Canadian Short Stories: Fifth Series

Patricia Morley is a professor of English and Canadian Studies at
Concordia University, an associate fellow of the Simone de Beauvoir
Institute, and author of Margaret Laurence: The Long Journey Home.

This fifth collection of Canadian short stories assembled by the
undisputed dean of Canadian literary anthologists contains a mix of
established writers and relative newcomers. Timothy Findley, Alice
Munro, Mavis Gallant, Audrey Thomas, Norman Levine, and Carol Shields
rub shoulders with Dionne Brand, Bonnie Burrard, and Daniel David Moses.

Weaver, retired acting head of the CBC’s Radio Features and long the
executive producer of CBC literary programs, has a keen eye for
well-crafted, finely turned short fiction, much of it shaped by the
irony that seems so much a part of Canadian sensibility.

The stories are placed alphabetically by author: Atwood to Wiebe. In
“The Age of Lead,” Margaret Atwood neatly juxtaposes the
nineteenth-century Franklin expedition and the modern age: both suffer
the consequences of naivety and pollution. Atwood’s Jane sees a
television documentary on the ill-fated expedition, whose members were
poisoned by lead in their tinned food. As Jane’s memory replays
several decades of her life and a key relationship, the reader is left
to make the connections.

Rudy Wiebe’s story also juxtaposes a nineteenth-century tale (this
one set in Saskatchewan) with a modern sensibility. The scalding irony
in the narrative voices bares British hypocrisy and Native suffering.
Wiebe’s vision, like that of E.J. Pratt, is epic, and “A Night at
Fort Pitt . . .” should stand as one of his best short works.

Between A and W fall a variety of moods and narratives, nearly all of
high quality. This fine collection is ample proof that short fiction is
a form that Canadian writers handle very well.