Waiting for the Cyclone

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Date

2013-08-16

Authors

Dean, Leesa

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Publisher

University of Guelph

Abstract

Waiting for the Cyclone is a short story collection that behaves like the weather system it was named for: the language and plots alternate between fast recklessness and high-pressured calm. In every story, unpredictable circumstances transform the characters much like a cyclone transforms a landscape. Interactions between character and setting are at the forefront in this collection. Many of the stories take place in peripheral spaces such as rural farms, city parks where marginal youth congregate for the summer and low-income neighbourhoods in Canadian cities. The characters inhabiting these spaces are restless and ambulatory by nature− they are themselves peripheral in their social values and life choices. Waiting for the Cyclone investigates what forces drive the characters’ self-imposed mobility while exploring larger themes such as relationships, loss and identity.

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Keywords

Mobility, Symbolic landscapes

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