Description: Great Canadian writing out of Quebec, which features stories about families in their most private moments
Swing in the House paints an utterly contemporary portrait of Canadian families. Anand pulls back the curtains to reveal the unspoken complexities within the modern home, from sibling rivalries to fracturing marriages, casual racisms to damaged egos, hidden homosexuality to mental illness. Each of these stories offers a deftly constructed morality play. In the novella-length title story, a young mother timidly explores the possibilities of an affair to alleviate the suffocations of a loveless marriage, to detrimental effect. In "Indelible Markers," a girl vacationing in Greece learns that growing up with a schizophrenic father has affected her relationship with men. In "Something Steady," a lonely, mentally challenged teen vents his anger on a co-worker's boyfriend. Throughout, Anand's incisive intelligence, sharp prose, and sly wit breathe dark undercurrents into these 17 cautionary tales.Brief description:
Anita Anand was born in Montreal. She moved back and forth between her hometown and such places as the Bronx; Bedfordshire, England; and Richmond, B.C. In every neighbourhood where she has lived, she has been the only person her age of Indian origin. Her writing has appeared in The Globe and Mail, Frostwriting and the Louisiana Review. Swing in the House and Other Stories is her first book.
Review Quotes:
Advance Praise for Swing in the House and Other Stories
These stories are full of undercurrents that disturb the surface, and these disturbances, in their turn, dazzle as they reflect light. Anita Anand is a sensitive observer of human behaviour and, because she unafraid to explore difficult emotions, her stories reveal-in broad strokes and subtle shadings-glimpses of truth.
-Elise Moser, author of Lily and Taylor and Because I Have Loved and Hidden It.