A Quiet Night and a Perfect End

Susan Patrick is a librarian at Ryerson Polytechnical University.

A quiet night and a perfect end is what the characters in these short
stories are longing for, but unable to find. The strength of the stories
lies in the moving, vividly drawn characters, about who the reader comes
to care. These are people who are facing life’s emotional challenges
and disappointments—an incurably ill child, a miscarriage, love
fading, separations and divorce, alcoholism. But despite their
misfortunes, the characters are survivors—resilient women,
mostly—who will not allow life to completely get the better of them.
Roig’s writing style is straightforward, and what shines through
beyond the unhappy situations in these stories is the sense of optimism
in the strength of the human spirit in the face of adversity.