Poached Egg on Toast : Short Stories

Usually I don't like short stories. There are some exceptions, like science fiction and some authors such as Alice Munroe and Mavis Gallant. Well, I guess I have to add Frances Itani to that list.

In the introduction the author talks about how her family used to sit around telling stories. As a child, I loved to sit around the dinner table after a meal and listen to stories. I was surrounded by, entertained by, ambushed by stories. I too grew up in a household that told stories. My Dad had a wealth of stories about early settlers and his father. My mother used to talk about feeding the threshing gangs and living during the war. I wonder how many families sit around the dinner table and talk now? It's my impression that life is so show more structured now that there is very little down time and when there is down time people spend it on individual pursuits like exercising at the gym or on the internet. Does this mean stories will be lost? I hope not. I'm going to try to tell my nieces and nephews and their children stories. Hopefully they won't roll their eyes at each other. I'll see how it goes this weekend over Easter dinner.

One of my favourite stories in this collection is "Truth or Lies". It's about a mother taking a Creative Writing class. Her professor, a man, thinks women have it made. He tells her "I've always wanted to be a woman. Have children, stay home. Write sixteen hours a day." Then the mother goes on to detail what her days actually consist of. She has so little time that the story is in note form. I'm sure this is autobiographical.

I also liked the title story. It's about a fight between a husband and wife. The husband tells the wife he is tired of having a poached egg on toast for breakfast and the wife replies that there are only so many things she can think to make for breakfast. The husband replies he could think of 100 different breakfasts. So his wife decides to sleep in the next morning and leave him to make his own breakfast. Of course he goes hungry but he does start working on his list. Pretty soon he is stretching for ideas. He lists the four different flavours of jello that he is prepared to eat as four different items. He includes five different kinds of cold meats. And so on. But he still doesn't get breakfast and his wife continues to sleep in. I'm not sure how many items he ends up with but the last item is poached egg on toast. It's very funny but at the same time insightful because we've probably all been in arguments that escalate far beyond the reasonable due to stubborness. show less

I was at first ambivalent about this series of short stories, mainly because I did not know what to expect. I was surprised find a subtle, soft voice made lively with details and small gestures that shape a world of emotions. These stories mostly revolve around Prince-Edward-Island, Germany (probably my favourites)and Montreal. All are very different but focus on women through different stages in life. Some are even reminiscent of Katherine Mansfield: a sharp observant eye depicting common slices of life. Well worth the read.