Story collection features whimsy and wit

Ten Stories that Worried My Mother
by Winona Kent

New Westminster: Blue Devil Books, 2023
$14.99 / 9781777329495

Reviewed by Ginny Ratsoy

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Best known as a writer of cozy mystery novels, New Westminster’s Winona Kent has organized this eclectic collection of mostly previously published works (dating from the early 1980s to the 2020s)  chronologically. She follows each story with context around original publication and, often, its relationship to her own life–a somewhat quirky inclusion. “Quirky” aptly describes most of the stories.  Whether set in 1970s’ workplaces, English village fairs (several times), or 2012 cruise ships, and whether they fall into the categories of realism, time travel, or cozy mystery, these whimsically-toned pieces do not take themselves too seriously and reward the reader with their wit. 

Job dissatisfaction is a prevalent theme in Kent’s early works, three of which tackle it from a realist perspective, as protagonists explore various means of coping with or transcending their anodyne employment.

 “Tower of Power” filters the operations of a 1970s’ Winnipeg teen rock music radio station through the lens of a disgruntled news reporter on a winter night. The milieu is both hectic and tedious, the working conditions at once undesirable and precarious. Randy Serbach, both jaded and idealistic, unveils his mistreatment at the hands of management, and the misogyny in the male-dominated organization through the callous treatment of a young teen determined to meet her favourite disc jockey. Fortunately, Serbach takes the high road with the fan and gets some measure of revenge justice from the vile management while ascending the ladder of his career aspirations.

A sunnier tone pervades “True Confessions.” A ‘70s Canadian scholarship student in a new temp position enters her London, England workplace to find it deserted. Exploring her desk, Carol discovers a radio and an issue of True Confessions. The former entertains her while she waits, but she avoids the latter; her literary studies forbid such slumming. Soon, the loquacious cleaner, Mrs. Thatcher, arrives–with work gossip to rival the rag’s likely contents. Carol also discovers the rooftop garden, basking in its lovely views. When the boss’s son-in-law arrives and phone calls start, Carol wryly contrasts her lofty studies with her phone-system fumbling. When Mr Edson discovers the boss has had an accident, he dismisses Carol for the afternoon. She may not have mastered the phone system, but she received juicy–and sometimes contradictory–gossip from her two connections. Carol ends her first day by slipping up to the rooftop and dipping into the trashy mag. 

Another story on entry-level jobs, “Herd Maintenance” incisively captures the atmosphere of a late-20^th century government workplace from the perspective of a clerical temp. The secretarial pool, corralled in the windowless middle of the department, is beset with bureaucracy and restrictions for their own sake and to ensure worker docility. 

Kent’s narrator copes by glimpsing the outdoors from the washroom counter, employing office equipment in artistic, rather than utilitarian, ways, and performing acts of rebellion that impede machinery operation. The monotony of typing non-committal correspondence templates at the behest of men is broken only by her rebellion, union recognition that the workplace is unsafe, and the narrator’s dream of a transfer to another government department. The story’s title is apropos of more than the fact that her current job is in an agricultural department. Despite its ‘90s setting, “Herd Maintenance” is likely to resonate with contemporary workers. 

Two pieces in Ten Stories That Worried My Mother employ time travel to moralistic, fanciful, and romantic ends.

“Perhaps an Angel” has the quality of a parable. Protagonist Charlie is a guide at the Stoneford historical museum where Mr. Deeley (born 1791) lives. The duo first met in 1825. It’s the 1970s, during the Stoneford summer fair, where the pair have their Tarot cards read by fortune teller Esmeralda, and Charlie later has her purse snatched. In pursuit of the thief, they re-enter Esmeralda’s tent and emerge in the fair of 1848, where the thief places Charlie’s purse, intact, on a bench. They then encounter Charlie’s great-grandmother, Sarah, who believes Charlie is her cousin, and save Sarah’s recalcitrant son from both vicious physical punishment and a life of crime. The story ends with Charlie and Deeley watching a magician who resembles the purse thief–or an angel. 

The lovers from different centuries find themselves transported from the village green to Swinging ‘60s London in “Easy When You Know How.” On Carnaby Street in search of artefacts for a historical exhibit, they find themselves face-to-face with Charlie’s late mother, salesperson at a trendy shop, on the day her co-worker is going to the premiere of the film A Hard Day’s Night and mom Jackie is slated for a first date with Charlie’s father. Later that day, Mr Deeley’s old acquaintance informs them Charlie’s parents must not meet that night: Jackie must meet Tony Quinn; otherwise, Charlie’s parents will die in a motorcycle accident. The time travellers intercept Jackie in time, and the trio sets out for the film premiere. In the chaos, the three become separated, Jackie gets trampled on, and Tony Quinn comes to her rescue. Charlie watches Jackie, now suffering from transient global amnesia, being taken off in an ambulance. Charlie reunites with Deeley, and learns he attended the film and encountered John Lennon in the loo. The rescuers are then transported back to current-day London. 

Two works pieces that fit the cozy mystery genre for which Kent is most known and feature of her narrator/musician/amateur sleuth Jason Davey end the collection. I should add that “comic cozy mystery” is a more accurate term for both stories. 

“Salty Dog Blues” transports the reader to 2012, on a tired cruise ship running from Vancouver to Alaska, where Jason is an entertainer. In the audience for his first show is Miss Ferryman–along with her pampered Chichuahua, Spike. Spike becomes an unwelcome audience participant, urinating on Jason’s equipment and shorting out his amplifier. Jason carries on acoustically to a lacklustre, small audience. Spike’s escapades inconvenience a gaggle of crew and passengers, and the canine soon disappears. Miss Ferryman insists on Jason’s help, convinced Spike is partial to him and the official investigator is inept. Jason dutifully questions multiple suspects, eventually, in true detective form, calling a meeting in the library. After he reveals the motives of the suspects—traumatic childhood dog losses, near smothering by a Chichuahua in infancy, loss of a lover to a breeder of Chichuahuas, and so on Justice and a sort of peaceful co-existence prevail.

In “Blue Devil Blues” Jason, after an unsuccessful jazz audition at a stale-dated club in 2016 London, encounters the club owner’s niece, Evie, who regales him with bad songs about the London underground and apparently steals his heirloom Strad. In search of the Strad, he encounters a dead body. The police question and release him, but he is on his own in his guitar search. After considerable sleuthing, he phones Evie, who agrees to meet–at a place she designates. The pair descends to the abandoned underground station that is Evie’s hideout. Once he has his Strad, Jason tells Evie he found her Uncle Howard’s body. She is convinced her deranged step-brother, whom she saw with a knife at the club, is responsible. Enter deranged Thomas, who has followed the duo to the station. The story ends in true comedic cozy mystery fashion, with unbridled success for the duo and just deserts for the villain.

Winona Kent’s Ten Stories That Worried My Mother provides readers with a charming panorama of one writer’s career. 

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Ginny Ratsoy is Professor Emerita at Thompson Rivers University, where she created and taught many Can Lit courses. Her scholarly publications (co-authored and edited and co-edited books and numerous peer-reviewed articles) have focused on Canadian fiction, theatre, small cities, third-age learning, and the scholarship of teaching and learning. In addition to counteracting ageism by maintaining a growth mindset through activism, freelance writing, and community engagement, she promotes third-age learning through her involvement as a board member, coordinator, and instructor for the Kamloops Adult Learners Society. Her next KALS class will examine Canadian crime fiction–cozy and otherwise–written by women. [Editor’s note: Ginny Ratsoy has recently reviewed books by Amanda Lewis, Gregor Craigie, Iona Whishaw, Elizabeth Bass, Karen L. Abrahamson, & J.E. Barnard (eds.), and Gregor Craigie & Kathleen Fu for BCR.]

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The British Columbia Review

Interim Editors, 2023-24: Trevor Marc Hughes (non-fiction), Brett Josef Grubisic (fiction)
Publisher: Richard Mackie

Formerly The Ormsby Review, The British Columbia Review is an on-line book review and journal service for BC writers and readers. The Advisory Board now consists of Jean Barman, Wade Davis, Robin Fisher, Barry Gough, Hugh Johnston, Kathy Mezei, Patricia Roy, Maria Tippett, and Graeme Wynn. Provincial Government Patron (since September 2018): Creative BC. Honorary Patron: Yosef Wosk. Scholarly Patron: SFU Graduate Liberal Studies. The British Columbia Review was founded in 2016 by Richard Mackie and Alan Twigg.

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