In the Country is a collection of Wayne Curtis’s unflinching but lovingly told stories of the hardships of rural life for his generation. Despite an abiding love for the natural settings in which he himself grew up, Wayne describes the restrictions facing young people who yearned for a life beyond the farm. Country life, with its tranquility and beauty, its seasonal rhythms and gifts, also held many boys and girls back from achieving their potential. The setting is rural New Brunswick in days gone by but not easily forgotten. It is a fictional world where the harsher realities of the time come sharply into focus. The old man in “The Last Hunt," for example, embodies the dashed dreams and festering frustrations that make this final hunt of his life so charged with emotion. In the title story, a young woman soon realizes the death of her father has put an end to her educational goals as well, for now her duty is to help the family on the farm. Many young country people wanted to mix easily with their more sophisticated contemporaries, but encountered insurmountable obstacles. Feelings of inferiority and embarrassment were often the result among those who lacked the social skills to navigate town relationships. In “The Falconer Spring," Wayne captures the palpable longing, excitement but ultimately limitations two cousins experience on a trip to town. The sister in “Of Fall and Winter Rain" pays the ultimate price for her longing and naivété. The stories assembled here are both tragic and tender, told with Wayne’s evocative, precise prose. | In the Country by Wayne Curtis, Paperback | Indigo Chapters