Lemons

In the linked stories of Kasia Jaronczyk's Lemons, the lives of Basia and her family are seen through a kaleidoscopic lens that follows them over twenty years from communist Poland, to their new home in Canada, then back to Poland, to make sense of everything that has happened in the interim. A young girl struggles with her awakening sexuality in an environment where corporal punishment and male dominance are the norm, and every man, even a close relative, can be a sexual threat; where absolute obedience is demanded as a sign of love; while on the playground she struggles to find her place a hierarchy of mean, tough, but charismatic girls. Her mother's return creates new conflicts as she fights over inheritance, offers harmful advice to friends, and accuses her daughter-in-law of a crime. Over time, the experiences of Basia and her mother Magda shift and refract the perspectives through which we view how younger and older women, and their relationships, are shaped by cultural and material changes in their lives.