The Oxford Book of Canadian Short Stories in English

Many of the 41 short stories in this engrossing, thoughtfully compiled anthology portray mortality, isolation, wistfulness, desperation and stagnation. Written during the 19th and 20th centuries, they are the work of celebrated authorsMordecai Richler, Alice Munro, Stephen Leacockand others less renowned. In ""Last Spring They Came Over,'' Morley Callaghan depicts two unremarkable English brothers who endure misfortune in Toronto while maintaining pathetically buoyant facades. ``The Lamp at Noon'' by Sinclair Ross describes a windstorm during which a wife frantically beseeches her husband to stop his futile efforts at farming; his obstinate refusal indirectly causes their baby's death. What Atwood terms ``the artificiality of art'' is intriguingly demonstrated by George Bowering in ``A Short Story,'' a tale of murder told in sections with titles such as ``setting,'' ``point of view'' and ``symbolism.'' The verisimilitude, depth and power of these selections tend to corroborate co-editor Weaver's contention that ``Today the position of the short story in Canadian writing is unassailable.'' (April)