The Vagrant Revue of New Fiction.

R. Gordon Moyles is professor emeritus of English at the University of
Alberta, co-author of Imperial Dreams and Colonial Realities: British
Views of Canada, 1880–1914, and author of The Salvation Army and the
Public.

The 15 stories included in this collection of new storytellers represent, so the editors confidently assert, “the future of fiction from Atlantic Canada.” That may be an overstatement, but even so there is enough of promise here of downright storytelling prowess to make it understandable why the editors should be so confident. In terms of experiential impact, nearly every story—from the pens (or more likely the computer keyboards) of such new and established writers as Darcy Rhyno, Elizabeth Peirce, Sarah Mian, Nina Lassam, Joey Comeau, Michelle Hallett, and Russell Barton—is emotionally satisfying, vivifying as each does a compact slice of life. And, at an aesthetic level, most writers demonstrate a stylistic skill, a deft control of irony, a sure handling of both internal and external voice that lift their stories beyond mere story into art. Sarah Mian, for example, in her brilliant story “Town of Gamble, A Good Place to Live” (probably the best of the lot), offers a subtly ironic view of the social layers of a small town, and also of how, to the new arrival, appearances belie the truth. The revelations, as they unfold, and the unexpected ending, startle, intrigue and may even amuse—all pleasant options for any short story reader. Several other stories are also of similar high quality: Brent White’s “The White Rose Barbeque” certainly must be cited, as must Erna Buffie’s “An Unpredictable Certainty.” But it’s enough to say that all are well worth reading and the collection is, as the editors intended, a valuable “showcase of nascent writers” from Atlantic Canada.