Vancouver Short Stories

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

Vancouver is the central character of these 21 stories. Neither the writing nor the writers are that important here. This is a successful book on the strength of its concept, insofar as the stories portray a city, chronologically, mythically, and sociologically.

Many of the stories, dredged out of old books and magazines, don’t deserve reprinting. However, there are pleasing surprises, such as “Sophie,” by Emily Carr. Wayson Choy’s “The Jade Peony” is worth the price of the book, as is Cynthia Flood’s “The Animals in their Elements,” brilliant in its sensitivity toward and perception of an ordinary man in a lengthy dying process. I also liked Audrey Thomas’s “Aquarius”; it is remarkable how a woman author can express so accurately a man’s sexual feelings.

It’s the cumulative effect of the stories that I so appreciated. Vancouver is revealed from its frontier beginnings to its multifaceted present. The Chinese, West Coast Natives, Japanese, British, and all those who find themselves in Vancouver in pursuit of their illusions or just because there’s no better place to live are not stereotypes. Nevertheless, the overly conservative editing preferred several literary fossils, ignoring stories from any of the vibrant West Coast literary periodicals or writers like Jackson Hodgins, D.M. Fraser, or Lionel Kearns.