windley can write a character and hatch it into flesh as if they were people you know and care deeply about. I will be thinking of these stories for a long while.
June 14, 2019
Random Stories
Perhaps for someone else, this would be worth reading. For me, it was disconnected and sad and made no sense. I can not recommend this read.
Perhaps for someone else, this would be worth reading. For me, it was disconnected and sad and made no sense. I can not recommend this read.
July 20, 2020
Beautifully created short stories set in one of my favourite places, Vancouver island.
February 19, 2016
There’s just something so special to me about reading books set in Canada – it’s the country I was born in, the one I call home, the one I can’t wait to explore coast to coast one day. Carol Windley’s masterpiece of a collection holds eight stories that transports us to Vancouver Island, each one beautifully different and mysteriously almost - devoid of a beginning and an end. Those of you who like a solid, well-explained ending to every piece of literature you come across, then Home Schooling isn’t my recommendation for you.
The stories all seem to carry the underlying theme of death, mourning, and acceptance. It touches on fitting into new places, new families and discovering one’s inner self even more as the scenery of life changes, unfolding new chronicles and challenges. I liked reading this book one story at a time – for me each one fit perfectly into a single commute ride giving me bounteous time to think about each one distinctly.
The first story, “What Saffi Knows”, was easily my favourite and will have you hooked onto the rest of the book from its leading niche. When Saffi is a little girl, a young boy disappears from her town. There’s a secret in the story she doesn’t tell anyone else about his whereabouts and his kidnapper. It's a secret we see her battle herself about as she lives with it for the rest of her life - for the summer she never spoke. In “Homeschooling”, two unsuspecting sisters in a secret relationship with the same boy build crepuscular, blurry dreams. The rest of the stories continues through Vancouver Island and the Pacific Northwest as Windley magnificently illustrates each character’s mental battlefields in an uncommon and astonishing way.
All eight stories are quite short, around 25 pages or so, leaving you with unanswerable questions each time. Windley is a talented writer, associated with the rare gift of leaving you thinking with just a few well-chosen pages of words. I’ve added her other full books to my to-reads list for now, and I am excited to see how she will spin her plots in a novel setting.
The stories all seem to carry the underlying theme of death, mourning, and acceptance. It touches on fitting into new places, new families and discovering one’s inner self even more as the scenery of life changes, unfolding new chronicles and challenges. I liked reading this book one story at a time – for me each one fit perfectly into a single commute ride giving me bounteous time to think about each one distinctly.
The first story, “What Saffi Knows”, was easily my favourite and will have you hooked onto the rest of the book from its leading niche. When Saffi is a little girl, a young boy disappears from her town. There’s a secret in the story she doesn’t tell anyone else about his whereabouts and his kidnapper. It's a secret we see her battle herself about as she lives with it for the rest of her life - for the summer she never spoke. In “Homeschooling”, two unsuspecting sisters in a secret relationship with the same boy build crepuscular, blurry dreams. The rest of the stories continues through Vancouver Island and the Pacific Northwest as Windley magnificently illustrates each character’s mental battlefields in an uncommon and astonishing way.
All eight stories are quite short, around 25 pages or so, leaving you with unanswerable questions each time. Windley is a talented writer, associated with the rare gift of leaving you thinking with just a few well-chosen pages of words. I’ve added her other full books to my to-reads list for now, and I am excited to see how she will spin her plots in a novel setting.
June 11, 2008
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 stories - death and, in the least melodramatic sense, rebirth; love and loss; the transient essence of the landscape and the people occupying its space.
My favourite story? Too difficult. I loved "Home Schooling", where the landscape, so vividly portrayed, reminded me a little of the wild moors in Wuthering Heights. Annabel sees the ghosts of previous occupants, the two sisters, Jane and Freddy, who used to live in their big old house-come-school, and a famous actress, and imagines them conversing with each other, having tea together, giving advice.
I enjoyed "Felt Skies" for the minor character of Dr. Bergius, a lonely man who looks like Freud, who finally escapes medicine for his dream of owning a radio station. He hovers by Rachel's desk, chats up her mum, and reminisces about his own Mother and now-deceased wife Eva. Each character in these stories, whether likeable or not, is fully realised, with insights coming from the central characters' knowledge as well as through the characters themselves, as they betray their human traits.
These stories captured an often chilly, misty unreality-within-reality -or perhaps it's a reality-within-unreality? They are not about large events but personal moments, moments of reflection, realisation and understanding. They work supremly well as short stories, and after reading each one take a moment to absorb it all.
There are common elements running through these stories - death and, in the least melodramatic sense, rebirth; love and loss; the transient essence of the landscape and the people occupying its space.
My favourite story? Too difficult. I loved "Home Schooling", where the landscape, so vividly portrayed, reminded me a little of the wild moors in Wuthering Heights. Annabel sees the ghosts of previous occupants, the two sisters, Jane and Freddy, who used to live in their big old house-come-school, and a famous actress, and imagines them conversing with each other, having tea together, giving advice.
I enjoyed "Felt Skies" for the minor character of Dr. Bergius, a lonely man who looks like Freud, who finally escapes medicine for his dream of owning a radio station. He hovers by Rachel's desk, chats up her mum, and reminisces about his own Mother and now-deceased wife Eva. Each character in these stories, whether likeable or not, is fully realised, with insights coming from the central characters' knowledge as well as through the characters themselves, as they betray their human traits.
These stories captured an often chilly, misty unreality-within-reality -or perhaps it's a reality-within-unreality? They are not about large events but personal moments, moments of reflection, realisation and understanding. They work supremly well as short stories, and after reading each one take a moment to absorb it all.
July 10, 2008
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 to read a book you don't like.
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 to read a book you don't like.
October 7, 2012
A Canadian Giller Prize finalist, which as usual, serves as a giant warning sign for me! It’s a collection of short stories, which often don’t appeal to me because I’m either too lazy or too stupid to make connections between apparently unrelated events/people. And there are rarely neat, wrapped-upped endings. These points sum up this book. It wasn’t the worst book I’ve read, but it wasn’t great.
Read
January 10, 2021My 2-star review is more a function of my lack of focus these last weeks and my inability to get excited about a book of short stories even though I actually enjoyed the first couple that I read. Just bad timing, really (library downloads don't lend themselves to taking your time and coming back to a book, sadly.) If I see this one on the bookstore shelf, I might actually buy it - I think it's one that I'd pick up, read a story when I had a few minutes, and come back to again in a few weeks.
January 16, 2020
As other reviewers have noted, Carol Windley has skill as a writer. She is able to craft memorable settings and her characters are interesting and varied. I also agree though, that the stories were cut off when there was still more to say. "The Reading Elvis" in particular left me feeling unsatisfied. Perhaps even more so because it was the last short story of the book. All in all, it was a quick, enjoyable read...but only good (not great) in my opinion.
April 10, 2015
The first story in this collection starts you out with a bang and leaves you wondering what the other stories will be like. I would advise reading the stories with space in between to digest each before going on to the next. They were definitely well-crafted and intriguing but, unfortunately I still could not get past the fact that a short story is just that - short. I enjoy the fullness that a novel can bring.
March 3, 2013
It's hard to "rate" a short story collection. Some stories in this book were excellent while others fell short in different ways. In general, the stories that I didn't like as much tried to cover too much ground in terms of time leading them to feel rushed. I did really like descriptions of the PNW settings (mostly Vancouver Island, but similar enough to WA state).
June 5, 2015
I read the first story in this collection "What Saffi Knows" a couple years ago and it has haunted me ever since. It was just as strong and affecting on rereading. Windley's writing is beautiful. Her stories provide intriguing glimpses into complicated families. I'd say these are stories to be savoured, and I can see myself returning to them again.
September 7, 2016
1.5 I really did not enjoy this book of short stories. I read the first 3 stories and decided not to make myself read anymore. The first was utterly depressing. The others were also dreary, and I just spent the whole time trying to figure out who the characters were/how they were related to each other and hoping something interesting would happen.
October 8, 2008
Crystal-clear prose, real drama, and distinct characters make every story in this collection worth reading.
October 8, 2008
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.
Want to read
November 2, 2008Seriously, 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?)
Want to read
August 3, 2010Edition irrelevant.2009-02-05
Read
June 17, 2012Each story now offered as a cStories eBook Single! Check it out - http://win.cstories.ca !
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews