Hanky-Panky and Other Stories

Matt Hartman is a freelance editor and cataloguer, running Hartman Cataloguing, Editing and Indexing Services.

Skelton teaches English at the University of Victoria, and is a
self-proclaimed “witch.” His previous attempt at humorous fiction
(The Parrot Who Could) was runner-up for the Stephen Leacock Award in
1987. Unfortunately this book does the author no credit at all. The
dozen stories in this short collection are “cute” and precocious,
reminiscent of the embarrassing efforts of students taking a first
course in creative writing. At the age of 66, Skelton should know better
than to fiddle with words for no good purpose. The stories’ thin plots
and the self-conscious dialogue might make a teenager smile, but that is
doubtful. The writing is uncomfortably juvenile, riddled with clichés
and devices. Skelton’s fictional “bent” leans towards the strange
and unexplained. In the lead story, “Clara,” a young woman’s
bicycle develops a possessive jealousy towards its owner. The title
story deals with a VCR that censors and distorts the movies it is
recording (as well as eliminating all commercials). In several of the
stories, the narrator is a writer. In “Fall Girl,” the narrator says
prophetically, “Just think of all the books you have bought with a
happy confident feeling of coming contentment or excitement, only to
discover that you can’t get past page thirty!” Skelton is a fine
critic and poet. He should leave fiction alone until he learns that it,
too, requires self-discipline.