The details in "Post and Bean" matter. The specific itty-bitty matters of surprising consequence. Not necessarily what one sees at first glance, but what one uncovers, what the broader whole can be understood to mean. Take the group of people in the church office. At first, a stranger to the
Sometimes, when I begin reading an Alice Munro story, I am overwhelmed by a sense of "there it is". It's a feeling of immediate and undeniable recognition of familiar elements. Like the beginning of "Nettles", which begins with firmly rooting the reader in a time and place. It is summer.
Mid-way through February, not one book in my reading log for this year bears a 2015 publication date. Not even 2014. The book published most recently was Carla Gunn's Amphibian, from Coach House Books in 2009. Although I'm not exactly pulling Ovid and Milton, Aphra Behn or Jane Austen from
While Nina was playing tennis, Lewis was killing himself. Readers learn this at the outset. Nina played; Lewis died. Back and forth across the net, Nina volleyed and returned serves; Lewis plunged downward into first unconsciousness, then... Into, what? As a science teacher, who insisted that evolution be taught in classrooms
Just as the jury enjoyed reading the stories submitted for tthe 2014 Journey Prize, other readers can also value the "exposure to a new generation of writers who are extending the tradition of Canadian short fiction well into the twenty-first century". McClelland & Stewart, 2014. Edited by Steven
