Invisible fictions : contemporary stories from Quebec /

Anthologies of Quebecois literature in translation are always welcome among US readers, and this one is all the more welcome in that it contains stories by such well-known authors as Jacques Ferron, Roch Carrier, Yves Theriault, and Michel Tremblay. The anthology is an expansion of an earlier issue of Canadian Fiction (v. 47, 1983), of which Hancock is editor-in-chief; and, in fact, several of the authors (Franois Hebert, Jean Ferguson, and Jacques Brossard) were represented in that issue. Hancock's anthology is a much more ambitious work than Intimate Strangers, ed. by Matt Cohen and Wayne Brady (1986). The translators, such as Sheila Fischman and Basil Kingstone, are among Canada's finest. (There are, however, two glaring errors in French on page 12 of the introduction, where the text should read Lettres Quebecoises, not Quebecois, and Mon pays, ce n'est pas un pays, c'est l'hiver not c'est ne pas.) The reader is forewarned that this is not easy, pleasant fiction: ``Readers who look for realistic settings, historical backdrops or sociological character studies will be startled.... No pea-soupers, no maple syrup, no separatist politics.'' To which one may ask, ``Why not?'' A good historical anthology of translations, such as The Oxford Book of French-Canadian Short Stories (CH, Oct '84), is sorely needed. Fortunately, Hancock's helpful introduction explores the implications of this vital literary genre. The biographical sketches are far too short, however. Appropriate for graduate students and upper-division undergraduates.-S.R. Schulman, Central Connecticut State University