Only Wounded: Ulster Stories

Two young women are going on a pre-wedding shopping spree when their outing is cut short. A young boy wants to surprise his big brother with a newly polished gun, with unexpected consequences. Two professional ... Read More »

March 9, 2004 | Filed under: Fiction: Short

Inappropriate Behaviour

By Irene Mock

The title of this short story collection – Inappropriate Behaviour – is brilliant. Few of Irene Mock’s characters can evade the charge – certainly not, for example, the woman writing a novel (about her husband’s ... Read More »

March 9, 2004 | Filed under: Fiction: Short

Dust to Dust: Stories

By Timothy Findley

The Canadian Booksellers Association deemed Timothy Findley Author of the Year in 1996, a sensible choice. Findley does not insult the intelligence of Canadian readers, nor overestimate media-addled attention spans. He publishes often, and each ... Read More »

March 9, 2004 | Filed under: Fiction: Short

The Hellmouths of Bewdley

By Tony Burgess

An insane doped-up doctor, a 30-year-old gay virgin, a redneck transvestite, and 20 guys named Jesus Christ reside in Toronto writer Tony Burgess’s first collection of short stories. Set in Bewdley, Ontario, The Hellmouths of Bewdley ... Read More »

March 9, 2004 | Filed under: Fiction: Short

Comfort Zones

By Pamela Donoghue

The ties that bind the stories of Comfort Zone often do so in unexpected ways: the pharmacist uncle who goes fishing with Wanda Lee’s ex-boyfriend turns out to be married to a woman in another ... Read More »

March 9, 2004 | Filed under: Fiction: Short

★ At First I Hope for Rescue

By Holley Rubinsky

The five linked stories of British Columbia author Holley Rubinsky’s fine debut collection, At First I Hope for Rescue, are tautly stretched between polarities of despair and deliverance. Written in the first person by five ... Read More »

March 9, 2004 | Filed under: Fiction: Short

Buying on Time

By Antanas Sileika

Buying On Time is a moving and entertaining collection of short stories about a Lithuanian-Canadian family set in the Toronto suburb of Weston. Ordered chronologically from 1953 to 1981, the collection has the unified feel ... Read More »

March 7, 2004 | Filed under: Fiction: Short

The Two-headed Calf

By Sandra Birdsell

In The Two-Headed Calf, Sandra Birdsell’s first collection of stories in 12 years, the Manitoban writer explores the strangeness lurking in Winnipeg’s tidy streets. Here, parents and children, lovers, and friends live in conflict, sometimes ... Read More »

March 7, 2004 | Filed under: Fiction: Short

How to Get There from Here

By Michelle Berry

Literary trendspotting – like trainspotting – may be dismissed as a wanky pastime for idling minds, but there is some fun to be had. For every trend, I’m sure there can be unearthed a counter-trend, ... Read More »

March 7, 2004 | Filed under: Fiction: Short