Cocktail by Lisa Alward | The Miramichi Reader

This collection of twelve pristine short stories might best be described as small snapshots of lives shadowed by disquietude. The writing is crisp, accomplished and assured, and the characters are vividly and sympathetically drawn, as they experience the emotional convolutions of individuals struggling between that which they believe to be right and that which they desire.

“The writing is crisp, accomplished and assured.”

In the title story, Cocktail, 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 while, at the same time, there is an acknowledgement of her own desire.

Then he leaned in further. I could smell his breath now and examine his freckles up close. They formed cloud-like splotches on his cheeks and some touched his lips. He seemed to be studying me too.

“So what’s your real name, Ginger?” he asked with such gentleness I could feel my whole face go hot.

It was on my lips, mixing with the taste of the gin-soaked cherry, but before I could part them, David was standing inside my bedroom door. He had on his blue-striped pyjama bottoms, and his skinny chest seemed to quiver in the crack of light.

Her brother disrupts the moment, saving her from what the reader knows will be harmful, and yet she is left feeling strangely unfulfilled and full of longing. That sense of disappointment establishes a pattern of sorts in her life, as she continues in repeated juvenile attempts to recreate that moment of excitement.

In Maeve, we have the first-person narrative of a young mother attempting to balance parenting, household responsibilities, and a part-time consultancy. She meets super-mom Maeve at a woman’s group and is soon in awe of her as Maeve rapidly establishes her reputation as the accomplished earth mother who bakes healthy snacks, plays with her children, makes playdough, grows her own vegetables, keeps chickens, and has her life in perfect balance. Our narrator feels entirely diminished by Maeve’s advice, confidence and seeming perfection. For reasons that are not initially clear, Maeve seeks out the narrator’s friendship and invites her into her home. There, we discover, that things are clearly not as Maeve would have anyone believe: the house is filthy, disorganized and in total chaos.

She smiled again, and I saw the same animal delight light up her face as when she’d placed the swan in front of Lydia, when Bethany tipped the basket full of eggs. Maeve, I saw more clearly, was not my friend. We weren’t even comrades in the same struggle. All along, she’d only been waiting to triumph over me.

The interaction alters the narrator’s perspective and she, in a defining moment, detaches herself from the unhealthy liaison.

In Bundle of Joy, we meet Ruth and Joe, new grandparents who are excited to meet their daughter’s firstborn child. Ruth has a strained relationship with her daughter Erin, as a result of her penchant for being critical and speaking bluntly. Ruth has worked hard to knit a beautiful layette for the baby, and is hoping that the baby and overnight visit will bring her closer to family. Eager to demonstrate her good intentions, she picks up the infant,

But it was too late. Her foot had caught in the ribbon handle of the yellow gift bag. She could feel herself lose balance. Then there was nothing she could do. She was going to hit the floor. She was going to hit it on the same side with Noah, his little head protected only by her hand, the hand already gripping him too hard.

Ruth’s attempts to reconcile the situation, see her further isolated from the family, who try unsuccessfully to dissuade her from picking up the frozen dog feces in the back garden.

Such moments of human frailty, frustrated ambition, and longing, are the hallmarks of this evocative and stunning collection. Highly recommended.

Lisa Alward‘s stories have won The Fiddlehead Prize and the Peter Hinchcliffe Short Fiction Award and have appeared in Best Canadian Stories as well as The Journey Prize Stories. She grew up in Halifax and worked for several years in literary publishing in Toronto before moving with her family to Vancouver and ultimately to Fredericton, where she lives with her husband, John.

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Biblioasis (Sept. 12 2023)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 224 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1771965622
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1771965620

Lucy E. M. Black

Website

Lucy E.M. Black (she/her/hers) is the author of The Marzipan Fruit Basket, Eleanor Courtown, Stella’s Carpet, The Brickworks and Class Lessons: Stories of Vulnerable Youth. A Quilting of Scars will be released October 2025. Her award-winning short stories have been published in Britain, Ireland, USA and Canada. She is a dynamic workshop presenter, experienced interviewer and freelance writer. She lives with her partner in the small lakeside town of Port Perry, Ontario, the traditional territory of the Mississaugas of Scugog Island, First Nations.