Not Quite Mainstream: Canadian Jewish Short Stories

W.J. Keith is a retired professor of English at the University of Toronto and author A Sense of Style: Studies in the Art of Fiction in English-Speaking Canada.

First and foremost, Not Quite Mainstream is an anthology of short
stories. That they are all written by Jews, and were composed in Canada,
are incidental and not always obvious facts. Thus Rachl Korn’s
“Bluma Zelinger” (translated from the Yiddish), perhaps the most
moving story in the book, gives no hint of a Canadian provenance, while
Claire Robinson’s “August,” if published anonymously, would never
be identified as Jewish.

As editor, Norman Ravvin has concentrated on the variety of style and
approach to be found in Jewish writing. Some of his authors (Irving
Layton, Mordecai Richler) are household names; others, just embarking on
their literary careers, are virtually or totally unknown. While many
stories, especially those arising from the Holocaust, conform to a
detailed and vivid realism, others explore more experimental modes, like
Joe Rosenblatt’s whimsical if somewhat inconsequential fable “Tommy
Frye and the Ant Colony,” or “A Story with Sex, Skyscapers, and
Standard Yiddish,” Ravvin’s own wonderful combination of Borgesian
fantasy, gently parodied soft porn, and inventive virtuosity.

In terms of quality, Norman Levine’s magnificent “Thin Ice” is
head and shoulders above the rest of the collection in its exquisite
stylistic economy and perfectly controlled tone. Other notable stories
(apart from those already praised) include Robyn Sarah’s “A Minor
Incident,” a delicately modulated moral fable, and Elaine Kalman
Naves’s resonant “Hair.” Others, inevitably, are less successful.
For instance, I failed to respond to Matt Cohen’s “Lives of the Mind
Slaves,” a story about junior university teachers, because the main
characters gave no evidence of having minds to be enslaved.

The editor has succeeded in bringing together a comprehensive sample
for students of Canadian-Jewish culture (I was surprised, however, by
the absence of Henry Kreisel). For gentile readers, the book provides an
entrée into a rich and faintly exotic imaginative world. A worthwhile
project, well executed, though a little more detail about the authors’
lives and other works would have been welcome.