Alistair MacLeod. 1936 - 2014. RIP

Farewell to one of Canada's best loved writers.  MacLeod wrote beautifully and he treated people kindly and with good humour. He will be missed. And I, for one, will take out his short stories and his novel and read them again, marvelling at the skill and compassion with which they are written.

Some people leave us far too soon. Although MacLeod was 77, it feels that way, as if the world has lost a gentle soul who made the lives of the rest of us better. Fortunately he leaves behind the books that we can still hold and read, a legacy of value.

Reviews, Brief.

Ron Schafrick's first book, a collection of short stories, The Interpreters, is masterfully written and with many of the stories set in Korea, of interest to those who find other cultures fascinating as well as those who appreciate good literature. Well done characterization as well as revealing dialogue.

Now reading Olivia Laing's The Trip to Echo Spring; On Writers and Drinking. At first, I was curious about the writers she chose...Cheever, Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Carver among a couple of others, all writers whose work I admire. I did not know about the drinking history of either Cheever or Carver, but what is more fascinating is how well written this book is. When people want to know what I'm reading, I imagine when they see the title they might think I have a drinking problem!