The Seasons are Horses

Darleen R. Golke is a high-school teacher-librarian in Winnipeg,
Manitoba.

Set in and around Grassbank, a fictional rural Saskatchewan community,
all but one of the collection’s 15 stories are first-person narratives
about the daily life experiences of the female protagonists, who range
in age from 13 to 18. Only in “The Sun Pushing the Wind” does
Friesen focus on a protagonist from outside the community.

The protagonists grapple with a range of conflicts and problems. Many
struggle with friendship and its fickle nature, as does Lori in
“Breaking Eggs” or Georgie in “Living Dangerously.” Both the
deliberate and unintentional cruelties of competitive young people
struggling to make sense of their complex world vibrate throughout.
Being “manless,” according to Starla in “Belonging to the
Dragon,” threatens many young women “who act like having a man is
the same thing as having a life.” Many of the protagonists experience
the pain of not being accepted whether they are too fat, like Naomi in
“Gabriel’s Crossing,” or too intellectual, like Kelly in “Kelly
Neudorf Learns to Kiss.” All face their conflicts philosophically and
survive.

Grassbank has its full complement of dysfunctional individuals and
families, especially evident in “The Seasons Are Horses,” the
bleakest of the stories. Racism, cruelty, abusive relationships, drug
and alcohol abuse, intolerance, and love number among the themes Friesen
presents. The narratives reverberate with the tone and flavor of young
people’s language, which the reader might well hear in the hallways of
any junior or senior high. Friesen doesn’t offer any simple solutions
for her protagonists; instead, she poses questions to all levels of
readers as she shows her characters coping with living. Recommended.