Canadian Stories of the Sea

Bruce Meyer teaches English at Trinity College, University of Toronto.

This anthology is an intriguing mixture of the expected and the
unexpected. Farley Mowat’s “The Foggy, Foggy Dew,” E. Pauline
Johnson’s “The Deep Waters,” and Thomas H. Raddall’s “A Quiet
Way” constitute the familiar. Such names, especially Raddall’s, are
closely linked with the chronicling and fictionalizing of Canada’s
maritime experience.

Notably absent are Alistair MacLeod (surely his masterpiece of short
fiction, “The Boat,” belongs in a collection of this nature) and
Hugh Garner, whose Storm Below (1949) remains an underrated classic in
the Canadian canon. The same can be said for the historical content; it
is admirable that Captain Cook is represented, but Suthren overlooked
the huge body of Arctic exploration writing, such as the narratives by
Ross, McClure, and McClintock.

As gripping as historian Joseph Schull’s writing is, reliance on this
author for three other selections proves slightly repetitious. For those
who prefer historical writing to fictional writing, however, this is an
entertaining collection.