Prairie Books Now review: Leslie Greentree returns with well-crafted takes on politics, abortion, loneliness, and disaster

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Leslie was delighted to be featured in this interview and book review in the Winter 2022 edition of Prairie Books Now.

“As her writing career progresses, Greentree finds herself taking some narrative and artistic risks. ‘The longer I write, the freer I feel to be playful in my writing,’ she says. ‘In this collection, that might come across in terms of the addition of Gothic elements to some of the stories, or the satirical bent to others, but also in terms of my willingness to take on more overtly political topics.’

“And the span of topics in the stories collected in Not the Apocalypse I Was Hoping For is impressive … (The) fallible, often difficult characters are perhaps the most standout element of the collection as a whole.”

Read the full review here.

 

Stellar stories haunted by death: Winnipeg Free Press

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The October 22, 2022 edition of the Winnipeg Free Press has this to say about Not the Apocalypse I Was Hoping For:

“Alberta writer Leslie Greentree won an award for her first collection of short stories. Considering the excellence of this second collection, that’s no surprise … It is a world haunted by death, and the resonances from the dead gripping the living.

“Most people in the middle-class society she depicts are now in the grip of social media, the cellphone as master of their lives — their reality mediated by being seen on a screen, indeed created for the screen. Take the powerful title story, Not the apocalypse I was hoping for. Its protagonist charts, via social media, his activity as he goes through a fire engulfing a city. He wants to be seen as a hero, but his arrogance matches his recklessness. His main concern is how he is viewed by those watching in real time, and he doesn’t come off well in the end to his equally unlikable “subscribers.” He does free a dog, who promptly deserts him, leaving him alone to wander back to the relentless fire and his angry, disappointed self.

“Even stronger in showing social media’s creepy dominance is Mystery barista. Told expertly in the second person, which is often tried with less success by many writers, the story tells of a barista who notices she has become the obsession of a patron. He tweets his version of her life at work, this mystery barista, as followers grow online. Rather than being upset by such obvious creepy behaviour, she quietly embraces it, and starts to control it through changes of behaviour. Who controls whom? Does it matter? What counts is the following on social media. If the story is not about death, it at least postulates a death of personality.

“The dead haunting the living is rivetingly seen in the collection’s best story, The room of pickled foods. 

“This collection reveals an already major writer in command of her craft.”

You can read the full review here by creating a free account with the Winnipeg Free Press.

 

The Ottawa Citizen: Leslie Greentree has many talents

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The Ottawa Citizen and Edmonton Journal both recently featured this short review of Not the Apocalypse I Was Hoping For:

“Poet, actor, playwright, fine-art photographer – Leslie Greentree has many talents. Imbued with droll wit, the 14 full-bodied stories in this collection benefit from her experience as an artist and observer of human nature.

“All the world’s a stage for a barista who discovers she’s a customer’s muse on social media. A young boy fools around at a funeral and finds out quickly that funny practical jokes can quickly seem like mean pranks.”

Read the review here.