Telling Tales

Ten women spanning three generations gather for a pre-wedding dinner at a Chinese restaurant; an eight-course meal rife with deathly cynical banter (or is it perhaps genuinely well-intentioned sisterly advice?); divorces, disappointments, marital strife-an all-female cast version of Munro's Labor Day Dinner, anyone? Or, place a large family in one room in a story and one almost can't help but think of the titillating slow terror leading up to Gabriel's speech in Joyce's The Dead. But if you embark on Clara Ng's chapbook expecting realist family drama, her collection may just surprise you.