Volume II Number 3
November 3, 1995
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The First Time: Volumes I & II.
Edited by Charles Montpetit.
Victoria, B.C.: Orca Book Publishers, 1995. 147Pp / 128pp, paper, $7.95 each.
ISBN 1-55143-937-1 / 1-55143-039-8.
Subject Headings:
Youth-Sexual behavior.
Premarital sex.
Grade 10 and up / Ages 15 and up.
Review by Kathleen L. Kellett-Betsos.
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excerpt:
I hardly need to describe the embarrassment of buying condoms, which,
in the 1950s, were locked away out of sight, so they could be kept from
the people who needed them most. Some kind of law also stated that when
someone wanted to buy them, there would only be a female clerk on duty,
usually an older woman who pretended not to hear and made you repeat your
request while looking at you as if you intended to rape and dismember her....
I guess the manufacturers assumed that the condom, like the lever or
the inclined plane, was self-explanatory. I'm sure the package contained
no instructions. As I recall, the only printing on the back of the
carton read FOR THE PREVENTION OF DISEASE. But even if there had been
instructions, we probably wouldn't have used them, as I pride myself to
this day on never having read the directions accompanying anything.
Although purchasing condoms is much easier today, young readers can no
doubt identify with the adolescent embarrassment of the protagonist in
W.P. Kinsella's story, "The Clothesline Door," taken here from The
First Time, a collection of short stories edited by Charles
Montpetit, winner of the 1989 Governor General's Award for Children's
Literature in French. Following up the success of La Premiere
fois (Quebec/Amerique, 1991), an anthology for adolescents well
received in Quebec, Montpetit here presents original stories in English
by sixteen Canadian authors. The initial chapter, "Precautions," begins
with the timely warning "Wear protection. There. Now that we've got this
out of the way, let's move on to what this book really is about."
And what this book really is about is SEX and love and growing up,
each story being drawn from real life experience, although not
necessarily that of the authors.
The anthology emphasizes diversity of both content and style.
Leanne Franson gives a humorous depiction of the problems of sexual
orientation in her comic strip "Impeccable Taste," while Christopher Paw
explores its more tragic consequences in "The Gunshot," In "Borders,"
Martin Stephens examines the ambivalent feelings of a man who has just
discovered that the man who had abused her as a child is dead. On a more
joyful note, Deirdre Kessler's "Did I or didn't I?" gives a tender but
un-sublime view of lovemaking, particularly in her account of lovers
accommodating their bodies to each other and to the confined space of the
front seat of a car.
Even less glorious is the experience of Mary Blakeslee's protagonist
in "Bump and grind", who feels "Deflowered and deflated" (Volume I),
concluding that it's better to wait for the one true love. My personal
favourite is "Questions and answers" by Budge Wilson, in which a mother
recalls her own sexual awakening while trying to decide how to talk to
her daughter about sex. I was also struck by Lyle Weis's "Nightvision"
which captures the wistfulness of a young artist's memories of the older
woman who had seduced him: "And lately, when I paint a woman, I have to
be careful she doesn't always have Alison's face. Sometimes, I give the
woman sunglasses. Sometimes, I close her eyes." Montpetit concludes with
an invitation to submit stories for a third anthology
I must say that because of the explicit artwork on the covers, I
felt a little uncomfortable reading these volumes on the streetcar and
would imagine that many adolescents would feel the same. Also, I found
Montpetit sometimes tries too hard to be "cool" in his introduction to
each story, although including photos of the authors as adolescents was a
great idea. Finally, aside from the inclusion of one black author, this
anthology doesn't seem to have made a serious attempt to reflect the
ethnic diversity of our country.
Whether The First Time is used in high school English
classes or Family Studies classes, I would recommend these stories as a
good starting point for the discussion of the emotional implications of
sexual awakening: How do we cope with ambivalence about sexual
orientation? When's the right time for the first time? And can your
mother really tell just by looking at your face the morning after?
Recommended.
Kathleen L. Kellett-Betsos is a French Professor at Ryerson
Polytechnic University in Toronto.
Read Charles Montpetit's introduction and get information on how to order The First Time books from Orca Publishers.
Copyright © 1995 the Manitoba Library Association.
Reproduction for personal use is permitted only if this copyright notice is
maintained. Any other reproduction is prohibited without permission.
Published by
The Manitoba Library Association
ISSN 1201-9364
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