Review of Castles in the Air

Castles in the Air

Reading Mary Hagey's thoroughly enjoyable debut collection of short stories is much like having a long conversation with a good friend over coffee, delving into and sharing the ups and downs of life and the problems we all grapple with daily.

Now based in Ottawa, Hagey grew up in southern Ontario but spent much of her life in Montreal where many of these stories take place.

Most of the main characters in this collection of 11 stories (published by the Winnipeg literary house Signature Editions) are women. They are women we can relate to, who seem real, familiar and above all human.

Hagey's characters also have depth, and it is in the slow unfolding of conversation that the nuances of her characters are revealed in all their rich complexity.

Many are struggling and must work their way through difficulties such as cancer, troubled marriages, unfaithful spouses, losses or secrets involving children long ago given up for adoption.

Often a truth emerges or a secret is unearthed that forces the protagonist to have to come to terms with it. Usually it is the connections the characters forge, the moments of sharing with others that leads them from despair. Sometimes it is the realization that they must, in the end, care for themselves that saves the day.

In Modern Women, a lonely elderly widow connects with a much younger woman after struggling to climb three flights of stairs to deliver a letter mistakenly sent to her apartment.

Her kindness results in an invitation to tea, and soon the young girl unexpectedly and tearfully confides in the woman that she is thinking of leaving her boyfriend. The older woman is reminded of her own youth, when she was forced to give up a child she'd had at the age of 17.

Nothing momentous happens here, but in the conversation, connections are made between two people who once were strangers, and problems and buried secrets surface demanding to be reckoned with.

In A Simple Request, Karen travels to Halifax to meet up with her fastidious and finicky Aunt Pru hoping to convince her to return to Toronto with her to visit with Karen's mother, who has cancer and is dying.

But Pru hasn't spoken to Lily in over a year and also suffers from phobias about travelling. She refuses to go. The unusual and unexpected ending to the story results in Karen realizing that although she is disappointed in her aunt she has indisputable bonds with her and cares about her still.

Tooth and Nail is perhaps the most entertaining and suspenseful of the stories. It revolves around 46-year-old Claire, a caregiver and travel companion to Albert, who is wealthy, elderly and a bit of a womanizer. While in Florida, at the beach, they literally bump into her married dentist, an odd, sinister sort of fellow. He is walking hand in hand with his dental assistant.

The events that unfold once Claire returns to her home in Montreal and pays a visit to her dentist will have readers thinking twice before subjecting themselves to serious root canal work.

Castles in the Air, the title story, explores the relationship between Phil, a timid daydreamer who has lost his job, and his relentlessly critical, money-hungry wife. When his mother's new boyfriend appears on the scene, the entire family is uprooted from its normal way of life. Unlike the other stories this one seems unresolved and less than clear in the end.

Hagey writes in a clear, almost familiar, conversational manner that draws the reader easily into engaging tales that are ultimately well worth the read.


— Cheryl Girard The Winnipeg Free Press

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Castles in the Air

Mary Hagey grew up on a dairy farm in Southern Ontario near Cambridge and Kitchener-Waterloo. A long-time resident of Montreal, she attended Concordia University, majoring in studio art with a minor in creative writing. She has worked as a personal support worker, a housepainter, a clerk in retail books, a copywriter for a mail-order house, an English composition instructor at Concordia and an art instructor at McGill’s summer school for gifted children. She received her M.A. in English in 1994 while employed as a travel companion, a job that allowed her to see the world. Her work has been published PRISM International, Matrix, Grain, The New Quarterly, Room of One’s Own, Descant, and Rhubarb. Her writing has been nominated for the Journey Prize, the National Magazine Award, The Western Magazine Award, and a work of creative non-fiction was short-listed for the CBC Literary Award.

Her first collection of short stories is Castles In The Air (Signature Editions, 2012).

1 - How did your first book change your life? How does your most recent work compare to your previous? How does it feel different?
My recent book, Castles In The Air, is my first book. I’d been living a fairly quiet life and there’s definitely been an increase in events to attend. It’s really gratifying to be able to consider a block of my work finished. I’m a chronic tinkerer so it’s good to have fewer to fiddle with--for now anyway.

2 - How did you come to short fiction first, as opposed to, say, poetry or non-fiction?
I had no intention of writing anything of any kind. I was majoring in studio art but when I took a qualifying course, English Composition, the prof told me I really ought to consider writing, so I signed up for a creative writing course and everyone was writing short fiction and that’s what I fell into. I took a poetry course and enjoyed it, but I was more attracted to stories.

3 - How long does it take to start any particular writing project? Does your writing initially come quickly, or is it a slow process? Do first drafts appear looking close to their final shape, or does your work come out of copious notes?
Very few stories have come easily. I generally start off with very little--a single character, something someone said, a vague idea--and I have to find out what the story is, and then develop and nurture it along, and even then it can turn out that it’s been playing me for a fool. 

4 - Where does a story usually begin for you? Are you an author of short pieces that end up combining into a larger project, or are you working on a “book” from the very beginning?
I generally aim to write stories of about ten to twelve pages because, more and more, literary journals have maximum word stipulations. Unfortunately, once the stories get a life of their own they tend to grow to about double that. I don’t plan a book as such. The possibility of a collection one day is always there.

5 - Are public readings part of or counter to your creative process? Are you the sort of writer who enjoys doing readings?
I consider myself to be a writer of stories, not a stand-up entertainer, but there’s no denying that we live in a time when artists of every ilk are required to do what they do, PLUS become dancing bears. Some writers clearly enjoy stepping into the limelight. So far that’s not me, but I have the slippers and tutu and will do my best.

6 - Do you have any theoretical concerns behind your writing? What kinds of questions are you trying to answer with your work? What do you even think the current questions are?
There’s a saying that goes something like, Be kind. Everyone you meet is carrying a heavy burden. It has ever been thus. Everyone is burdened whether they appear so or not, and I try to address the burden. Literature has always been essentially about the human condition, and a writer simply responds to the view from where he/she is.

7 - What do you see the current role of the writer being in larger culture? Does she/he even have one? What do you think the role of the writer should be?
When I was growing up I was dragged off to church every Sunday and for the most part this was an agonizing way to kill a morning. However, every once in a blue moon the pastor’s sermon was a story that, without being preachy, stirred some part of me and made me aware of the power behind the careful arrangement of words. I think the writer’s role is to take the reader inside the circumstances of others, offer a reader the sense of a larger world and their place in it.

8 - Do you find the process of working with an outside editor difficult or essential (or both)?
The stories I’ve had published in journals had very little, if any, editorial input, so my only real experience with an editor was with my recent book, and it was a positive one. I’d tried to really polish the manuscript before sending it out, and apparently it was comparatively well prepared, still there were a few typos, repeated words, and even some areas that required some clarifying or development. Writers can become blind to their work after a time. It’s normal. I appreciated the comments and feel the changes improved the book. My only difficulty was working with a very real time constraint, because I’d grown accustomed to having none at all.

9 - What is the best piece of advice you’ve heard (not necessarily given to you directly)?
Hmm, can’t think of anything offhand, beyond the basics one is told early on: write what you know, show don’t tell, everything should either remark on character or move the story forward.

10 - How easy has it been for you to move between genres (short story to non-fiction/memoir)?
I’ve published a couple of non-fiction pieces--in Matrix and Descant--and I can’t say I had a problem. I found non-fiction easier in that there weren’t so many options. Not that any writing is easy.

11 - What kind of writing routine do you tend to keep, or do you even have one? How does a typical day (for you) begin?
When I started out writing I still had kids at home and was either working or attending school, and sometimes both, so writing was something I tried to fit in somewhere. But since retiring I tend to write between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. I feel something isn’t quite right when I neglect this aspect of my life--which I do sometimes.

12 - When your writing gets stalled, where do you turn or return for (for lack of a better word) inspiration?
There’s nothing like a good long walk. For me it’s not about seeking inspiration, it’s about opening myself up to alternative ways of looking at whatever problem I’ve encountered. I live by the Rideau River and have easy access to the paths.

13 - What fragrance reminds you of home?
I grew up on a dairy farm: cow manure or fresh-cut hay. 

14 - David W. McFadden once said that books come from books, but are there any other forms that influence your work, whether nature, music, science or visual art?
Nature, music, science, and visual art all enrich my life, but more than anything I’m influenced by what I observe of human interaction. Bus rides around town can set me in motion creatively.

15 - What other writers or writings are important for your work, or simply your life outside your work?
There are a lot of good short story writers--Jhumpa Lahiri, Bernard MacLaverty would be two favourites. The writer for whom I have the most enduring admiration and gratitude would be Flannery O’Connor. The story “Everything That Rises Must Converge” is one I read and reread. I seldom read novels. I do turn to books other than short story collections, mostly in the realm of science. Jared Diamond knows a lot about humans.

16 - What would you like to do that you haven’t yet done?
At sixty-six there’s not a whole lot I haven’t done--of the things I find appealing, and given my limitations. I’m not ever going to master the guitar or even the French language, though I’ve made some attempt at both. A road trip through the States is something I’ve always had a mind to do, writing about the experience. I like stories of early America. Thomas Jefferson--now there was a guy with vision who had a great vocabulary and knew how to build sentences.

17 - If you could pick any other occupation to attempt, what would it be? Or, alternately, what do you think you would have ended up doing had you not been a writer?
I’ve worn a lot of hats. I’ve been a teacher, a personal support worker, a clerk in retail books, a copywriter, a travel companion, a house painter... I cannot imagine having a lifelong career. Even one that is pleasantly challenging. There have been times though when I feel spoiled rotten living as most of us do in Canada, and think that next time ‘round I’ll do the right thing and participate in Third World development.  

18 - What made you write, as opposed to doing something else?
I’ve never regarded writing as an alternative to something else because until recently I’ve always done something else. Writing is an enrichment and allows me to orchestrate a small world, insert some meaning into it and me.

19 - What was the last great book you read? What was the last great film you saw?
The last great story I read was “Victory Lap”, the first story in Tenth Of December by George Saunders. The last pretty damn good book was Second Nature: The Inner Life Of Animals, by Jonathan Balcombe. The last great film I saw was an old one I got from the Ottawa Public Library, Kes, directed by Ken Loach.

20 - What are you currently working on?
I have a second collection of stories more or less complete but there’s polishing to do, and in the process I invariably find areas that aren’t quite right yet. But it’s coming along.


— Rob McLennan

Castles in the Air

Mary Hagey’s collection of short stories, Castles in the Air, exposes the bittersweet complexity of family relationships. With overlapping life preservers drifting beside feathery clouds, the cover gestures toward the power of connection and imagination embodied by the characters in the pages that follow. Some characters exemplify kindness, while others exude contempt. Most float between these extremes. Temperaments notwithstanding, these individuals compel attention.

“Home Remedy,” the initial selection, underscores the author’s fascination with mother-daughter relationships. Breast cancer patient Holly McCarthy reluctantly attends a family reunion. Her oncologist recommends “family support” as part of her therapy. An art historian with “not [so] arty” relatives, Holly exhausts her “stockpile of forbearance” for making small talk. Aiming to curb Holly’s increasing rudeness, her mother announces that Holly is writing a novel: a family pretense long embellished since Holly declared her intention at twelve. A cousin presses for details and Holly declares the “phantom” novel to be “essentially a study of family dynamics.” This could be Hagey’s discreet hint to attentive readers about the focus of her collection. As adults Holly and her mother spar as equals, but Holly remains vulnerable to the “force of her mother’s disapproval,” a dynamic Hagey represents with greater force in “The Long Way Home.” Teenage Olivia is driving her parents home after church. During the ride, Olivia’s mother spews unjust criticism: her daughter is too short, her nose too big, and her breasts too small. Olivia responds by driving faster, with tragic consequences. Hagey’s bleak rendering of family dysfunction has the potential to alienate readers, but she moderates the possibility with her judicious choice of point of view. Olivia is presented in a third-person, limited point of view, so that readers can distance themselves from Olivia’s pain, but also monitor her inner wellbeing.

Reminiscent of Holly McCarthy in “Home Remedy,” two additional protagonists convey their experiences in a second-person point of view. In another conspiratorial nod to attentive readers, writing instructor Ray Hanson (“Lifeline”) explains second person to a student. “You put the reader in the character’s skin … you use you instead of I or a character’s name, or he or she.” Having alerted readers to this more unusual point of view, Hagey follows “Lifeline” with two stories written in second person, a choice that places the reader in the action. In “Girls in the Sunlight,” Nigel’s mortification becomes personal as “you … hear the snickering at the mention of your name.” In “How to Cook a Grouse,” Marjorie’s fear of leaving her husband becomes palpable, as “you say no to that old familiar apprehension.” Hagey cleverly has two somewhat self-centered individuals convey their own stories in first-person narration. A lonely older woman (“Modern Women”) manipulates a younger neighbour to gain her friendship. Miriam, an aspiring journalist, (“Human Interest”) exploits her older neighbour to write a humaninterest story. In “Lifeline,” Patrick Dempsey, a charming Irish rogue, is pointedly self-centred. Dempsey captivates his young daughter Anna Marie’s imagination with tales of fairies. He convinces her that “your imagination can take you anywhere. It’s the ultimate getaway.” Shunning the security of a lifeline, Patrick Dempsey drowns at sea. As a mature art student, angered by criticisms from her art instructor and vulnerable to the advances of her writing instructor, Anna Marie imagines her father’s fairies opening the door for her “getaway” and she flees university. Hagey’s poignant, crafted prose both celebrates and mourns the inspirational yet flawed nature of the lifeline Patrick Dempsey has cast his daughter. In “Castles in the Air,” Phil, unemployed and subject to his wife Vera’s endless derision, fights disillusionment by acquiring a part-time job delivering flyers, a job he values for its opportunities to help people and enjoy the affections of their pets. On a visit to his mother, Phil daydreams of childhood summers spent playing in their willow tree. Vera reprimands Phil for daydreaming and ridicules his plans for new employment: an animal bed and breakfast. For Vera, Phil’s dreams are “castles in the air.” For Phil, they are “small gestures” that keep him from “losing his mind.”

Hagey’s strength as a writer extends beyond piercing insights into family dynamics. Amid dark content, delicate details weave the stories together, inviting richer understandings through astute observations. In “Human Interest,” eighty-seven-year-old Gertie Bond is “known throughout the neighbourhood both affectionately and disparagingly as the pigeon lady.” Her best friend, a pigeon she named Ralph, spends his day on her windowsill. Gertie believes pigeons are like humans. “There are bossy ones, timid ones, sneaky ones, and cock-of-the-walk types…and then there’s Ralph, dependable, steadfast and true.” Gertie’s attentiveness to pigeon behaviour reflects the imperfections of human behaviour. Ralph, in turn, signals the more sensitive characters’ kinship with these feathery, airborne creatures. Echoing Gertie’s affection for Ralph, Phil talks to the sparrow outside his window. He watches the sparrow take flight and, when opportunity presents, takes flight into his imagination. Although his callous wife appears to triumph, it is Phil’s inherent humanity and enduring imagination that will inspire readers, testament to the power of Hagey’s writing. As Holly McCarthy concludes, after a day spent with relatives, “like most people, you dread your family, even under the best of circumstances,” and family relationships are indeed a “tainted elixir.”


— Dalyce Joslin The Malahat Review

Castles in the Air

Ottawa-based writer Mary Hagey has lived an interesting life, having worked as a personal support worker, art instructor, housepainter and English composition instructor at Concordia University. This rich body of experience is evident in her debut book Castles in the Air, a collection of short stories published by Signature Editions that contains a wide range of characters and settings.

Despite being her first published book, however, Hagey is quick to point out that she has been writing for decades. “I’m not the late bloomer I might seem to be,” she tells Apartment613.  “My first story was published in 1983 in Prism International while I was an undergraduate studying mainly studio art, and I’ve had fiction and non-fiction published in literary journals over the years.”

She also has been nominated for different prizes, including being short-listed for the CBC Literary Award, as well as receiving a Masters in English Literature from Concordia.  This strong writing background explains the quality in Castles in the Air, which is a solid book filled with an interesting – and at times highly moving – set of stories.

There is the personal caregiver who accidentally discovers that her dentist is an adulterer, and then is made to suffer for this discovery when she goes to get her teeth checked. Another tale recounts how an elderly lady and young woman, who are neighbours, share an unexpected private moment.  Other stories outline the pain and confusion of marital strife, while one of the most touching (and painful) account’s describes the tragic result of an attempt by two estranged sisters to reconcile.
Amidst this wide range of characters is the repeated theme of intergenerational dialogue.  Whether it’s a mature student at university, or a daughter interacting with her parents, on several occasions we see different generations attempt to interact with each other with various levels of success.

“It’s interesting that you perceive an inter-generational element to the stories,” says Hagey, who grew up on an Ontario dairy farm near Kitchener-Waterloo and Cambridge. “Other people have pointed out that mother/daughter relationships seem prevalent as well. In fact, I wrote the stories as they came to me rather than setting out to write any particular type of story. I suppose, given that I grew up in a rural community, it’s natural that the focus isn’t on any one age group, because the generations mingle far more in the country than is usual in urban communities I think.”

In addition to blending different generations together, some of the stories use an interesting technique, namely, referring to the protagonist as “you”.  At first this was confusing, but with time this style became intriguing. By referring to a central character with “you”, the reader can feel as if the narrator is directly addressing them, and that they are somehow in the story.  This made several of the tales more intimate than they may otherwise have been.

Hagey’s writing also echoes her approach to making art. “I paint sporadically and pretty much for my own pleasure, but when I do, my approach is not unlike my writing in that I start with very little other than vague notions, then I investigate the possibilities until something starts to take shape,” says Hagey, who majored in studio art, with a minor in creative writing, at Concordia University.

Looking forward, Hagey says she continues to develop her material, so another collection of short stories could come out in the future. “But the polishing process can take time,” she confesses, “especially for a chronic tinkerer.”


— Alejandro Bustos Apartment613

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