Short Stories by Binnie Brennan
Quattro Books, publisher
In the tradition of short story writers Alice Munro and Carol Shields, Binnie Brennan examines the minutiae of ordinary life. During a tipsy night out escaping the frustrations of daily routines, two middle-aged school teachers try their luck at scoring a joint. A long-haul trucker drives an injured butterfly to its breeding ground in Florida, giving them both a much-needed migration. And while struggling with the death of her ex-husband, a single mother questions her place in her family’s lives. A Certain Grace is richly told in spare prose and woven with vignettes of a much-loved grandfather’s life.
Reviews:
“Brennan, a violist with Symphony Nova Scotia, knows much about sustaining pitch. And in her title story, A Certain Grace, she does not falter. A series of vignettes about the narrator’s deceased grandparents, it has the saltiness and abandon of an East Coast reel, one you don’t want to end, an effect that augurs well for what’s to come from this writer.”
<~Krista Foss, The Globe & Mail (complete review here)
~ Megan Power, Chronicle-Herald (July 1, 2012)
~Sarah Brideau, The Telegraph-Journal (March 31, 2012)