If She Could Take All These Men

Matt Hartman is a freelance editor and cataloguer, running Hartman Cataloguing, Editing and Indexing Services.

Calgary writer Ken Rivard has written 91 pieces of “postcard
fiction” without imbuing more than one or two of them with more than
an ounce of emotional fervor. Nor are they particularly good examples of
intellectual wit or wisdom. Rather than render his epiphanies vivid and
striking, Rivard has chosen to throw together a few images—some of
them surreal—related or unrelated, and apparently expects his readers
to flesh them out from their own lives and/or imaginations. They are a
kind of prose haiku, but the final line throws no flash of comprehension
over the metaphors. Many stories involve the elderly; for example
“Teddy Bear Real,” about a grandmother who adopts a teddy bear to
replace all the people in her life who have died.

Rivard’s writing is sharp and clear but wasted on stories with scant
reader accessibility. Pen-and-ink drawings by Jeff Wiebe scattered
throughout the text are curiously pointillist, but add little insight.