The Bequest & Other Stories

Ray Covell was a librarian in Kelowna, British Columbia.

Jerry Wexler has collected ten short stories set in the city of Montreal. “The Bequest,” which is the first and longest, will be enjoyable reading for anyone who has ever been a tenant or a landlord. It has been commissioned as a half-hour TV drama by the National Film Board, and I anticipate an entertaining film version. The other short stories are not particularly impressive, although they are readable and they illustrate slices of life in the inner city at night.

Wexler has succeeded in painting dramatic portraits of the sanctuary of a tavern, the landlady, Mrs. Feldhanner, and the small boy who was caught writing on a wall of the subway station. His stories have been compared to the music of Debussy and Stravinsky: “the same evocation of solitude at night amidst sleeping millions,” as Hugh Hood states in the introduction.

The first story makes the book worthwhile, and the others will capture the imagination of readers of short stories.