Enough

Patricia Morley is professor emerita of English and Canadian Studies at
Concordia University and an avid outdoor recreationist. She is the
author of several books, including The Mountain Is Moving: Japanese
Women’s Lives, Kurlek and Margaret Laurence: T

Enough is a spirited retelling of a Ukrainian folk tale in which
generosity triumphs over greed. The story is set near the Ukrainian
village of Zhitya, during the great famine manipulated by Stalin in the
1930s.

When Stalin’s soldiers come to take the village’s entire harvest,
Marusia hides a sackful of grain. She and her family share the wheat
with neighbors, saving a handful of seeds to plant the next spring. The
wheat grows tall, attracting a magical stork who transports Marusia to
the New World where she encounters farmers in Ukrainian clothing. They
give her a handful of wheat seeds to carry home and grow a new crop to
feed the villagers. But the new crop is also stolen by Stalin’s
troops. Then a greedy officer discovers the stork and tricks the bird
into flying him to the New World farms, where he overburdens the stork
with wheat.

As they fly back, the bird pitches the officer into the ocean and then
carries the wheat to Zhitya. The villagers protect their next harvest by
storing the wheat in mock graves—a trick that fools the soldiers and
leaves the farmers rejoicing in their new crop.

Michael Martchenko’s dramatic illustrations are amusing but also full
of emotional depth and strength. They partner the tale perfectly. Enough
is a witty warning against greed and a celebration of the human spirit.
Highly recommended.