The Maleness of God

Susan Patrick is a librarian at Ryerson University in Toronto.

Brenda Baker’s stories centre on relations between men and women and
the difficulty of finding love, in whatever form, in contemporary
society. The characters are engaging but burdened with emotional and/or
physical scars. There are men who cannot function without women but find
it difficult to connect, women looking for men to father their children
as their biological clocks wind down, and characters of both sexes who
lead lives that are unfulfilling and often touched by death. The title
story explores the intolerance of a fundamentalist sect and a mother’s
reexamination of her faith when unforgiving dogma threatens to turn her
gay son into an outcast. One of the collection’s most uplifting
stories concerns a young woman who, while caring for her aged and ill
father, witnesses his final reconciliation with his estranged son.