A FINE & QUIET PLACE. Keeling, Nora. Ottawa. Oberon Press. 1987. 96pp, paper. ISBN 0-88750-683-6 (cloth) $23.95, 0-88750-684-4 (paper) $11.95. Adult/Secondary Reviewed by Esther Hutchison Volume 16 Number 5 1988 September In this, her third collection of short stories, Nora Keeling again deals with characters who are not particularly likeable. They tend to be lonely and self-centred, alienated from themselves and others. The publisher suggests that the stories are about women using men as men have used women; most of the relationships seem to involve using and being used. The language includes most of the crude expressions used by men to objectify women over the ages. One story describes how . . .it went on, the nights passed, the months, the years, all things seemed similar, events ran together like gravy, the participants In the piece merely aged, they did not grow, each for his or her own reasons. Given the nature of her protagonists, no other course is possible. If you like her other books, you may like this one. I didn't. Esther Hutchison, Spruce Grove. Alta.