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Title: cuts to the heart
Review: It seems the earned province of Canadian women writers to cut to the heart of gender, race, and class privilege. In the title piece (I would not call it a story in the traditional character/plot sense) Schoemperlen explores a series of intangibles, among them faith, prayer, and hope, and very subtly weaves them into an indictment of middle class privilege. In a later story, "Count Your Blessings (a Fairy Tale)" Schoemperlen, in a twist reminiscent of the best Roald Dahl stories, cuts the heart out of the woman who has everything and is still unhappy. These stories are well-written, and are accompanied by clever old woodcut clip art. But unlike many short story collections, this is not an "easy" book, for the reader, and I suspect, for the author as well. The book jacket describes her work as "electric"--the prospective reader would do well to remember that electricity can shock as well as enlighten.
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