Visible Light

Lalage Grauer teaches English at Okanagan University College in Kelowna,
B.C.

Most of these stories are set on islands off the West Coast of B.C.
Windley’s characters are elusive and eccentric, and surrounded by a
wild and isolated environment that is half sinister, half liberating.

Instead of being yet another Canadian literary work about the harshness
of nature, however, Visible Light maintains a focus on culture that is
brought into relief by nature, by fairy-tale motifs, and by resonant
symbols. Windley’s writing can be poetic and evocative (“the room
had a slipshod look, like a rough charcoal sketch”), or it can be
shrewd in its observation of contemporary (mostly middle-class WASP)
culture. Her people may live on the margins of the continent (and of
society), but they are often urban types. Windley combines satire and
magic in this wonderful first collection.