Hugh Hood has been called Canada's foremost writer of short stories, and in this book, the first complete critical work on Hood's short stories, Copoloff-Mechanic shows why he is the master craftsman of this genre. Hood has always insisted that his short-story collections should be treated as a unity -- as if each story were a chapter of a novel. In this book, the author accepts Hood's challenge, and shows how his six collections to date are carefully arranged in relation to a guiding theme. As Copoloff-Mechanic shows, the stories in each of the collections are carefully interconnected to illuminate the details of Canadian life in terms of a universal, timeless drama.