So Beautiful

Naomi Brun is a freelance writer and a book reviewer for The Hamilton
Spectator.

Ramona Dearing is a Newfoundland-based writer and member of the Burning
Rock literary collective. Although she has published in several literary
magazines, So Beautiful is her first short-story collection.

By and large, Dearing’s characters are ordinary people in bleak, but
realistic, circumstances. In one story, Lucy is in love with Mitch, who,
in turn, fosters the crush out of boredom and loneliness. In another, a
graduate student learns to deal with an emotionally needy roommate who
just might be dipping her toothbrush in the toilet for fun. Darlene, in
a third tale, comes home from school to discover that her parents have
put the family dogs to sleep. The characters are all regular folk, if a
little hard, and their situations are commonplace, if disagreeable.

Dearing’s gift, then, lies not so much in the tales as in the
telling. Her characters are heartbreakingly aware, and Dearing’s curt
prose is more evocative of their deep emotions than any florid writing
style would be. Dearing, in fact, is a literary minimalist in a similar
manner to Alice Munro; those who enjoy Munro will be delighted to read
works by this new author.

Perhaps influenced by the geography of her home province, Dearing has
created a collection that is stunning in its fierce austerity. In other
words, it lives up to its name.