To Be There with You

Susan Manningham teaches sociology at Queen’s University in Kingston.

The characters in Gayla Reid’s debut collection of short stories are
expatriates who share the postmodern dilemma of doubleness and
dislocation. Borders seem nonexistent to them as they move back and
forth between Australia, Canada, the United States, and Southeast Asia,
exploring the possibilities and disappointments of relationships in a
context of political upheaval and social change. Reid’s characters may
leave the reader wondering if we can ever truly communicate with others,
even those we profess to love.

The stories, illuminated by the beauty of their natural settings, are
peopled with lovers, mothers, fathers, sons, and daughters. Their
connections may be loving, bittersweet, or hollow but none are ever
truly broken, and some are as eternal as the land that binds them, as in
the case in “Uncle Reg and the Wide Brown Land.” The author won the
1994 CBC Radio/Saturday Night literary competition, the 1993 Journey
Prize, and a National Magazine Award. This collection provides an
opportunity for many readers to discover what only a few had previously
known—Gayla Reid can tell a story.