It Never Pays to Laugh Too Much

Joan McGrath is a Toronto Board of Education library consultant.

The Way To Always Dance, the first volume of a trilogy of short story collections, was greeted with deserved enthusiasm. Those fortunate readers who enjoyed that delightful collection, and those as well who are now encountering Gertrude Story’s work for the first time, will welcome the second volume, It Never Pays To Laugh Too Much, further glimpses into the world of Alvena Schroeder. She is advancing now to the brink of young womanhood, and from her perspective the reader shares a limpid, child’s-eye view of her intriguingly complex extended family, and of those whose lives intersect with hers at this important crossroad of life. Gemlike writing to be savoured and appreciated.