The New Oxford Book of Canadian Short Stories

by Margaret Atwood (Editor), Robert Weaver (Compiler)

First published in 1987, The New Oxford Book of Canadian Short Stories was hailed as "a world-class anthology" in The Washington Post Book World and as "a banquet of stories...to be savored and enjoyed over and over again" in The Philadelphia Inquirer . Now, in The New Oxford Book of Canadian
Short Stories , Margaret Atwood and Robert Weaver have compiled an updated anthology that surpasses the original in historical and regional balance while providing fiction lovers with another superb collection of works in a handy paperback format.
Featuring forty-five stories, four more than in the first edition, and including new stories by eighteen of the writer featured in the original, The New Oxford Book of Canadian Short Stories offers an engaging survey of Canada's leading writers and finest short stories. But perhaps the most
exciting feature is the presence of many new writers, including Thomas King, Carol Shields, Rohinton Mistry, and Dionne Brand, writers who underscore Atwoods conviction that the Canadian short story will continue to grow, mutate, re-seed itself, and flourish. The New Oxford Book of Canadian Short
Stories , revised and updated, reflects the increasing diversity of the genre and the growing reputation of a new generation of Canadian writers. It belongs on the shelf of all aficionados of short fiction.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Canada, School, Anthologies, Read For School

478 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1987

About the author

Margaret Atwood was born in 1939 in Ottawa and grew up in northern Ontario, Quebec, and Toronto. She received her undergraduate degree from Victoria College at the University of Toronto and her master's degree from Radcliffe College.

Throughout her writing career, Margaret Atwood has received numerous awards and honourary degrees. She is the author of more than thirty-five volumes of poetry, children’s literature, fiction, and non-fiction and is perhaps best known for her novels, which include The Edible Woman (1970), The Handmaid's Tale (1983), The Robber Bride (1994), Alias Grace (1996), and The Blind Assassin, which won the prestigious Booker Prize in 2000. Atwood's dystopic novel, Oryx and Crake, was published in 2003. The Tent (mini-fictions) and Moral Disorder (short stories) both appeared in 2006. Her most recent volume of poetry, The Door, was published in 2007. Her non-fiction book, Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth ­ in the Massey series, appeared in 2008, and her most recent novel, The Year of the Flood, in the autumn of 2009. Ms. Atwood's work has been published in more than forty languages, including Farsi, Japanese, Turkish, Finnish, Korean, Icelandic and Estonian. In 2004 she co-invented the Long Pen TM.

Margaret Atwood currently lives in Toronto with writer Graeme Gibson.

Associations: Margaret Atwood was President of the Writers' Union of Canada from May 1981 to May 1982, and was President of International P.E.N., Canadian Centre (English Speaking) from 1984-1986. She and Graeme Gibson are the Joint Honourary Presidents of the Rare Bird Society within BirdLife International. Ms. Atwood is also a current Vice-President of PEN International.

Reviews

[Brok3n · Rating 2 out of 5]

Misery, Canadian style

I read The New Oxford Book of Canadian Short Stories, (eds Margaret Atwood, Robert Weaver) because it is the textbook for a community college course I've registered for this winter called "Writing Short Stories". This is one of the worst short story collections I have ever read in my life.

I noticed early on that it appeared to be the same story over and over again. A man and a woman are trapped in a desperately unhappy marriage. Maybe something happens, or maybe not. It is evident that for Atwood and Weaver plot is entirely optional. Some of the stories had one, and some did not. There were rare exceptions to the desperately unhappy marriage storyline, in which the characters were miserable for other reasons.

You know that feeling of relief as you approach the end of a really bad book? I had that feeling 45 times in rapid succession as I worked my way through this dog. The book contains 47 stories. There were thus two stories I was able to read without longing for the end. The first was "Shoeless Joe Jackson Comes to Iowa", by W.P. Kinsella, which is the story behind the movie Field of Dreams. This is in fact quite a good story, and was unique in this volume in not being a portrayal of misery. The other story I quite liked was "Making It", by Margaret Gibson.

My problem with the book is not that the stories are all sad. I can love a sad story as much as anyone. My problem with the collection is the lack of variety. Surely not every good Canadian short story is a dreary portrayal of crushing misery.

In fact, I know they are not. William Gibson's Burning Chrome contains a bunch of good stories. Of course, Burning Chrome is science fiction, and Atwood and Weaver apparently scorn "genre literature". The only non-mainstream lit story in the collection is "Shoeless Joe Jackson." (Shoeless Joe comes back from the dead. That's fantasy in my book.) It is strange, considering that Atwood's most famous work, The Handmaid’s Tale, is science fiction. (She denies this, saying it is "Speculative Fiction" but not "Science Fiction", but that is only the universal human urge to see oneself as a unique snowflake. The Handmaid’s Tale is firmly within the social science fiction tradition of such works as Fahrenheit 451 and 1984.)

Do not read this book if you don't have to. If you're a writer and value my advice (and there is no reason on Earth you should), don't write like this.

Blog review.

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great collection with a wide variety of stories, some of which I enjoyed better than others, with something for everyone. Some of the stories could be set anywhere while others really capture the feel and history of Canada, and taken altogether it shows the diversity of the Canadian culture and influences. The writing is superb throughout and the different styles compliment each other well. All of the stories are well developed with interesting characters, although you may not like them all and some you will downright hate.

[Glen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an exceptional collection, though becoming a little long in the proverbial tooth so it does not include examples of more recent Canadian talent, and since it focuses on English it also excludes most French-Canadian authors, which is problematic but unavoidable where translations are not available. The more recent anthology from Penguin edited by Jane Urquhart rectifies those gaps without any redundancies that I am aware of, so if you are as much a fan of Canadian short fiction as I am, get both!

[Kelsey Amber · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had to read this collection as part of a course I was taking on writing short stories. While I was only required to read a select number of stories, I did end up reading several others works by authors I previously knew. There is a good variety of work included in this volume and it was fairly enjoyable. I think it does a good job at showcasing the talents of many Canadian writers, including ones that may be lesser known but still equally as talented as some of the bigger names.

[Cabiria Aquarius · Rating 5 out of 5]

These short stories are very well written and amazing plots and well cute and well. I had read one before in class at school but the rest were new to me. I recognized some names but most were new to me.

The stories had amazing detail and had interesting ideas and characters.

Loved them. Most of them. I loved them in terms of well written. Loved others for sense of content. Amazing.

[John Hanson · Rating 3 out of 5]

A wide variety of stories, 47 total. About a third were top shelf, a third were ho hum, and the rest I could have done without. This is a good exposure to Canadian variety, and worthwhile for anyone interested in the short form.

[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read the first edition. I'm not a short story "person," but I found The Oxford Book both an insight into what makes Canadian Literature different from American or British Lit and an immigrant's quick tour of the museum of beautifully told tales.

[Zeecon · Rating 4 out of 5]

A solid collection reflecting the immense diversity in classic English-language CanLit's style and cultural influences. What started out as homework, to brush up on Canadian short fiction, turned out to be (mostly) quite pleasurable. I revisited some familiar works (holy, devastating, "Lamp at Noon!"), and discovered wonderful authors I'd missed before (Timothy Findley, Mavis Gallant, Dionne Brand, Barbara Gowdy). This anthology does not challenge the canon in any way, but tbh, the CanLit canon is pretty cool, featuring plenty of feminist and postcolonial perspectives. This book is thus a good starting place, though it's certainly not the final word. (Also, why the heck are there so many typos in this 1995 edition?)

[Mad · Rating 2 out of 5]

I hope to God that we as a nation have produced better short stories since this collection's publication.

[Jeff Hobbs]

Read so far:

Extradited / Isabella Valancy Crawford --
The idyl of the island / Susie Frances Harrison --3
Do seek their meat from God / Charles G.D. Roberts --3
The Desjardins / Duncan Campbell Scott --
*The marine excursion of the Knights of Pythias / Stephen Leacock --
From Flores / Ethel Wilson --
Last spring they came over / Morley Callaghan --2
The wedding gift / Thomas H. Raddall --
*The lamp at noon / Sinclair Ross --
One-two-three little Indians / Hugh Garner --
The old woman / Joyce Marshall --
Causation / Helen Weinzweig --
The ice wagon going down the street / Mavis Gallant --3
We all begin in a little magazine / Norman Levine --
*The loons / Margaret Laurence --
The bully / James Reaney --
Flying a red kite / Hugh Hood --
Dinner along the Amazon / Timothy Findley --
*The Peace of Utrecht / Alice Munro --
*The summer my grandmother was supposed to die / Mordecai Richler --
Slogans / Jane Rule --
Griff! / Austin C. Clarke --
The day I sat with Jesus on the sundeck and a wind came up and blew my kimono open and He saw my breasts / Gloria Sawai --
Anita's dance / Marian Engel --
The woman who talked to horses / Leon Rooke --
*Where is the voice coming from? / Rudy Wiebe --
A short story / George Bowering --
*The thrill of the grass / W.P. Kinsella --
*Kill day on the government wharf / Audrey Thomas --
The black queen / Barry Callaghan --2
By the river / Jack Hodgins --
*The sin eater / Margaret Atwood --
Bloodflowers / W.D. Valgardson --
A class of new Canadians / Clark Blaise --
The lady from Lucknow / Bharati Mukherjee --2
Cape Breton is the thought control centre of Canada / Ray Smith --
The Eiffel Tower in three parts / Matt Cohen --
The wild plum tree / Sandra Birdsell --
Mid-May's eldest child / Edna Alford --
Sociology / Katherine Govier --
Dancing bear / Guy Vanderjaeghe--

[Susan Emmet · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful anthology edited by Margaret Atwood and Robert Weaver from 1986. Bought it at John Merrill's Bookstore in Hallowell, Maine. What a fine book shop it is, too.
I studied French one summer at McGill while trying to decide whether to major in English or French. Fine course of study; fine university; amazing city.
This collection includes forty stories, arranged chronologically, by authors ranging from Leacock to Gallant to Reaney to Hood to Munro to Rule to Engel to Kinsella to Atwood to Mukherjee to Smith to Cohen to Vanderhaeghe. My favorites were "Mid-May's Eldest Child," "Dancing Bear," "The Thrill of Grass," "The Ice Wagon Going Down the Street," "The Day I Sat With Jesus on the Sundeck and a Wind Came Up and Blew My Kimono Open and He Saw My Breasts," "The Sin Eater," "Griff," and "The Summer My Grandmother Was Supposed to Die."
Such sense of language, of the huge diversity of Canadian voices, of the importance of place and belonging (or not), and the struggles in any nation for assimilation.
A well-wrought anthology worth reading.

[Sarasande Wake · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've only read a few of the stories in this compilation. I searched everywhere for the short story that I read several years ago which had "Jesus" in the title and also in the story. At last I discovered the story and the author on Google. Or is it "in" Google. Anyway, it is one of my favorite stories ever - funny in the best way, sacred and profane and crazy. So down to earth and mind-blowing,both. The author of the story, Gloria Sawai, made me fall in love with her. It is the way I feel about writing that moves me and makes me want to meet up with the author for a cup of tea. Every day. I'm not sure if she wrote very much. This one was written before I was in kindergarten and I haven't had time to do much research about any other writing of hers. I can't imagine that anyone would not get pleasure from this story.

[Sharon · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was a gift back in 1995 from a Canadian house guest! To be fair, there are a handful of excellent short stories in this hardback book. But what a total chore the rest were. Sorry to admit but there must be good reasons why, as a Canadian, I had not heard of more than 3/4 of the writers, also I consider short story writing to be quite specialized! Relief it is done....

[Jake · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good fiction collection, eh.

[Marc · Rating 4 out of 5]

American lit glorifies loss to make taming the frontier feel noble; Canadian lit girds readers for loss because, up here, the house almost never loses