Current reading: The Great Stork Derby, by Ann S. Epstein
The Great Stork Derby , by Ann S. Epstein, Vine Leaves Press, 2021 is set in 1976, with flashbacks to the 1920s and ‘30s. Although it's an historical novel in that it originates from an historical event, and shows life in the 20th century, it's really about an uninvolved father who, in his old age, finally gets to know his children. The fictional father in the story, who was born in 1901, is Emm Benbow, a retired salesman who swears by Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People. In 1926, Emm convinced his wife, Izora, to get involved in a competition that might make their fortune. That year, a wealthy Toronto real estate investor and lawyer, died, leaving a will that provided $100,000 to be paid to the Toronto woman who gave birth to the greatest number of children (registered births and living children) in the decade between 1926 and 1936. This was a fabulous amount of money in those days. The benefactor, a single, childless man, was fond of schemes that