Letters in Canada 1975

Letters in Canada 1975 In this issue of Letters in Canada, the last to appear under the present editors, three important names are missing. M. Jean-Charles Bonenfant, one of our most faithful contributors, has found himself obliged for reasons of health to withdraw as reviewer in charge of the section entitled 'Etudes sociales.' We are deeply grateful for his long and punctual service on a wide variety of subjects. In the section devoted to 'Poesie,' M. Jacques Blais, after providing distinguished reviews for the past three years, has been succeeded by M. Rene Dionne. Finally, Professor Willard G. Oxtoby, on sabbatical leave in India, is temporarily absent from these pages, but will resume his responsibilities as reviewer of books on 'Religion' next year. (DMH) FICTION The baffling problem of how to cope with the increasing number of pieces of fiction that emerge each successive year cannot be resolved easily, but it does tend to have its compensations. Insofar as one has the privilege of surveying the total output, one can try to detect patterns, family groups, and make the kind of observations that the context of a multitude of books allows. One such obvious observation is that Canadian fiction has come of age, at least in the mundane sense of providing for most readers' tastes. And this is done as well at a number of levels, so that one can find the same subjects, the same preoccupations, and even the same narrative germs or ideas handled and deployed through a variety of sensibilities and skills. As far as the family groupings go, it is always interesting to note how, in what must be a coincidental concurrence , there emerge perceptible groupings. One year will demonstrate a great number of beginnings, so that first novels seem to characterize the major energies of fiction at that given time. When we turn to a year like this past one, however, it is not so much beginnings as the sense of rounding off and retrospect and consolidation that occur as the most striking phenomena. The one most signal example of this would of course be Morley Callaghan'S A Fine and Private Place (Macmillan, 213, $9.95) which has ...