Altered Statements

Susan Patrick is a librarian at Ryerson Polytechnical University.

Look up the word bizarre in a thesaurus, and you will find many words
(strange, outlandish, baroque, weird, farcical, whimsical, eccentric,
grotesque, surreal) that describe these satirical vignettes, which take
on the foibles of modern society and stretch them to the extreme. From
the pets who run rampant on holidays away from their owners, to demented
or estrogen-pumped grannies terrorizing neighborhoods, Shopaholics
Anonymous meetings, and children who grow bigger and bigger as their
elders get smaller and smaller, these stories feel as though they take
place in a strange 1984-like world of the future or in a parallel
universe that resembles our own but is not quite real. Farrant’s
writing is imaginative and amusing, but with a disturbing bite; not far
below the exaggerated surface are some very real problems and neuroses
in modern society.