Hearts Larry Broke: New Fiction from the Burning Rock

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.

Burning Rock is a writers’ collective in St. John’s. Its title
connotes, in the editor’s words, “the creative and destructive
properties of flame and the infinite possibility of surprise. It also
hints that this place so often called ‘the Rock’ is on fire, with
creative impulses as diverse as fiery phenomena.”

Unfortunately, this grand promise is not fulfilled by the 16 stories in
Hearts Larry Broke. Surprise is lacking: the subjects—“a husband
obsessed by bean sprouts, a woman in a red beret, a drowning man, a guy
who alters geography”—offer nothing new by way of fictional
creativity. There a few good stories (Beth Ryan’s “Family
Business” is one of the best), but for the most part this collection
fails to live up to the editor’s exaggerated claims.