Hugh Garner

Cabbagetown

The heart of a storyteller

I can't think of any Hugh Garner stories I like better than those in this collection. So I guess these are his best. They're pretty good.

If you grew up in Canada since the 1960s, you probably already know some of these stories — you've studied "The Conversion of Willie Heaps" or "One-Two-Three Little Indians" in school. These are stories that not only show with gritty realism the heart-breaking lives of their characters, but also carry moral messages such as anti-racism.

But although Garner is a feisty, iconoclastic writer for his time, he's at heart a storyteller with a profound interest in people. His moral purpose is just to show you others' lives, others' experiences, to make of them what you will. 

Some of the tales you did not read in school, like "The Magnet" and "The Yellow Sweater", concern sexual tensions. "The Magnet" hardly mentions sex, yet the relation between a farm widow and a hired man is thick with desire, jealousy and foolish pride. For me, it's the understated masterpiece of the collection.

A few that deal not with other characters but appear to be minor bits of memoir or journalism, like "How I Became an Englishman" (a great title at least), are too slight to be of interest and should not have been included.

But for the most part these are classic stories, told with deceptive simplicity. The very best of them I would hold up against the best that any county has to offer.

— Eric 

© Copyright 2002-2004 Eric McMillan. All rights reserved.