Abstract

Green Bean Casserole is a collection of short stories that explores the changing dynamics within the modern family. The stories focus mainly on the women, many of whom spend an inordinate amount of energy trying to maintain a strict definition of family, while at the same time making choices that end up redefining and perhaps destroying the very ideals they are trying to save. The stories are set in and around Kansas and Missouri as well as Montreal, and use the influence of place as an important aspect of storytelling. How does home and family affect a woman’s life, even when she decides to move away from both? What happens to the woman who stays? The characters in the stories are related by blood or marriage, separated by distance or differences, but always seem to make it home for Thanksgiving, a holiday where secrets spill onto the perfectly set table, no matter how well we stuff the bird.