Alberta Rebound: Thirty More Stories by Alberta Writers

Carolyn D. Redl is a sessional lecturer of English at the University of
Alberta.

This anthology of 30 short stories demonstrates the diversity of
interest and sophistication of style of today’s Albertan writers. A
few of these stories are previously published or by well-known writers
such as Rudy Wiebe, Mary Walter Riskins, Greg Hollingshead, and Caterina
Edwards. Many other pieces are seeing print for the first time or are by
relatively new writers such as Barbara J. Scott, Cheryl Foggo, and Lynda
Shorten. The collection is fresh and vibrant, and speaks more about the
scope and sensitivities of late-twentieth-century humanity than about
Albertans per se. In this feature alone these writings prove the Alberta
short story has graduated from regional literature and taken its
rightful rank alongside Canada’s best short fiction.

These stories spark humor, pathos, fascination, enchantment, anger, and
awe. Some, like Ivan Dorin’s “Outside Edges,” are highly
imaginative, satiric, and simply wonderful. Some are initiation stories.
Some, like Ruth Krahn’s “Communion,” display perfectly honed
understatement in their expression of seemingly ordinary day-to-day
life.

Many of the stories combine a number of noteworthy features. One,
Yasmin Ladha’s existentialist “Aisha,” traces the domestic chaos
of characters who live in an exotic, faraway setting and who use a
language rich in sensual metaphors. Martin Sherman’s exploration of
(in)sanity, “Cab Ride,” is unique for both its narrative structure
and its protagonist’s dialect. Fred Wah’s “All the Trimmings”
is, like the meals in the small-town cafe it describes, a feast.

Add a couple of selections by Native writers and the entire collection
would in fact be a literary feast.