Heather O’Neill is the author of Lullabies for Little Criminalswhich, is on my TBR (to be read).  I thought I could get a tase of her writing by reading one of her short stories.

Riff-Raff is narrated by an un-named 19 year old woman from Montreal.  She is in a bad relationship with a man, Leroy, whom she met at McGill University.  She claims that, “I prayed that I would have the strength to leave him, but I never did.”

As her first year of school was coming to an end, she met an “American boy” and she decided it was time to change her life.  She was going to follow the  American back to New Mexico.  Her father paid for the Greyhound Bus ticket and she had $80 to cover meals for the three day trip.  However, in St. Louis something happened. 

I don’t want to spoil the story, so this is all I will tell you.  

This is a truly Canadian story.  In fact, Ms. O’Neill throws in some Canadian Steriotypes into her story telling.  I liked Ms. O’Neill’s writing style however, I am finding the devise of making fun of Americans using Canadian Stereotypes a bit old.  Because of this, I wasn’t too crazy about the overall plot and the ending was lame.

That said, I would like to read more by Heather O’Neill.  She does show great writing potential.  You can read Riff-Raff here.

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The Book Mine Set

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