Season of Fury and Wonder

by Sharon Butala

Writing at the top of her game, Sharon Butala returns to the short story in this astounding new collection. In Butala’s world, the season of fury and wonder is the season of old age. The stories in this book are the stories of women who have had experiences; women who have seen much of life and have felt joy of success and the sting of shortcomings; women who hold opinions and come to conclusions about the lives they’ve lived.

But Sharon Butala gives us more — not only is each story an observation on aging, each story in Season of Fury and Wonder pays tribute to a classic work of literature that has had an impact on Butala’s writing. Among those writers are Raymond Carver, Willa Cather, Flannery O’Connor, John Cheever, James Joyce, Shirley Jackson, Anton Chekhov, Alan Sillitoe, Ernest Hemingway and Edgar Allan Poe. The result of Butala’s effort is a series of deeply felt tributes to those writers, to their creativity and their power to inspire.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Canada, Canadian Literature

130 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2018

About the author

Sharon Butala (born Sharon Annette LeBlanc, August 24, 1940 in Nipawin, Saskatchewan) is a Canadian writer and novelist.

Her first book, Country of the Heart, was published in 1984 and won the Books in Canada First Novel Award.

As head of the Eastend Arts Council she spearheaded the creation of the Wallace Stegner House Residence for Artists in which Wallace Stegner's childhood home was turned into a retreat for writers and artists.[14]

She lived in Eastend until Peter's death in 2007. She now lives in Calgary, Alberta.

She was shortlisted for the Governor General's award twice, once for fiction for Queen of the Headaches, and once for nonfiction for The Perfection of the Morning.

The Fall 2012 issue of Prairie Fire, entitled The Visionary Art of Sharon Butala was dedicated to Butala and her work and influence.

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Lori Bamber · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sharon Butala is a genius and I am puzzled that she is not as world renowned as Alice Munro or Margaret Atwood. Perhaps it is the fact that Alice Munro and Margaret Atwood write about places that are exponentially more populated than the Saskatchewan/Calgary nexus that Butala's work is firmly rooted in. Her people don't think Ontario, or Coast. They think heartland, and she shares their stories with such acuity, understanding and insight that I am taken home to the prairies each time, understanding more about my own life and the people I came from as I do.

In this collection of short stories, the protagonists all inhabit three countries: they are prairie folk, they are women, and they are old. Their voices and their discomfort are astonishing. I hope to avoid their fate, but I have a feeling that I'll remember at least one or two of these stories some day with an "Ah, yes."

[Alan (on December semi-hiatus) Teder · Rating 5 out of 5]

Crone Lit Shorts
Review of the Coteau Books paperback edition (2019)

I don't know if the "Crone Lit" name for this sub-genre will catch on, as it will require a major shift away from the negative connotations that most will have with the word "crone." Whoever formatted the synopsis in Goodreads for Season of Fury and Wonder shied away from using the opening in the publisher's own synopsis: "Crone lit stories that are examples of the wisdom and insights of older women and at the same time tributes to the classic literature that inspired them," for perhaps that very reason. Still, there were some early signs that a gradual reclamation and rebranding of the word is on its way in titles such as The Crone: Woman of Age, Wisdom, and Power (1988) and Crones Don't Whine: Concentrated Wisdom for Juicy Women (2003).

Sharon Butala paints ten wonderful portraits of senior women in this collection of short stories in which each is also inspired by an earlier classic that was influential on the author in the past. The influence on the story can be very small such as an elephant figurine appearing in the story inspired by Ernest Hemingway's Hills Like White Elephants (1927). You can also interpret it as a sequel as if the woman in Hemingway's story had moved far off to Canada and keeps the figurine as a mnemonic. In any case, knowing the original inspiration isn't key to appreciating each portrait that Butala constructs. It is the raw human angst, pain, yearning, regret, joy and hope that is captured throughout which is the real draw.

I don't know what the extent of the audience is for a book such as this as many are fearful of aging and the infirmities and struggles that it brings with it. Butala looks at it right in the face and embraces it and makes you feel it as well.

[Virginia · Rating 5 out of 5]

The truth is, I am not a person who is any good at loving. Although I try, I am famously cold. I don’t hug people when I meet them or say goodbye to them, not even people I like very much. I don’t watch movies about love - shudder at the very thought - or sing any of those appalling love songs, or admire lovesickness or think it is cute or touching. I don’t talk about love, I don’t even fully believe that there is such a thing as love. (I exclude from that belief parent-child love. I do believe in that. And I guess that I have to admit that apparently I believe that siblings can love each other, at least now and then, for awhile.)

I hadn’t read anything by Sharon Butala and have loved the cracking voices of each of these various women. Ironically, this edition must have been printed with young people in mind, not old women, since the font is excruciatingly small and difficult for old eyes to read without assistance. Sigh. However I’m glad I persevered to the end and gave each story and narrator the attention they deserved. Sharon Butala is a wonderful Canadian writer who herself is now in her 80s, and I highly recommend this collection.

…my son Herald … now cares nothing for me... has busied himself year by year by wiping me out of his world.
Once in a while, on his trips across the country to this university or that, he stops off for a short visit with me. Otherwise, I no longer see him, and I have succeeded after years of trying, to move him from the forefront of my mind to somewhere much further back, so that his absence from my life long ago stopped causing me much suffering.

[Eleanor Cowan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A moving book of short stories, ‘Season of Fury and Wonder’ is also a warning. The wonder of old age has been stifled in every era of human history by societal repressions, which lead to feelings of fury and disconnect as in these stories of the old age of women.
These ten short stories are stripped bare of guile or pretense. Nestling into the first story, ‘What Else We Talk About When We Talk About Love’, inspired by Raymond Carver’s novel, ‘Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?’ I was struck by the honesty of the female narrator. Upon learning of a cancer diagnosis and illness of family members, she’s uncertain of how to behave, and there’s frank admission of a lack of feeling.
She said: “For a long time, I wanted to be a decent person, actually tried to figure out how one would actually go about achieving this goal…I don’t think it was ever obvious to me.”
The woman recounts that back in high school, she hurt a girl famous for being the nicest person in the crowd, by informing her that being nice was too stupid for words.
Still, years pass and our “old” woman, who remains nameless, has changed. She’s adopted decency. She’ll do the right thing because civility requires it. Even though she never liked her dying brother-in-law, nor believed her sister was happy with him, she’ll pay her last respects. She’ll order a taxi, refuse offers of a bed with chatty relatives, and book a separate hotel room.
Yet, the wonder is that while paying her duty call, an astonishing thing happens in the sickroom to warm everyone. This older woman did her best, and something human happens to her.
In Hemingway’s ‘Hills Like White Elephants’, a desperate young woman agrees to a backroom abortion in order to hold onto a lover who may leave her anyway. In Butala’s take, we learn of the suspected suicide of Maggie’s best friend, possibly because of an empty marriage, drained of love.



I sense tremendous helplessness about love, the filling up and emptying ebb and flow of dependent women.
Most women born in 1936 would be about ready to leave home in 1956. But many would merely switch houses and assume an unvaried domestic role. For many talented women, that option was just moving to a new jail cell, wearing invisible handcuffs.
Until, that is, in 1957, when Betty Friedan was asked to conduct a survey of her former college classmates and found that many of them were wretched with their lives as housewives. She began her research for her book ‘The Feminine Mystique’, which she wrote to show the mistaken assumptions that women were fulfilled from their housework, marriage, and children.
It was touted that ‘feminine’ women should not even want to work, nor get an education, or have political opinions. Friedan’s work proved that such women were shamed for voicing their distress and were advised to mute it. But in Butala’s stories, the besieged bellow their grief.
When husband, children, home and garden disappear in a blinkered world, everything is indeed lost.
‘Season of Fury and Wonder’ must be read through the lens of societal deprivation and not the optics of a Canadian feminist today who can, for example, live her orientation, study, choose to give birth with or without a partner, and still enjoy a career, acceptance, friendship, and community support.

In ‘Guilt: A Discussion’, the character Jessie-Marie reflects importantly, “…even though individuals don’t have the power to make laws, in the end, what will work will be where each of us takes responsibility for our actions.”

Read Butala’s unvarnished stories of those who paid the already humbling physical, mental, and emotional costs of aging within the confines of a patriarchal system of human organization. Lest we forget.

Eleanor Cowan, Author of: A History of a Pedophile's Wife: Memoir of a Canadian Teacher and Writer

[Cathryn Wellner · Rating 4 out of 5]

With this collection of short stories about aging women, Butala solidifies her spot alongside Alice Munro and Carol Shields. Her characters would not make any woman want to rush toward her last chapter. They are raw and real. As someone whose cohort is dealing with dementia, chronic disease, and lingering death, I can attest to the honesty of stories that cut close to the bone. This collection may be an unsettling eye opener for those who are decades away from old age. For those of us already there, it is an affirmation of the rich inner life, and often troubling outer life, we lead as our bodies start to betray us.

[Shelley G · Rating 4 out of 5]

A slight little volume of stories (each of which is paying homage or reacting to another, well-known, work of literature) from the perspective of older women. As such, it's full of reflection on lives lived - grief, love, loss, the changes that come as we age (physical, mental/emotional, feeling invisible to others, loss of independence, etc.)

[Karan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perspectives and stories not often heard.

[Ian · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the preface to her unflinching short story collection Season of Fury and Wonder, Sharon Butala states with bald assurance, “These stories are about old women.” Her intention in this volume is to grant a voice to women who have reached an advanced age and describe their current circumstances: how they are living in the here and now, more often than not alone, marginalized and with death staring them in the face. But she acknowledges this can’t be done without bringing the past into the discussion. So, what we have here then, is a collection of ten stories in which elderly women are contemplating their present in light of past events, decisions, and behaviours that have shaped their lives and helped bring them to where they are. Butala acknowledges as well that each of her stories is a tribute or response to an earlier classic story. The first piece in the collection, “What Else We Talk About When We Talk About Love,” inspired by the famous Raymond Carver story, treats the mysterious nature of love: a woman who has always been emotionally reserved and unaffectionate visits her sister and brother-in-law, both of whom are dying of cancer, and experiences a shocking and unexpected epiphany when she finds herself flooded with love for them. In “Grace’s Garden,” inspired by Allen Sillitoe’s “The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner,” widowed Grace struggles each day to retain her dignity and independence, resisting pressure from her children to give up the house and move into a care facility despite evidence of advancing dementia. And in “Downsizing” (inspired by John Cheever’s “The Swimmer”), widowed Lucinda, terrified of spending her twilight years alone, has scoured her high-school and college yearbooks and compiled a list of candidates who might be willing to provide the affection and male companionship she craves. Heading out to meet them, however, she encounters the flaws in her strategy: some on her list are dead, others are boring, and some never liked her and don’t mind saying so. Butala’s writing is incisive and unsentimental, often pulsing with cheeky humour. Her elderly characters have reached a stage of life where time is of the essence, a reckoning is approaching, and the vices of youth—vanity, denial of unflattering truths, wasteful extravagance, self-pity—serve little purpose. Sharon Butala writes barbed, difficult stories. Her characters, though often frail and sometimes losing their grip if not their edge, are courageous and resilient as they confront without regret the indignities of old age. Sharon Butala’s triumphant return to the short story in Season of Fury and Wonder grants an urgent and honest voice to an underrepresented segment of humanity and makes a compelling argument that we ignore these voices at our peril.

[C.A. Simonsen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Season of Fury and Wonder is an enjoyable collection. The stories are of elderly women - of the challenges and celebrations of aging. I particularly liked Grace's Garden. It is very relatable for anyone who's had a loved one grow beyond the point of self-care. Excellent twist in that tale, Ms. Butala. Keep the stories coming. And thanks.

"...she had a tendency these days to wander a bit to the right. When it wasn't to the left."

[Ann Douglas · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's a joy to come across a collection of short stories that focuses on the lives of older women. So much fiction is anchored in the lives of much younger characters. I welcomed the opportunity to be invited into the world of older women: to get a peek inside their hearts, minds, and daily experiences. Highly recommended.

[Connie · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a great idea —to write short stories inspired by the masterpieces she has loved. I really enjoyed reading these stories about the lives of old women, although I thought some stories worked better than others. A fast and very rewarding read. Thank you, Sharon Butala!

[Andrea · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stunning. It was only after I completed reading this that I fully recognized how little space old women take up in literature. Their voices are severely overlooked and Butala gives them a spotlight here. These stories are beautiful and heartbreaking. In the end I was despairing a little at just how much disappointment and regret were contained in the lives of these women. I hoped for a little bit more joy. Perhaps that is an unrealistic hope? Regardless, this book deserves to be read widely.

[Stephanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! What a great read. I remember loving her work back in the 90s and I had the great pleasure of hearing her read at Hollyhock. She was teaching a course, and I was attending a reader’s retreat led by Bill Richardson and Sarah Ellis, One night we readers joined the writers for happy hour, the perfect elixir.

[Christine Gingerick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great short stories. Thought provoking, uplifting and sad all at the same time.

[Prairie Fire Review of Books · Rating 5 out of 5]

Originally reviewed by Mary Barnes for Prairie Fire's Book Reviews Program. prairiefire.ca

Growing up in rural Ontario, I was surrounded by parents and siblings but gravitated to the elderly, a grandmother and aunts and uncles, but especially the women, fascinated by the stories they had to tell, awed by the humour and wisdom they imparted. When I opened the book, Season of Fury and Wonder, the first thing I recognized were the voices, what they had to say; some of the elderly opinions were bitter, some wise, but all tested by time.

Sharon Butala, a recipient of many honours and awards for her past works, including plays, novels, memoirs and short story collections, gives us yet another thought-provoking book that does not disappoint.

With her latest short story collection, Butala enters the world of old age which, for many of us, appears as a place of wrinkles, bent bodies and memory lapses. Yet there is discovery, one in which the aged view with a sense of awe. It is also a place Butala’s women have reached bearing feelings of helplessness and frustration at family and society, and their rage is palpable. The author draws her inspiration from established writers that she read in early adulthood, such as Raymond Carver, James Joyce, Willa Cather and Shirley Jackson. She goes a step further and tells each story from the perspective of old women, dwelling on the experiences these women have gathered over their course of living. She writes of their frustrations, their past joys, their conclusions and how sometimes those outcomes are both alien and bewildering.

Her first story, inspired by Raymond Carver’s short story, “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love,” tells the story of a woman visiting her sister and her brother-in-law, who are both dying of cancer. A cold woman, she has never warmed to her brother-in-law, Austen. Raised in a household where emotions were squelched, she begins to learn about love. She sees that it comes unbidden, a “dusky beige-pink”; it is something undefined, and she is surprised, suddenly understanding that love is a wonder to behold. (8)

Butala’s story, “Grace’s Garden,” begins with the protagonist receiving a visit from her pastor who inquires after health. In this short exchange, we see that Grace has left the stove on, and we realize how forgetful she is. She is also defensive, suspicious and stubborn. These attributes cause worry for her family and neighbours. The son and daughter, aware of their mother’s carelessness with burning cigarettes and her dementia, want her to sell her house and move to an old age facility but Grace is reluctant to do so. She believes she will lose her independence. Wanting to remain a free spirit, like Sillitoe’s character in “The Loneliness of a Long-Distance Runner” from which Butala drew her inspiration, Grace makes a decision that she feels is the only one feasible for her. This results in drastic consequences and though shocking, we come to realize it is understandable.

Drawing from Joyce’s short story “The Dead,” the author tells the story of Agnes in her last story titled, “The Departed.” An old woman, she attends a family gathering where she reminisces over the sixty odd years of her life. As she recalls past events, Agnes begins to evaluate that life and sees herself as “the black hole,” the “inexplicable lump,” in the room, someone everybody ignores because she is elderly (89). Once the centre of family activities, she feels she is a has-been and no longer part of the family. The longer she thinks on her past, including the disturbing issues surrounding her male teacher, the more she becomes aware that life is baffling, that “such a mess life was, such a glorious, ridiculous mess” (75).

With a skilful hand, Butala recovers the voices silenced by time and ignorance. Now restored, the voices come to life; they rise to reveal that these women’s lives have meaning, that they matter. The old women appear frail, lost and lonely, yet they’ve endured trials and tribulations in their time, and with both quiet courage and fire they’ve reached the country of old age. The author has listened to their voices and with common sense and a sympathetic ear, she’s shown us that these women demand respect.

[Debbie Bateman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this collection. Such a pleasure to sit in the company of women who have lived a lot. Their stories carry weight, their humour has been earned by experience, and they have little time or patience for pretense. Life's biggest questions loom large as the unmovable deadline approaches. What is love? How do I find it? And my biggest mistakes, the ones that matter, what of those? I spent many hours over the last five years with 80-plus women at the independent living residence where my mom lived. Now that she has passed, I'm sad to see less of those entertaining women. We need more stories about the people who have advanced to one of life's most challenging and interesting stages.

[Isabelle Boutin · Rating 2 out of 5]

J'aurais aimé plus apprécier ce livre. L'idée d'un recueil de nouvelles sur des femmes âgées me plaisait beaucoup! Cependant, la plupart des nouvelles ne m'ont pas touchées et j'ai trouvé certaines d'entre elles dures à lire et à suivre (beaucoup de personnages et de déplacements entre les pensées et l'action). Je suis d'avis que certains livres nous touchent plus selon le moment de notre vie pendant lequel on entre en contact avec eux. Ce recueil est probablement simplement arrivé au mauvais moment dans ma vie.
Au total, environ 2 ou 3 nouvelles m'ont émue (et bouleversée). Celles-ci valaient la peine d'avoir lu le livre en entier.

[Cybercrone · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just hate the fact that since that bully Amazon took over the site, the e-pub versions of books are no longer listed. I guess they figure if we can't find that we will pick Kindle and pump up the numbers they can claim. Such dishonesty!
Anyway, on to the book. Yes I got the e-pub version.
It is a magnificent accounting of the end of aging for women. I can't write about books the way some people can and there are some really good reviews below.
All I can say is that everyone who has a mother or grandmother in her later years should read this but that only women over 75 are really going to understand it and fully relate.

[Clare · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. These are stories full of rage and fury not so much at aging but at how the world, even closest family and friends, sees us as we age. Familiar themes of agency and choice are here, along with whistfulness and yearning for a time past, perhaps a chance to redo. I'll admit to not being well read enough to know the stories these are an homage to. I expect that knowledge makes them all the better.

[Ashley · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is another Canadian author and writing about Canada and I live in Saskatchewan. I find this book so depressing because she talks about old people in a negative way and I view them as great people, since I worked at a nursing home and have respect for them and appreciate their existence. I would never take advantage of them and this is what the book is about. Also I am in a book club and this book was chosen.

[Lester · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book of short stories didn't take 1½ months to read..I read a couple more than once. Kind of depressing..to think that 'that is all there is' to look forward to in ones 'older years'. (is that over 70..over 80..or when feeling just ooooold???)

Grace's Garden..I read three times. Damn!!

Good..and sad..reading. At 64+ I am living and not wasting time. So far. Who knows what the next minute, day, week etc. will bring..?! So far..all is good. YAY!!

[Shauna Roth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really didn’t like this book. In fact I almost didn’t finish it because it was so hard to read. It invoked such a visceral, hope-sucking feeling in me. But....it is extremely well written. It is so raw. Maybe it was dark because Butala described moments that I have lived and shared glimpses into the future that are very ugly that I don’t want to live. This is a very good book.

[Nathalia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can’t wait to be old. I love a complex female character whose honest about her feelings and this book was just that but with a bunch of old women and their current lives. it was amazing.

I just also love it when an author takes the perspective of an older women and talks about her present rather than making it sound like all her life is in memories of youth.

[Joan Barton · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was interesting to read about the lives of old people ...as I am one...I enjoyed them. And because these short stories would appeal to old folk I'm surprised at the small print that was chosen by the publisher hmmmm....

[Bailey Olfert · Rating 2 out of 5]

Every five years or so, I try short stories again. I'm forever optimistic that I'll finally be mature enough to like them. Nope, not yet. I liked Butala's writing a lot, but I still don't enjoy the short form at all. This collection is all about women in old age, which was a nice touch.

[Deborah Sowery-Quinn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this collection of stores, Butala writes so beautifully. This collection is about the lives of older women & perhaps younger women would not find it interesting, I don't know, but I found it moving but also sad.

[Margarita · Rating 3 out of 5]

Laser-focused writing. Intelligently constructed, strong-willed ageing female characters. I struggled with the hardness behind so many of them; the repeated depiction of ageing as an invisible enemy to be fought. The relentless battling is exhausting.

[Shan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read because it is a finalist for the Writers Trust Fiction Prize.

I really enjoyed this collection. It isn't often that we get stories of older women.

[Colette Connors · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not what I expected,rather depressing.

[Debbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection of short stories about women and aging hits a little too close to home to be comfortable reading. Still, thought provoking material.