| Lancette Arts Journal Founded in 2000 |
Book Reviews From our Archives |
May 2003 |
The Ability to Forget by Norman Levine, L&OD, 208 pages, paperback, $21.95
By Alidė Kohlhaas
The Ability to Forget is a book of
exquisitely written short stories of uncommon impact. They are from the pen of one of
Canada’s finest writers, although his name is far less known here than it should be.
Ottawa-born Norman Levine, whose book By A Frozen River was also reviewed in
Lancette, moved to St. Ives on the Cornwall coast in the early 1950s after graduating from
McGill University. No doubt, his war experiences influenced this move to England
for he had served in the RCAF during WWII in a Lancaster Squadron based in Yorkshire. Once
he returned to England after his years at McGill, he seemed to get swallowed up in the
life in St. Ives, and his stories of the west counties mirror this. Consequently, he
became a far better known literary figure in England than in Canada, although he has been
back and forth between the two countries, and in-between also lived in France. Now in his 80th year, this writer has given us another collection
of his stories that are both fiction and autobiography . Some are set in and around
Ottawa, some on the coast of Devon, even London, but most take place in and around St.
Ives, a Cornwall . . .
On June 16, 2005, Norman Levine died at age 82.
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