Book Launch: Deborah Schnitzer's an unexpected break in the weather

WINNIPEG-Rare indeed it is to find a novel as poetic as an unexpected break in the weather, but that is exactly the case with Deborah Schnitzer's new work of fiction from Turnstone Press.

Manitoba's oldest literary press is pleased to announce the launch of this extraordinary novel in an extraordinary way. Celebrations will be held Friday, October 23 at 7 p.m. at the Costume Museum of Canada, 109 Pacific Avenue in Winnipeg. The reading itself will commence at 7:30, but guests are encouraged to come early to take part in book-themed activities.

After fifty years together, Gertrude and Mildred are facing some serious life changes. The bridal dress shop they own, A Rose on Corydon, has been a meeting place for their small community of friends and customers, with whom they have long shared joys and sorrows, worries and triumphs. Unexpectedly, a series of events threaten the foundation of the life they have made together and test their relationship in new ways.

"Once I read an article on dying," said Schnitzer. "A line absorbed me. The writer noted that hope was not contingent on cure." While at first baffled by this, Schnitzer said she then felt reassured. "There is no cure for love and there is no cure for dying: there are, however, those who are resourceful enough to embrace the actual conditions of their daily lives, wise enough to care - and that process includes the unexpected in all its manifestations, both concrete and intangible."

A focal event in the novel is the wedding of Gertrude and Mildred's friend Perfume, who is about to walk the aisle for the fourth time. Gertrude sees an opportunity in her impending nuptials to make use of A Rose's complete inventory of fancy gowns, selling the entire stock to both female and male guests alike. Therefore, book launch guests are likewise being invited to attend wearing their finest gowns.

Educator, activist, editor, and writer, Deborah Schnitzer is the author of the novel, Gertrude
Unmanageable, the long poem Loving Gertrude Stein, as well as scholarly works and critical anthologies equally devoted to the unexpected. In May, 2009, she was selected as one of the Costume Museum of Canada's Women of Style, a distinction awarded to five local women who exemplify intelligence, success, and style.