Coming Attractions 96

R.G. Moyles is a professor of English at the University of Alberta, and
the co-author of Imperial Dreams and Colonial Realities: British Views
of Canada, 1880–1914.

Again, as with each issue of Coming Attractions, one has every reason to
be proud of the literary accomplishments of young Canadian writers and
to marvel at their range of vision. The three writers included
here—Lewis DeSoto, Murray Logan, and Kelley Aitken—are fictionally
“ at home” in such diverse settings as South Africa, British
Columbia, and Ecuador. There is a cosmopolitan flavor about the whole
that is both refreshing and exciting, But equally impressive is the fact
that all three fine writers—each distinctive in terms of technique yet
all experientially and aesthetically satisfying. DeSoto, perhaps the
best of the three, has an amazing ability to evoke the physicality of
location and human separation, and also to invest his story with the
sinister overtones of racial confrontations. His “Drought” is a very
powerful yet subtle depiction of South African society. Murray Logan is
less serious, but no less incisive. His “Oh, Henry” is witty, funny,
and yet poignant—a very clever, original look at human relationships.
Kelley Aitken is the most self-conscious writer of the three; she seems
to be striving too hard for effect, but nevertheless engages us with her
rather oblique evocations of personality. These three, do indeed, as the
editor suggests, “share a great deal of talent.” My only
complaint—one I’ve made before—is that the introductions provided
are too sketchy and too perfunctory: we need to know about the writers,
why they have been chosen, and what they promise for the future.