Taddle Creek
This is the nice looking Annex litmag that comes out once a year and is, finally, abandoning their bizarre attempt to limit themselves to publishing only writers from the Annex (a small posh community in downtown Toronto). Anyway, the move is much needed since not all of the fiction in this baby lives up to its excellent production values. In particular, opening story by former rocker star Moe Berg was weak. It’s the generic, predictable tale of an asshole boyfriend who treats his girlfriend like shit and can’t stand losing at poker to her family. Things pick up though when the non-celeb writing appears. Andrew Loung’s story Soldiers was solidly written if a bit ponderous. Alfred Holden’s essay on the attitude Toronto took to apartment buildings in the 50s and 60s and the one great apartment building that proved them wrong is a great bit of prose. Features on writers Chris Chambers and Patricia Seaman round out this good effort. (HN)
litmag, #3, 40 pgs, Conan Tobias (ed.), $4, PO Box 611, Station P, Toronto, ON, M5S 2Y4