Review of Holy Days of Obligation

Holy Days of Obligation

In Holy Days of Obligation author Susan Zettell weaves the past and present together with a skilled hand. Zettell imbues her stories with sensuous commonplace details that illuminate the bonds that hold a family together.


Prairie Fire

More Reviews of this title

Holy Days of Obligation

Moments of gorgeous writing abound in Holy Days of Obligation, and there are just as many bracing moments of realization on the common ground of families and feelings.


Uptown Magazine

Holy Days of Obligation

There are times when Susan Zettell's short story collection reads like lyrics from a Bruce Springsteen ballad. Hard work in a factory town. Too many kids and not enough money. Setbacks and disappointments that can't be explained, only accepted. Holy Days of Obligation has been praised for its sensitive depiction of the complicated and sometimes tragic events of a large Roman Catholic family.


Canadian Press

Holy Days of Obligation

These stories pulsate and resonate with the intimacies and intricacies of family life. Sometimes, as is the case with great art, they touch the reader unexpectedly, reaching toward the deep centre of the human heart.


— Alistair MacLeod

Holy Days of Obligation

The 15 linked stories of Susan Zettell's debut collection read like an intimate memoir, and indeed move with the deep emotional currents of personal memory.... Life events that inspire the hackneyed in art are here crafted almost invariably with a precision that brings primal shocks of recognition. Keen, unsparing observation expressed in palpable, sometimes shimmering prose moves mind and heart on almost every page. Zettell's most striking memory jog is her mastery of scent. There are passages here almost certain to return you to a redolent childhood world where living fully and sensually in the here and now was once as natural as breathing.


The Globe & Mail

Holy Days of Obligation

What a welcome addition to the literature of our country. Susan Zettell has a passion for careful, sensuous detail. Her mature and skilful handling of story convinces us that illusion is truth. She writes about trust and anger and perplexity and need all of the elements that contribute to complex relations within a large extended family. But most of all, she creates her characters with compassion and love. While reading the title story, I held my breath. A wonderful debut.


— Frances Itani

Holy Days of Obligation

In Holy Days of Obligation, Susan Zettell brings memory to instant life with writing that connects to all the senses.


The Dalhousie Review

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