Waiting for the Piano Turner to Die

Linda M. Bayley is a freelance writer based in Sudbury, Ontario.

If Raymond Carver and Eliza Clark had a literary love child, her name
would be Harriet Richards. Waiting for the Piano Tuner to Die is a
collection of stories written in the Carver style, meaning that only as
many words as are absolutely necessary are used to tell them, but with
dialogue reminiscent of Clark’s best work and so real you’d think
the characters are right there in the room with you.

In some of these stories, it would be easy to believe that Richards has
stepped right into the skin of her characters, or is channelling them in
some way. We meet an elderly couple who take it upon themselves to raise
their granddaughter when their daughter moves away; a four-year-old girl
who is trying to make sense of her world; a young man, about to leave
the family farm, who loves it when the sun sets in the north; and a
woman who is always moving herself and her brother, searching for the
right place to live. Each of these characters is in transition, is on
the cusp of something, and Richards conveys their emotions so perfectly
that the reader becomes that character, just for a moment, just long
enough to understand.

Most of these stories take place in rural settings and have the quiet
pace that the rural life implies to harried city dwellers. Waiting for
the Piano Tuner to Die is a slow, satisfying read. Its only shortcoming
is that, like all good things, it comes to an end.