Lesbianism
The common thread uniting all of Rule’s works thematically to each other is their exploration of lesbianism. The author has been at the forefront of lesbian fiction since she first began publishing. What distinguishes this collection from others as well as her novels is that lesbian themes are subjugated to a lesser status within the collection as a whole. While this choice means this collection of stories is somewhat less coherently organized than others, it also means the book may perhaps be more accessible to a larger audience.
Oh, Canada
As much as Jane Rule is a writer tangibly associated with lesbian themes in her fiction, she is also an author whose work is deeply steeped in the tradition of regional fiction. “Vancouver is changing” says one the character in the collection and reading Rule in chronological order is a good way to get a fix on that. Before the first paragraph of the first story is over, Vancouver is mentioned by name. The city will continue to serve as either a backdrop to many of the other tales within or a reference point for the characters. The title story works almost like a metaphor for the entire collection in its story of passengers aboard a cruise ship setting off from Vancouver which will find itself “in open sea only two hours each way. All the rest is inland passage.”
The Happy Heterosexuals
Snuggled firmly within the collection is another little mini-collection comprised of five stories situated back to back taking up roughly the middle section of the book. These entries convey the story of the marriage of Harry and Anna and their two kids. An in-depth penetration into the story of a married couple is enough of outlier in the canon of Rule to warrant attention by itself, but it is her handling of the domestic content of the couple that really stands out. She manages somehow to make their embrace of convention, tradition and the sheer conformity of contractual heterosexual co-habitation (marriage) seem somehow rebellious or, if not exactly that, then certainly somehow wondrously avant-garde.
