In 1978 Raymond Fraser’s The Bannonbridge Musicians was nominated for a Governor General’s Award. This is the first time since then that the Maritime writer has broken his fictional silence in book form, though a number of these stories have appeared in magazines.

Rum River is made up of eight stories, most linked by a fictitious community – Rum River, near a fictitious place, (Bannonbridge, New Brunswick) and a person, Walt Macbride, writer, philanderer, drunk, captain of the ship Black North.

The collection opener, “What It Was Like,” is a discursive, 99-page account of Walt’s near-demise as he swings between death-by-drink and death-by-boredom, alternating candour and alcoholic sophistry.

The shorter stories that follow are a mixed bag. Some have historical interest: “Caught” (written in 1961) deals with 10-year-old Walt’s brush with a pederast. “Ten and Three” is a direct, funny story with a great ending about his sexual initiation with a Toronto prostitute. “Carnival,” from the poet’s student days, has a sophomoric, unformed quality that could be viewed as authentic or just careless. “A Case of Identity” gives us a glimpse of the young bard’s early days in Montreal with his future wife, Eva.

The women in Fraser’s stories are generally detached and peripheral, which seems to reflect their survival strategy as much as it does Fraser’s facility in depicting female characters. Eva puts up with the culture of alcohol while it suits her but retains her ability to function, while the women who don’t are well and truly lost. The men are oddly more resilient, despite the fact that many labour under the handicap of a quart of rum a day.

The central figure in the last story, the 40-page-long “Lady Luck,” we have already met in “What It Was Like.” Huge, generous-hearted Tommy Waggoner’s prodigious capacity for drink has lost him everything but a little money for spirits and beer, a tiny shack, and his good nature. Every month he buys lottery tickets and portions out his potential millions. When the dream ends in ashes, he is unfazed; it’s not the first time his life has gone up in smoke. Fraser has near-perfect pitch when it comes to dialogue, and his ear is flawless in “Lady Luck.” Ending the book with it is an inspired stroke, redeeming anything less satisfying that has gone before.