Things I Will Tell You When I am Dead

Kathleen Whelan writes with one of the most unique voices in Canadian literature I've ever heard. These stories are surreal and yet they don't fit cleanly into the surrealist genre. These stories are also real without being realist and, at the same time, absurd in the tradition of Kafka and Beckett. They are absurdly real. Perhaps, the best description of Whelan's style is absurd-realism, but the truth is Things I Will Tell You When I'm Dead is so original it defies all genre categories; it surprises and unsettles like a strange, yet somehow beautifully crafted dream.
Jacob Scheier,
Governor General Award winning author of
‘More to Keep us Warm’ (ECW Press, 2007)

Kathleen Whelan’s distinctive voice shines through in Things I Will Tell You When I am Dead, her first book of stories. Readers of Whelan’s work have been waiting for her debut collection, and the waiting is finally over. The appealing directness of Whelan’s prose, her startling images and irreverence—Whelan’s stories both wrench the heart and clench the gut in often hilarious stories that are relayed in a wildly entertaining and startling, moving style that is uniquely Kathleen Whelan’s.
J. Jill Robinson
author of the novel ‘More in Anger’
and four collections of short stories.

Kathleen Whelan lives in her own, strangely slanted world – much like the rest of us. The difference is, she knows how to open the door to her world, even if only a crack, and invite you to peek in. If you’re brave enough, you might actually enter. But don’t enter if you’re looking for some kind of redemption. Do it with an open mind and you’ll encounter a fear that borders on elation and that will tear you open and make you cry, either with sorrow, or with joy, and often with both simultaneously.
Kathleen’s sentences are ragged at the edges, like strips of cloth flapping in the wind, they twine together, then shiver apart, suggesting a chaos that never quite materializes, but also never ceases to threaten the narrative.
I read a lot of these stories years ago and was awestruck and mystified by Kathleen’s way. I didn’t know exactly how she did it, but I wanted more… and she was kind enough to share more with me. Reading these stories again now, I am still mystified. Kathleen reminds me that it is still possible for me to be lost. It’s okay to be lost. Lost is a valid, and often wondrous place to be.
Ken Sparling
is the author of six novels,
has been shortlisted for the Trillium Award.