A History of Canadian Fiction
David Staines
(Cambridge University Press, $126.95, 304 page)
David Staines, a professor of English at the University of Ottawa and editor of the New Canadian Library, provides a good overview of English fiction in Canada (although there is nothing on French-language fiction and the author does not even try to justify the omission). As much as one can in about 300 pages, Staines chronicles the development of a Canadian literary culture, examining foreign literary influences, how early Canadian writers went abroad (the U.S. and U.K.) to be published, and eventually the growth a domestic publishing industry, including the publication of fiction in magazines. This survey shines most in its accounts of Canadian writers and it generally avoids making political judgements: there is about the right amount of attention for indigenous writers and his treatment of the underrated Sara Jeannette Duncan is fair and does not attempt to turn her into an early feminist icon. (Her The Imperialist is the best work of political fiction this country has produced.) There is, of course, Margaret Atwood, Margaret Lawrence, and Alice Munro, and Mordecai Richler, Morley Callaghan and Hugh MacLellan, among other giants and lesser-known authors. Staines is uneven in the how much he delves into the individual stories of authors, but this is not a work of criticism. He gives short-shrift to professional critics (Northrop Frye gets just one mention) and he shirks questions that arise from government subsidies to the arts (the 1951 Massey Report gets one sentence). Still, this volume should be read by anyone with an interest in not only Canadian literature, but Canadian history, as many of the stories our greatest authors are stories of our land and its people at a particular time. The price, however, might scare off many potential readers.
