Gambler's Fallacy

Marguerite Andersen is a professor of French Studies at the University
of Guelph. She is the author of Courts métrages et instantanés and La
Soupe.

Set in Trois-Riviиres, Quebec, Judith Cowan’s tragicomic stories
finely portray the literary crowd—its aging poets, proud mothers, poor
editors, and drinking listeners. We are also introduced to the city’s
less-fortunate, less-glorious inhabitants: the mental patient who wants
to sing Beethoven’s Ode to Joy with his powerful voice, but cannot
quite remember the words; the middle-aged high-school teacher who longs
for companionship after his wife leaves him; the son who returns to his
father’s farm after failing to find success in Montreal.

In other stories, an anglophone father stubbornly refuses to learn
French; an elderly Greek poet thinks about reincarnation while sipping
wine and listening to a young Serbian poet. These rich and finely
crafted stories are a pleasure to read.