Section Lines: A Manitoba Anthology ed. by Mark Duncan (review)

76 Western American Literature fifty-year pilgrimage as cultural historian. I find this justification unnecessary. Even though much of his work settles into a limited geographical area, the subjects he illuminates and the style in which they are presented are their own justification. JOHN R. MILTON University of South Dakota Section Lines: A Manitoba Anthology. Edited by Mark Duncan. (Winnipeg: Touchstone Press, 1988. 266 pages, $12.95.) Reading through an anthology like this, one is taken by the arm into new worlds of words that might be otherwise missed. As with other travels, the experiences are uneven. Still, the venture is worth the effort. In general, the fiction isstronger than the poetry in this collection of Manitoba writing, largely from the eighties. Traditional approaches predominate over experimentation. For example, the past and the land are two common themes which tempt some of the writers to clichéd presentations. Two of the best stories, though, hold to present adult life: David Arnason’s “Sons and Fathers, Fathers and Sons,” after a slow opening insightfully considers the problems of generational differ­ ences and middle-aged anxiety; Carol Shields avoids sentimentality through sharp, imaginative wit in “Flitting Behavior,” a story about the uneasy relation­ ship a writer finds between his writing and his wife’s terminal illness. Most of the others, including stories pleasurable to reread by Laurence and Ross, are constructed as childhood memories. They reflect Manitoba’s ethnic diversity and generally have a rural or small-town setting. The most humorous isArmin Wiebe’s “These Troubled Times,” a story about a supposedly simple, small­ time farmer who views his fellow “Flat Germans” with shrewd insight. The poetry isgenerally lyrical, often cleverly metaphorical and too serious, as in “but Manitoba / oh Manitoba, you are still / a beautiful elevator storing sunlight / and growing out of the black / summer earth.” On the other hand, Kristjana Gunnars’ vernacular language and use of immigrant folk wisdom, Patrick Friesen’spowerful imagery in excerpts from The Shunning, the strange twisting of the familiar in a Dennis Cooley poem like “by the red,” the visual play of Angela Medwin’s “O Pen Let Her,” and some others engage the reader by showing new possibilities for breaking away from the expected. Though mixed, this anthology does introduce the reader to quite a few writers worth pursuing. It provides a good introduction to recent literature of this region. REGINALD DYCK University of Washington ...