Toxic Shock and Other Family Gatherings

<p>Ten darkly funny stories that explore hoser culture coming of age in gravel pits and parenting in the Sixth Extinction from author and filmmaker Jude Klassen.</p><p>The stories of Toxic Shock and Other Family Gatherings</em> span the country three decades and multiple incarnations of their common protagonist Kerry Wiebe. In the tragically funny Big-Snouted Dog Kerry is terrified and flattered as she is crudely singled out as the Crotch of the Day by an older teen at a basement NYE party. In the poignant The Not-So-Secret Secret Life of Angus McFee Kerry discovers her ex-boyfriend has fathered a secret baby when the infant is thrust into her arms by the triumphant mother. Pride of Alaska takes Kerry into the belly of a low-rent ocean liner as an apprentice to the popular girls while they fend off the middle-aged crew on their field trip to visit the fish factories of the northwest.</p><p>Raised in the wilds of BC by a practicing Catholic mother and an ex-Mennonite father Kerry is the baby and lone left-leaner in a large messy family. From her redneck beginnings in the lush claustrophobic Fraser Valley to the smog gridlock and glamour of Toronto Kerry continues her struggle to evolve in a world bent on self-destruction.</p>