The Man Who Beat the Man is the first collection of short stories from restaurateur and erstwhile gold miner F.B. André, although at times it feels more like a selection of third chapters from several different novels. This is partly because The Man is a diverse collection – its stories are set variously in the author’s childhood Trinidad, in post-boom Alberta, in Vietnam War-era Cambodia, and in British Columbia (where the author now lives). The feeling is heightened by the fact that many of the stories are written as fragments of larger, untold lifestories.

Some of these are striking. “The Upsetter” is a bleak description of life in a factory on the day after a fatal accident; “Wrestling from Chicago,” which immediately follows it, is a bright piece of West Indian childhood. Both are sharply focused and evocative. Other pieces are less successful; “Bienvenue au Canada” and “Another World” both read like preparatory sketches for longer works. The last story in the collection, which also happens to be the longest, suffers from the same problem. In 30 pages “Mr. Lu’s Garden” follows three major characters, and several minor ones, across 10 years and two continents, and ends up seeming like the abstract of a novel. The final scene, which brings all the characters together in a cancer ward, comes across as both contrived and flat.

Much more effective are the stories in which the author narrows his focus and lets dialogue carry the narrative. All of the stories are most engaging when the characters are talking, and those that make the most of André’s fine ear for dialogue are the most memorable. Particularly noteworthy are “Jes Grew,” about a young West Indian discovering Rastafarianism in Red Deer, and “Jump Up and Kiss You,” another story about a West Indian youth, this time set in Trinidad. The title story, although it suffers from some of the telegraphic narrative that mars “Mr. Lu’s Garden,” also yields some of André’s best dialogue. Here the interaction of different voices gives André’s storytelling a fullness and complexity that make The Man Who Beat the Man a very promising first outing.