Forget Maclean’s and Hockey Night in Canada. Our northern neighbor
is nowhere rendered so clearly as in the pages of Geist, and
we’re not talking stoic Manitoba farmers or tragic Newfoundland
fishermen. Geist’s Canada is wry, quirky, seamy around the
edges. Populated by raconteur bus drivers and pornographers,
bookslingers and mall rats, the eight-year-old Vancouver-based
quarterly deploys the standard arsenal (essays, memoir, fiction,
poetry, photography) but veers regularly into farce (‘If Michael
Jackson Was Canadian’), fantasy (‘The Philosopher’s Map of
Canada’), and fatalism (‘Dead Mall’). You don’t have to be a
Canada-phile to appreciate the ‘Great Canadian Haiku Contest’ and
‘Ideology of the Canoe’; in fact, it’s probably helpful if you’re
not.Geist, 1014 Homer St. #103,
Vancouver, BC V6B 2W9. Subscriptions: $21/yr. (4 issues) in the
U.S., $15/yr. in Canada; 604/681-9161;
www.geist.com.
