I was extremely excited to read Alexander MacLeod’s collection of short stories, Light Lifting, for my April CanLit selection, especially after I was introduced to it as a selection for the ScotiaBank Giller Prize. MacLeod is the son of veteran Canadian short story writer Alistair MacLeod who is something of a local legend in my adopted city of Windsor, Ontario. You will sometimes find Alistair in the University of Windsor’s English Department, where he is Professor Emeritus, and I had the very great fortune and pleasure of meeting him several years ago when he sat down with Marty Gervais’s (another local author and publisher) writing group to discuss his writing methodology. There is nothing more fascinating than listening to a published author discuss how they come up with story ideas and their work habits. I can still picture Alistair’s 8.5 x 11 exercise book in which he writes all his stories by long-hand. He writes on one side of the page only, leaving the other side blank for edits and revisions. That night, he talked about a new story he was working on and the struggle to find descriptions for snow. Fascinating!
So you can imagine how thrilled I was to begin reading Light Lifting, stories written by his son Alexander, who was raised in Windsor, Ontario. The collection is locally published by Dan Wells’ Biblioasis press, and is filled with references to local sites, which thrills this reader. I love reading books with local flavor and Light Lifting doesn’t disappoint, from the title story about bricklayers working during one of Windsor’s boom times, laying down driveways in Southwood Lakes, among other neighbourhoods, to the boys racing trains long the underground rail line between Windsor and Detroit, to the story about accidents on Number Three highway and the protagonist who walks down University to Huron Church and along Huron Church to the 401 overpass, heading for the Number Three highway and describes, as he passes, the University buildings, the malls and strip club, Tim Horton’s and McDonalds. I’ve driven this route, which made the pictures so much more vivid in my head as I read MacLeod’s story. So much of the CanLit fiction I read is Toronto-based and so it’s nice to read something local and close to home, to remember that Ontario is more than just Toronto, and great fiction can be written about this province’s smaller towns.
A delightful read that will bring back memories for many Windsor and Essex County residents, Light Lifting is Canadian fiction at its finest.
Till next time, happy reading.
L J
TBR = 6 | WPL = 16 |
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