The Isolation Booth: The Collected Stories, 3

Description

172 pages
$11.95
ISBN 0-88984-119-5
DDC C813'.54

Author

Year

1991

Contributor

Reviewed by Boyd Holmes

Boyd Holmes is an editor with Dundurn Press.

Review

In 1987, with the apparent intent of reproducing all of his short
fiction, Hood began to issue a multi-volume series of collected stories.
This, the third volume, contains 12 stories Hood wrote between 1957 and
1966; all have been published in magazines and journals, yet none have
appeared before in book form. The book also includes a cogent and lucid
literary history of its contents by the author himself.

Hood writes that this volume is the result of his unending struggle
with the short-story form. It is exciting to watch him triumph in that
struggle, as he accurately paints such diverse portraits as those of a
crass game-show host; a stuffy, self-deceptive businessman; a shockingly
insensitive divorcé; and a distinguished teacher of metaphysics and
phenomenology. There are, however, a pair of poor stories: the tenth,
which is, embarrassingly, about an artist named Hugh Hood; and the last,
which is unfocused and pretentious. The reader who skips those two
fictions will be amply rewarded while ensconced in Hood’s elegantly
designed booth.

Citation

Hood, Hugh., “The Isolation Booth: The Collected Stories, 3,” Canadian Book Review Annual Online, accessed October 10, 2024, https://cbra.library.utoronto.ca/items/show/11918.