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And Other Stories
About 10 years ago, George Bowering and Linda Hutcheon came up with the idea for a short fiction collection called Likely Stories: A Postmodern Sampler. It was a great idea at a time when a lot of people were still trying to figure out what “postmodern” actually meant.
That fine collection of stories has now gone out of print, and George Bowering has put together a new collection of Canadian short fiction that takes the theme of postmodernity one step further. And Other Stories offers not just more stories of difference, of other-ness and the race, gender, class and politics of the other, but stories where our most talented writers become, and reflect on being, other(s).
And so, in spite of postmodern theorists trying to hammer home to us that there is no universal self, no universal truth, this collection brings into question whether or not there might actually be something universal after all—even if it is only our (temporary) experience of being an other. There is always only Our Story, And Other Stories, in this case by:
Gail Scott, Matt Cohen, Suzette Mayr, M.A.C. Farrant, Timothy Findley, Dionne Brand, Candas Jane Dorsey, Audrey Thomas, Sheila Watson, Dany Laferrière, George Bowering, Leon Rooke, David Arnason, Clint Burnham, Hiromi Goto, Guillermo Verdecchia, André Alexis, George Elliot, Diane Schoemperlen, Brian Fawcett, Thomas King, Keath Fraser, Margaret Atwood, and Clark Blaise.
That fine collection of stories has now gone out of print, and George Bowering has put together a new collection of Canadian short fiction that takes the theme of postmodernity one step further. And Other Stories offers not just more stories of difference, of other-ness and the race, gender, class and politics of the other, but stories where our most talented writers become, and reflect on being, other(s).
And so, in spite of postmodern theorists trying to hammer home to us that there is no universal self, no universal truth, this collection brings into question whether or not there might actually be something universal after all—even if it is only our (temporary) experience of being an other. There is always only Our Story, And Other Stories, in this case by:
Gail Scott, Matt Cohen, Suzette Mayr, M.A.C. Farrant, Timothy Findley, Dionne Brand, Candas Jane Dorsey, Audrey Thomas, Sheila Watson, Dany Laferrière, George Bowering, Leon Rooke, David Arnason, Clint Burnham, Hiromi Goto, Guillermo Verdecchia, André Alexis, George Elliot, Diane Schoemperlen, Brian Fawcett, Thomas King, Keath Fraser, Margaret Atwood, and Clark Blaise.
- GenresShort Stories
320 pages, Paperback
First published February 15, 2001
4 people want to read
About the author
George Bowering
149 books23 followersGeorge Bowering was born and brought up in the Okanagan Valley, amid sand dunes and sagebrush, but he has lived in Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, and Alberta — great sources of hockey stars. Along the way he has stopped to write several books on baseball. He has also picked up Governor General’s Awards for his poetry and fiction, and otherwise been rewarded with prizes for his books, except in his home province of British Columbia. His earlier ECW book, His Life, was a finalist for the Governor General’s Award for 2000. He lives in Vancouver.
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March 20, 2022
To accept the moment and live in the ambiguity of “now”, experiencing life as sequential or similar moments, is perhaps still becoming a norm. I was surprised to see this was from 2001 because of how new this sentiment still feels. The stories included are of copyright years 1962 through 1999; however, the majority are from the 80’s and 90’s. My favourites were The World Machines (Brian Fawcett), Sleeping in a Box (Candas Jane Dorsey), and The Bone Fields (Matt Cohen).
Displaying 1 of 1 review