A collection of short stories written by Jude Klassen
Toxic Shock: A Darkly Funny Family Saga
Dive into ‘Toxic Shock and Other Family Gatherings’—A journey through hoser culture and West Coast Canadian family dynamics
Explore ten darkly funny stories that delve into hoser culture, coming of age in gravel pits, and parenting in the Sixth Extinction. Follow Kerry Wiebe across decades and landscapes as she navigates family, identity, and a world on the brink in this new book by Jude Klassen.
Praise for Toxic Shock and Other Family Gatherings
“The linked stories… are never less than incisive, bittersweet, funny and, best of all, feel true to life. […] this brilliant book is a tragicomic family saga… beautifully funny-poignant, but never less than penetrating and entertaining.”
John Doyle
Bestselling author and former Globe and Mail columnist
“Jude Klassen writes with trenchant humour and pained-love about family tensions… […] with a thought-filled-light-hearted spirit…”
Ewan Whyte
Former Globe and Mail book reviewer and author of Shifting Paradigms: Essays on Art and Culture
“Ms. Klassen’s stories of multiple generations, some living hardscrabble lives holding tenuous secrets, are compelling for their imagery and stark revelatory humour.”
David Sherman
Author and playwright
“Jude Klassen has the uncanny ability to make you laugh and feel desperate at the same time. Her raw talent to tap into the insanity and love within all families is there on every single page.”
Kathleen Goldhar
Award-winning producer/host Do you Know Mordechai? CBC’s Crime Story
“Beautifully observed, Klassen’s stunning prose lands us in the middle of Kerry’s most vulnerable moments…”
Carmen Aguirre
Winner of Canada Reads and international bestselling author of Something Fierce: Memoirs of a Revolutionary Daughter
“The heartfelt, gritty ingenuity of her films easily transmits to the printed page.”
C.E. Hoffman
Award winning author of Losers and Freaks
Available on Amazon
$14.99 CAD 🇨🇦
Toxic Shock spans the country, three decades, and multiple incarnations of common protagonist, Kerry Wiebe. In the tragically funny “Big-Snouted Dog” Kerry is both terrified and flattered as she is crudely singled-out as the Crotch of the Day by a slathering older teen at a basement NYE party. In the poignant “The Not-So-Secret Secret Life of Angus McFee” Kerry discovers her ex-boyfriend has fathered a secret baby. “Pride of Alaska” takes Kerry into the belly of a low-rent ocean liner as apprentice to the popular girls while they fend off the middle-aged crew on their field trip to visit the fish factories of the northwest.
Raised in the wilds of BC by a practicing Catholic mother and an ex Mennonite father, Kerry is the baby, and lone lefty, in a large, messy family. From her redneck beginnings in the lush, claustrophobic Fraser Valley (“Valley of the Dulls”) to the smog, gridlock and glamour of Toronto, Kerry continues her struggle to evolve in a world bent on self destruction.
Publication information
- Print Length: 114 pages.
- Language: English.
- Publication Date: Aug. 17 2024.
- Dimensions: 12.7 x 0.66 x 20.32 cm.
- ISBN: 101068840706
- Kindle Edition: Available (106 pages, 2145 KB)
About the Author
Jude Klassen is an author, screenwriter, and filmmaker known for her urban feature films, Stupid For You (2021) and Love in the Sixth (2015) that combine comedy, music, family and living in the Sixth Extinction. Her short fiction has been published in the late great The Canadian Forum (Uncle Piotr), it has been short-listed for the Writers Union of Canada competition (The Not-So-Secret, Secret Life of Angus McFee), and this collection was awarded a Canada Council literary grant. Western Alienation was shortlisted for both the Toronto Life Summer Fiction issue (the final one), and This Magazine’s Great Canadian Literary Hunt. Food-combining was published in The Vancouver Courier. Jude is a member of the WGC, SOCAN, and is repped by The Jennifer Hollyer Agency Inc. for film and TV. She lives with her son in Toronto, Canada.
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