The Way We Are

Pauline Carey is the author of Magic and What’s in a Name?

For six years, Saturday Night ran a column by Margaret Visser entitled
“The Way We Are” in which she wrote about anything that struck her
as odd and excited her curiosity. This lively collection of the columns
in one volume is the perfect bedside book. Short essays written for
magazines can make a tedious read when lumped together and read in large
doses: the bombardment of knowledge, however entertaining, can become
faintly overwhelming, and the similar length of the pieces can be
monotonous. Taken a little at a time, however, these Visserisms are a
delight.

A reader may turn to any page and find a short, erudite, and amusing
dissertation on Easter bunnies or crosswords or broad beans or the 132
ways of sitting that human beings resort to. These may not sound like
fascinating topics, but Margaret Visser makes them so. And though the
book’s format may be frustrating to some readers (the shortness and
quality of the pieces are aimed at a readership reared on sound-bites),
each essay has its own bibliography, which invites further reading.

Visser was born in South Africa, studied at the Sorbonne in Paris,
taught Classics at the University of Toronto for 18 years, and now calls
herself an “anthropologist of everyday life.” Listeners to her
regular stints on CBC’s “Morningside” will know all about her
infectious laugh. She is amused by all she learns, and she passes along
her knowledge with humor and enthusiasm.