This issue of Front & Centre features 10 fictional pieces, a sizable number of well-written and insightful book reviews, and a feature interview/e-mail conversation with Scottish social realist Laura Hird. This frank interview is followed by her short story, There Was a Soldier… The interview used as build-up for the story is a great idea. When we actually get to read and experience the author’s talent, it is in fact a frightful read with lasting impressions. Let’s just say there’s some nasty sex and a burning body. Many of the stories are noteworthy. Stoners by Sam Difalco is an enticing story set around Toronto and The Spirit of St. Francis, which provides “attendant care for physically challenged but independent adults”. Difalco beautifully renders the story through the eyes of one of the attendants who is equally compelled to provide marijuana and prostitutes to a couple of the boys at the facility and take note of his own physical and mental instabilities. Another story, “listen to me” by Ian C. Smith, is narrated by the ex-wife of a writer. The estranged writer rises to fame with stories based on the life he and the woman once shared. As her husband aptly suggested to her, questions about authorship are debunked by this “loopy old woman”, the narrator herself. Overall, F&C is good reading complimented by clean, professional layout. (PVP)
Magazine, Issue #3, winter/spring 2000, $5, $9 for 2 issues, Matthew Firth (Ed.), Black Bile Press, 136-A Billings Ave. Ottawa, ON K1H 5K9