Open

Open (2002), a collection of ten short stories by Canadian author Lisa Moore, explores themes of love and loss, coming together and falling apart, joy and suffering, and the power of memory to both nourish and haunt. The stories take place mainly in St. John's, Newfoundland, but Moore evokes such a particular sense of place that The Rock ends up being far more than just a setting; it is almost an additional character in each of the stories. Open was a finalist for the Giller Prize.

The opening story, "Melody," is about the interconnectedness of seemingly random events and the ways the past can subtly impact the present. In the first part of the narrative, the narrator and her friend, Melody, are both college students. Melody becomes pregnant, and the two girls go on a long road trip to a clinic, where Melody has an abortion. Melody then moves forward with her life. In the second part of the tale, the narrator has a searing toothache. She goes to a dentist who extracts the afflicted tooth. Desperate for some semblance of safety and security in her life, she ultimately marries the dentist. Looking back on the first part of the story, the narrator wonders what happened to the adventurous girl she once was, a stranger to her now, a young woman bold enough to make a difficult journey to help out a friend. How had she arrived at this point, so in need of protection and reassurance?

"Mouths, Open" follows a Newfoundlander couple on vacation in Cuba. With their marriage unraveling and the husband about to leave the wife, the wife carefully observes a group of transgender guests from Italy as they frolic in the hotel pool. Also figuring into the story is a sex worker who routinely travels from St. John's to Halifax for work. These details bleed into the internal monologue of the wife-narrator until everything both inside and outside of her becomes an object for her longing.



"Natural Parents" finds Lyle and his 11-year-old daughter spending a day together in Conception Bay. At first, the two devote the bulk of their time to reading, even at meals. But when a neighbor boy visits, the father reflects on his life, his relationship with girlfriend, Rachel, and the advancing womanhood of his daughter.

"Close Your Eyes" is the story of another marriage in transition. At the urging of her husband, Maureen contemplates an open relationship. She sees it not as the means to freedom as her husband does but as yet another way to put more distance between the two of them—when that is the polar opposite of what either of them supposedly wants to see happen.

In "Azalea," Sara tries to decide whether she should go with her husband to his new job in Montreal. She finds comfort in the little things that matter to her mother-in-law, Bethany, one of which is a trip to the local farmer's market. At the market, Sara meets James, an older man who awakens a sensuous response in her, something long lain dormant, and she realizes that James better reflects her current values than her husband does. Still, she cannot make a decision about going or staying, which only compounds her inaction and isolation.



The final story in the collection, "Grace," centers on Eleanor, a writer facing a crossroads in her life. She considers starting an affair with Glenn, a man she meets at a party. She tells him a story about a past trip to India, where she went to see the Taj Mahal and was asked to appear as an extra in a Bollywood movie. Though this information piques Glenn's interest, Eleanor realizes he is a man firmly rooted in Newfoundland, with a strong connection to the land and little desire to see the rest of the world. He could never appreciate a place like India as she does. Meanwhile, Eleanor's husband, Philip, writes a book about globalization while carrying on an affair with another woman. Nevertheless, in the end, Philip appears to want to remain married, and he implores Eleanor to stay, forcing her to make a decision that will alter the course of both of their lives.

The other stories in this volume are "The Way the Light Is," "Craving," "If You're There," and "The Stylist."

In each of these tales, Moore's characters are in a state of flux. They grapple with difficult emotions and powerful choices. They are on precipices to new lives, gingerly stepping their toes over the boundaries to see where the future will take them. Yet through all their struggles, they are ordinary people. Their lives are not epic or particularly heroic by any measure, but they are always—thrillingly, messily, and reassuringly—human.