Reid, Gilbert

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Reid, Gilbert

PERSONAL:

Born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Canada.

CAREER:

Writer; film, television, and radio producer. Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), Toronto, Ontario, Canada, writer and producer of documentaries. Served as director of the Canadian Cultural Centre, Rome, Italy, for eleven years; has worked as a lecturer in Sicily, an economist in Paris, France, and a diplomat in London, England, and Rome; also worked in public relations and film in Italy.

WRITINGS:

(With John Turner) Aspetti del cinema canadese, Cineteca nazionale (Rome, Italy), 1978.

So This Is Love: Lollipop and Other Stories, Key Porter Books (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 2004, Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 2006.

Reviewer for Toronto Globe and Mail and Times Literary Supplement.

SIDELIGHTS:

Gilbert Reid is a Canadian film, television, and radio producer. Reid spent more than thirty years in Europe, working variously as a lecturer in Sicily, an economist in France, and a diplomat in England. He also served as the director of the Canadian Cultural Centre in Italy for eleven years. Since returning to Canada, he has written and produced documentaries for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

Reid is the author of the critically acclaimed volume So This Is Love: Lollipop and Other Stories. "There is nothing sweet or pretty in these nine stories," observed January Magazine reviewer Cherie Thiessen. "Readers seeking comfort food should look elsewhere." Set in such countries as Italy, France, and Yugoslavia, the tales "illuminate the tortured relationship between love and loss," according to a Publishers Weekly critic. In "Pavilion 24," for example, a Muslim soldier grudgingly befriends a blind Serbian woman, and "Hey, Mister!" concerns a troubled war photographer's efforts to save someone's life. According to Booklist critic Emily Cook, Reid's "story lines are an intriguing weave of memory and place, reminding us love is ever-changing." Thiessen offered a different assessment of the collection, describing it as "bleak, harsh, dissolute, mocking," and stating, "Overall there is a strong sense of ennui in many of the stories, expatriates who don't seem to have anything to do but drink and hurt one another. It's not a gentle world."