Taking Off the Tinsel

R.G. Moyles is a professor of English at the University of Alberta and
the co-author of Imperial Dreams and Colonial Realities: British Views
of Canada, 1880–1914.

In “A Kind of Christmas Poem,” John Lee expresses this book’s
intention perfectly: “We must not speak of how the snow / was fudged
here and there with the dung of dog. / Nor how the drunk nubbed his
whiskered lip / on a bottle mouth / then spat / the smashed cricket of
his phlegm / in the street. / For this is Christmas / time to prettify
our wounds / as if the shepherds were not crude, / and babies did not
cack, stars roar, camels bark, / and wise men pontificate / an audience
until it slept, despaired, / departed, disillusioned, /
broken-hearted.”

As the title suggests, we must expect this anthology of stories and
poems—24, mainly by Alberta writers—to depict some of the harsher
realities of the Christmas season (as indeed some do). But this
collection is far from cynical. It also makes us aware that, in spite of
the loneliness and poverty that is accentuated by the glitter, there is
still something special about the season. Most of the writers themselves
seem bewildered, or puzzled, or startled, by the fact that, somehow,
someway, the spirit of love still manages to shine through.

So, readers of Taking Off the Tinsel should expect to be challenged;
expect the unexpected; but, above all, expect to be entertained. For all
these writers—the seasoned ones like Bert Almon and Wynne Edwards, and
the new ones like Gale Sobat and Tim Anderson—are well worth reading.