Buying on Time

Steve Pitt is a Toronto-based freelance writer and an award-winning journalist. He has written many young adult and children's books, including Day of the Flying Fox: The True Story of World War II Pilot Charley Fox.

In the early 1950s, a wave of immigrants washed over Canada from Eastern
Europe. Because most came from countries that no longer existed, they
were labeled “DPs,” or Deportees, by Anglo-Canadians. Shunned for
their accents and poverty, these immigrants clung together in tightly
knit communities that provided both support and vexation.

This collection of linked short stories is about one such household, a
family of Lithuanians trying to make a new life for themselves in the
obscure Toronto suburb of Weston. Their story is told from the viewpoint
of Dave, the middle of three male children. The boys desperately want to
be Canadians but are continually thwarted by their father, who sticks
stubbornly to his old country ways.

Sileika’s stories have bursts of brilliance: his description of the
stuffy anglo neighbor belongs in a comedy hall of fame. Unfortunately,
many themes that seem promising when introduced slowly languish and then
die as if the author had forgotten he had ever brought the subject up.
Even in the title story, the topic “buying on time” is introduced
but never develops into a sustaining image. The result is an attempt at
a family portrait that fails to break out of a two-dimensional cartoon
stage.