THIS IS A LOVE CRIME
Lee Kvern • $0.99
Collected in FPQ Fall 2011
Marta is a human resources employee at a grocery store chain. She moves through life passively, always taking the path of least resistance. That is, until one day at work, when she is confronted by an ethical dilemma: A hijab-wearing woman. A strict no-hats policy. And then a cultural opportunity: a seminar on the Sunshine Coast, “Ethnicity and Religion in the World Workplace.” With brutal frankness and keen insight, This Is a Love Crime explores the nature of oppression in its many forms, be it cultural, religious, or domestic, while bringing to life vivid characters that will linger like the scent of cigarette smoke long after the story is over.
Collected in FPQ Fall 2011
Marta is a human resources employee at a grocery store chain. She moves through life passively, always taking the path of least resistance. That is, until one day at work, when she is confronted by an ethical dilemma: A hijab-wearing woman. A strict no-hats policy. And then a cultural opportunity: a seminar on the Sunshine Coast, “Ethnicity and Religion in the World Workplace.” With brutal frankness and keen insight, This Is a Love Crime explores the nature of oppression in its many forms, be it cultural, religious, or domestic, while bringing to life vivid characters that will linger like the scent of cigarette smoke long after the story is over.
Praise for This Is a Love Crime
“This Is a Love Crime by Lee Kvern is a cunning and intensely human look at one of the central issues of our time. It negotiates the space between belief, racism, liberty, and sexuality with curiosity and compassion.”
— Todd Babiak, bestselling author of Toby: A Man and The Garneau Block
“Lee Kvern paints with a scalpel. With characteristic unflinching honesty, she peels the relationship between Marta and Corbin back to quivering nerves in This Is a Love Crime and juxtaposes it against veiled assumptions about cultural oppression. The narrative leaps crackle with energy and empathy. When I read Kvern’s stories, I’m seduced by exquisite detail and—love or loathe them—left with the scent of her characters long after the last page.”
— Betty Jane Hegerat, author of Delivery and The Boy
“In This Is a Love Crime, Lee Kvern uses the intricately drawn characters of Corbin and Marta to explore the charged topics of ethnicity and Western modes of submission and control. Written in Kvern’s distinctive, poetic, and multi-layered style, the story leaves us with warm insight into all the characters—and challenges our hearts and preconceptions.”
— Barb Howard, author of Whipstock, Notes for Monday, and The Dewpoint Show
“This Is a Love Crime by Lee Kvern is a cunning and intensely human look at one of the central issues of our time. It negotiates the space between belief, racism, liberty, and sexuality with curiosity and compassion.”
— Todd Babiak, bestselling author of Toby: A Man and The Garneau Block
“Lee Kvern paints with a scalpel. With characteristic unflinching honesty, she peels the relationship between Marta and Corbin back to quivering nerves in This Is a Love Crime and juxtaposes it against veiled assumptions about cultural oppression. The narrative leaps crackle with energy and empathy. When I read Kvern’s stories, I’m seduced by exquisite detail and—love or loathe them—left with the scent of her characters long after the last page.”
— Betty Jane Hegerat, author of Delivery and The Boy
“In This Is a Love Crime, Lee Kvern uses the intricately drawn characters of Corbin and Marta to explore the charged topics of ethnicity and Western modes of submission and control. Written in Kvern’s distinctive, poetic, and multi-layered style, the story leaves us with warm insight into all the characters—and challenges our hearts and preconceptions.”
— Barb Howard, author of Whipstock, Notes for Monday, and The Dewpoint Show
Preview
THE NEXT WEEK AT work Marta fields calls from the Abbotsford store in the form of across-the-board pissed-off employees. How come she gets to wear a hat??
“It’s not a hat,” Marta explains. “It’s a hijab. It’s a religious thing.”
Then the onslaught of outraged customers, mostly women, Westerners, who think that the girl is culturally (!) morally (!) and, more to the point, patriarchally (!) oppressed. In contrast to the Western patriarchy of Save-On men who don’t seem to care as long as the Islamic girl rings through their Hungry-Man frozen entrees and two-litre bottles of Pepsi properly.
To the women, Marta responds, “No, it’s the exact opposite. The girl is liberated. She is not a sex object. She is free.”
The women reply: “What about the men, shouldn’t the same rules apply to them?”
“The men are required to avert their eyes,” Marta explains.
Big deal, the women say. Big flipping deal.
Marta sighs on the other end of the receiver.
After she hangs up the phone, all she hears in her workplace mind is: Is. Not. Free.
The Save-On world is a repressed nightmare on all sides.
She opens her e-mail, sees an upcoming seminar on the Sunshine Coast: “Ethnicity and Religion in the World Workplace.” How appropriate. She could use a weekend away.
THE NEXT WEEK AT work Marta fields calls from the Abbotsford store in the form of across-the-board pissed-off employees. How come she gets to wear a hat??
“It’s not a hat,” Marta explains. “It’s a hijab. It’s a religious thing.”
Then the onslaught of outraged customers, mostly women, Westerners, who think that the girl is culturally (!) morally (!) and, more to the point, patriarchally (!) oppressed. In contrast to the Western patriarchy of Save-On men who don’t seem to care as long as the Islamic girl rings through their Hungry-Man frozen entrees and two-litre bottles of Pepsi properly.
To the women, Marta responds, “No, it’s the exact opposite. The girl is liberated. She is not a sex object. She is free.”
The women reply: “What about the men, shouldn’t the same rules apply to them?”
“The men are required to avert their eyes,” Marta explains.
Big deal, the women say. Big flipping deal.
Marta sighs on the other end of the receiver.
After she hangs up the phone, all she hears in her workplace mind is: Is. Not. Free.
The Save-On world is a repressed nightmare on all sides.
She opens her e-mail, sees an upcoming seminar on the Sunshine Coast: “Ethnicity and Religion in the World Workplace.” How appropriate. She could use a weekend away.
Collected in
FPQ 2011
The Complete Collection
Featuring stories by Caroline Adderson, Meghan Rose Allen, Jack Bootle, Julie Dupuis, Cynthia Flood, Andrew Forbes, Danny Goodman, Pauline Holdstock, Lee Kvern, Kirsty Logan, Dave Margoshes, Don McLellan, Maria Meindl, Grace O'Connell, Richard Rosenbaum, and Lana Storey.
Click on cover for more info
FPQ 2011
The Complete
Collection
$12.99
The Complete Collection
Featuring stories by Caroline Adderson, Meghan Rose Allen, Jack Bootle, Julie Dupuis, Cynthia Flood, Andrew Forbes, Danny Goodman, Pauline Holdstock, Lee Kvern, Kirsty Logan, Dave Margoshes, Don McLellan, Maria Meindl, Grace O'Connell, Richard Rosenbaum, and Lana Storey.
Click on cover for more info
FPQ 2011
The Complete
Collection
$12.99
You Can't Go Home Again
Featuring Mike Mike Mike Mike by Grace O'Connell, The Expansiveness of My Sound by Andrew Forbes, This Is a Love Crime by Lee Kvern, and What Endures by Pauline Holdstock.
Click on cover for more info
FPQ Fall 2011
You Can't Go
Home Again
$3.75
Featuring Mike Mike Mike Mike by Grace O'Connell, The Expansiveness of My Sound by Andrew Forbes, This Is a Love Crime by Lee Kvern, and What Endures by Pauline Holdstock.
Click on cover for more info
FPQ Fall 2011
You Can't Go
Home Again
$3.75
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