If Pigs Could Fly

Teya Rosenberg teaches children’s literature at the University of
Alberta.

Arnason’s latest collection includes assorted stories and fragments.
The first part of the collection, “Political Fables,” consists of
pieces originally broadcast on CBC Radio. They deal with such current
Canadian topics as health care, deficit reduction, fishing quotas and
moratoriums, and the corruption and deceit of government at all levels,
as well as with the stupidity and naiveté of most of the Canadian
public. These fables, which are too specific to belong to the category
of traditional fables (such as Aesop’s), more closely resemble
Orwell’s Animal Farm. The second part, “Ukrainian Tales,” records
the experiences of a Canadian tourist in post-Communist Ukraine, as he
meets poets and would-be lovers and visits memorable sites, and he
reflects on and compares Canadian and Ukrainian perspectives on life,
love, and poetry. The third part, “Fabulations,” contains short
stories, all of them playing with notions of realism and reality, and
most of them well written. There are a couple of magic-realist stories
that are particularly captivating.

The collection as a whole is good reading, but to subtitle it “More
Fractured Prairie Tales” is somewhat misleading. Unlike Arnason’s
first Prairie Tale collection, this one does not include revisions of
old fairy tales or stories in the fairy-tale form and tradition.
Nevertheless, the collection itself is entertaining and provides good
browsing.