Coast to Coast: Reflections in Literature

Hugh Oliver is editor-in-chief at the OISE Press.

This anthology of Canadian stories, poetry, nonfiction, and drama seems
to have been complied originally for high-school English classes, before
the publisher decided, quite reasonably, that it might appeal to a more
general readership. According to the brief introduction, the material
was chosen to reflect “who we are, where we live, and what it means to
be Canadian.”

The anthology is subdivided into nine categories: Challenges, Family
Sketches, The Land, Communication, Humour, Identity, Love, Conflict, and
Strong and Free. The authors range from Margaret Atwood and Michael
Ondaatje to the journalist Christie Blatchford, from the poet John
McCrae to the Bare Naked Ladies. In such a heterogeneous mix, it would
be a perverse reader unable to find sources of entertainment or
enlightenment.