THE ANGEL OF THE TAR SANDS AND OTHER STORIES Rudy Wiebe. Toronto, McClelland and Stewart, c1982. 191pp, paper, $5.95. ISBN 0-7710-9308-X. Adult. Reviewed by Nancy Carlman. Volume 11 Number 2. 1983 March. This collection of sixteen stories is an eclectic group with characters including plains Indians, a murderer, a Mennonite child, an Inuit woman, and William F. Butler, ostensibly "an English gentleman with private means and sporting intent" but actually a spy for Colonel Wolseley's Winnipeg Expedition. Wiebe convinces readers with his versatile ability to portray the idiom, attitudes, and thought patterns of these very different people. His prose is always rich with detail, but in some cases the story disappears under the language, particularly in "The Naming of Albert Johnson" and "Where Is the Voice Coming From?" To understand the reader needs to bring knowledge of Johnson and Almighty Voice to the stories. The title story is a marvelous juxtaposition of an Old Testament angel with the modern world of northern Alberta oil. Nancy Carlman, Faculty of Education, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC.