NINE LIVES Dave Margoshes Saskatoon (Sask.), Thistledown Press, 1991. 143pp, paper, $16.00 ISBN 0-920633-85-4. CIP Adult Reviewed by Ellen Robson. Volume 19 Number 6 1991 November Dave Margoshes, born in New Jersey and now living in Saskatchewan, is a journalist and instructor of journalism. His fiction and poetry have been published in many literary journals and anthologies as well as in his first collection of short fiction. Small Regrets and Walking at Brighton (Thistledown Press, 1988), a poetry collection. Reading this collection makes one feel one has just emerged from inside a surrealistic painting. The whole experience is macabre and dark but imaginative. The nine stories each focus on one character with unusual quirks. In the first story, Uncle Tom sets up a farm of thousands of cats for their milk. The second story features a woman growing a sunflower plant inside her, while "Striptease" graphically describes a stripper who tosses aside all the parts of her body. Also featured are hand­some alien entrepreneurs, a gag writer for Jesus, and an extraterrestrial who was the Loch Ness Monster. Margoshes makes effective use of language with an economy of words. With the present reading trend toward horror and the macabre, this book has a place but will probably be picked up by senior students and adults. This collection should be read before purchasing, considering some of the topics and the price. Ellen Robson, Winston Churchill Collegiate, Scarborough, Ont.