I found Adele Wiseman’s story of her childhood very interesting and enlightening. Well worth reading. The point of view of a not-privileged child struggling through school is not often given a voice.

A few of the other essays are more topical, current-events productions, and could use annotation or introduction to provide context. The essay on her trip to China in 1981 when such trips were still a propaganda tool for the still-Maoist, hard-line government to tout China’s “Foreign Friends”, is both superficial and heartbreaking.

“Lucky Mom”, her mother’s end-of-life story, is an important and valuable testimony. With the first essay, it brackets beginning and end of life. It’s followed by a story about the frustrations of owning a home and dealing with bureaucracy while plagued by anonymous and malicious neighbours reporting imaginary or trivial bylaw violations. To her credit, she doesn’t blame racism or antisemitism; perhaps because her malicious neighbours, unlike ours in the same city in 1979, didn’t make an obvious statement by adorning the porch with neo-Nazi literature and excrement.

The book has a good index, always a plus in a wide-ranging collection of essays. ( )