Ensemble

Madeleine J. Bailey was the College Librarian in the Learning Resources Centre at Mount Royal College in Calgary.

Tony Cosier, an Ontario high-school teacher originally from Vancouver, has previously had poems, short stories, and articles published. Two verse anthologies. With the Sun and Moon (1979) and The Verse Master (1983), and a long autobiographical poem, My Youth (1983), preceded this, his first short story collection. Of the six stories (“Ensemble,” “The Find,” “The Christmas Deer,” “One Memory,” “John Raven,” and “Auntie Courage”) only “John Raven” has not previously been published. “The Find” received honourable mention in the 1978 Toronto Star short story contest.

The theme of music and musical instruments appears in the first three stories, which are written ina simple, almost tense style. While most stories have the feel of personal recollection, “John Raven” has the sound and structure of an Indian folk tale designed for hearing rather than reading.

The lack of adornment in Cosier’s writing makes it clean and uncluttered. It also makes substance all the more important, and that substance is at times lacking in this slim collection.