These twenty superbly crafted linked stories navigate the difficult realm of friendship, charting its beginnings and ends, its intimacies and betrayals, its joys and humiliations. A mother learns something of the nature of love from watching her young daughter as she falls in and out of favour with a neighbourhood girl. An intricate story of two women reveals a friendship held together by the steely bonds of passivity. A chance sighting in a library prompts a woman to recall the “unconsummated courtship” she was drawn into by a male colleague. With trenchant insight, uncommon honesty, and dark humour, Elizabeth Hay probes the precarious bonds that exist between friends. The result is an emotionally raw and provocative collection of stories that will resonate with readers long after the final page.
Small Change
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From Library Journal
Hay's (A Student of Weather) second book of short stories examines the changing seasons of friendship, its peaks and valleys, joys and betrayals. In many of these tales, she illustrates how the course of friendship at first runs smoothly but invariably transforms itself over time, sometimes even burning itself out. The characters in these interconnected stories come alive and earn readers' sympathy and understanding. Maureen in The Fire or Ivy in The Parents could well be one's neighbor, sister, or grandmother. In spare prose, the stories exert a quiet forcefulness and convey a sense of character, message, and plot without pretense or superficiality. A gifted storyteller, Hay has written a wise, penetrating, and memorable collection of stories that communicates the vulnerable nature of friendship. First published in Canada by Porcupine's Quill in 1997, this collection was a finalist for three literary prizes, including the Trillium Award. Very highly recommended for academic and public libraries.Lisa Nussbaum, Dauphin Cty. Lib. Sys., Harrisburg, PA
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
From Booklist
This exceptional, well-paced collection of linked stories about women's friendships has an extraordinarily intimate feel that's propelled by the reader's sense that he or she has either known or been the woman Hay portrays, the character Beth, who is the connecting thread. She and the author Elizabeth are most often one, but occasionally their voices separate into two, weaving an extra glint of color in the fabric of the stories. Beth, also a writer, is self-conscious and analytical. She focuses her examining eye on her friendships--the joys and wounds, offerings and rejections, beginnings and endings--to find further clues to her own self. And these friends of hers are an interesting and diverse group. In "Hand Games" she sees the woes of friendship through her daughter's eyes; in "Sayonara" the friend is a man with indefinable motives; in "The Reader" it is a sentimental woman with a core of steel. Canadian writer Hay, author of the splendid novel A Student of Weather [BKL N 15 00], evokes timelessness and universality. Danise Hoover
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A feast of dark things
April 11 2003
By Stephen A. Haines
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
In this collection of episodes in an ongoing life story, Hay uses her narrator "Bethie" to vent a vast store of anger and resentment. Each story relates encounters between Bethie and other women. Men flit in and out of some scenes, leaving no prolonged mark. Bethie's interactions with each of the women is related with deep introspection, but none of them, Beth included, exhibit any depth. Not that any of the characters fails a reality check. Hay is too fine a writer to foist implausible people on the reader. The characters are carefully, even exquisitely drawn. The exchanges are nearly uniformly superficial, but Bethie's reflections and self-assessments on them are intensely revealing. At the end, you will ask yourself "could this woman be my friend?"
It matters little whether an individual episode begins or ends darkly - the darkness is there, persistent throughout the collection. Bethie demands, in her mind, much from her friends. Failure to deliver, or stepping from a preconceived image, arouses her wrath quickly. That anger is expressed, but entirely in her mind. Few shouting matches. No clearing of issues. Simply drifting apart or, in a few cases, some prickly rebounds. Being a friend of Bethie's is a high-risk investment with few rewards. In fact, none of the relationships revealed here could be remotely called "friendships" no matter how frequently the word crops up.
Although a disturbing read, the nomination for many awards this book received is testimony to its value. Calling the writing "honed" is puny understatement. Yet, what the book accomplishes remains elusive. Hay has offered none of her characters as a role model. Perhaps the real challenge in this book is inherent in its "women's view." Is this book an example of why many women censure the right of male writers to assume their viewpoint? This book may be throwing down the gauntlet to male writers to delve this deeply into a woman's psyche. The vivid exposure of Bethie's inner thoughts so genuinely portrayed, show Hay's skills cannot be challenged. A valuable expression of inner thoughts, this book is a fine example of creative writing. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
Confused
April 7 2009
By D. A. Lachance
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
I found this book to be all over the place and difficult to follow. I liked the female characters but just couldn't understand this type of writing. Descriptive yet frustrating. Too much work for me to enjoy, however, a talented writer.
7 of 10 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A powerful exploration of friendships between women.
Feb 24 1998
By A Customer
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
Small Change is a beautifully written, emotionally challenging book of linked stories about friendships between women. This book has been nominated for a number of significant literary awards, including being shortlisted for Canada's Governor General's Award for Fiction in 1997.
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