A North American education;: A book of short fiction

by Clark Blaise

A North American Education is a collection of polished and disturbing short stories about life and the passage of time.

Genres: Short Stories, Canada, Fiction

230 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1973

About the author

Clark Blaise, OC (born 10 April 1940) is a Canadian author.
Born in Fargo, North Dakota, he currently lives in San Francisco, California. He has been married since 1963 to writer Bharati Mukherjee. They have two sons. A graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa, Blaise was also the director of the International Writing Program. While living in Montreal in the early 1970s he joined with authors Raymond Fraser, Hugh Hood, John Metcalf and Ray Smith to form the celebrated Montreal Story Tellers Fiction Performance Group.
In 2009, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada "for his contributions to Canadian letters as an author, essayist, teacher, and founder of the post-graduate program in creative writing at Concordia University".

Reviews

[b · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book about humility, about being unsure and being out of sorts. A shy cosmopolitan tone to it, at once knowingly defensive & isolated & yet still venturing into the unknown. A little bit 'oh woe is me I'm an educated straight dude who likes chivalry,' however, not in a capacity that makes you have to put the book down. Blaise seems to know these characters are making mistakes, and let's them wade out fully into them to figure it out for themselves.

I'm really impressed with this book. I read a newer collection of his, The Meagre Tarmac, a few years ago which is maybe better, but, this is perhaps more open, a few more thematic directions than the later work which is a remarkable daisy-chain of stories. If you like short fiction, pick these books up!

"He strolled to the water's edge. It was cold. And noisy—such unattended noise was terrifying. A thousand bathers would go unheard." -120 Blaise

[Gemington · Rating 3 out of 5]

CW: abandonment, voyeurism, fetishization, loss, adultery, accidents

These short stories are engrossing but very much feel like therapy. The autobiographical nature is not explicitly stated but very present. The stories feel claustrophobic at times. The main characters are struggling with and coming to terms with their sexuality. Their development in multiple contexts, American and Canadian, allow them to observe the world at a remove. Some protagonists are more interested in immigrant experiences. The treatment of a trip to India was an interesting glimpse into air travel in the past.

This seemed like a disjointed memoir told in fragments and out of order. The characters didn’t seem unique enough in individual stories to feel Iike they were separate from previous stories’ mothers, fathers, spouses, etc.

There are some moving images in a few stories. I also thought the reflections on education and its meanings were poignant in the first third.

[Lila · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this 1973 short story collection up at a store in Montreal a few years ago for 99 cents. It is a good semi-autobiographical book by a Canadian author who grew up in the southern U.S. I will definitely try some of his later writing (novels, memoirs)