Vital Signs: New Women Writers in Canada

Beverly Rasporich is an associate professor in the Faculty of General
Studies at the University of Calgary and the author of Dance of the
Sexes: Art and Gender in the Fiction of Alice Munro.

Although these 11 short stories are written by relatively new authors,
several have appeared in such literary magazines as Fiddlehead, Quarry,
and Descant. Most of these polished narratives are written in a
minimalist, realistic style.

In most of the stories, ordinary daily life is expertly reproduced and
punctuated by moments of psychological “madness,” angst, and
out-of-the-ordinary realities. In “The Nature of Pure Evil,” for
example, a jilted lover takes to making bomb threats and watching the
subsequent evacuation of buildings. In “Hit and Run Cowboy,” a man
is tormented by the possibility that he may be a hit-and-run driver. In
“The Other Side,” a wife and mother deals with a child and his
abnormal responses to the world around him. In “The Middle of
Infinity,” a mother and daughter are united by the fact that they have
both been in jail. In “Twenty-Two Nights,” a woman and a man are
trapped in an elevator gone awry.

Two stories stand out for their differences. “Sharp Turn at a Pivotal
Moment,” by Carla Douglas, is a postmodern exploration of
fiction-making; “Waiting for a Sign,” by Tonja Gunvaldsen Klaassen,
is evocatively set in ancient Scandinavian times.

This short but worthwhile collection will be of particular interest to
female readers.