Oxygen

by Annabel Lyon

Annabel Lyon is one of the country’s most electrifying new literary voices. Written in tough, crystalline prose, these stories explore our need by turns to connect with the people around us, to pull back, to reach out again. When a struggling businessman adds an Adults Only section to his video store, he inadvertently gives his put-upon sister-in-law another chance at happiness. A baffled father does his best to understand the anxiety that keeps his thirteen-year-old daughter awake at night. The facts surrounding a murder become a tangle of contradictions when three teenagers each tell their side of the story. A man’s lifelong devotion to the girl abandoned to his care is not enough to save her from herself. As Lyon bravely delves into the gulf between what is said and what is left unsaid, she reveals to us the awkward and familiar gestures we use to fill our lives.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Canada, Contemporary

208 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 28, 2000

About the author

Annabel Lyon was born in 1971. Her first book of fiction, the short story collection Oxygen (Porcupine's Quill, 2000), was published to wide acclaim, and was nominated for the Danuta Gleed and ReLit awards.

Her short fiction has appeared in numerous publications, including Toronto Life, The Journey Prize Anthology, and Write Turns: New Directions in Canadian Fiction. Lyon is also a frequent contributor to the Vancouver Sun and The Globe and Mail.

In addition to creative writing, Annabel Lyon has studied music, philosophy, and law. She lives in Vancouver, where she writes full time.

Reviews

[Bonnie]

A typical comment from Annabel Lyon, on learning the craft of writing fiction: “I learned to treat a short story like a carrot and chop off the green woody stuff at the beginnings and the too-pointed stuff at the end to make it tastier.” [Booklounge:]

This collection of 13 short stories and one novella was Annabel Lyon’s stunning debut. I still pull it off the shelf now and then to enjoy her smooth but precisely worded prose: thoughts and images that shine in their brilliance.

Oxygen is a refreshing read, and well worth re-reading, too.

[Miz Moffatt]

Annabel Lyon debuted with a forceful, impressive collection of short stories fine-tuned to haunt the quiet hours of the night. Here, we see an experimental form rarely seen in Canadian short prose -- the author teases out complex narratives through compact, often fragmented sections of dialogue/description, allowing her to flicker across timelines and skip between perspectives in a matter of sentences. She whittles her prose to a fine point and is unyielding with her approach.

Highlights of Oxygen include: the dizzying, bittersweet portrait of Suzy and her guardian, Morris, in "Black"; the loneliness and alienation of a young woman, framed through a simple grocery list in "Things"; the terrifying, splintered testimony of three teens in "Song"; and the danger of the stalker-made-familiar in "Run".

Ideal for: Kids who like their Can. lit. shaken, not stirred; Folks with a penchant for literary journals and firecracker prose; Public transit commuters in need of a rough morning jolt.

[Genie]

It felt really disjointed to me... I believe the author intended for the reader to have that feeling, but I felt that I was missing the thread that held all these stories together.

[Rhea Tregebov]

What a magnificent book. I know it came out quite a while ago, and it's taken me this long to read, though I read and enjoyed The Golden Mean. Lyon is a superb writer.

[Margob99]

I did not .enjoy it

[Léa Taranto]

A debut collection of contemporary short stories with taut, precise prose and equally refined pacing.

[Rebecca]

Annabel Lyon paints vivid scenes with simple brush strokes and leaves it to the reader to saturate the story with meaning. I love her efficient style. She is not tempted to reveal too much. She shares just enough to titillate without overburdening the reader.

Each line is poetry.

"...scribbled with kelp..."
"...carbonated with pleasure..."
"Lily wished she had a tail so she too could turn her bum to Meredith and trace such indolent arabesques of contempt."

[Suze]

This collection of pared down stories stunned me in a couple of ways. Often I felt like I didn’t *get it* in the end – Lyon hurtles through episodic snippets with fanatic faith in the reader’s imagination to fill in the blanks. But I clung to every urgent detail, drooled like a groupie over her tingling language – carbonated with pleasure (p.149) – and offbeat images – preschooler … in an elbow-swallowing shirt (p.179). I read the book slowly, never two stories in a row, to savour the punch – her eyes squinched … as though sleep were a fight she lost (p.186). I searched for a thread to tie these stories together – what? Something about vulnerability, I think, about our sloppy grip on control. Ultimately I was in love with *how* she said it, though I wasn’t always certain *what* she said.

[Laura]

“My friend is an archaeologist. He likes bones. Dinosaur bones, Neanderthal bones, ribs from the Chinese takeaway. When I am Egyptian he brushes me with his brushes, my flesh his dust. When I am Siberian he ladles warm water over me, thawing me slowly. I open my eyes. My mother says, Just remember: if it’s pink inside, it isn’t done.”

[LC Reading]

Gorgeous. I am continuing on my discovery of short stories, and this book includes many gorgeous examples of the form. I will definitely read more Lyon (including her novels) - I am very interested to see how the spare, sometimes elliptical language she uses in these stories translates to a novel. Highly recommended.

[E.M. Williams]

I read Oxygen for my English undergrad culminating project.

I won't pretend I remember all the stories so many years later, but I do remember how brilliantly constructed her writing is at the sentence level. As I recall, that's why my instructor, Dr. Judith Miller, wanted me to read it.

Excited to see her work reaching new audiences in 2026.

[Andrea Taylor]

These stories challenge the imagination. I found myself getting frustrated at times and that means the stories were working on my mind. I do think they are worth reading and some stories leave you wanting more. So it is in life, you are always coming up for air.

[Diane]

Intriguing story of an anesthesiologist who loves her job but who finds herself in the unthinkable position of being accused of causing the death of a little girl during what should have been routine surgery. Especially interesting because the author IS an anesthesiologist.

[VWrulesChick]

Normally do not read short stories, but enjoyed it - however there were a couple I would have liked to know more...got me hooked and leave me dangling. Definitely push and pull of human nature and wanting to connect or not. Easy read.

[Kristin]

Overall this is not one of my favourite short story collections. I found that a lot of the stories were missing the mark - whether it be the characters didn't seem real or the stylistic elements were off. Will be sticking with the likes of Alice Munro and Margaret Atwood in the future.

[Mela]

Here writing is sometimes so intriguing that it lifted me out of the story. A writer's writer I would say.

[Mar]

Collection of short stories. I liked some more than others, but overall, think it is a good collection.

[Alice]

Poor read, couldn't finish it!!