The back cover of Another Mouth (1979) calls George Bowering "fearlessly honest," and a note "About the Author" tells the reader that he was born in 1939; John Roberto Colombo, in Contemporary Poets (a reference book) says 1938; Frank Davey, Bowering's...

A survey of Bowering's writing becomes a study of the principles of language at work: the subtleties of cadence and rime, the use of the lyric or serial poem form, the associative way in which language sometimes unfolds, as well as Bowering's use of the poetic breath line and rambling prose line. (p. 83) Bowering willingly acknowledges the poets of the American Black Mountain school as having been a primary influence upon his writing. (pp. 83-4)

A Short Sad Book (it is fairly short, but I don't find it sad—on the contrary) sets forth, in an atmosphere of fantasy and parody, some of Bowering's views; introduces various fictional or "real" characters; and tells a series of little fables that involve Tom Thomson, D. H. Lawrence, Al Purdy, and several others. Bowering speaks directly to his readers and tells us, among other things, that from early youth he has had difficulty dealing with the idea of Canada—in a...

Vonnegut, Barth, Fowles look out: Here comes Bowering. The parody of realistic fiction or anti-novel (to use the familiar semi-literate label) is itself parodied in A Short Sad Book. George Bowering has descended from the Black Mountain to cock a snook at post-modern fiction, to have some fun with Canadian nationalism, Canadian history, Canadian literary personalities, and to raise some heavy philosophical issues…. A Short Sad Book does have a beginning and an ending, but like scenery and Canadian hi...