Perilous Departures

by Margaret Macpherson

A small-town Bill Clinton look-alike agonizes over whether to accept a tempting offer from the CIA; an obese young woman finds love in a prairie cafe; a lonely child encounters a supernatural being; a teenage girl struggles with a sexual predator as she hitchhikes on the autobahn; a newly divorced man tries to return his adopted children; two brothers and a sister take their father's ashes back to the North, trying to make it over the ice road before break-up. These are just a few of the stories from Margaret Macpherson's remarkable debut collection, Perilous Departures . Perilous though they may be, all of these stories represent a departure from the ordinary and all celebrate the chaotic splendour of life. Each story, in its individuality, illuminates the path that leads to home, but home isn't always what we expect, and paths in Macpherson's world are rarely straight and narrow.

Genres: Short Stories

Paperback

First published April 1, 2004

Reviews

[Katie Griffin]

something so annoying to me personally about white canadians writing books about how everyone else was racist to indigenous people but they never were. Like babe it’s okay to be a product of your environment!! i actually do not think you had a nuanced understanding of colonialism at 7 years old!!

[Hannah Bordin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thought the stories were very nice

[Jan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read a lot of short stories in '04 and '05 - this is one of the better authors.

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great variety of stories. I admit I was troubled by some of them and didn't "understand" others. It was great to read some Canadiana to see place names I actually recognize and places I have actually visited!

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best book of short stories I have ever read! Problem with short stories is some of them you wish were novels!

[Luise · Rating 4 out of 5]

a lovely collection by a great storyteller.