We All Need To Eat
-
- $14.99
Publisher Description
Finalist for the 2020 Western Canada Jewish Book Awards, The Nancy Richler Memorial Prize for Fiction
Finalist for the 2020 Kobzar Book Award
Finalist for the 2019 Ethel Wilson Fiction Award
We All Need to Eat is a new collection of linked stories from award-winning author Alex Leslie that revolve around Soma, a young Queer woman in Vancouver, chronicling her attempts to come to grips with herself, her family and her sexuality.
Set in different moments falling between Soma's childhood and her late thirties, each story--bold and varying in its approach to narrative--presents a sea change in Soma's life, from Soma becoming addicted to weightlifting while going through a break-up in her thirties; to her complex relationship with her younger brother after she leaves home revealed over the course of a long family chicken dinner; to Soma's struggles to cope with her mother's increasing instability by becoming fixated on buying her a lamp for seasonal affective disorder; and the far-reaching impact and lasting reverberations of Soma's family's experience of the Holocaust as it scrapes up against the rise of Alt Right media. Lyrical, gritty and atmospheric, Soma's stories refuse to shy away from the contradictions inherent to human experience, exploring one young person's journey through mourning, escapism, and the search for nourishment.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This uneven short story collection from Leslie (People Who Disappear) examines the life of Soma, a queer, 30-something Jewish woman from Vancouver, as she winds her way through loss; depression; heartache; and troubled, often inflammatory family dynamics. In the loose mosaic of nine stories, readers see Soma lifting weights as a means of coping with a breakup, covertly buying a SAD lamp for her mother to help her cope with her seasonal depression, fretting about the rise of the alt-right in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, and reflecting on how her experiences and fears contrast or line up with those of her deceased grandmother and her family during the Holocaust. Leslie writes with a clean, concise style. "The Person You Want to See," "Who You Start With Is Who You Finish With," and "Self Help Liturgy" are the best in the collection, with strong emotional arcs and solid characterizations throughout. Some of the shorter, more abstract stories "The Initials," "Stargazer," and "A Brief History of Eye Contact" are at times lyrically beautiful, but they feel unfocused, and more like experiments than wholly realized narratives. They distract from the clearer interconnectedness of the other stories, making this an intriguing but not entirely successful book.
