Walking in Paradise

R. Gordon Moyles is professor emeritus of English at the University of
Alberta, the co-author of Imperial Dreams and Colonial Realities:
British Views of Canada, 1880–1914, and the author of The Salvation
Army and the Public.

Replete with oppressive settings, dysfunctional families, and irascible,
emotionally stunted characters, these 14 stories about home—needing
it, returning to it, leaving it—are clearly anything but a walk in
paradise when it comes to subject matter. Even the very few stories that
begin on a happy note end in sadness. Consider the conclusion of “A
Visit with Old Friends”: “My mother and I looked at each other over
the crests of the waves and smiled. I imagined us transported by a
strain of music only the two of us could hear. Later we sat naked on the
sand and our bodies dried, leaving behind a crusty film of salt that
suddenly, without warning or understanding, seemed utterly perverse. As
though instead of being cleansed by the water, we had been made
dirty.” Uniformly depressing, Creelman’s stories have a ring of
authenticity that makes the reader’s labors ultimately worthwhile.