Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    A Song for Nettie Johnson
    Unavailable
    A Song for Nettie Johnson
    Unavailable
    A Song for Nettie Johnson
    Ebook274 pages4 hours

    A Song for Nettie Johnson

    By Gloria Sawai

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    2002 Governor General's Literary Award Winner for Fiction

    In her stunning debut collection of short stories, Gloria Sawai examines the heartbreaking lives of people on the margins. A group of young school students prepares a memorial for the town’s deceased doctor, at the inadvertent risk of deeply offending his widow. A young girl learns important things about herself – some of them extremely unpleasant – on a storm-ravaged Mother’s Day weekend. A woman on a road trip in search of her erstwhile husband finds instead the one thing she never expected to see again in her lifetime. A woman sitting on the deck outside her Moose Jaw home receives an unusual and unexpected gentleman caller. And, in the title story, an outcast and misunderstood woman and her disgraced lover struggle toward what may be their last chance at redemption These and other vividly drawn characters populate the stories collected for the first time in A Song for Nettie Johnson. With insight and passion, Sawai throws light into dark corners and reveals dark truths. Some stories are linked by common characters and settings; others are worlds unto themselves. But all are told in a rich yet spare style that imbues them with understated foreboding and unease. As Sawai deftly turns over the stones of these people’s lives and finds the squalor, fear and unhappiness that lie beneath, she also uncovers that most precious of gems: hope. Hope that things will not always remain the way they are. The realization remains, however, that there’s a lot more to changing things than simply wanting them to change.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCoteau Books
    Release dateJul 1, 2011
    ISBN9781550507133
    Unavailable
    A Song for Nettie Johnson
    Author

    Gloria Sawai

    Gloria Sawai is a writer and editor who lived in Edmonton. Her most famous short story "The Day I Sat With Jesus On The Sun Deck And A Wind Came Up And Blew My Kimono Open And He Saw My Breasts" has appeared in a dozen anthologies and literary journals. A Song for Nettie Johnson is her first book-length publication. She has also had her drama scripts produced by, among others, Alberta Theatre Projects and Lunchbox Theatre in Calgary and at the Edmonton Fringe Festival. Born in Minneapolis, MN, she lived in Saskatchewan from ages one to fifteen, then moved to Alberta with her family.

    Related to A Song for Nettie Johnson

    Related ebooks

    Short Stories For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      The White Fox

      Oct 13, 2017

      The White Fox
      10 min read

    • Article

      Practicing

      Mar 15, 2018

      This would have been her favorite season in the Allegheny woods. The shadows of the trees were rickety, and the wind had sap in its scent. But last week, Ty had left; now one day decayed into the next. Their house was abandoned. Only their father, si

      18 min read

    • Article

      Summer Beach Reads

      Jan 10, 2021

      Summer Beach Reads
      7 min read

    • Article

      Three Poems

      Jul 1, 2019

      She grazes in a meadow, sulphur blossoms spillingfrom her jaw.At this moment she seems so calm, she could be holyif what that means is something like beingwholly unaware of the good she gives,how even her rooting tills the soiland even her shitting f

      2 min read

    • Article

      The Silence of Witches

      Dec 10, 2019

      The Silence of Witches
      6 min read

    • Article

      Red Kite Grey Shadow

      Nov 3, 2022

      Red Kite Grey Shadow
      6 min read

    • Article

      Shula And The Sun

      Oct 13, 2017

      Shula And The Sun
      8 min read

    • Article

      The Way Back Home

      Apr 30, 2022

      Morning light in Sydney has a quality of powdered gold, spilt celestial talcum. It gets up the nose. The streets seem to have nothing to think about other than parking and shopping, violence a concept from another hemisphere. The calm seems deliberat

      6 min read

    • Article

      Ursula K. Le Guin

      Jun 15, 2018

      He was thinking of Lookfar, abandoned long ago, beached on the sands of Selidor. Little of her would be left by now, a plank or two down in the sand maybe, a bit of driftwood on the western sea. As he drifted near sleep he began to remember sailing t

      15 min read

    • Article

      Local Life

      May 7, 2020

      Local Life
      8 min read

    • Article

      Four Poems

      Mar 1, 2022

      When making an axe handlethe pattern is not far off. —Gary Snyder My mother was either horizontal on the couch,or vertical, a plumb line from her spineto the top of her head to the ceiling that spinswhen she drinks, alcohol and an air bubbletrapped,

      4 min read

    • Article

      Are You Lonesome Tonight?

      Aug 8, 2019

      Are You Lonesome Tonight?
      6 min read

    • Article

      Six Poems

      Nov 1, 2023

      loved best. Words I have neversaid. New sentence, at 80. Of coursenot more than his children, and their children. That goeswithout saying—but I want to lay down eachelement of love’s house. First,the hole, under—apple cellar, potato cellar,cellar to

      5 min read

    • Article

      Milla’s Dandelion

      Sep 10, 2022

      The sun blinded Alchemilla as she entered the meadow. It was hidden deep in the forest, too deep for anyone to venture in without a reason. She didn’t mind the isolation, and if anything, it made her work easier. After her eyes adjusted, she took off

      12 min read

    • Article

      The Needle

      May 30, 2023

      The Needle
      4 min read

    • Article

      Three Poems

      Jan 1, 2024

      When the call cameshe ran. Outside, outthe back door, screamingNo No, got to thefence and ran back, droppedto her knees and pawedat the earth, clawingup handfuls of grass.She was howling. Aululation. Something I’d never heardbefore. Likea wild horse

      3 min read

    • Article

      Named After the Animal

      Oct 13, 2020

      Named After the Animal
      18 min read

    • Article

      Announcing the Winners Of Our 100-WORD CONTEST

      Jul 17, 2021

      Eager to try your hand at the 100-word genre? Submit your best work – fiction or nonfiction – in just 100 words in our second annual 100-Word Contest, returning this fall. Bookmark writermag.com/contests for more information. BY ALICIA LUNA Today, I

      5 min read

    • Article

      Cricket League

      Apr 1, 2020

      Linden, age 9 Green Bay, WI Ophidia, the medusa, tried desperately to sketch a self-portrait. Later she would add color. Her problem was every time she looked into the lake at her reflection, the snakes of her hair were in a very different place. Sh

      8 min read

    • Article

      Five Poems

      May 1, 2023

      A set of instructionsfor making instructions. That’s a virus— pure, unencumberedvalue, money making moneyin a host’s cells, so streamlined,it’s redundant. But what goodis a metaphor weighed downwith obscure reference when what’s wantedis the zing of

      1 min read

    • Article

      On Proprioception, the Sixth Sense of Storytelling

      Sep 30, 2022

      Proprioception is a realm in which two specific craft aspects—character and setting—are wed. The post On Proprioception, the Sixth Sense of Storytelling appeared first on The Millions.

      15 min read

    • Article

      O Fortuna, Velut Luna

      Sep 15, 2018

      What is Miss Treece’s trouble, according to a popular notion? The man A has failed to show up. Arousing herself at the restaurant, she fixes her lipstick when her solo supper concludes and takes herself down the stairs situated behind the bar. There,

      3 min read

    • Article

      Cricket Ceague

      Apr 1, 2019

      Penelope Berkeley, age 9 Mars Hill, NC Night had fallen, and Luna awoke from where she had been sleeping in a cornfield. She moved steadily through the stalks with barely a sound, keeping her eyes on the glittering glass rooftop of the greenhouse in

      7 min read

    Reviews for A Song for Nettie Johnson

    3.5/5

    12 ratings1 review

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      I didn't realize when I picked up this book that it was a collection of nine short stories, six of which are what I would call 'connected stories' focused on the inhabitants of small Stone Creek, Saskatchewan.The first story, A Song for Nettie Johnson, more of a novella at some 90 pages in length, was a fascinating story about small town opinions, self-righteousness, damaged souls and the ability to reach for something, even if it frightens you. It was also a great introduction to the inhabitants of Stone Creek and the next five connected stories. Half way through the book I was happily engrossed in the lives of both the children and the adults as they grappled with issues from alcoholism and religion to death and illness. The storytelling was fresh, war, and inviting.The last three stories were not connected to the lives of the inhabitants of Stone Creek, and for me, that is where it all started to fall apart. I enjoyed the story Hosea's Children - a mother's journey to try and find the husband that left her years ago only to reconnect with the daughter that had left earlier that same year - found 'The Dolphins to be alright but nothing special and was left completely baffled by the last story in the collection.I think the collection would have been better if the book had stopped with just the six stories connected to Stone Creek. The last three stories are almost tag ons or after thoughts that made it more difficult for me to relate to them with the same strength I did with the earlier stories.