SOURCE: Gurewich, David. “Breaking Away from the Brat Pack.” The New Leader 71, no. 5 (21 March 1988): 21-2.

In the following positive assessment of Emperors of the Air, Gurewich suggests that Canin's writing is too technically proficient.

In the title story of this collection [Emperor of the Air], a 69-year-old retired high school teacher, childless and recently recovered from a myocardial infarction, tries to protect a 250-year-old diseased elm from his next-door neighbor's efforts to have it cut down. The tone is calm, deliberate: “… though I have thought otherwise, I now think that hope is the essence of all good men.” The struggle causes him to reflect on his life as it draws to a close: “… all my adventures had a quality about them of safety and planned success. … In my life I have done few things that have frightened me.”

Another story, “We Are Nighttime Travelers,” presents a retired traveling...