Best Canadian Stories 95

Julie Rak teaches English at McMaster University.

Best Canadian Stories 95 was the last of these annual anthologies to be
edited by David Helwig, who enjoyed a 25-year tenure at the series’
helm. The most successful stories tend to be those with overtones of
magic realism. The protagonist of Alice Munro’s superb contribution is
a maid who comes to discover the power of reading: “words could become
a burning glass for me in those days, and no shame of my nature or
condition could hold out among the flames of pleasure.” Joo
Agapito’s “Between the Cracks of Knowledge” tells the story of a
poor Portuguese boy who befriends an “imaginary” writer friend
before the onslaught of the Spanish Civil War. The narrator of Merna
Summer’s “Black Holes” recalls his complicity in the accidental
demise of an old woman (she was crushed to death by his football squad).
The volume’s most moving contribution is Karen Connelly’s “The Day
Mandori Died,” which offers a disturbing look at gypsy culture in the
former Yugoslavia.