Coming Attractions 2: Diane Schoemperlen, John Fern Shaw & Michael Rawdon

Bruce K. Filson was a freelance writer and critic residing in Chesterville, Ontario.

This book is the second in a series presenting three lesser known writers by way of three short stories each . The advantage of such an agenda is that readers get a good feel for what each is up to.

Each of the three is up to something entirely different. Schoemperlen offers a young, post-feminist, and very fresh perspective in Hemingwayesque prose. She doesn’t tell stories so much as go over and over the topic of working women’s lives in collages or vignettes. Telling insights make her television-like writing well worth the read.

Joan Fern Shaw comes to a writing career after many years as a teacher and librarian, but she’s obviously no apprentice. Hers are the most accomplished stories here, if more conventional than the others. Her characters are well developed and the stories are very poignant. The narrator in all three is a sensitive girl who learns about life’s universal themes through simple experiences.

I’m less confident about Michael Rawdon’s being a coming attraction. His stories seem like long letters of a graduate student — interesting only for some of their remarks and descriptions. He violates the law of writing: show it, don’t talk about it. “Foxfire and Paradox” stands up the best because of its characters. But the other two ramble soporifically and reiterate points as if making an argument.