Holy Days of Obligation is a collection of short stories which weaves together the family history of a working-class Catholic family. Set in industrial Ontario, the stories are narrated by Bertie, who is the oldest of nine children. Bertie uneasily straddles two worlds: that of her parents, Frank and Elizabeth, who have too many children and not enough money, and that of her siblings, with whom Bertie shares the confidences and frustrations and adventures of growing up.
Bertie understands better than any of the others what her parents go through with the demands of their children -- from young Richard, who is constantly in trouble, to Catherine, whom Bertie resents because she is prettier and more popular than Bertie is herself, to Robert, who seems destined to be her only sibling to maintain a happy marriage until he inexplicably commits suicide. After Robert's death, which she had had a premonition about, Bertie inherits her grandmother's quilt. Bertie is unwilling to accept the quilt, which has always been associated with the untimely death of her Uncle Charlie, and carries all the responsibilities of being the eldest. After another close call for her sister Catherine, Bertie passes on the quilt, because she realizes "What happens in families has nothing to do with quilts and doodled words on paper. It has to do with possibilities. And with all we know and say about one another and all we know, and can't say. It has to do with what each of us keeps hidden." This collection of stories uncovers some of those hidden secrets and the bonds that hold a family together.
Susan Zettell has the ability to capture the blue-collar world of industrial southern Ontario much in the way Roddy Doyle captures the working poor of Ireland. Her characters are real people who live their lives with pride and dignity, and are never pitiable despite their poverty.

Holy Days of Obligation

Literature & Fiction

Zettell, Susan

Contemporary

Signature Editions

One of the Chosen

ITANI, Frances

Gleed, Danuta

Buschekbooks

The mother/child relationship affects us as children (or as mothers) all our lives. "Quintet offers five views of this relationship, expressed in short fiction and poetry, by five of the best new writers in Canada.

Quintet

Goliger, Gabriella

Hawkins, Sharon

McInnis, Nadine

Nicholls, Sandra

Poetry

Claudia Gahlinger, Lynn Coady, Joan Clark, Beatrice MacNeil, Susan Zettell, Sherry D. Ramsey, Jean McNeil, Kim Williamson, Tessie Gillis, Ann-Marie MacDonald, D. C. Troicuk, Tricia Fish, Erin McNamara, Teresa O’Brien, Ellen Frith and Carol Bruneau. Starting with Tessie Gillis, women have been writing the non-traditional story of Cape Breton Island; the deeper, sometimes darker, side. They offer here a rich, rare view of being young, of being old, even of being a man. The stories in The Day the Men Went to Town are about fisherwomen and aliens from space, the poignancy of family life, and tragedy in the coal mines. They are about several approaches to love. They are entertaining, thought-provoking, and introduce us to the new world of Canadian writing. Some of these writers have achieved fame, and several will be discoveries to you.

The Day the Men Went to Town: 16 Stories by Women From Cape Breton

Bruneau, Carol

MacNeil, Beatrice

McNEIL, Jean

Coady, Lynn

O'Brien, Teresa

MacDonald, Ann-Martie

Gahlinger, Cladia

Gillis, Tessie

Fish, Tricia

Frith, Ellen

MacNamara, Erin

Troicuk, D.C.

Williamson, Kim

Ramsey, Sherry D.

Clark, Joan.

Breton Books

It's 1970, and the optimism of Trudeaumania is starting to give way to fears of wage and price controls. In Varnum, Ontario, where the smell of industry is the smell of money, a lot of that money's heading south, just like Bobby Orr.The Checkout Girl is the story of Kathy Rausch, whose life these days is something that just seems to happen to her. After sneaking out on her boyfriend in Vancouver, Kathy moves back to Varnum and hides out in the basement of her high school buddy, Penny Lehman, in a room she shares with Penny's skittish boa constrictor, Freddie. When Kathy isn't checking out groceries, she practices hockey drills. And when she isn't practicing, she's warding off advances from fellow basement dweller "Little" Barry Bender, ignoring her well-meaning mother Connie, hanging out with her best friend, champion baton twirler Darlyn Smola, and dealing a bit of marijuana for Penny's husband Pete. But when Kathy stumbles upon a brutal murder she is finally driven to put her hockey stick where her heart is: on the ice.

Checkout Girl, The

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Books by Zettell, Susan