Inside Stories

Barbara Yitsch is an associate at Duncan’s English Language Consulting
Ltd. in Edmonton.

These stories were inspired by photographs of unidentified people that
the author discovered in the false bottom of an old trunk. They are not
short stories, but rather snippets, little pieces of remembering that
she needed to embellish the lives of these strangers. The narrators of
Mitton’s snippets are the voices of experience, of those who were
there and thus can explain the background of each picture.

For whatever reason, the photographs that inspired each piece are not
included. No matter. Mitton writes with everything properly in place:
strong characters, clear settings, and poignant nostalgia. Although she
has a pessimistic turn of mind, each of her narrations makes
entertaining reading. “Credit,” the last “picture” in the book,
leaves the reader longing for the full story or novel that, as yet, lies
unwritten.