Allison Muri

Current Projects, Publications & Web Publishing
    Xearl, Warrior Princess: Earl actually asked me to make this (Java, large files)
    Writing in Saskatchewan (if you want a link, write me.)
    Digital Bodies page
    Projects Page

Fiction:
    Hystery of the Broken Fether (Thistledown Press)
    "Little Boy Games" (Coteau Books)

Reviews of The Hystery of the Broken Fether

    University of Toronto Quarterly Winter 1997-98: "[The] persistent plays on words function as an in-joke between author and reader that bypasses the implied awareness of the narrator, making the latter seem rather like an idiot savant. This device can be wearing because of its frequency; it also creates an uncomfortable dynamic of reading, which has the effect of demeaning the narrator by drawing attention to, and even mocking, her ignorance. Similarly, the preponderance of self-conscious literary allusions (again implicitly beyond the full grasp of the narrator), while at first intriguing, gets tedious ... Isn't it cute, the narrative implies, that a simple farm woman might know something of Harold Bloom?"

    Canadian Book Review Annual, review by David R. Hutchinson: "the plot structure might function as a clever way for Muri to avoid criticism for writing a story that essentially reads like a first-time effort produced in a creative-writing class. The book is very difficult to read. ... Muri overuses this device [dialect] to the point of interfering with the reader's ability to make sense out of the developing mystery."

    Diverge (Winter 1997), review by Esmé Keith: the reproduction of the narrator's spelling errors and revisions is a "superficial attempt at verisimilitude [which] is distracting and adds little depth to the character or the work."

    Manitoba Library Association cm magazine vol 3, no. 7, review by Katheryn Broughton: "Highly Recommended."

    NeWest Review (Feb/Mar 1997), review by Lynne Van Luven: "The pity is, the narrator is a compelling character, but Muri burdens her with so many linguistic quirks, she doesn't have a chance. Instead of liberating her narrator, Muri has stifled her : some experiments shouldn't be let out of the laboratory and this is one of them."