I Am Not Most Places

Claire Wilkshire is a Ph.D. candidate in English at the University of
British Columbia.

Richard Cumyn’s second collection of short stories (his first, The
Limit of Delta X Over Delta Y, appeared in 1994) succeeds in places
where the previous one fell short: characters and their voices seem more
credible, the level of narrative tension has risen, and Cumyn appears
generally more comfortable with his material.

The book opens with its two strongest stories, “Heat Stroke” and
“Reconfigured.” In “Heat Stroke,” Doreen takes her children to
the park, where she encounters an abrasive young girl who appears to
have been abandoned. Doreen becomes obsessed with the girl and where she
lives. Doreen’s husband, Bill, comes home to find his wife losing her
grip. The story’s fine closing section hints at some explanations for
Doreen’s odd behavior, but ultimately nothing is resolved.
“Reconfigured” also involves a kind of obsession. Peter, Collette,
and their baby rent a house from Barry Carp, an ex-con who can’t seem
to leave them alone. Carp brings unwanted gifts: topsoil for the garden,
clothes, toys. When Peter announces that his family is moving, Carp
turns threatening. The remainder of the story possesses a nightmarish
quality as it follows Peter, Collette, and the baby to their new
apartment, with the unpredictable Carp pursuing them. As in “Heat
Stroke,” the story’s ending creates a sense of ambivalence rather
than finality; it points to a future in which the characters will be
marked by the events they have experienced.

Some of the other stories are weakened by wooden descriptions, banal
dialogue, or predictability of character and emotion. This is a solid
collection, but one that could be sharper.