Going to the Zoo

Laura Lush's poignant collection of short stories offers a subversive and playful look at women as they try to regain control and power in the oftentimes sexually charged arena of female/male relationships. Lush has carefully laid out the order of stories so that they follow a natural age progression, beginning with stories that are told from a child's or adolescent's perspective (or an adult looking back on a childhood memory) to stories that are told from an adult's perspective. In this way, the stories also progress from a small town or rural landscape to a more sophisticated urban and/or foreign landscape.

The collection begins with children contending with the challenges of growing up and their complex, evolving relationships with each other, their peers and the adults around them. As they move into adulthood the relationships become ever more complex in spite of a growing sense of isolation and loneliness. The colourful cast of women that people Lush's stories are at once brazen yet incredibly thoughtful and sensitive. And through them, a strong and bold voice in Canadian literature avows itself.