Fables of Creation

Edward L. Edmonds is a professor of education at the University of
Prince Edward Island and honorary chief of the Mi’kmaq of Prince
Edward Island.

All 11 short stories in this collection have previously appeared in
journals. Margoshes uses a variety of styles and strategies. He adopts a
mockingly deadpan approach in the “Three Fables of Creation,” a
subversive protest against the high-minded traditional version of the
Creation. Elsewhere he resorts to the magic realism approach, dissolving
the line between fact and fantasy. “The Pride of Man” is more in the
Gothic Romance mode, while a quasi stream-of-consciousness atmosphere
pervades “Where’s Charlie?”

Although the sensitive reader will be appalled by Margoshes’s
preoccupation with lower bodily functions (anal and penile energy are
the driving forces in most of his stories), none can fail to appreciate
his metaphoric originality, as evidenced by phrases like “lacy fingers
of spray,” “an asthmatic refrigerator,” “night’s moist
tongue,” and “bruise-red wine.” In summary, then, these stories
will capture your attention and perhaps offend you in the process.