The eight stories in this collection are all narrated by Del Jordan, as she grows up in small-town Ontario in the'40s. Encouraged by her mother--who chafes against the limitations of rural life--to use your brains, Del aims to become a writer, and she observes with merciless clarity the life of the town, in particular her family, her friend Naomi, and a girl in town named Marion who becomes pregnant. As she begins to mature, discovers sex, and sees a wider world than the town of Jubilee, Del moves inexorably toward the life inhabited by her creator, Alice Munro, who admits that these stories are in some measure autobiographical. Stories include Princess Ida Age of Faith, and Baptizing.
