Everything But the Truth

Louise E. Allin, a poet and short-story writer, is also an English instructor at Cambrian College.

This collection of stories features staccato bursts of frustration and
horror, and images, flavors, and sounds that demonstrate why the author
has published two volumes of poetry: “The fiddle sleeps in its nest of
silk. The rollerskates are silent, and do not dream.” McPherson’s
characters are people caught in painful squeezes. They include a
crippled girl who is working undercover for the police; a man who
pitches a tent in his bedroom; and a hippo-keeper who is forced to deal
strategically with the cumbersome corpse of her favorite charge.
McPherson’s fictional universe is populated by human beings looking
for love in all the wrong places, falling asleep in sodden beds,
visiting old loves without a hope of reconciliation, and dreaming up
plots never to be realized.