The Wild Blue Yonder

Noreen Mitchell is a librarian with the Toronto Public Library.

Here is a collection of 13 stories finely crafted by a master
storyteller. Thomas favors “circular” stories, built in layers as
details of character and setting are gradually revealed.

The author’s deft manipulation of time and place is evident in “The
Slow of Despond,” which begins with an old woman’s annual visit to
the botanical gardens of Edinburgh, continues as a story about her
younger life as a missionary’s wife in West Africa, and, after
revealing the tragic action in her past, returns to the present once
again. Even quite ordinary circumstances—such as a sick woman’s
return journey to Scotland from Paris, in “Survival of the Fittest,”
or a young mother’s unfortunate choice of tenants for her upstairs
flat, in “Trash”—achieve extraordinary impact through the
author’s skillful unfolding of the narrative, her convincing dialogue,
and her remarkable depiction of character.

Throughout the book, the emotional lives of women—young and
old(er)—are portrayed in fine detail. These stories are too quickly
read. Highly recommended.