What do you think?
Rate this book
Sunday Drive to Gun Club Road
In her debut short story collection, Quednau offers unsettling examinations of “what really happened” with rich, complex characters that might equally arouse our suspicions or we pay attention. She gives voice to the interludes between actions, what almost occurred, or might yet, the skewed time of “before” and acute reckoning of “afterward.”
Seemingly innocent gestures leave their marks in the blurt of an intimate nickname becoming an ad hoc striptease in a public place, a parked car leading to a woman flailing in a dunk tank, a garage sale with no early birds ending in vengeance, the redemptive act of shucking corn with an ex-husband’s new lover transforming into greater loss. These stories attest to Quednau’s belief that the most significant moments in our lives—the things that alter us—lie in the margins, just out of sight of what was once presumed or predicted. In these short fictions timing is everything, the rusted twentieth-century myths of ownership or conquest are set against the incoming reality of pandemic, our separate notions of love or of courage, of painful transformation, yet to be believed.
Seemingly innocent gestures leave their marks in the blurt of an intimate nickname becoming an ad hoc striptease in a public place, a parked car leading to a woman flailing in a dunk tank, a garage sale with no early birds ending in vengeance, the redemptive act of shucking corn with an ex-husband’s new lover transforming into greater loss. These stories attest to Quednau’s belief that the most significant moments in our lives—the things that alter us—lie in the margins, just out of sight of what was once presumed or predicted. In these short fictions timing is everything, the rusted twentieth-century myths of ownership or conquest are set against the incoming reality of pandemic, our separate notions of love or of courage, of painful transformation, yet to be believed.
199 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 1, 2021
2 people are currently reading
5 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
August 28, 2021
The thirteen stories in Marion Quednau’s collection are humorous as well as unsettling, and they definitely draw a reader in—sometimes to sympathize and sometimes because suspicion is aroused. And sometimes for pure delight.
I find it fascinating to note where the stories are situated: not on the mountain but rather at home where a couple speculates on the news of a missing hiker; and not at a wedding but at the preparation for it. Each short story kept my attention as I appreciated the unexpected in the ordinariness of the characters' lives with their many layers of complexities. Some hope to be rescued and others rescue themselves.
In the first story, “Snow Man,” a new neighbor named Walter has moved in across the street from Kate and Harold. Kate checks in on Walter, who is on his own, and even has dinner with him while she leaves Harold’s supper in the warming oven. Kate “tried to imagine Harold losing her to something unseen between them. Something grown huge seemingly overnight.”
A longer story about a married couple is “Found to be Missing,” which is a marvel in its depiction of the intricacies of a relationship. While the news of a hiker lost on Mount Seymour (British Columbia) has “given them reason to exchange words,” Iris imagines what the hiker might miss about his life. Max is more concerned with “the obvious facts” and “listens faithfully to the weather reports.” The couple’s separate and unique responses to the news of the lost hiker—a university-aged student, they learn—say a lot about their relationship. There’s a life at stake in finding or not finding the young man, and it appears there’s a marriage at stake as well. “They’ve started to live their days according to an apparently failed search-and-rescue mission.”
The story from which the book’s title is taken, “Sunday Drive to Gun Club Road,” is written in the first person by a woman reflecting back on the Sunday drives her family would take “long after churchgoing had fizzled” to see houses for sale. One of them was on Gun Club Road.
In “Twine,” a young woman called Clare crosses the border from Canada into Bellingham to go to a tiny shop for a fitting of a vintage wedding dress. Following an accident in the street, she’s rescued by a man who lives nearby. This one had an eerie tone and kept me reading as I had no idea how it would turn out.
“Two Birds, One Stone” is hilarious in the way the narrator describes her friend: “Everything she said used to annoy me.” This is bleak humor (there’s a murder) at its best.
While you may not know where you’ll end up, you don’t want to miss the exhilarating path that takes you there in Sunday Drive to Gun Club Road.
Story Circle Book Reviews thanks Mary Ann Moore for this review.
I find it fascinating to note where the stories are situated: not on the mountain but rather at home where a couple speculates on the news of a missing hiker; and not at a wedding but at the preparation for it. Each short story kept my attention as I appreciated the unexpected in the ordinariness of the characters' lives with their many layers of complexities. Some hope to be rescued and others rescue themselves.
In the first story, “Snow Man,” a new neighbor named Walter has moved in across the street from Kate and Harold. Kate checks in on Walter, who is on his own, and even has dinner with him while she leaves Harold’s supper in the warming oven. Kate “tried to imagine Harold losing her to something unseen between them. Something grown huge seemingly overnight.”
A longer story about a married couple is “Found to be Missing,” which is a marvel in its depiction of the intricacies of a relationship. While the news of a hiker lost on Mount Seymour (British Columbia) has “given them reason to exchange words,” Iris imagines what the hiker might miss about his life. Max is more concerned with “the obvious facts” and “listens faithfully to the weather reports.” The couple’s separate and unique responses to the news of the lost hiker—a university-aged student, they learn—say a lot about their relationship. There’s a life at stake in finding or not finding the young man, and it appears there’s a marriage at stake as well. “They’ve started to live their days according to an apparently failed search-and-rescue mission.”
The story from which the book’s title is taken, “Sunday Drive to Gun Club Road,” is written in the first person by a woman reflecting back on the Sunday drives her family would take “long after churchgoing had fizzled” to see houses for sale. One of them was on Gun Club Road.
In “Twine,” a young woman called Clare crosses the border from Canada into Bellingham to go to a tiny shop for a fitting of a vintage wedding dress. Following an accident in the street, she’s rescued by a man who lives nearby. This one had an eerie tone and kept me reading as I had no idea how it would turn out.
“Two Birds, One Stone” is hilarious in the way the narrator describes her friend: “Everything she said used to annoy me.” This is bleak humor (there’s a murder) at its best.
While you may not know where you’ll end up, you don’t want to miss the exhilarating path that takes you there in Sunday Drive to Gun Club Road.
Story Circle Book Reviews thanks Mary Ann Moore for this review.
June 17, 2021
Thank you Nightwood Editions for the gifted copy to read and share my honest thoughts. I was very excited to see this book from a new-to-me Canadian author arrive in my mailbox!
I don't often pick up short story collections. I wasn't sure what to expect going into this one, but I was surprised to find it was enjoyable and a nice change to what I normally pick up. I can see myself grabbing for this in the bookstore or library though based on the cover alone. I gravititate towards the beauty of black and white photography. Sunday Drive to Gun Club Road made the perfect quick read to start off June.
My favourite story was Found to be Missing. I can't quit pinpoint why, but I feel like I connected to it more so then the others. It also happened to be the longest. I'm interested to see what Marion would do with a full length novel. There were stories that were humorous and some that had a bit of a darker element. There was also one or two that didn't really do much for me, leaving me either wanting more from the plot or from the characters. The writing was great, I just wanted more from those particular stories.
I don't often pick up short story collections. I wasn't sure what to expect going into this one, but I was surprised to find it was enjoyable and a nice change to what I normally pick up. I can see myself grabbing for this in the bookstore or library though based on the cover alone. I gravititate towards the beauty of black and white photography. Sunday Drive to Gun Club Road made the perfect quick read to start off June.
My favourite story was Found to be Missing. I can't quit pinpoint why, but I feel like I connected to it more so then the others. It also happened to be the longest. I'm interested to see what Marion would do with a full length novel. There were stories that were humorous and some that had a bit of a darker element. There was also one or two that didn't really do much for me, leaving me either wanting more from the plot or from the characters. The writing was great, I just wanted more from those particular stories.
November 14, 2021
This is a fabulous collection of tight, perfect, sizzling stories. Each one offers us a slice of an ordinary life that is not the least bit ordinary. But of course lives are not ordinary. Quednau has an economy of words that are laser sharp and take you straight to the heart of her characters. I LOVED this book and was so sad to come to the end. Brilliant!
July 30, 2024
Quednau's words flow easily across the page as they offer insights into what it means to be human while at the same time packing just enough humour to elicit a smile if not a chuckle. But I can only take so much neuroses, nagging, and navel-gazing before one story begins to mirror every other story. Not a drive I'd care to take again.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews