Cocktail

by Lisa Alward

One of the Globe and Mail 's "Sixty-Two Books to Read This Fall" • Listed in CBC Books Fiction to Read in Fall 2023
"A writer to watch."— Kirkus Reviews (starred review) A girl receives a bedtime visit from a drunken party guest, who will haunt her fantasies for years. A young mother discovers underneath the wallpaper a striking portrait that awakens inconvenient desires. A divorced man distracts himself from the mess he’s made by flirting with a stranger. These intimate, immersive stories explore life's watershed moments, in which seemingly insignificant details—a pot of hyacinths, a freshly painted yellow wall—and the most chance of encounters come to exert a tidal pull. Set in the swinging sixties and each decade since, Cocktail reveals the schism between the lives we build up around us and our deepest hidden selves.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Canada, Historical Fiction

224 pages, Paperback

Published September 12, 2023

Reviews

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

The 12 stories of this debut collection brought to mind Tessa Hadley and Alice Munro for their look back at chic or sordid 1960s–1980s scenes and dysfunctional families or faltering marriages. They’re roughly half and half first-person and third-person (five versus seven). The title story opens the book with a fantastic line: “The problem with parties, my mother says, is people don’t drink enough.” Later, the narrator elaborates:

Her meaning is that if people drank more, they’d loosen up. Parties would be more fun, like they used to be. And I laugh along. Yes, I say, letting her top up my glass of Chardonnay. That’s it, not enough booze. But I’m thinking about Tom Collins.

Not the drink, but an alias a party guest used when he stumbled into her bedroom looking for a toilet. She was about eleven at this point and she and her brother vaguely resented being shut away from their parents’ parties. While for readers this is an uncomfortable moment as we wonder if she’s about to be molested, in memory it’s taken on a rosy glow for her – a taste of adult composure and freedom that she has sought with every partner and every glass of booze since. This was a pretty much perfect story, with a knock-out ending to boot.

Dependence on alcohol recurs, and “Hawthorne Yellow,” is also about a not-quite affair, between a restless stay-at-home mother and the decorator who discovers antique sketches in the old servants’ quarters of her home. “Orlando, 1974” again contrasts childhood nostalgia with seedy reality: Disney World should have been an idyll, but the narrator mostly remembers a lot of vomiting. “Old Growth” and “Bear Country” have Ray renegotiating his relationship with his son after divorcing Gwyneth. “Hyacinth Girl,” too, is about complicated stepfamilies, while “Wise Men Say” looks back at cross-class romance. The protagonist of “Maeve” feels she can’t match the title character’s perfect parenting skills; the first-person plural in “Pomegranate” portrays a group of wild convent schoolgirls.

“Little Girl Lost” was the most Hadley-meets-Munro, with an alcoholic painter’s daughter seen first as a half-feral child and later as a hippie young woman. “How the Smoke Gets in Your Eyes” was the least essential with its elderly narrator piecing things together in the aftermath of a burglary. Along with the title story, the standout for me was “Bundle of Joy,” about a persnickety grandmother going to her daughter’s place to spend time with her new grandson. She disapproves of just about every decision Erin has made (leaving the dogs’ frozen turds in the backyard all winter, for instance), but her interference threatens to have lasting consequences. Not a dud in the dozen, and a very strong voice I’ll expect to read much more from.

Originally published on my blog, Bookish Beck.

[Bel · Rating 5 out of 5]

what an excellent short story collection. I was familiar with some of the from The New Quartlery, so it was fun to see how they had developed since being published there. the stories are subtle, but quietly devastating, and the range of voices and characters are handled with astonishing ease. My favourite stories were about the mother characters who clumsily tried to relate to their children/in laws, who tried and failed to connect, and not be their worst selves (especially the overly critical knitting grandma). highly recommend!

[Lucy Black · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cocktail by Lisa Alward is a collection of twelve pristine stories. The writing is crisp and assured, and the characters are vividly drawn as they struggle between that which they believe to be right and that which they desire. In the title story, a young girl, not yet fourteen, is visited in her bedroom by a male friend of her parents. There is a deliberate building of sexual tension in the scene, with the girl’s powerlessness and vulnerability fully exposed. Although her brother interrupts the encounter, saving her from what the reader knows would be a sexual assault, the girl is left craving the aborted excitement. That unfulfilled longing shadows her future encounters with male partners and plays a significant role in her intimate relationships. Other characters include a frantic mother trying to balance the demands of parenting with a career and household responsibilities, a new grandmother who accidentally drops the baby, an ex-wife jealous of the relationship between her son and his step-mother, and others. Each piece highlights moments of human frailty, frustrated ambition, and longing. An evocative and stunning collection. Highly recommended.

[Kelly Greenwood · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots to think about in this collection of short stories. Glad I have time to mull them over between now and late March when PALS book club is scheduled to discuss.

Love supporting local authors. Lisa grew up in Halifax, our paths crossed in high school, and for many years I worked with her father, John.

[PhattandyPDX · Rating 2 out of 5]

Short stories about driving to Disneyland, your dad smoking a secret joint, a 60’s cocktail party full of straight dullards, an unhappy wife married to a corporate dolt who wants to hook up with the guy painting the house but can’t pull the trigger. I tried, but couldn’t get past page 75. There’s no there, there.

[Drew · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an amazing collection of short stories. I heard about from a 2023 CBC list of books to read. I’ve been on a kick of Canadian writers, and Lisa Alward is up there with the best of them. I love short stories, both writing and reading them. You have such a short time to capture your reader’s attention and impart something to them, be it a mood, a visceral feeling, an idea, or a lesson. Alward nails it, never overdoing or undercooking her stories.

“Cocktail”, the first story, was filled with amazing writing setting such a mood and feel. It was excellent and I loved it. A perfect choice to open this collection. “Old Growth” was interesting, especially the mood it evoked, but I thought the ending seemed a little quick and had an unneeded twist. But I still liked it. "Pomegranate" didn't grab me like the rest of the stories, but it still deserves a place in this collection.

I keep saying it, but Alward really knows how to set a mood, especially with “Hawthorne Yellow”. It is nice and tightly written, nothing extra, nothing missing. The same goes for “Wise Men Say”, a familiar story but so crisply and wonderfully written.

When I read “Orlando, 1974”, I was just like ‘wow’. I felt I was there. I had the same single thought after reading “Maeve”: ‘wow’. It was just amazing. And I loved “Little Girl Lost”, it was such an interesting ride.

“Bear Country” is dark and heart wrenching, and I savored every moment of it. “Hyacinth Girl” wowed me. It is the sad and complex story of a relationship that grew apart and was complicated. “Bundle of Joy” was heartbreaking and intimate.

Alward ends with “How the Smoke Gets in Your Eyes”. It is a wonderful conclusion to an astonishing collection of short stories. Lisa Alward’s Cocktail is one of the best collections of short stories I’ve ever read, and among the best things I read this year.

[Shannon A · Rating 5 out of 5]

A stunning collection of stories that shed light on the turning points only seen in hindsight. The way in which her characters are thoughtfully crafted and fully formed makes this author one to watch!

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

|| COCKTAIL ||
#gifted @biblioasis_books
✍🏻
"She stroked his fingers. "It's okay. I'm sorry too", she said, adding so quietly she wasn't sure he even heard, "Al, darling". When he looked at her this time, his whole face glistened so raw and powerful was his emotion so barred for all to see, that for an instant she faltered. "It's just----" he repeated, piercing her with those soft brown eyes. "I know that this might sound corny to you. But she was the love of my life." ~ Wise Men Say
•
I loved these stories! Traveling through the decades with these characters, the Canadian settings, everything was so captivating right from the beginning. My favorites were, Cocktail, Hawthorne Yellow and Wise Men Say. These stories did a magnificent job showing how sometimes small, seemingly insignificant things can all of a sudden strike this cord within us, pulling us in a ways that are unexpected and only understandable in hindsight. Vividly drawn characters, intimate and well observed storytelling on peoples inner and outer lives, I cant wait to read more from Alward!

[Kaitlyn Barrett · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to love this collection more and while I did overall like the author’s writing, a lot of the stories just didn’t hit for me. I definitely don’t think this was a bad collection. I actually liked the premise of a lot of these stories but was just confused by where they went. I might just not be smart enough for them. 🤷🏻‍♀️ Rounded up to 3 stars because there were lots of things I liked about these stories.

* Cocktail - ⭐️⭐️⭐️
* Old Growth - ⭐️⭐️
* Hawthorne Yellow - ⭐️⭐️⭐️
* Orlando, 1974 - ⭐️⭐️
* Bear Country - ⭐️⭐️⭐️
* Hyacinth Girl - ⭐️⭐️⭐️
* Maeve - ⭐️⭐️
* Wise Men Say - ⭐️⭐️⭐️
* Pomegranate - ⭐️⭐️
* Bundle Of Joy - ⭐️⭐️
* Little Girl Lost - ⭐️⭐️
* How The Smoke Gets In Your Eyes - ⭐️⭐️⭐️

[Isobel · Rating 4 out of 5]

the writing was beautiful but the topics didn’t interest me that much, which is ok! flowed together as a collection really well.

[Kimberley Ann Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.6 A wonderful collection of short stories. The author has incredible subtlety and insight into the human condition, and brilliantly captures the social dialouge of the 1960's through the 1980's.

[Stephanie Dargusch Borders · Rating 3 out of 5]

Half baked. Will watch for this author because I see potential but just couldn’t connect with most of the stories.

[Lauren · Rating 5 out of 5]

An exquisite collection of stories, perfectly rendered.

[Pixie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Alward is so good with the classic short story form. There's always a subtle twist, often irony. Beautifully written. There is some slight overlap in characters, but mainly consistency between stories is achieved through mood and descriptive style. The stories do feel very consistently to come from the author's feelings, experiences,  and perspectives. I wasn't surprised to read in the Acknowledgements that she'd borrowed some personal family stories. 

The time periods jump around, and sometimes it took a minute to figure out the where and when. This might not be as disorienting if you were dipping into the book from time to time rather than reading it straight through as I did. Once I looked up the author and realized we're the same age, I realized that a lot of her characters were the age that we would have been in the stories set in different time periods. Yet those characters' lives were nothing like mine. I don't think you have to be contemporaneous with the author to enjoy this book.

I chose this book for Ben's read good challenge, a short story collection for "shorty September." I thought the cover was beautiful, and now that I've read the book I see how it relates to the stories. It's been on my tbr since being longlisted for the Carol Shields prize. I hesitated to read it because the first story has a man at a cocktail party going into a girl's bedroom, and I was afraid there would be molestation. To set your mind at ease, there isn't. The types of distress in the book are more everyday and low-key than that, tremors rather than major earthquakes. Later in the book I realized there were a lot of characters with drinking problems. Then I remembered the book title 😄

[Enid Wray · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very Alice Munro-esque like collection of stories focusing on everyday life and domesticity.

Sparingly written - like Alice at her best - these stories resonate because they take the normality of everyday life and turn it on its head… sometimes even turning them into little horror stories. One is reminded how differently life can turn out - but for the path taken - and how easily things can go wrong, how life can go sideways in a moment.

What makes these stories work is the keen eye to detail - to documenting the familiar - the things, feelings and relationships that are the measure of our everyday lives… and which we can all relate to but certainly don’t spend a lot of time dwelling on thinking about.

Thanks to the publisher and Edelweiss for granting me access to an early digital review copy.

4.5 rounded up to 5

[Marianne Villanueva · Rating 3 out of 5]

These carefully crafted stories delve into domestic reality. Some stories are a hit, some are a miss. The endings of several seem contrived.

My favorite stories were "Old Growth" and "Wise Men Say." In "Wise Men Say" the narrator gets the biggest slap in the face when she tries to re-kindle an old flame.

"Hyacinth Girl" is probably my least favorite story. There was so much build-up about the relationship between Bryony and Daniel. Daniel has maintained contact with Bryony even after she breaks up with his dad, and there is a level of intimacy that signals they know each other very very well. Daniel is grown (and attractive) and the stepmom is young (and attractive) and Daniel's real mom is jealous. The big reveal at the end was supposed to show how Daniel's mom gets shown up (Jealousy is bad! Bad!).

[Liza_lo · Rating 3 out of 5]

I came to this story collection with high hopes but, while Alward is clearly a talent writer, it's not really my thing.

Literary fiction primarily concerned with domesticity and complicated family relationships including those between ex-partners (lots of mediocre marriages).

My favourite stories were Bundle of Joy, about a mother with a contentious relationship with her adult daughter and Wise Men Say, a woman who has a fling with a guy in her youth and comes to think of him more and more as she gets older.

[Laura Mereweather · Rating 3 out of 5]

I absolutely ate up the first half of the book. “Hawthorne Yellow” is probably the best piece of writing that I have ever read. I think the reason that I didn’t love this book is that I am not a huge short story reader. I found it very hard to stay interested in the characters (but again I think this says more about me than the writing!) and I was really hoping that the stories would connect somehow. I think my expectations were in the wrong direction with this one. Alwards writing is FANTASTIC! She is talented and has beautiful prose, this book was just not for me:/

[Susan Diane · Rating 4 out of 5]

The words and phrases are well presented, the stories all start out stronge and engaging, I was often disappointed by the endings, but I like happy endings and unambiguous resolutions.

I am glad I preserved and read all the stories to the end, I particularly enjoyed "How the Smoke Gets In Your Eyes" (the last story), a very insightful narrative.

The stories are well crafted, economical narrative, providing excellent images of events, settings and characters.

[Jeatherhane Reads · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really love three of the stories in this collection: Cocktail, Old Growth, and Wise Men Say. The rest of the stories are well-written and the author does a good job of evoking the Maritimes. It’s just hard to read an entire collection where there is no kindness or joy. All of the emotions I felt while reading this book were negative.

[Lara · Rating 4 out of 5]

The setups for the stories are so impressively, instantly tense and none of them are very long so they pack a punch. I felt like I consistently wanted two more pages of every story, they all seemed cut short, but I am assuming that is by design. Best to leave us wanting more.

[™]

Dnf @ 59% - though I was reading this to see if I could feel “ok there is an arc, there is a progression” which often feels like it’s missing from short stories for me, and I did feel that, I just didn’t actually like any of the narrators

[Tricia M · Rating 4 out of 5]

what I'd give for having a maid at only $5 night, I'd have a spotless home. The First of twelve stories takes place in the 70's, with swinger's parties. There's a woman who almost has an affair, years later thankful she didn't. each story entirely different than the last

[Ray Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well done

[Lauren Shubert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lisa Alward is explored human relationships, love, grief, and lies we tell ourselves about all of it. We romanticize our lives in all their misery, and it’s beautifully heartbreaking.

[Stacey Chin · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Jody Gorham · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cocktail is a 'must read' collection of stories. It captures the lives of woman--their thoughts and feelings at various ages and stages of their lives.

[Mylène · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing!!

[Lorie · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5. Very engaging

[Lauren · Rating 2 out of 5]

pretty much every single character was just an old bitter divorcee or a really bad mother.