Out of Place: Stories and Poems

Edward L. Edmonds is a professor of English at the University of Prince
Edward Island.

The stated theme of this book is “dislocation and our changing sense
of place.” The 37 contributors illustrate this in their differing
ways. Some are Canadian born and bred; others have come “from away,”
as the Prince Edward Island saying has it. Some have stayed, others have
sojourned only briefly. But all have been “touched” by Canada as
being “a place to nourish the heart.”

There is no particular sequence in this book, but prose (stories) and
poetry are nicely interspersed. One recurrent flashback is to precious
childhood years. “Home is where we start from,” as T.S. Eliot once
so shrewdly said. All the writers demonstrate considerable fluency in
the English language, whatever their first language may have been. In
particular, their mastery of direct speech is outstanding: vividly
colloquial, too, on occasion.

This book leaves the reader with a renewed understanding of the
cultural mosaic of today’s Canada, as well as a satisfying sense of
that fourth Greek virtue, sophrosyne—namely, a soundness of spirit,
tolerance, and harmony of social life. It is hoped other volumes will
follow.