The Journey Prize Anthology, 7

Claire Wilkshire is a Ph.D. candidate in English at the University of
British Columbia.

This fine collection looks back into the (recent) Canadian cultural past
through its treatment of the experiences of émigrés (from, among other
places, Jerusalem, Ukraine, Italy, and Germany), and forward through its
exploration of the puzzling ways in which children negotiate the
complexities of contemporary social expectations.

The anthology includes stories about a man who kisses rats (Roger
Burford Mason, “The Rat-Catcher’s Kiss”); a 16-year-old girl whose
father wants her to marry a man 10 years her senior before she finishes
high school because he “speaks perfect English and perfect
Ukrainian” and is “a Big Wheel down at the train station” (Mary
Borsky, “Maps of the Known World”); and a woman who is poised to
jump off the roof of her Montreal apartment building (Gabriella Goliger,
“Song of Ascent”).

Two stories that have stuck in this reader’s mind are Antanas
Sileika’s “Going Native” and Elizabeth Hay’s “Hand Games.”
The former is a funny and poignant tale about cultural differences,
incomprehension, manipulation, and tenacity. Hay’s story describes the
dynamics of power in the relationship between two 4-year-old girls: the
reader shares the mother-narrator’s feelings of helplessness and
bewilderment.

All in all, a strong and resonant collection.