People You'd Trust Your Life To: Stories

by Bronwen Wallace

Completed shortly before her early death, Bronwen Wallace did not live to see the publication of this, her only book of fiction. Capturing the moment when her unique talent blossomed in a new direction, this new edition of her life-affirming, universal stories will allow her to be read by a another generation of readers. Wallace’s poetry and short stories have been anthologized, and have appeared in periodicals across the country. She won a National Magazine Award, the Pat Lowther Award, the Du Maurier Award for Poetry, and in 1989 she was named Regional Winner of the Commonwealth Poetry Prize in the U.K.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Canada, Canadian Literature

193 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

Wallace was born in Kingston, Ontario. She attended Queen's University, Kingston (B.A. 1967, M.A. 1969). In 1970, she moved to Windsor, Ontario, where she founded a women's bookstore and became active in working class and women's activist groups. In 1977, she returned to Kingston, where she worked at a women's shelter and taught at St. Lawrence College and Queen's. She wrote a weekly column for the Kingston Whig-Standard. In 1988, she was writer-in-residence at the University of Western Ontario.

Her collections testify to her social activism involving women's rights, civil rights, and social policy. A primary focus of her work was violence against women and children.

Reviews

[Terri (BooklyMatters) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Little gems of perfection, each of the ten short stories from this collection published in 1990 will sneak up on you, emotionally, letting the reader deep into a life (and its gossamy spiderweb of related lives) for one brief and startling instant. Each a length of ten or twenty pages. And that’s all. Everything standing still as we shadow ordinary people, and the tangle inside their heads, — an undercurrent of emotions that may include anger, fear, despair or tenderness — nothing more than sharply wrought images, frozen in time, of people, (most of them experiencing an emotional crisis) interspersed with ordinary, every day, feelings and happenings. And in that nothing more, is everything.

As our protagonists gradually awaken to the unfamiliar feelings gathering presence in their hearts, they puzzle through them, recognizing, for the most part, the complete and utter entanglement of body and life — “each of us moving deeper into whatever world we found, still attached”.

“Right now, it’s just sort of there, like a buzzy place, inside her head. “

“Anger and tenderness. That she can feel so many conflicting things, that she could know so little about anything she feels and still manage to appear a competent adult. Sometimes it scares her. Knowing there’s no end to feeling like this, ever. “

“He gives her a wry smile, as if he, too, has just caught on to the fact that the people he trusts are no more certain than he is.“

Impossible to pick a favorite, nonetheless this reader found herself overcome when reading the final pages of the titular “The people you trust your life to”, as four middle-aged friends gather to support each other, unconditionally, through some truly heart-rending revelations. And not to forget “Tip of my tongue”, with its clear and understated brilliance, as it cracks open family secrets, and the pained impossibility of silence, maintained above all else, forever and a day.

“And how afraid I am of even the small offering, if that is really what it is. Acknowledgment, maybe, even an apology. The most my mother will allow herself”.

A masterpiece of quiet, seething exposure, this collection will delight any reader who longs to feel, with a character, with all these characters, raw humanness in all its forms — whatever the cost.

[Tom Gray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bronwen Wallace was a year ahead of me in our high school. She was one of the people whose name was known by everyone. There was no reason that she should ever have been aware of me. Yet, one day I saw her at the door of a house as I walked down the street in a neighborhood on the other side of Kingston from our high school. There was a light of recognition in her eyes and she smiled at me. That was it. That was the sum total of our interactions together. Yet somehow she recognized me and with that smile made a connection. I suppose that this ability to recognize and connect with others is what people find in her poetry and these short stories.

This is a collection of stories about people and how they connect. More specifically, it is a collection about women and their memories of those important in their lives. It is a collection about women and how they deal with both the fulfillment and the lack of fulfillment in their relationships both within their families and with their women friends. It is a collection about the first person relationships in women's lives and how these change and change them as they move though their lives.

Some of the stories are better than others. However none of them are artificial All the characters are real. All of the characterizations are insightful.

[Lynne Wright · Rating 4 out of 5]

glad i trusted this book.

[Sanjana Dugar]

2.5 - read selections

[Abigail · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this a tedious, mundane read. Very of Ontario. I appreciate how much Wallace centred women in each of these stories.

[Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

3rd read? 4th. I love this collection so much

[juliannareads · Rating 5 out of 5]

such a wonderful book about the mundanity of being a woman. so many beautiful, real, and raw stories. absolutely adored this.

[Erika Nerdypants · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. What a beautiful collection of short stories. The characters are people you would want to know, would be glad to have live next door. There is heartbreak and redemption, each told with equal care. What a shame that Wallace died before she could tell us more.

[Buried In Print]

Re-read other edition more times; this reissue includes one previously unpublished story.

[Ragan Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic book. When I finished, I was sad to learn the author had passed away. A truly amazing book of short stories and a definite must read.

[Jenna Hazzard · Rating 4 out of 5]

The true rating 3.5 stars.