Favourite Summer Stories from Front Porch Al

Description

307 pages
$27.99
ISBN 0-670-86134-0
DDC C813'.010836

Year

1995

Contributor

Edited by Alan Maitland
Reviewed by Trevor S. Raymond

Trevor S. Raymond is a teacher and librarian with the Peel Board of Education and editor of Canadian Holmes.

Review

Retired CBC radio personality Alan Maitland has collected 27 stories and
poems by 26 writers, and what a picnic basket of delights he has given
us! The wordsmiths—15 of whom were born in the 19th century—range
from Ivan Turgenev (b. 1818) to Lesley-Anne Boume (b. 1964) and come
from a variety of nations. The selections, too, are varied, although all
but one or two have a distinct summer setting. There are fairy tales,
fishing yarns, and some wonderful tales about baseball, including the
immortal poem “Casey at the Bat,” which demands to be read aloud.
Indeed, most of the selections are of a length to be read aloud, and
Maitland has read many of them to tape or to a live audience. The
longest story is one by Emile Zola, a charming tale of cuckoldry at a
French seaside resort town. There are tales set in Ontario’s cottage
country and in the Maritimes. Two or three selections are essays rather
than stories, and there are three poems. Favourites? Impossible. No
reader could select only one or two from this delicious assortment. If
one has a tiny quibble, it might be that Maitland’s introductions
could have been more informative. One might like to know about some of
the less familiar authors.

Citation

“Favourite Summer Stories from Front Porch Al,” Canadian Book Review Annual Online, accessed March 29, 2024, https://cbra.library.utoronto.ca/items/show/1571.