Home Fires

Beverly Rasporich is an associate professor in the Faculty of General
Studies at the University of Calgary and the author of Dance of the
Sexes: Art and Gender in the Fiction of Alice Munro.

This collection of 13 short stories evokes the world of fishermen,
boats, and sea, but does so largely from a female perspective, conveying
the anxieties, obligations, and emotions of mother, wife, lover, and
daughter.

Most of the stories lack tension. In “Say the Word,” for example,
the 12-year-old son of a worried mother goes out to the fishing grounds.
“Mean,” written from a child’s point of view, describes the
age-old phenomenon of playground bullying. More sophisticated is “On
the Road,” the story of an irresponsible musician and his family.

Mostly light reading, Home Fires could be easily consumed in a single
evening.