My wife, a cynical observer of literary criticism in this country, seemed curious. “Why would they ask you?” she wanted to know, referring to the blue hardcover I had just received in the mail along with a request from the Literary Review of Canada to write a 1,200-word review.
I started to tell her “because I am a writer known for my provocative essays, insightful criticisms, and, and …” but before all the words could tumble from my tongue she fired her follow-up question, “What is it about?”
Paraphrasing the jacket blurb I replied, “a daring silver heist in the North written by the daughter of the bandit, who at the age of ten, watched her father go to prison.”
My wife does not smirk much but when she does … “Anything ring familiar there? A daring gold heist? A ten-year-old girl, father goes to prison?” The penny dropped with about the same resounding whump as the silver boulder in the title of Alicia Priest’s first and only...
Stephen Reid lives with his wife, the poet Susan Musgrave, on Haida Gwaii. His last book was A Crowbar in the Buddhist Garden (Thistledown Press, 2012).
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