Snackers

Britta Santowski is a freelance writer in Victoria, British Columbia.

Janina Hornosty serves up a smorgasbord of short stories that deal with
such basic themes as time, class, food, and sex.

The collection begins with stories that chronicle the 1970s, an era
defined by what it is not: it is not active, angry, or politically
correct. There is nothing to fight against, and nothing to move toward:
“We weren’t sexually fondled as children. We weren’t trying to
change the world” (“Chairman Mao”). As the collection progresses,
the focus shifts to the 1980s, an era of middle-class consumption that
is most strikingly captured in “They Always Want to Eat Something,”
a story in which eating means counting calories, fashion means wearing
layers of beige, and love means having extramarital affairs. If the
1970s are marked by a void, the 1980s are marked by a desperate and
ultimately futile attempt to fill that void.

Hornosty’s strength lies in her ability to surprise. In “The
Garden,” dying does not lead to death. In “Chairman Mao,” the
activism promised by the title is belied by the story’s actual
subject: political apathy and ignorance. (“I’d never read a whole
newspaper. I didn’t know of anyone who had.”) In this collection,
Hornosty transforms clichés into something deliciously new.