Four delightful essays in Elena Ferrante’s ‘In the Margins’ and Toni Morrison’s powerful short story ‘Recitatif’

“In the Margins,” by Elena Ferrante (Europa Editions) Subtitled “On the Pleasures of Reading and Writing,” this very small book — just around 100 pages, with uncrowded type — contains four delightful essays. Three were written as part of the Eco Lectures (after the Italian writer Umberto), traditionally open to all of the city of Bologna, meant to be given live before the pandemic hit (performed by actress Manuela Mandracchia, in light of Ferrante’s famously guarded anonymity); the fourth was for a festival about Dante. Ferrante explores, among other writerly concerns, the tension between the thought vision in a writer’s head and getting it on paper; studying male writers and struggling to write as her own person; and the act of telling the story of women’s lives at the heart of her Neapolitan Novels.

“The Last Good Funeral of the Year,” by Ed O’Loughlin (House of Anansi) Irish-Canadian writer O’Loughlin (born in Toronto, raised in Ireland, now lives in Dublin), whose 2016 novel “Minds of Winter” was a Giller Prize finalist, returns with a memoir. A series of meditations on grief and aging and life, divided into months — February to September — the book starts with the death of an old friend. Immediately O’Loughlin reminds us of how slippery time and our memories can be and how quickly stories can disappear.

“Rafael Has Pretty Eyes,” by Elaine McCluskey (Goose Lane) The 17 short stories in veteran writer McCluskey’s latest book (others include “The Most Heartless Town in Canada” and “Valery the Great”) are set in the Maritimes. The characters are wide-ranging — a former prize fighter, cops whose power goes to their head, a pink-haired hairstylist sitting crying on the curb — characters who struggle, working class people, people on the margins and who have fallen through the cracks. McCluskey has an eye for detail and a turn of phrase, and seems to delight in leading the reader through twists and turns to conclusions they didn’t see coming.

“Recitatif,” by Toni Morrison (Random House Canada) Morrison, who died in 2019, wrote 11 novels and three essay collections, but only one short story. It features a Black girl and a white girl, Twyla and Roberta, but it is never revealed which girl is of which race. While this powerful story has been anthologized before, this slim volume marks the first time it’s been published as a stand-alone. What adds to its interest and value is that it begins with a lengthy introduction by Zadie Smith, who guides us through a brilliant interrogation of the story, how we read it, how it makes us see ourselves and each other, why it makes us feel the way we do.