This Cake Is for the Party

This is going to be one of the tougher reviews for me to write. There's a lot going on in these ten seemingly quiet, unassuming stories. Each one is its own world yet there's a few common threads that run through them all.

The first is a quiet desperation. Each of Selecky's characters--all beautifully realized with a quirky yet minimalist touch--seem to be desperately searching for something...understanding, friendship, love, success... So at times, they all seem to come from the same village. Yet, each one does bring something different to each story.

There's beautiful, oblique observances in each of the stories. Selecky has a wonderful eye for details most of us miss. When she mentions them within the story, however, they immediately show more set the perfect tone, or emotion.

There's a slight preponderance of healthy lifestyle plot points. This character's a vegan, that one sells healthy, organic food, this one creates all-natural cleaning products, those ones live off the grid on an island and make candles. Everyone's very arty. I'd love to see the author break out of that occasionally and give us someone who's a little more gritty.

There is also, at times, a sometimes frustrating lack of resolution to many of the stories. At a yard sale, a son is grieving the loss of his father. His mother is moving on, but the neighbour's relationship with the grieving son, while hinted at, is never fully revealed. It's things like that that frustrate me. I know it's considered literary and I know it's deep but dammit, I like a beginning, a middle, and an end.

So yes, this is a tough review to write because I love the writing, I love the characters, I love the situations, I love the observances, but I don't always love how some of the stories more fade away than finish.

Still, would I read more of Selecky's work? Hell yes. show less

The Short of It:

Never has such an unassuming collection of stories held my attention from beginning to end.

The Rest of It:

I love quiet stories and if they center around relationships, even better. From the very first page, I found myself falling right into this book. You know that feeling? That feeling where everything around you stands still and all you can focus on is the book in front of you? That is the feeling I had while reading these stories. When this book was in my hands, nothing else seemed to matter.

There are ten stories in this collection, all ranging in tone but clearly the party in question is nowhere to be found. In Throwing Cotton, we meet Anna and Sanderson and their friends Flip and Shona as they meet-up at a lake show more cottage for a little holiday. As Anna and Sanderson head into the next phase of their marriage, that of children, it becomes apparent that Anna has doubts. What should be a glorious time, now suddenly becomes something else. In Standing Up for Janey, Bonnie throws a dinner party to celebrate the engagement of her best friend Janey. Shortly before the party, Janey admits to Bonnie that she’s recently cheated on Milt. With this knowledge, Bonnie is forced to host as if nothing is amiss. What should be tragic tale, somehow ends up being funny in Selecky’s hands.

What these stories have in common is that these people are normal, functioning adults dealing with everyday problems. Selecky’s ability to take everyday objects or situations and make them unique is inspiring to say the least. She writes, like my brain thinks. Quiet observations not always spoken or shared out loud.

I savored each and every story in the collection and when I reached the end, I felt compelled to go right back and read them again.

An interesting little tidbit for you. The story that gives this collection its name was not included in the collection itself! This Cake is for the Party was a story that Selecky had written before this collection even came to be. It was short, only five pages long. It was actually the basis for another story which happens to be in the book. However, when this collection was put together, including it would have meant that it was the only linked story in the collection and Selecky felt that it put too much pressure on one of the characters so it was left out. I was lucky enough to receive a copy of the story and although I loved it, I see why it was not included. Interesting, huh?

Because I was so impressed with the writing as a whole and totally fell head over heels for the collection, I went to Selecky’s website and signed up for her Little Bird writing prompts. These prompts are offered in conjunction with her Little Bird Writing Contest. Each day, a writing prompt arrives in my inbox and I take ten minutes of every morning to write a response. I’m not sure I will ever submit anything to the contest, but for now I am enjoying the prompts. If you find yourself struggling to write creatively and just don’t have the time, you might want to try these prompts. Ten minutes a day. That’s it. Even I can do that and who knows? Maybe one day I will have a story as good as one of the ones in the book!

As you can probably guess, I am still thinking about these stories and can’t seem to stop talking about them. If you get the opportunity to pick up a copy, you won’t be sorry.

For more reviews, visit my blog: Book Chatter. show less

A lot of readers think of short stories like the crumbs on the cover image of Sarah Selecky’s stories: short stories are what’s left behind when a writer couldn’t make something whole out of an idea, couldn’t serve it properly on a plate. For these readers, short stories are failed novels, forever in a wanna-be state. And these readers will be disappointed in Sarah Selecky’s stories. (But I doubt they would have picked up the collection anyhow, despite its Giller-nomination.)

Readers who recognize the short story form on its own terms? Readers who seek out stories by Alice Munro, Colm Tóibín, and Lorrie Moore? Readers who identify a storytelling arc even when the action is primarily internal? These readers will appreciate show more the ten stories in this debut collection.

Will they enjoy them? Well, that’s something else entirely. Many of the characters in this collection are damaged. Some of them are actually broken, like the shattered plate on the collection’s cover. And several inhabit the margins of chaos that somebody close to them is experiencing.

The stories’ structures are uncomplicated (with the occasional “here we are now, but here’s what you’ve missed” framework, and with one epistolary story). And the prose is straightforward. But the the emotional territory that the collection covers is fraught, pervasive and extreme.

Still, This Cake is for the Party is an accomplished and impressive collection. The prose is finely-tuned and exacting. I would ask for another helping of these “crumbs” and find them as satisfying as many a meal.

My longer review appears here, with some discussion of individual stories, if you're keen to read more. show less

This collection of short stories is a definite need-to-read. They are tales of people's lives, intersecting, sensuous, random, non-random, filled with hidden truths and wonderment. Selecky writes so smoothly you consume them like bites of butter-icing cake, feeling them slide over your mind like melted chocolate, perhaps with a pinch of cayenne.
There are surprising moments, where the reader wonders, why? I reread a couple of stories, looking for the foreshadowing, the links forms tart to finish. The writing seems stream of consciousness but is too graceful for that.
As the back copy says, "She captures her characters at moments when their worlds seem to be crumbling..."(McCormack). It's fascinating and a wee bit uncomfortable to watch. show more But I can't look away. show less

I don't usually read short story collections, but Selecky hooked me with "Throwing Cotton", the first story in "This Cake is for the Party". Entirely satisfying. Rich cast of characters, familiar (Canadian) settings, explores a full range of emotions and always feels genuine.

My favourite was the last one, "Ten Thousand Buddhas."

Excellent short stories that convey so much character and background with such little narration. It's in the dialogue (which is great, because she doesn't even use quotation marks). Every story starts in the middle of the story, but they also end in a way that you know the story is not finished. If you had a telescope and could zoom into people's lives at random, these might be the lives you encounter.

And such variety!

These ten short stories were all good reading for me. Selecky is able to write a very satisfying story without the need to tie up all the loose ends. She seems to me to also be very good at introducing tension into the story - a palpable tension between characters. All these stories involve people and situations that could be described as away from the mainstream...the people are slightly wacky or their work is unusual or they belong to families that have unusual behaviour. Of course, that's all by comparison with my experience; and I don't live in the region where these stories are set. It's a pity Ms Selecky seems to have rested on the laurels of this one publication and launched herself as a creative writing training business. A pity show more for me as a reader anyway. Maybe her students are grateful. show less