The ties that bind the stories of Comfort Zone often do so in unexpected ways: the pharmacist uncle who goes fishing with Wanda Lee’s ex-boyfriend turns out to be married to a woman in another story who gives birth in a thunderstorm to a peculiar child. Dan in the bootlegger’s story is Wanda Lee’s alcoholic brother-in-law. Wanda Lee herself, a “psycho version of an old beauty queen,” appears as a main or peripheral character in a number of stories, critiquing Oprah and working tirelessly at self-improvement. More stories centre around her in-laws, Reg and Agnes, and their children.

Maritime writer Pamela Donoghue’s characters pride themselves on being hard workers, but few are very good at enjoying life. Love deteriorates within the confines of the nuclear family. Cigarettes and alcohol dull the edge of disappointment but cause alcoholism and lung cancer. The best most of the characters can hope for is the temporary relief of a comfort zone. While Wanda Lee is doggedly determined to live a better life than the one dealt her, it is Reg and Agnes’s daughter, “the smartest thing on two legs,” who comes closest to balancing sex, love, and faith with the costs they exact.

The 17 stories offered in this debut collection display Donoghue’s impressive fictional range. “Good Courage,” for example, moves from the gritty verisimilitude of Reg’s pub habits to an epistolary account of his war years. The writing is fine-grained, closely observed, and quirky. Random, seemingly arbitrary details throw a scene or a character into sharp relief. The Gowdyesque “Accumulation of Small Advantages” recalls a woman’s childhood obsession with dead skin and nail clippings so intense she pays a cousin to let her peel his flaking sunburn.

Ultimately the links between stories, though fun, come to seem forced and gimmicky – about as meaningful as chain letters. These are stories that deserve to be considered as whole and complete, each according to its own specific gravity. Instead readers may find themselves sleuthing through for the point of juncture. Next time out, this talented writer might profitably turn her fascination with connections into a novel.