Dispirited by his performance review, Will Gough sets out to redeem himself by updating his company's quality control procedures, while casting a hopeful eye toward other career opportunities. Despite his best intentions, his work troubles follow him home——to his wife and two sons, where empty yogurt containers are half—sacred, technology a source of childhood wonder, and the business of the world bumps against the quiet walls that protect the rhythms of family life.
It's difficult to pull off a portrait of a nice guy in ordinary circumstances, going through the stress of daily living and tensions surrounding job and career opportunities, and he does it very well in simple, understated prose. No sensationalism or alien beings or suicidal desperation or academic angst or terrorist attacks or other assorted rampages and violations: just a life without earthshaking incident, but subtly humourous and convincing.
Tom Abray grew up near Strathroy, Ontario, and then moved to Montreal to study English at McGill University. After completing his M.A. in creative writing at Concordia University he began teaching at John Abbott College. His collection of short stories, Pollen (DC Books, 2011), was shortlisted for the Concordia University First Book Prize, as well as the Paragraphe Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction. He also written and directed a number of short films that have screened at festivals in North America and Europe.
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