Delicious diversions

Debut story collection deftly captures hilarity and hardships of daily life

By: Reviewed by Dave Williamson Posted: 2:00 AM CDT Saturday, Sep. 16, 2023

Fredericton writer Lisa Alward steps onto the CanLit stage with Cocktail, a collection of 12 short stories that will make a reader exclaim, “It’s so refreshing! So real!”

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Fredericton writer Lisa Alward steps onto the CanLit stage with Cocktail, a collection of 12 short stories that will make a reader exclaim, “It’s so refreshing! So real!”

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Fredericton writer Lisa Alward steps onto the CanLit stage with Cocktail, a collection of 12 short stories that will make a reader exclaim, “It’s so refreshing! So real!”

Every one of these stories captures aspects of contemporary life being lived by Canadians both young and not so young. Alward has a knack for succinctly and cleverly describing situations that most readers will have experienced, or will at least recognize.

Alward’s work has appeared in several literary journals, but this is her first book — and it’s a dandy.

Cardoso Grant photo
One of Lisa Alward’s writerly strengths
is her ability to establish three-dimensional characters with a minimum of details. — Cardoso Grant photo

One of Lisa Alward’s writerly strengths is her ability to establish three-dimensional characters with a minimum of details.

The opening of the title story, which leads off the book, sets the tone for much of what is to follow in other stories. It is narrated by a girl barely in her teens:

“The problem with parties, my mother says, is people don’t drink enough… This is her stock response to my complaints about going to parties, the ones where all the married couples stand in well-lit kitchens and talk about their vacations or their home renovations or the academic or athletic or toileting triumphs of their children.”

The narrator goes on to tell of one of her parents’ parties when a male guest found his way upstairs and took more than a casual interest in the girl. She refers to him as Tom Collins.

In Hawthorne Yellow, Tracey and husband James are trying to fix up their house, but Tracey has the added duty of looking after their toddler, Nicholas. The marriage has cooled off so much that, when James hires a handyman, Alex, Tracey sees possibilities of using him for more than carpentry.

One of Alward’s many strengths as a writer is to be able to establish three-dimensional characters with a minimum of details.

Wise Men Say is a humorous story with a rather heartbreaking twist at the end. In it, Penny is wooed by a young man named Al, but doesn’t want only one relationship. “‘You just have to put yourself out there,’ she told her single Toronto friends, joking that she couldn’t go into Loblaws without running into some guy in the cereal aisle she’d slept with once, usually in the company of his wife and new baby.”

The hilarious Pomegranate deals with a group of girls at a convent who really miss guys, love to swear among themselves and feed themselves anything because they think they are being starved.

Another funny story — with a serious twist — is Bundle of Joy, in which a mother, Ruth, and her husband, Joe, go to see their daughter Erin’s new baby, Noah. Erin had a 10-year relationship with a woman, Maureen, and is not that happy with husband Devin or with her mother; Joe, meanwhile, sees no problems at all.

Little Girl Lost, the longest story at 26 pages, features a variety of people — almost too real to be called “characters” — known by Debbie, a 20-year-old living in St. John and soon to be married to her very first lover, Bob. The year is 1960 and Debbie is getting to know Bob’s mother and other relatives while sorting out what kind of marriage she wants.

Here’s one of her views of Bob: “He would never criticize his mother. Or anyone else for that matter, including the old university friends who openly flirt with her, getting her to sit on their laps at parties or kneel on their shoulders at the lake, asking what she’s doing with a dolt like Bob.”

The story moves to 1976, after much has changed in Debbie’s life: she is now called Deborah and she’s had three children but is no longer with Bob — her adjustment of relationship values is both amusing and quite remarkable.

Lisa Alward has succeeded in producing a collection that is completely enjoyable and proof that short stories can be wonderful diversions from the tribulations of the day.

Dave Williamson is a Winnipeg author whose most recent short story is Reading on an Airplane, which appeared in the Fall 2022 issue of Prairie Fire magazine.