Fiction

LETTERS IN CANADA: 1944 267 Rhyt~m poems (Ryerson poetry chap-books; Toronto, Ryerson, 8 pp., SOc.). Melville (Tom), Barbed wire ballads (Regina and Toronto, School Aids andText Book Publishing .Co.) 61 pp.). Merkel (Andrew), The Order of Good Cheer: a narrative 'poem (Halifax, Imperial Publishing Co., 49 pp., $1:00). Merrin (Gwendolen), Legend and other poems (Ryerson poetry chap-books; Toronto, Ryerson, 12 pp.) 60c.). Mutter (Jean), Mud-pup: a sequence in light-verse (Victoria, the author, 1009 Terrace Ave.) 30 pp.). Nash (A. C.), Songs of the seasons (Vllncouver, Dunsmuir Printing Co.; the author, 1891 Marine Drive, Hollyburn, B.C., 40 pp.). Perry (M. E.), Canteen (Vancouver, Clarke Printing Co.; the author, 1627 Wilmot Place,-20 pp.) 35c.). Pratt (E. J.), Collected poems (Toronto, Macmillan, xii, 314 pp., $3.00). Purdy (A. W.), The enchanted echo (Vancouver, Clarke and Stuart Co., 62 pp.). Robinson (H. T. D.), Sky ways (Toronto, Ryerson, 48 pp., $2.65). Schull (Joseph), I, Jones, soldier (Toronto, Macmillan, viii, 62 pp., $1.75). Tranter (Joy), A soldier's legacy . (Toronto, Ambassador Books, 85 pp., :bLOO). 'Vaddell (J. P.), Candled by stars (Toronto, Ryerson, x, 52 pp., $2.00), WiHsher (Ann), Stanley Park, Vancouver, British Columbia: spring, sommer, autumn, winter (Vancouver, Clarke and Stuart Co.) 4 poems, 4 photographs), II. FICTION J, R. MACGILLIVRAY 'The amount of Canadian fiction published in 1944, though slightly larger than in two or three recent years, was much less -than it used to be before the war. This was only to be expected. A similar falling off has no doubt occurred elsewhere.- But it was especially to be anticipated in Canada where, for reasons often explored, few writers have been able to make a living by their art, and the creation of- imaginative literature' has largely continued to be the amateur occupation of leisure time now more difficult to find than ever before. The principal sensation of our literary season was the lavish debut of Gwethalyn Graham's Earth and High HeaDen, an event that for a day or two ac~ually raised a Canadian novel to frontpage -notice in our newspapers, and evoked from even the most unbookish among the author's fellow-citizens a solid respect and enthusiasm for a native writer which" they had not displayed since 'Jalna likewise won a large cash-award and the notice of American readers fifteen years ago. Of the other volumes in general there is nothing unusual to report. A few first novels show-gratifying signs of promise, and about as many second ones do the same. Once more historical fiction seems to be the favourite genre of our writers; with other types of romance a close second, but the war (from the civilian's point of view) and social problems of our time have their place in one or two of the mOI'e serious works of the year. The first Canadian war-novel by an actual combatant in the present struggle has still to be published. Earth and High HeaDen has not only been the most advertised and most widely read of the books on our list; it has deserved this attention because of the real social problem on which it centres, the small group of characters who are the means of its imaginative projection, and the quality of style which alone would distinguish this novel from the others of the year. The general problem is anti-Semitisrn, not the vulgar type, cultivated by the 268 ' THE UNIVERSITY OF TORO~TO QUARTERLY illiberal and the vicious for their own evil motives, but the more respectable and subtle variety which can influence our most ordinary social behaviour, and which commonly decent and reasonable people can carry in their minds without moral disquiet or any feat of harbouring the germs of the loathsome Nazi plague. The scene of the novel is Montreal) where three potentially antagonistic groups divide a great city) and where, to quote the witticism on the first page, ea,ch' suffers from an irritating sense of inferiority, "the French be~ause they are a minority in Canada, the English because they are a minority in Quebec, and the Jews because they are a minority everywhere ." The time...