Frictions II: Stories by Women

Susan Manningham teaches sociology at Queen’s University in Kingston.

Such issues as race, sexuality, age, class, and cultural diversity are
confronted in this vital and exciting collection of 22 stories. These
stories illuminate our understanding of women’s daily lives by
addressing both social and literary norms. Among the standouts are
Margaret Hollings-worth’s “A Chinese Wedding,” a gem of
perception, economy, and vivid characterization, and Rachel Wyatt’s
“City: Romane,” which blends the bleak and the joyous in as
pertinent a commentary about life and relationships at the end of the
millennium as one is likely to find.

Rhea Tregebov speculates in her preface that the strength with which
these writers are able to approach the national and personal conundrum
is a product of the marginal position women continue to occupy in
society. I am more inclined to believe that the establishment of a broad
and sophisticated feminist literary theory has enabled women to write
with a new freedom about issues and a fearlessness of vision that could
well shake the literary establishment to its very foundations.