By a Frozen River: The Short Stories of Norman Levine

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.

Norman Levine made his initial début as a poet half a century ago, and
has been publishing fiction for almost as long. Though best known,
perhaps, for Canada Made Me (1958), his rather dour but memorable view
of his country and its prospects written in self-imposed exile, his most
enduring work may well be his gatherings of short stories, from which
this book reprints a judicious and impressive selection.

Levine’s stories are mood-pieces, and explore a limited range of
experience that is autobiographical in origin. His protagonist is
generally a World War II veteran of Jewish ancestry, a McGill graduate,
a writer living in relative poverty somewhere in England (usually either
London or Cornwall). Little happens in any of these stories. He meets
other characters but is rarely intimate with them. People appear,
attempt to make a living (often through writing or painting), frequently
fail, have accidents, fall ill, die. “Seedy” and “shabby” are
key words.

This collection contains a foreword by John Metcalf, a long-time
admirer of Levine’s work, who properly emphasizes the writerly quality
of his fiction, the satisfactions of his understated, undeceived, but
precise and stylistically fastidious evocation of the monotony of
everyday existence. If they were not exhilaratingly written, these
stories would be depressing; but, though his sentences are simple and
his vocabulary spare, Levine succeeds in presenting the ordinariness of
life with an amazing vividness.

Oddly, though his books are listed (without publication dates) opposite
the title page, no information is offered here about the original
printings of the short stories included. They are divided into sections,
though the principle of ordering is not made clear. This is a pity,
because Levine is a more enduring writer than many of his much-touted
contemporaries, and readers should be encouraged to search out his other
work.