Don't leave it behind

The Leaving

Budge Wilson

Toronto: Stoddart Publishing Co., 1993

Genre: Realistic Fiction/ Short Fiction

Read if: You like short fiction dealing with the small epiphanies of every day life.

Best for: Older high school students (16 +) who like character driven writing about the nuances of our lives. Most of the stories focus on the lives of adolescent girls, but the stories are universal enough to appeal to both genders.

Rating: 3/5

A daughter who spends every day of her fifteen year old life inventing stories about her handsome and heroic absent father; a best friend who is betrayed by a poetry contest; a young girl who's life is changed by an attractive strangers arrival on her doorstep; a wife takes her only daughter on a trip to Halifax that changes her marriage forever: these are the women who's stories are told in The Leaving, Budge Wilson's collection of short stories about being a Canadian teen.

The Leaving is different than any other item I have reviewed here, being the only short story collection for young adults. Short story collections in YA are unusual. The Leaving is a slightly older book than most I have looked at (published in 1993). Novels are much more popular than short fiction for teens today. This does not mean that its format disadvantages it; The Leaving is a quiet, clever and beautifully written book about  adolescent life.  Each story is sharply observed and rings true. These stories are honest, and I found myself more than once nodding my head while I read, feeling like I had lived the same experience as the stories' protagonist. Wilson writes such strong characters, it is hard not to think of them as ourselves.

Its also nice to read a book that is so unapologetically Canadian. Wilson writes about Haligonian springs and Lunenburg summers, about characters who come from the Prairies to live in the Maritimes, and characters who leave the Maritimes to seek other lives out west. Wilson adds an often missing Canadian context to the world of young adult fiction.

However, while I read I wondered whether the stories, which are mostly set in the 1950's and 1960's , would seem antiquated to teen readers. These stories are beautiful, and they are about teens, but I almost think they are better suited to adult readers looking back on their teen lives. There is something nostalgic about many of the stories that I am not sure would connect or appeal to teen readers. 

While I was reading, I was reminded of the time I was in grade seven and tried to read W.O. Mitchell's Who Has Seen the Wind. That book had a protagonist very close to my own age, and he lived very close to my own home, but I hated the book. Despite our similarities, I couldn't find anything to connect to in Brian O'Connals story. I have since re-read the book and loved it, but it took me twelve years. I think The Leaving could be a similar experience for teenagers, especially young ones. This doesn't mean that I don't think it has merit as a young adult novel  - it does. But I do not think it will connect with all teens, and I do not think it is suitable for younger teens. Older teens who love realistic fiction and want their own experiences and settings reflected in fiction will find this book appealing.

 One of The Leavings main characters: cold Nova Scotia winters

The Leaving is best suited to readers who are interested in small nuances and slow burns. The rewards of this book are subtle but substantial.