Coming Attractions 02

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

The title of this anthology of short stories is misleading because six
of the nine stories have already been published. Of the three writers
featured in the book, New Brunswick writer Kelly Cooper shows the most
promise. The three stories she contributes (especially “Zugunruhe”
and “Very Little Blood”) are deceptively simple; written with wit,
style, and compassion, they command an engagement with original ideas.
Chris Labonté, a former editor of Prism International, seems to strive
too hard for effect in “Citrus Flower,” “The Jesus Story,” and
“Pork Journals,” while Lawrence Mathews, who teaches at Memorial
University, indulges in fatuous humor in “Hanrahan Agonistes,”
“Triumph of Bloom,” and “Scar.”