Essay Questions

Explore the idea of emotional distress as brought out in this anthology.

Emotional distress is intricately built in most of the stories that make this anthology. For instance, in the title story, we meet Olivia who is at crossroads as to how to tell her husband that she is pregnant with a child they had not planned on having. In this regard, she is in quite an emotional anguish and the impromptu dinner party hosted by the couple only makes the emotional gap between the two all the more pronounced. In “Lemonade,” the protagonist suffers emotionally following her mother’s intoxication and self-destructive behavior. In “Sometime Later Not Now” we meet an unnamed man who is languishing in his love for a woman she had fallen for during his childhood. The feelings he has for her cause him to have some sought of emotional distress. Emotional distress is thus a well-exploited concept in the anthology.

How is the issue of alcohol abuse introduced in the work?

“Lemonade” is a short story in which the concept of alcohol abuse and the effects that follow on families as well as individuals. As in all families in which the parents are drug abusers and indulge in self-destructive behavior, the characters in this story suffer from the dysfunctional family union following the intoxication of the mother. The story follows and revolves around the young protagonist who despite being aged only eight years has to endure his mother’s physical as well as emotional and mental breakdowns. The situation becomes even more complicated following his mother’s love for alcohol. The story thus becomes a major way in which Timothy Findley explores the idea of alcohol and drug abuse as well as the problems that come with it.

How are love and fascination brought out in this compendium of short stories?

The line between love and obsession exhibited by the unnamed protagonist of the short story, “Sometime Later Not Now” in this anthology by Timothy Findley is quite thin such that it is almost blurred. Even so, having fallen in love with the woman at a young age, an argument on this being nothing short of true love is justifiable. In this story, the protagonist reports his sad and desolate story of the love he had and still has for a woman he had met as a child. Seeing as the love is still unwavering, stronger even, almost like an obsession Findley demonstrates the notion of love.