We’re Not Rich by Sue Murtagh

Reviewed by Naomi MacKinnon

As many of my favourite story collections do, We’re Not Rich examines the lives of ordinary people grappling with the stuff life throws at us: illness, aging, loss, and relationship troubles. Murtagh adds in some timely topics as well, like the housing crisis and the Hammonds Plains forest fires. Relatable characters, astute observations, and the use of humour make We’re Not Rich hard to put down. I was always looking forward to the next story.

A married couple in Extermination, argue about money: “From the moment her eyes opened much too early, due to their inadequate black-out drapes, it was “internet bundle” this and “grocery budget” that coming out of her husband’s mouth. Then he yammered about the price of the winter coat and boots she’d bought on sale.”

In The Waiting Room, a physician on sick leave doesn’t want to go back to work. She feels like a failure and fears more of it. “Being single again is failure. Never having children and now it’s too late. Failure. No furniture in your new condo. No drapes in your new living room. Scruffy, unmatched towels. Shame on you. Burnout equals failure. Leaving medicine, or even taking a break, slowing down, is failure. Staying, but being less than perfect, less than, is failure.”

A couple in Plan for a Snowblower have been scrupulously checking for abnormalities on the woman’s skin since her first melanoma. They’ve found another worrisome spot. “The skin on Christine’s ass was supposed to be his responsibility. She had entrusted it to him for safekeeping.”

And is this the Christine who the sisters are reminiscing about in Is This My Christine? Many of the characters in We’re Not Rich appear in more than one story, usually in a different role, allowing the reader to see them from more than one perspective.

In Patches, a single mother of two is attempting to get back into the dating world. She’s stood up by her date, drinks too much, and bumps into a co-worker. “Perhaps other sites attract better humans, but the men she has met in exchange for $43.99 a month are like yard sale jigsaw puzzles. Always a few critical pieces missing, but no way for you to know that until you try to make the whole picture and end up with gaping holes.”

In Rescuing Spiderman—possibly my favourite story in the book—a woman is coping with loss and grief. The experts say going back to the pool should help, but, at the very least, it will not hurt. So here she is, wearing the new “royal blue speedo with the tummy ruching” bought for the occasion. She gets in. She has a difficult time finding her rhythm and her goggles are too tight. But then she sees the spiderman band-aid floating near the bottom of the pool, its “red masked face stares up… fixating with his blank white eyes.” The next time she swims over it, it has flipped. The band-aid is starting to stress her out. Should she keep going, or should she stop and deal with the band-aid? She chooses to interact with the lifeguards who she deems useless and their uselessness sets her off into a fit of anger; she throws the net and all the pool noodles into the deep end. Women her age “are invisible until they make trouble.”

The details Murtagh includes in her stories are what make them special. A woman’s foundation “melts on her cheeks even as she sponges it on,” because the bathroom fan is not working. “The thin fabric” of a man’s “ivory short-sleeved dress shirt was faintly yellow under his arms, coordinating with his stained incisors.” On the golf course, “windless air allows mosquitoes to form a ruthless flying corps that attacks in endless waves. People smart enough to have bug spray in their golf bags discover it makes an oily mess when mixed with sunscreen.” And we can picture the woman in Rescuing Spiderman so perfectly in her newly bought “royal blue speedo with the tummy ruching.” I think I might even own that suit.

Don’t miss this spectacular collection of short stories from debut author, Sue Murtagh.

"Sue Murtagh's debut short story collection, We're Not Rich, is sensitive and brilliant.” —Danila Botha, author of Things that Cause Inappropriate Happiness and For All the Men (and Some of the Women) I've Known

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About the Author

Sue Murtagh lives in Halifax. Her writing has appeared in The Walrus, The Nashwaak Review, Grain, carte blanche, the Humber Literary Review, and The New Quarterly.

About the Reviewer

Naomi MacKinnon lives in Nova Scotia with her husband, three kids, a dog, three cats, and a bunny. She works in the children's department at the beautiful Truro Public Library where she loves to read all the picture books and play with the puppets. She blogs about (mostly) Canadian and Atlantic Canadian books at Consumed by Ink.

Book Details

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Vagrant Press (Oct. 8 2024)

• Language ‏ : ‎ English

• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 232 pages

• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1774713403

• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1774713402