Not since Alice Munro's The Beggar Maid has there been a book which so articulately reveals the complex
emotional spectrum of children caught in the adult world. The novella and four stories in Lessons in Another
Language give voice to adolescent protagonists who inhabit rich emotional and sensual worlds as they
navigate the wreckage created by the adults meant to be caring for them. In "Daily Life of the Pioneers," two
misguided parents send their children to an austere summer camp designed to mimic the lives of the "pioneer
children [...] your diet will be raw vegetables which are very tasty and very healthy." "'Why?'" asks one of
the children, a question that resonates through Staffel's stories as they present the often-naïve ways we adults
project our lives and anxieties onto our children. Charlotte, newly arrived at a Southern college, wanders into
town and is seduced by a thirty-something guy with a car because "the way he looked at her made her feel like
maybe she wasn't the only refugee. Like maybe he knew her same troubles." Lessons in Another Language
weaves evocative narratives of abandonment and confusion, of hope betrayed more often than fulfilled.
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