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It's impossible to overstate the impact of the stories collected in the Dropped Threads 2 anthology, which is instructively subtitled More of What We Aren't Told. A follow-up to 2001's bestselling collection of the same name, Threads 2 places the reader at the very intersection of 35 women's lives and as might be expected, that means tragedy and comedy are equally represented through tales of motherhood, sisterhood, step-motherhood, and much, much more. Marquee names such as novelists Jane Urquhart and Susan Swan, former politician Flora MacDonald, and broadcaster Shelagh Rogers grab initial attention, but all the women contributing end up stealing our hearts, often with their breathtaking honesty. In "In My Mother's Arms," writer Mary Jane Copps details horrific childhood abuse at the hands of an alcoholic mother in prose so urgent that we feel the heat of the stove element beneath our hands. Sarah Harvey startles with her frank confession of contemplating infanticide in "Mother Interrupted," going on, improbably, to make us see the lighter side of mental illness. Several stories actually prompt tears, notably Mary J. Breen's quest for familial understanding in "Nobody Needs to Know" and Debbie Culbertson's coming-of-age-as-a-lesbian-with-children tale, "A Place on the Pavement." Pamela Mala Sinha's story "Hiding," meanwhile, may be the most horrifying yet riveting depiction of rape ever recorded. On the other hand, C.J. Papoutsis's child-rearing memoir, "They Didn't Come with Instructions," is plain hilarious: "By the end of my first week of mothering, my main impressions were that babies were loud, smelly, and sticky and felt as if they were broken." Karen Houle's vivid "Double Arc" presents language so dexterous it could navigate a balancing beam: "Loving a woman is like doing new math: sliding the red balls, all at once, to the other side of the abacus. A satisfying clacking sound--the sound of emphasis falling differently." The vignettes presented in Threads 2 are more than just true-life tales of survival and defeat, love and pain, illness and recovery. They're balm for the spirit. Reading just doesn't get any more satisfying than that. --Kim Hughes
Review
Praise for Dropped Threads:
“There are exciting and truly intimate entries in this book…these women take ideas even secret ones, and infuse them with poetry, scoured and buffed sentences and …stopwatch comic timing…The true depth of the collection is found in these women’s clear memories and their willingness to share.” -- Quill & Quire
“It’s a collection of revealing essays and short stories by 35 Canadian women at mid-life and beyond, reflecting on the life events that caught them off guard and, somehow, haven’t been talked about…As it turns out, there are many dropped threads in our lives. Weave them together and you’ve got a tapestry.”-- Bonnie Schiedel, Chatelaine, April 2001
“Dropped Threads … is a collection of 34 pieces by Canadian women in which they describe…everything they never said or were not able to say before, but which had tremendous power in their lives…[Senator Sharon Carstairs’s] essay about women in politics [is] clear-eyed and devastating …Miriam Toews examines her father’s lifelong battle with depression, which culminated in his suicide … with gentleness and insight … These are all the conversations we would wish to have with friends and these essays stimulate the sense of exuberance and relief that one always feels after a long, self-revelatory talk.” -- Virginia Beaton, Halifax Chronicle-Herald, 25 Feb 2001
“Dropped Threads is a much-awaited anthology of essays and stories by Canadian women, including celebrated writers as well as women who are neither writers nor famous … The angst of the women in Dropped Threads covers a wide spectrum.” -- Paul Gessell, Ottawa Citizen, 20 Jan 2001
“If the value of books were measured by the insights stored within their pages, Dropped Threads would be priceless…[This] is a wonderfully well-written and excellently edited book that offers such intimate insights that it sometimes seems like a stream of consciousness. The compositions frequently make the reader feel like an eavesdropper -- and an extremely entertained one at that…The stories in Dropped Threads cathartically tie up loose ends for their writers, while providing readers with an exquisitely crafted patchwork quilt of life experiences.” -- Winnipeg Free Press
“There are exciting and truly intimate entries in this book…these women take ideas even secret ones, and infuse them with poetry, scoured and buffed sentences and …stopwatch comic timing…The true depth of the collection is found in these women’s clear memories and their willingness to share.” -- Quill & Quire
“It’s a collection of revealing essays and short stories by 35 Canadian women at mid-life and beyond, reflecting on the life events that caught them off guard and, somehow, haven’t been talked about…As it turns out, there are many dropped threads in our lives. Weave them together and you’ve got a tapestry.”-- Bonnie Schiedel, Chatelaine, April 2001
“Dropped Threads … is a collection of 34 pieces by Canadian women in which they describe…everything they never said or were not able to say before, but which had tremendous power in their lives…[Senator Sharon Carstairs’s] essay about women in politics [is] clear-eyed and devastating …Miriam Toews examines her father’s lifelong battle with depression, which culminated in his suicide … with gentleness and insight … These are all the conversations we would wish to have with friends and these essays stimulate the sense of exuberance and relief that one always feels after a long, self-revelatory talk.” -- Virginia Beaton, Halifax Chronicle-Herald, 25 Feb 2001
“Dropped Threads is a much-awaited anthology of essays and stories by Canadian women, including celebrated writers as well as women who are neither writers nor famous … The angst of the women in Dropped Threads covers a wide spectrum.” -- Paul Gessell, Ottawa Citizen, 20 Jan 2001
“If the value of books were measured by the insights stored within their pages, Dropped Threads would be priceless…[This] is a wonderfully well-written and excellently edited book that offers such intimate insights that it sometimes seems like a stream of consciousness. The compositions frequently make the reader feel like an eavesdropper -- and an extremely entertained one at that…The stories in Dropped Threads cathartically tie up loose ends for their writers, while providing readers with an exquisitely crafted patchwork quilt of life experiences.” -- Winnipeg Free Press
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Most helpful customer reviews
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Picking up the threads,
By
This review is from: Dropped Threads 2 (Paperback)
A series of just over thirty short essays by Canadian authors, Dropped Threads 2 is a continuation of the first Dropped Threads book which began the discussion of women's lives from childrearing (or choosing not to) to rape to love to death and beyond. Each essay is a snippet of these women's lives, of things they have witnessed and done and thought - a mini memoir, if you will. While the topics and ideas in these essays no longer feel like items that cannot be and should not be discussed in the 21st century, they are certainly still often found to be taboo and stifling - stuff not to be discussed in "polite company". The overwhelming emotion in the essays is the relief on behalf of the authors to have an outlet for their insights - insights that are often born of tumultuous conditions. Every woman who reads these essays will find familiar ideas and actions and will be inspired to take note of her own experiences in life. Given the various topics and writing styles there is something for everyone in this collection of brilliantly compiled essays. It is a thoughtful gift idea for any young woman making her way in the world.
4.0 out of 5 stars
An anthology to re-read and share,
By
This review is from: Dropped Threads 2 (Paperback)
As with all anthologies, there are essays that don't resonate with me, but there are examples of such poignant, accurate stories among the selection that I keep coming back to this and the first anthology. Re-reading an essay a few years later you end up with a completely new perspective thanks to the new experiences you've collected over time.I sometimes lend this and the first collection out to friends when they're going through something touched on in an essay. These writers find a way to express ideas that are complex and compassionate in a way that is totally unique.
0 of 4 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars
Horrible,
By
This review is from: Dropped Threads 2 (Paperback)
I enjoy short stories but this was awful. Feminist or not, I would not recommend this book to anyone. I have been trying to give it away for free for some time...no one will take it!
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