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Sunday, 20 November 2016

The Box Social and Other Stories - James Reaney

Unusual collection of stories when compared to both his plays and his poetry - equally infused with the tropes of genres of classic English literature.  Surprisingly, though, many of the stories are quite strongly within the gothic tradition of late 19thc early 20th c short stories.

I still quite like his marrying of classic literary references (tragic king, evil witch, etc.) to the rural southern Ontario world of his childhood.  Reminds me a bit of David Adams Richards, though in a much sleeker style.  It is the same charm that affects his plays like Kildeer - nostalgia for a lost world of innocence (which is a major literary trope in itself.)

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