Volume 9. Number 9 A NATIONAL REVIEW OF BOOKS November. 1980

How a swarm oflibel suits are givingpublishers the willies

New novels fromBowering, Wiebe,Rule, and Wright

The fight to furtherAlberta Culture’s

SUBSCRWIION PIUClf 59.95 A YEAR. . :

The chief glory of every people arises from irs authors. - Samuel Johnson

DO UNlnlervicw with George Bowering. by

FEATURESdemd5 about Howard Engel. who likes 10 put a

Linda M. Lei,ch 30 dash of Hanma, nn hir prose and Foe drawings.English. Our English. by Bob 5.x page 32. Beth Hsrvor 1s an Ollawa sbml-

Sue and be Dandy. Libel laws pmrec, Blackbum 31 wry writer. Douglas Hill subsists on md an*

peaonr fmm irresponsible writers. Lerten lo Ihe Edimr 32hr5, novels m PO* Kinvan. Nfld. Regular

bul who will pro,ect the wrilerr from CnnWir No. 57 33cunmbutor Chrislaphrr Humr rbhn new to

proliferating libel suits? A repon by The edimn recommendlook il pnft baok m the mouth again. Novclirl

34Stephen Overbury 3 Books received 34

M.T. Kelly’\ I~ICIL work ol fiction. T,w ,%fow

Prude and Prejudice. SrephenLow,,,. I>,,,.. wd, be pubbrhed ~lon by Black

Scobie’r lament for Alkrta’s lileniyMa, Rear. Linda M. Leltch 1s a Guelph. On,..

ILLUSTRATIONS lIvelancer who recent,) vxlkd 1” Tomnm. Poe1community, one squeaky wheel that and critic Albert Moritz is an edimr withhasn’t been gelling much oil revenue Cover drawing by Myfanwy Phillips Dma*nawgbl Presr. Stephen ovubury teaches ain Canada’s richest province 7 Drawing by Roben Rurick 4 ,ouma,irnt course for the Toronto Bwd of

David Annesley: Eyes and the Man. Self.ponni, by David Annerley I4 Educrnon. 1. M. Owen I) il Tomnur editor.

A litemy tribute by Douglas Self-ponni, by Howard Engel 32critic. and gea,cm;ln ubolar. Myfanwy Phillips

Marshall to a talented artist who died Drawings Ihrough, ,he issue by HowadI, an imw. pbaognphcr. and Eunnoisseur of

tw young I4 Engelhumani,) - horn puhnurl cult% IO Newfound-

IIappy Haldn Ways. The emphasis island vamen. Robert Rurick 16 a Tomao artist.Rupert Schiedor leacho English al V of T’s

on the rugged West in ,his year’s an CONTRIBUTORS Trims) College. glephen gcobir leacher Englishand giR books. reviewed by Feelancer Bob BIPckbur” i% a regular mmli~Christopher Hume

aa the L’nwenn> nl Alberta 3nd lobbies rheII bwor ,oS,,,,wwt nx,g~zmc and bin been chow pmrlnclr, govemnun, bawucn lCUI”rcI. Chris

A Sleuth is Born. lmmdueing crime ,ng hr uords u ,,h unu~uil, cam rmxc hc bucamc Scot,. the B;l,rac (11 Bnldmon. On,.. is contern-

wri,er Howad Engel. a man more wr wachdof lx ahe En&h limpuayc. Belreen Fl.,,ng ,, CanaLan \~rrmn o f Co,,, Comn,b”

ued ,o working behind the scenes. A wriung awgnmems. Barry Dickic help keep !+irnn Barbara Wade I\ 311 elusive Toronto

profile in brief by Barbara Wade. 32 ,hc Tommo ,,,;mdr lwkmg bcmnllul. For more I,CPb”UeT

REVIEWS

Burning Water, by George Bowwing 9Contract with the World. by

Jane Rule IOP&scope Red, by Richard Rohmer;

The Scorpion Sanction, by GordonPape snd Tony Aspler I I

Final Things, by Richard Wright I2The Mad Trapper, by Rudy Wiebe I2Setting the World on Fire, by Angus

Wilson I3The Elements, by Tom Msrshnll ISA Planet Mostly Sea, by Tom

Wayman; Blue Sunrise. by BenAlmon I6

Poemr, by Anne li6ben 20

DEPARTMENTS

First Impressions. by Douglas Hill 27The Browser. by Michael Smith 29

EDITOR: Douglas Marshall. ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Michael Smith. COPY EDITOR: Doris Cowan. ART DIRECTOR:Mary Lu Tams. GENERAL MANAGER and ADVERTISING MANAGER: Susan Traer. CIRCULATION MANAGER:

Susan Aihoshi. CONSULTANTS: Robert Family and Jack Jensen.

CONTRIBUTING E,DITORS: Eleanor Wachtel (West Coast): Stephen Scobie (F’mirirs): Wayne Grady: Douglas Hill:Christopher Hume: Sheila Fischman (QuebecI: Phil Milner (East Coast): Tim Heald (Europe).

Illd, irr CwwrIo is published 10 times a year. wkh dx as,iuancc d the CimaJ~ Cnuncd and the Onlario Anr Council. by the Canadnn Rcbiew Of BooksLul.. 366 Adekdde S,rsst East. guile 432. Tomro. On,. M5A IN4 Telephone: 1416) 363.5426. Available 10 the pubbc fwe m wbxribme: bwk s,me%who&. and tibnrier. tndividuat subrcripdon me: 59.95 il ywr tStS wcrsw~~. Bock ~rwes avail&k on mcm6tm fmm: McL~ren Micmpul$rhing. P.O.Box 972, Swim F. Toronto. Ont. M4Y ?N9. tndemd in rk Cmadim Pmodicrt Index. Member of the CPPA. Member of Ihe Bulk Dlsmbulmn Audi,Division LMCCAB. Matcri~l is commissioned on the undemanding tha both pmier me bound by the terms ol the rlandard PWAC c0ImcL. The edilorrcanno, be held responsible for unsolicivd ma,cria,. Sw.nnd Clar Mail - Rcgirtntion No. 2593 Cun,cn#r .cn 1980. Prnntcd by Heritage PESS CO. Lad.

ISSN 0645.2564

For the past 10 years a swelling tide of expensive libelactions has eroded a basic freedom in Canada: the rightto print the truth. At the heart of the problem is a legalclimate that encourages plaintiffs to believe they can

by Stephen Overbury

THE oxttxo~‘$ predictions of George Orwell’s 19Sq me creepingup on Cewadians. Just ask the sraff et McClellsnd & Stewart abouta ccflein nightmarish weekend.

A few weeks before Christrow 1975. scores of workers andtheir r&lives were called into M & s’s offices to peste a specialinccrt dvcr a section of Peter Newman’s latest book 77~ CurroJinnE~nrblihmw. The insert war p$$ted over a paxgraph dealing\rith the way Paul Desmanis treated minority shareholders in oneof hb dub. Dcomemis had obtained en advance copy of the bookfrom e wviewer and. thmogh lawyer J.J. Robinette. sought atinjunction against its publication.

S i n c e The Cmmhr Esmablirhmerrr was alrredy b e h i n drchcdule. and M & S staff were hoping Christmas sales wouldmdkc the book financially successful. the threat wes especiallysrtiou~. Ne’ewm;m md lawyer Julian Porter decided that the onlything to do wes cover the offensive lines. Newman tested 20diffuent glues to ensure the insen could not be polled off!

The incident is e reflection of the growing we of libel threatsmd the diminishing powers of fair-comment laws in Canada. Libellaw ore being ued to intimidete witea and publishers endout-of-court rettlemeno me becoming common. In e series ofintctviev::r with some of Canada’s leading publishers. editors.witen. nod libel lawyers. it becomes evident that freedom ofinformation - indeed. freedom to print the tmtb - is becomingsxce.

Lib:1 involves any partial statement that injures a per~on’sreputation. In legal terminology, this mean$: “Any printed words.petore. canoon or caricature which tend to lower $ person in thec~timetion of right-thinking men. or cause him to be shunned andaoidcd. or expose him to hatred. ridicule. or disparage him in hisoffice. trade or calling. constitute e libel.”

The basic law for libel is the seme throughout Cenade andapplies in the $ame manner for all forms of publishing and elec-tronic media. How a libel suit is conducted. however. varies fromprovince to province.

The requirement of a plaintiff (the person launching e suit) isapparently easy: the subject most pmve that he or she is beingwritten about in an injurious wey. Thcrr is no need to prove the$tetement is not woe.

Defending libel actions also seems very streightforweni. Fbst.the most widely used &fence is truth. Second, mageziner. andnosrp~pcrr cao plead “fair comment’: e$ e defence for extremertaancrdr. provided ofcourse no malice was intended and that thewirer believed the information was eccmxte. Third. “qoelifiedprivilege” enables publishers to report on legislative debaes andgoveemmea reports without fear of libel. provided that $ fair endeccurete report of the material is presented.

Despite the appnnt simplicity of libel procedure. the fact isthat such actions have become one of Canadian law’s most corn-plcs mrchanisms.

Jack McClelland. president of M & S. points to’ alibel actionegeinst Judy La Mash a$ e tumbtg point for book publishers. InAfcnroirs ofrr Bird irr II Gil&d Cqw ( 1968). La Marsh singled out$ radio reporler $I being “. .heanily deteJted by most membersof the Pre$$ Gellery.. :‘. The nponer claimed he had been libel-led. and La Mash’s &fence of fair comment wes thrown outbecause she could not prove thm other members of the PressGnllery felt the sane way she did. The cost$ to M & S. all told.amounted to $25.000. It w$$ the firor time in McClelland’s recol-lection than en M & S book had been found to include libellousmaterial since he joined the compny in 1946.

“It ties eo experience weYe not keen on repeating.” raysMcClelland. **W>re publishers, not litigators. The prevailingmood of lawyers and publishers is that you should try So settle out

McClellancl has a clear message for writ-@i-s: “AuPhors have” to be Increasinglycareful end sensible. We don’t have anyinterest in publishing something with libelpossibilities.”of e~url because of the tnmendom costs. We’ll do just aboutanything legal to settle out of court -if we’re wrong. or even ifwe?e not.”

McClellnnd rppearr extremely cautious shout libel end has estrong. clear message for writers: “Authors have to be incress-inelv careful end sensible. We don’t have env interest in oublish-ine ;omethiog with libel possibilities. We d&3 went eni pan ingetting close to libel ection. Life is too short for publishingcomdanies, end libel is too costly.”

The La Maah care surprised some publishers. but the InnAdams cese is sending shock wwe$ throughout the publishingindustry. The author end publisher. Gage Publishing of Tommo.ate being sued by Leslie James Bennett. a former member ofCanada’s Security Service. Bennett’s claim is that the fictionalchetacter 3” in S. Porrroir o/e Spy, is bared on himself and thathe is being unjustly accuxd of being e double or e triple egettt.

A&M is the fiat Cmmdien novelist ordered by e court to revealhis sources for a work of fiction. The issue turns on whether thetic~onal S can be identified PI Bennett. If Adams loses his nx itcould set $ precedent whereby m#y work of fiction by a &medianwriter could be interpreted BJ non-fiction. What has apparentlyslipped by the courts unnoticed is that some of the world’s mostfamous novels were based on real petsoos. Furthermore, fictionhas always been. and wilj always be. P political and social corn-mentary on life.

What is equally disturbiy about a novelist being sued for libelis the vigorous rapport of the legal profession. Bennett’s lawyer.Julian Porter. sayr he’s han+tg the C$K for practically nothing

November. 1980 Books in Canada 9

~.. I__ .._ .” . . . - -.__. ..__. __.._.~.. _~ ~._~ ~.._. ._. ..- .._._... -_._. . . . __.. _~

~_.. __ . . . . _.e. . _. . . . _.l,

bzcats~ Bcnoett can’t afford the high-pr@ed help. To add to therwnfurion. Porter is on the board of directors of tbe Writers’D~relopmcnt Trust Fond. a group devoted to the Promotion ofCwudi;m witerr.

blcowhik. eight groops representing more than 3.000 writersnml pobli,hers hove organized B defence food for Adams, hopingIO win a wit that could gravely affect freedom of information.

Publi&r James Lorimrr describes libel as an effective tool to)1nrc witcrj and publishers. “There’s no doubt people are using,the lib-l lnva as a way of trying to intimidate publishers andcditort.” he rays. “There ah: more libel cases now than therewre IO yeas ago. It has nothing to do with being right or wong,w~ometimes. even with defamation. It’s a power game. If you’vegot the money to spend then you can play the game.”

James Lorimer & Co. published an intriguing expose of Hnmil-ton. 0111.. called Tlruir Town: Thle Mafia. The Mediu and dwPmy ,ll.whint. Three readers felt that the book was offensive tothem. Dine and Domenic Morgaoi and Joyce McMullenIamched a libel action against editors Bill Fre+?an and MarshaHewitt. 2nd the publisher.

The libel action began last November. after 2.000 copies of thebook had been disuibuted. most of them in the plaintiffs’ homebw. the Hamilton area. Lmimer exchanged unsold copies of thebook wth a new edition that IelI out section that were in queslion.Lorimcr also notified reviewers of the changes. The settlementincluded PII nwmxl of $4,000 to .the plaintiffs for legal fees anddamage>. A public apology was also involved. This took the formof a nrcrpoper adwtisement in the Hamilton Specrumr. twocolumns wide sod five inches deep. Because the settlementincluded .I promise not to discuss the matter. Lotimer is not able todircloa the cost of his legal expenses. As a role, legal costs are farin cscu’i~ of the awar&.

Some people are famow for using libel as a threat to keep themout of the eyes of the public. Igor Gouzenko. a one lime Sovietmilitary intelligence cipher clerk who made Canadian history byu\po%ing a network of rpiu. appears to be the trend-setter in thisregard. Gouzeoko’s name cmpped up freqoemly in interviewsv. ith wiurs sod publishers. He has n nputatiott for being preparedto we at the mere mention of bis name. For iostance. just recentlyhe launched P $500.000 libel suit against Doubleday Csttada Ltd.and author John Sawvksky for references about him in Sawaksky’sbook, Uw in rhe Sbadmvs: The RCMP Securig Sm9ce.

While libel actions ax growing in hook publishing circles. thenumber are still small in comparison to the cases involvingnwrpapcrs and magazines. Some stanling coon actiom havet&co plxe in the lost few years.

The most ou.5tmtdbtg libel case was il lawsuit egniost the .%&a-tuon SrwPhmvd.r. by a pmctising lawyer and alderman, MorrisChrmrrlxy. Chemeskey sumsrfolly sued Amtadale Po)lishersLtd.. the Sltrr-Phowk. and its editor for publishing P letter to thec&tar witan by two low students, Hackie Dorgan and ConnieHoot. The sobst;mce of the letter WY that the aldennan held racistviews. It was a response to Chemeskey’s request for city councilin 1973 to oppose a development of an Indian and M&s rehabili-totion came for alcoholics in il predominaotly white neighbour-hood.

\Vhen the paper refused to print an apology, Chemeskey sued.The defence of fair conunent and troth didn’t stick. The lawstudent, did not show up at cam to testify that they had written theletter. Nor did the Paper necessarily share the views of the writers.Bemow there was no proof anyone held the opinions expressed inthe letter. a” nppeal to the Supreme Court of Canada ophbld theactianandChemeskey wJsa\n~edS25,000indamagesandcosts.

There v:e~ many ramifications from this decision. Two Halifaxnewsp+a temporarily suspended letters to the editor. Ontarioamendud its Libel and Slander Act in a way that would haveowmded the Chemeskey decision and allowed a defence of faircomment to bold. Other provinces, are in the process of amendingtheir acts.

But despite the Ontario amendments. it appears nuotem’~snev,spopcn have curtailed letters to the editor that they might havepublished before the Chemerkey decision. Almost half of thenrw:rspoprrs that responded to an Ontario press Council survey said

4 Eoo!r in Canada, November, lge0

th;rttheChemesreyjudgementaffcctedtheray lhey haadkdlettetsto the editor. Many pspets said they would discard possibledefamatorj lettea thnt they would previously have published.

The G/&e and Mail now is more cautious. At least. that is theimpxssbn given in the case of a letter by Ian Adams. He hadwitten to the Globe to complain that a recent feature article aboutBennett failed to mention that it was bssed.directly on testimonyfrom Bennett in his lawsuit against Adams. Adams WBJ not tnen-tioncd in the story, nor was the lawsuit. The Globe refused to prinlAdams’s letter.

Libel wits today are so far-reaching that they extend into thedomain of newspaper cartoons. Two years ago British Columbia’sHuman Resources Minister Bill Vandrr Zalm sued the VictoriaTinws and freelance cartoonist Bob Biennan. The paper ran acanoon that showed Vandet Zalm smiling Y he plucked wings offflies.

Vmder Zalm argued thst the cartoon made it appear that heenjoyed being cmel. The cartoon wss in responx to s coounent hemidi on h&native people should return to rexrves hecause therewere more opportunities far them there. The pper refused topublish an apology.

The Supreme Coutt of B.C. found the Tinws at fault andawxded 53.500 in damages to the minister. The decision shockednewspaper publishers even though a B.C. Court of Appeal deci-sion finally reversed the judgement.

Gerard McNeil, werdn legal-affairs reporter for the CanadinnPress ners agency, says the Van&r Zalm case and the ChemeskeypmnotmLxnetu “have narrowed the publishing field. If CanadianPress runs an item and there is cause for libel. all papers thatcarried the piece cm be sued Y well.

‘This makes us very cautious. The fair-comment laws area?r4ly vxll developed in this country. The problem with libel lawsin Canada is that you can’t write realistically about anybody. We[CPl had a xties recently in the Globe and Mail about million-aires. They all came out as nice guys. You can’t write anythingnegative about them. Profiles in tbii country stx poor because of

that. The classic csse is the way the media refer to Vie Cotmni.Tlte Canadian media call Cotmni a Montreal businessman. TheAmerican press refer to Cotmni ss the Montreal undenvotldfigure. You can’t describe a politician here as being a nototiouslush even if he is one. There are so many things you can’t say hetethat it makes the whole writing exucise tesemble public-relationshrnftnlltc ‘.

Maclean-Hunter atiracts 60 libel actions ayear. Only three of these will usually get asfan as court. Nevertheless, it’s enough towsrrsnt $41~million wotih of libel lnsur-ante.

Newspaper libel costs. like’evetything else. are soaring. Fatexample, a huge number of libel actions taken against theMontreal Gu:errc in late 1968 and early 1969 ww settled for‘under 525,GUO. Today, however, a typical libel action that nuts.through cut can cost a newspspe.r $30,000 evea if the paperwins, says the Globe and Mail’s editor-in-chiif, Richard J.DC+‘The costs can in fact become astronomical. T/w Finam-iai Post

recently won a libel s&m .that q-t the paper S800.000 in ex-penses. If such ntonsttous costs are required for “A Victory ForThe Post”. ns the psper’s front-page headline described it. thenhard-hitting stories in Canadian newspapers are on the wane.

Tiw Finrrrrcial Pm’s libel suit involved a series of articlespublished in 1975 about shady stock-markel deals amund theworld. Toronto promoter Allan Manas war a central figure in theseries. He tried to sue the paper with two separate suits thatclaimed damages of S42 million. The paper was forced to fly inwitnesses From amund the world to prwe the stories were based ontruth. Manur dropped his charges after 3% weeks of trial. T/wFirrunciul Pm only claimed Sl5.500 from Manbs. the amount hehad deposited in cow as security for the costs in the court action.

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Here is the story of AlbertSpaggiari, celebrated thief, whobroke into the “impregttable”vault of a French bank and stoleS IO million and the hearts of tlteworld.

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$18.25

November. 1960 Books In Canada 5

:tl~~clcrrn’s editor Peter Newman calls the trial **a real landmarkcase. He Ik~kuturl wey91 a cm&. No doubt&cut il.” T’ze FinancialPorr’r rditcr. Nevillc Nankivcll. suggests in rather subtle termsthct the bhnus CYC has affected the ecpy bll paper will run.“We’re more careful about dealing with off-shon incidents be-cause v:c couldn’t subpoena witnesses from abmad who wetecrucial to the case. We could if they resided in Ontario. but not if

and 60 cthrr business pcblicaticm. ettracts 60 libel actions a year.Hxvey Bctticg. corporate seuetwy for the publishing comptmy.says only three of these will usually get as far as ccutt. Never-theless. it’s enoueh tc wemuuSl I-million worth of libel inaetacce.

“A it of p&e will tbrcw a suit on us tc tbmw up a smoke\crccn to protect their image in fmnt of their friends.” saysBoning. “Six months down the mad they dmp it and it’s fcrgct-wc. Anything that can bc even slightly ccnnmious gces before curlavqw.”

dl~r~l~~~m’s was the target of one of the mcst embarrassing libelsuitr cf the century when Torctuc lawyer and mcticn pictureproducer Gpnh Dmbinsky sued the magazine over a small stcrywritten ;Ibout him by Ian Bmwn late in 1978.

Dtabinrky tiled 12 typewritten pages tc show in meticblcusdetail how he had been libelled. The story mentioned hi officeSY cc the 69th floor and this reference was interpreted as attbnplicaticn that the lawyer was lewd and immonl in character.The wcrdr. ” .his resentful jowls” suggested, Dtabinsky ar-peed. be was a resentful person who dislikes people. “He drawlswith a Nrw Yorker eccect” suggested, be said. tbet he is phonycod unrcrupulous. And sc it went.

The ca%e did cot. however. So thmugh the ccuts. In an cut-of-cctm settlement. ~~f&ece’s paid Dtebinsky $50.000 fm damagesand another 020,000 for his legsl expenses. (The magazine’s legalcosts were esa.l The public embarrassment came when Newmanme a public apology that was dictated by Drabbtsky. It mck up

almost half a page in the April 7 ls.sue of &fcc/ece’s and included apictcre of the plaintiffsmiling.

The sting of libel laws has been felt by broadcasters just esc&en. Stuart Rcbertscn, ccucsel for the Canadian BroadcastingCorporation says that the CBC gets 6CKt threats of libel t$onseach year. Only 60 of these involve rcme sntt of setllccwnl.

Judging by the celebnted case involving a radio talk show(Syms vs. Wanen). freedom of expression on the air is alsoevepcmticg. The topic of the talk show was the allegation thatSyms. who was the chairman of the Manitoba Liquor Ccntml

’ Commission and Liquor Licensing Board, had been charged withimpaired driving, bet bad had the pmceedittgs quaphed. Symrdenied the allcgaticm during the program. Warren. the talk-showhost, allowed a eotttnty view to Sycw’s position tc be aired afterthe denial. Syms rued for Iibel and was awarded $2,000 in dam-a@w.

What can cue conclude from lhese and hundreds of other libelcases? For one thing. lawyen are certainly becoming more

1 sophisticated wilh their craft. But while their tccls are becomingincreasingly sharper, the ethbx of the legal pmfe%icn in somelibel mattera cart be questioned. One wonders why some ofCanada’s mcst pmminect law firm0 em rptesetttiq dubiousfigures and charging tidiculcusly high rata m tight mea whuekedom of speech ls the l&c at stake.

Lawyer Julian Porter predicts that the ttse of libel will increase“as timer Set tougher”. That may satisfy the legal profession. butjudging bythcirtrackreccrd, theinnraseinlibelanicnrcouldraeltin their own demise. As author Mat&wet Atwood sald at e benefitecttcett for Ian Adams: “We don’t ettt off hands here [in Cettada].We do it in other ways. In mtalitatien tskecvers. the lint group tcgo are the writers. The second are union leaders. The third is thejudiciary system. The judiciary system is cutting its own throat. Ifyou wake up one morning and all the people like Iatt Adams havedisappeared. you’ll know it’s 1984.” 0

THE VENETIAN EMPIRE

Jan Morris

The Venetians were maritime imperialists, and JanMorris has wnstruoted her book in the form of atea voyage. spanning both time and space in apanoramic reconstruction of the whole adven-ture, from its beginnings in the fall ofConstantinople in 1204 to its long rearguardaction against theTurks, from the walls of’Famagusta at one end to the harbcun of lstriaat the other. There was never an empire morebeautifully sited, or more evocative in its relicsnow. Cyprus, Crete, the Cyclades, the Greciancoast, Corfu, the marvellous sea cities ofYugoslavia -all these oame under the dominionof the winged lion and form the living back-ground of Jan Morris’ story.

For visitors to Venice and travellers through thelands the Doges once ruled. The Venetian Empireis an invaluable historical introduction. Thephotographs. some specially commissioned,provide a perfect complement to Jan Morris’vivid narrative and add an extra dimension tothe first book of its kind ever written aboutthe overseas empire of the Venetians.

20B PP., 20 oolour & 100 black & whiteillustrations $29.50

OXFORD-

6 Books in Canada, Ncvember. 1980

There’s one squeaky wheel that hasn’t been getting muchoil revenue in Canada’s richest province. Ifs called literature

by Stephen Scobie

try YK-KIR~A TH,S summer. I heard stories of Albettaos drivinground the streets. their cots loaded with cash, looking for houses toboy. The popular image all actoss Canada Pottrays Albata a aland flowbtg with oil and money, ntooey for everything - inclod-ing. presumably. the arts. At national wrltets’ meetings, peoplea~sutttr that wtiters in Alberta have easy access to the dollarsooziog out of the gtoutd.

\Vould lhat it were so. In fact. whets in Alberta an? not wellsupported at either the private or the public level. There is undoob-tedly corporate money for the ats in Albett?, lots of it, but most ofthe funding goes, naturally enough, to high-pm% ahd pmtige-laden openlions soch 89 symphony otchestms and major tbeatres.Son11 publishers. far less individual witers, have little access to it;recent private gnnts to NeWest Ras by Albetta’s Nova Corpota-tlon and Ontatlo’s Hadequio Romances ate the exc+ion ratherthan the rule.

Public money is channelled through a govetmnent department,Alberta Culture, with a Minister. Mary Ie Messotier. and a lid1staff of civil xtwttts. Although there hat been some pressme foran am council form of orgooiation, in which funding decisionscould be kept at atot’s length from the politicians. there are noimmediate signs of a move in that dire&m.

Albcrtn Coltun is not the best-financed of govemotettt depatt-mena. In the budget year 1980-81. the total budget for “coltomldrvelopment” is just under $17.5 million. Of that. the blltallocation - 45.9% -goes to libovysewics.5. The perfomdngans. \?ith their obvious high costs. gamer 23.8%. Visual arts, theprice of canvas being what it is, get 7.3%. The film and Utemtyans bradh is left with 1.9%. By the time adminisharion hlo beenaccoonud for. the largesse of the Albetta government to its pub-lishers. its petiodic~ls. and its writen of all kinds amoutts thisyear to S 147.000.

tin cootmst. the Ontario Atts’ Council has ao annual budget of613.5 million. However. the OAC’s litermy and film sectionrcceiw some 17% of that total and disburses about $1.6 millioo ayear - or nearly 11 times the Alberta figure-in varloos forms ofgrants to publishers. periodicals, and titers.)

It is not surprising. then. that there has been a good deal ofdissatisfaction with the support ptogmms Albuta wtitw havebeen nbk to rely on. The ligutrs m&e it clear that a large part ofthis disrotisfaction tnost be due to the financial constralnls underwhich the literary or& branch operates. But many writers in Al-bema - novelists such as Rudy Wiebe and Aritba vao Herk. poetssuch OS Douglas Barbow and Christopher Wiseman - have alsobeen unhappy with the policies and admitdstm6on of the branch.

It hz. been widely srgued that Albetta Culture pots toa mocbemphasis on showy competitions. soch JO the First NovelistAward. and on commedally odeated wlting. To judge tiom thelitenry arts brooch’s newsletters and pobllclty releases. publicn-tioo in Rcdbook or Reader’s D&s: seems to be the highest degtreof excellence aimed for.

Put even mote bluntly, many witas in Albetta do oat tmst or

accept the literary judgemeot of the people’ making the. fundingdecisions. Tbll cottuovetsy come to a head early in 1980 with thepublication in the Nonh American Revicw. a well-rapected writ-ets’ magazlnc in Iowa. of at stticle by Len J. Hettzel entitled“The Indian & tbe Fish: A Report on Coltwe in Alberta”. Theattide contained extensive qootes fmm John pahick Gillese(rhymer with “ill ease”). the bead of the liteouy at& bnnch ofAlbem coltwe; Hertz4 presented his material without comment.allowing Gillese to condemn himself out of his owti mouth. Forexample:

people in Albuta bate the Canada Cnuncll. lh~y think the CanadaCouncil is B bunch of litxnls: that’s whea 6x avant-garde stu

fYswd. People hen PD anservativc. They want art they M on er-s~~.nMthat~yruuthatmrliernorenreloa&~ntprron. . . .We’d support a poet in a minute if it looked ltke he was going to besucce%ful.. . see. a poet around,hem wdted “fuclr” tivr limed on apiece of paper. maybe r.napkin 6’om the cafe&in or romething. andhe says. “That’s my poem!” That’s what they show us and callpomy hue. We’re ceaainly not going to giw any money for thatkind of thing. That’s what we%=2 up against with the pcus here.

“The Indian & the Flsb” quickly became~e most-Xeroxedarti& in Alberta. with copies circulating nefarloosly among writ-cts. until early April. when poetTed Blodgett wrote M open letterm Gillese demanding so apology. “The rematlts amibwed myou,” he began, %P. among the most disgusting, repugnant and

cootemptiblc I have ever read in tzspect of literature in general andpoetry in pattlcular” - and continued for 2% pages. single-spaced, of magisterial prose. intetspetsed with quotations in Greek(aanslated for the benefit of his readas) and Latia (not tmmlated).The Edmonmn Journal printed exttacts 6om the lettu under thelteadlhte. “A bee in his sotmet”.

Gillese replied by claiming that be had been misquoted. and thathis remarks had been distotted and taken out of context. Heaccused the paiadical of being “slanted” and said. “‘It appears totoe that tbe interviewer was out m hang me for something.”Hertzeel in mnt denied there charges: “Mr. Gillese’s commentsabout poetry wen exactly as Irepotted them.” He pointed oat thata previous article by him on Bdmonmn publisher Mel Huttig badbeen commended by Mr. Hwtig for its accuracy.

For a few weeks we had a lively cottespoodence in the columosof the Edmonmn Jownaf, not normally a sin of literary debate.

November, 1980 Books in Canada 7

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Wtitem who had been assisted by Mr. Gillue came rushing to hisdeface. offering impressive testimony of his support andencoumgement. Them wen the usual accusations of elitism andivory-tuner academicism against Blodgett. Wiebc, and anyoneCke who ventured to suggest that a culture department should havehiih litemry standards. It was all very entertaining, but not esp-cially pmductive. By April. in fact. other initiatives were beingundettakcn. which led away from personal confrontation towardco-operative reform.

Over the course of the previous winter, Rudy Wiebe. A&ha vatHctk, and I had. at various times, approached the Minister tosuggest that them was a need for changes in the policies of thelitemty atts branch. and that, without denying much of the workaccomplished by Mr. Gillese. them was also a need for broaderconsultation among the litemty community. Alberta Cultwe.which had jut been badly embrrmssed in a contmve~y ow theproposed pwhlw of Roloff Beny’r photographs, pmved respon-sive to these suggestions. As a result. a symposium of some 30tzprerentative writers and publishers was convened in Edmontonon April 19. under the ehdtmanship of Mel Htntig.

This one-day symposium pmved to be an outstanding success.Personal contro~rrsies were ignored, and the discussion focusedmt issuer of policy rather than on recrimination and abuse. Mr.Gillese and his officials wete very amenable - smptisingly so, inthe view of mrny patticipcmts -to most of the suggestions putforward. The need for inerased funding was obvious to all. Themwas also broad general agreement that book and magaiine pttb-lishets needed mom support in the form of block gmnts instead ofthe partial and inconsistent funding to which they had previouslybeen subjected. and which one editor concisely summarized as“applicaticm by supplicatim”. In addition. tbem was approval forths proposal that all tqjor grants should be awvded by a jurysystem mther than at the sole discretion of the officials of thelitemry aas branch. At the end of the day. in an atmosphere ofgcneml benevolence, a committee of nine writea was appointed to

codify tbc day’s proceedings into specific pmposals, and to presentthese to the Minister.

This Cnmmittec of Nine (which appeared to become ominouslycapitalized) met in Calgary on April 28 and dmv up a series ofproposals, some of which they hoped could be immediately im-plemented, but most of which they tecognizctl as medium- orlong-term targets. They then met with Mary le Messmier in Ed-monton on May 7.

At this stage the clash between the somewhat euphoric idealismof the w-item and the pragmatic malities of politicians becameevident. While the Minister had few objections in principle to thepmposais. she was clear that nothing could be implemented untilthe budget year 1981-82, and that eve” then what could be donewould depend on how much of an.inctesre could be argued out ofthe pmtincial cabinet. She did ague, however. to the immediateformation of a Litemty Adtioly Council. made up of Albertanwritem and publicben. to advise her on matters of literary policyand funding. The intent to form such a council wa atmounad tathe press, and repotted in the Bdmonton Joounial on May 14.

Meanwhile it was clear to the Committee of Nine that funhernegotiations had a political dimension, and would be facilitated ifthe writers of Alberta could speak to the politicians with a single,unified voice. To do so, they needed an orgmtiration with abroader base and mom authority than the ad hoc collection of 30people who formed the April 19 symposium. Rudy Wiebe propaxed the foundation of an Alberta Writem’ Memtimt. whichwould be open to all writers. in whatever genre, and which wouldhave D. pmvincial rather than a national base. (Such fedemtionsalready exist in Saskatchewan and the Maritimes.) A preliminaryotganizationkl meeting for this venlure was held in Edmonton onJune 21 (writers in Albetta this spring spent more time meetingthan writing. and also had to distinguish betwem symposiums,council, fedemtkms. and o&r pmposed rtomen&tums), and afull-scale inaugttnl meeting was planned for Calgaty on October18.

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But vhik the federation wcs proceedingcpce. the drisory council appecrcd. formost of the summer, to have bogged down.It was nor umil the end of September that itemerged. now under the title of Writers andPublishers Advisory Committee. and invilo-lions were sent out for co initial mceliogsometime in Ocmbu. Whnhcr this willbc in time for tbc all-important 1981-82budget remcins to be seen.

As it stands otthe momenL all thetalk. allthe mccringr. all de fine statcmcots ofprinciple From this spring hcve yet toprodwr anything concrete in the way OF aidto wriws and publishers in Canada’s richestprovince in ia 75lh anniversary year. One

member of the Committee OF Nine wasSharon Ban. editor of Brtm-hing Our, theonly Alberta-bascdcoltoml magazine with anational distribution. This summerBmncldng Orrr folded for lack of funds topay an editorial staff. Good times may becoming, but there cre some Albertan writcaand publishers who can’t afford to wait.

One of those writers is Aritha wn Herk.who in 1978 won the S50.000 Seal Booksfirst-novel award with Jollirlr. A few weeksago she announced she is leaving Edmonmnto frke a teaching post at tbc Universily ofBritish Columbia. The reason, she said, wasto escape Alberta’s “oppressive anddangcmus” political atmosphcrc. 0

by Chris Scott

Burning Water. by George Boticriog,hlurson. 258 pager. $14.95 cloth (ISBN0 7737 0044 3).

GEORGE \‘ANC+WER (17.57-1798). w h oserved as a midshipman in the Disrowr~ onCoolA third voyage, was in 1791 xnt asher commander to take over the NootkcSound writoty from the Spniards. Duringrbis vovagc. one of the epics of marinencvigot~on. Vcccouvcr charted the PccilicNonhwst: failing, IS so many before andalter, to find ihc Nonhwst kM8C. hereturned to England in 1795. spending the13~1 three years of his life prepcriqg hisjournals for pobliealion. lie died in May,1798, in his bed. a pmsaic fate comparedwirh lhct of his mentor Captain Cook. Thejournals were published by his brother Johna) a Ii~nr,~ td’ di.scmvr~ ro the NorrhP,rc@w Occu,~ cm/ rormnd rlre world irr rheJv<,rs Ixo-I x5.

Vsncouver vns not the only mcmorialistofhis voyage: the ship’s surgeon ArchibaldMcozi~ also published a journal. GeorgeBowring quite rightly qwns and oscs bothsources in this fantasy version ofVancouver’s voyage: what he makes of hissources is something else.

In his prologue to Burning U’arerGeorge Bo\wcring auribotes his interest inGcorgc Vcncouvcrto the fact oftheirsharedgiven namer. lo Bowring’s cue,il wouldsecro. the man is father 10 the child: “WhenI wcs B boy. I was the only person I knewrho vx~s named George.” In time boyGeorge (Boweriog~ moved m Vancouvercod Icarol the origin of that city’s name:“And w cow gcogrcphy involved my ncmctoo. George Vancouver. He might have fellsuch romance. sciliy for c king namedGeorge the Third” Irk). In the 1960s.Bowring continued. “I war a poet. so Iwrote ii poetry book nbour Vancouver and

mc. Then a radio play about us. arid on thesir we all became third pcrsoos.” (A jest, faOsric might have mid. c very palpable jest.Forumatcly George’s nominalism does notincorporate the Holy Ghost. also a thirdperson.)

The radio play led to P Canada Councilgrcnt. the grant to Trieste when. in a cheapChinese notebook called Sailing Boat NB2220 H. with Chinese chamctc~ and cpicture of c junk reproduced here beforreach section of the novel. Bowaing bcgcnthe joniogs that m&e up a portion of thisbook. They concern the aaivilics of. theepooymoos author and I quote one. Y theyarc given. more or less ct random:

He kept sioing down in a rmrroria at 7:30and eadng wlsim cm kraufi. He hadnever ealcn so much krmri in such a shortperiod.

(The novel is strocued like co open-fieldpocm: everything will depend on the coo-trolling coosciousncss. on the ne.rvc cx-posed. Seldom is that nerve more. than cmentcl tic: George cats kruruari beccuseVancouver was a sticklerforlhcswff- k’shigh in vitamin C. As for the third pcrson.George finds that pronoun more congenial.after a while. than the lirsl. and in themokiplicad6n of his single xlf proves thepoint with the democratic we: “We cannottell it story that leaves us ootside,md when Isty we. I include you.“The first halfof thissentiment is dubious, the second insulting.)

Whet of this srory?Thc nanarivc. such Yit is, concerns a fantasized homosexualrcbuionrhip between George (Vancowedand Don Joan Quadn (Spanish governor ofthe Nootka wri~ory). and its eflect on theD;swscrv’r sawboncs, the botanizing Doc-tor Men& .

George (Vancouver) doe;not like Sxots-men and scientists, and Mcnrics is both.

Menrics shoots an clbanuss (an example of

ccademic lirenrurc imitating crt imitatinglife) and gets off on oral sex with c nativewoman. (George has his jollies too: heslobbers while a sailor is tlogged forsodomizing an Indian.) “lames Wolfeknew what to do with those Focking Scots-men!” George exclaims to Quadra, who iscat improbably as a subsdtotc father-figurefor the dead Cook, and who replies withequal improbability that Wolfe will have a‘%ccorc place in history. They will pintpictures of his triumphant death, wirh hisbody folly-clothed in the eolours of hishomelmd.” Didn’t they just. One wonderswhose hindsight is shortest, which OF thethree Georges is most purblind. Finally. ilmakes little dil%rcnce.

Somewhere in rhe wings of this bookthere is c clever little boy snickering. Can’one imagine. for example. a Spanish cola-nicl cdminirtrctor. even of the Rcvololio-nary period. speaking like this?“*.Nw I cmgoing m wrap you in your clock and sendyou home. Give us a link hog now.” ThusQuadra 10 Vancouver according to Bowcr-ing. There is more. Vancouver. on hearing PNoorkc woman’s song. says: ‘.‘Vcry nice. Iespecially liked that last number.” (Bower-ing used to be c disc jockey.) George.looking for the Northwest F’assa8c. “ad-dmscd the young barbarian dbcrly. in ardugh esrimation of the Nootka tongue.‘How through forest it days with canoesmany is?’ Yeas lster Benjamin Wharfwould be boil1 whw this aching query wcspd.” (Aren’t your sida achiog? BenjaminWharf. you see. the linguist. Ho-ho. So thebook must accommodate this silly joke codVancouver be made to prarc like Ptrcosfonlional gmmmarian.) Diswncc. asone of the Noorkcs says. is a “relctivcCOlPXpt.” (These xc srrdonic scvcges.)So.mo.isthenoveln~lari~eoneep. ootahistorical novel but a “real historicalAction.”

How far reality is bent in the inleresu ofthe fiction may be seen from the ending.“You will be confined to your qocrtcrswhere you will be ootfiltcd with imns uponyour foot and hands. you son-of-a-bitchScotch Iamb-fucker.” Mcndes. sorely pro-voked by this kind of dialogue. shootsGeorge (Vcocowcr). whichis probably thebest thing to do wilh him and certainly aconvenient way of ending Le novel.

This is P truly ugly book. o8ly in spirit asin appccnncc (computypeset. in a goldenand bmwn wnpper like o chocolate bar. ablotchy imprint giving off c fool cheminlodour), c book possessing no authenticvoice. noauthenticscnse oftimeorplace, cbook odriii in the nurhor’s- fancy (yes. heuser that word). wallowing in post-colonialguilt. “Wirhout c storyteller. George Van-coovcr is jut another dead sailor.” awtsGeorge Bowcring in his pmlo8ue to Burn-ing Wuter. With lhat dead sailor. GeorgeBowcriog is just cnotbvdeadbeat academicscribbler. though 10 be bir George Bowr-ing has done f6r George Vancouver whatFletcher Christian did for William Bligh.Historical novel this ain’t. real fiction it is.cod how. Remember that junk. Cl

‘November. 1980 Books In Canada 8

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10 Eooks in C&da. November. 1980

by Beth Harvor

Contract with the World, by JaneRule.Harcaut Brace Jovsnovitch (AcademicPress). 339pageo. S16.95cloth (ISBN 0 I5122578 8).

VISUAL ARTBTS tend to be very wordypeople - wordier. probably. even thanwriters - and this wordiness. transposedfromli~Mfiction,canweighanoveldown.In Jane Rule’s tiftb novel. Contract with theWorld, (set in Vancouver in the 1970s).thereare several very wordy characlers whoare either makers of art or dealets in it andwho weigh the work down: a sculptor; apainter; a photographer; a composer whobriefly becomes a visual sttisl when shemakes a sound map on a living-mom wall:an att dealer; and a woman who ends “pworking in the art dealer’s gallery.

T~psinarpainls~omeofthecharactero.the photographer photographs them, thecomposer teconis sotne of their sounds (thesounds they make walking up and downstdrs, the grunting sounds they make asthey move in their bathtubs), they all visitone another’s exhibitions. and they often ;meet ttt one another’s houses and sludios. Infact they nre like a large f&ily of brothelsand sisters who an constantly keeping tabson each other. constatuly trying to ttssessone another’s strength. madness,selfishness. giftedness, loyalty to the group.loyalty to one another. and sexual proc-livities.

They talk a lot about happiness and a 101shout art. And above all, they talk I! lotabout each other. And if they didn’t dignifytheir incredible obsessive curiosity aboutone another by what looks like a genuinedesire to find some kind of sense ofthemselves. a good deal of their talk wouldseem malicious and gossipy. Inotead - andlhll may be because there’s somrrch telk-their curiaoily seems largely unhortile.although inevitably there’s considerabledesperation in it. \

Thestyle of the book Is Stt-Sttgely ““eve”.Tltw me sentences that suggest a scorn forlyricism. and even a scorn for clarity:

Ske hd badtoeompete fmmbbthrsoneofa litter for the attention of a Paat whoanyway saw In an infant’s lying in iw ownexcre.mcnt the equivalent of Same relf-impord adult penanee.

There are sentences that h&e been writtenin too much of LL rush:

MiLerwli~dibswarthekindofwomanhenever really noticed until he had noticedher.

And there are sentences that twe lyticol in

the best sense - unadorned. evocative. andCkX

Rcxanne MS making S sound MQ of thehaure. WhatMh~rpo~lemighthrve6xcd.II d,,QQ+“g LlQ Or S,,uUliy hi”& Shelirtemd to. what other people blanked out- Ibe le.lriymtor or rumace going on. aplrnc prring overhead -Sk had. She’WI intererti in tbe difference in tonektween eggshells and chicken bones in thegarbage disposal. She eomQxed therefilling timer of the two toilets. Sherecwded the boys’ feet “Q and down thestain. inrndoutofthe howe.andshe askedthem to spend one rainy aftemlwn doingnoddng but sitting down over and overagain on diffant Q*ees of litiy-momfurniture.

“Victor faned - M QWQxXG” Tonysaid. amaged.

“It’s o!uyy: it’s okay.” Roxanne rearsunzd him. “Everything isokay.”Of COUPC. Contract wMt the tt’orld is a

novel of ideas and as tt novel of ideas itmight be permitted P certain artificiality ofchatactetiwtion and unevenness of style.Certainly one almost always senses theauthor’s intelligence and commitment.Still, a great deal of the book2 informationdoes seem sociological and gratttitous rather

not sugguting that is a flashy writer

of long stretches of it-has driven her toinsert a numherofrcenes that seem impooedntherthan emotiottally right.

Most of these scenes ax sexual anhseveral of them are homosexual. Of t&e,the lesbian scenes recall others in women’smovement litenttue. being rhapsodical instyle and almost botanical in detail. And yelin spite of a fairly great prcoccuption, allthrough the book. with hornasexual rela-tionships, one doesn’t get the impressionthat the author is allowing herself to idealizethese relationships much. In fact. almost allthe really dceent people in the novel arestnight. and the two most shrewd andvicious people, the beautiful temperamental

Alma and the clever vengeful Allen. eregay. ~Evcn Allun’s ha-hand honest remarkabour himself and Alma. expressed toAlma. “II takes a certain emounl of breed-ing to be morally trivial. es you and I are”.didn’t much endear him fo me. Which meymean Ihe1 as e ficrional chamcter he ls a~eccc)~s. Ceneinly. compared fo Allen andAlm;l. Ihe other characreis do seem ratherswm and innocmr.l

Jane Rule is no, es original il writer esDoris Lersing but she’s nof so irritainglyinweidveeirher. Andalrhoughshe’s notsor&able as Marilyn French. she does strikeme a, being more thoughlful, and more feir10 mtn. Still. heraffection forherchamctersib loo great: she indulges them all et Ihenpenre of Ihe work es a whole. She seems10 sufier fmn. a very fair (but also veryun-novclisdcl preoccupation with givinglhcm all eqwl rime. This preoccupationmay h;lrr: made the novel reletively easy 10wire ha il often makes it e terrible chore loread. And 3 novel that preoccupies itself H)ireqwody and so intellecruelly with q&-iion, draling with Ihe eelwe of an does runa sprci6c risli: ir can become en exemplarlor rlnuw everything real elf is not. Or\hould no, be. C

Perixope Red. by Richard Rohmer.General Publishing. 282 pages. 512.95cloth llSBN 0 7736 0080 91.

The Scorpion Snnction. by GordonPapr and Tony Aspler. McClelland &Srraart. 35s pages. SM.95 cloth (ISBN0 7710 b936 71.

By BARRY DICKIE

IF THF wut drums beat nny louder. thesewo thrillera might be Ihe last books we get10 read. Barb novels focus on the MiddleEesl contlicr. They both feature ae Anbtermris~ group with sufficient weaponry 10friphwn Allah. Yet Le books iwe es differ-ent from one another 8s cardboard is fromtolid wk.

PokoPc~ Red her e delightful begin-ning: a teem of PLO frogmen em plantingmines on the hulls of American-owned oilr&en moored in the Persian Gulf: thereminer are luer eclivmed by an electronicrignll end Le ships explode while et see. IIcould hemen. Richard Rohmer knows il ’could happen. for he is ChiefofResen’er ofrhe Cenadion Armed Forces. He knows [hatAmerica’s oil impons could be effeclivelyslopped and rh;lr Ihe powerful Soviet Navycould laugh in their f;lees. He also knowsdxdt a greenhorn Yankee president couldpanic in such a siruadon and reach for themagic bunon.

Rohmer is a seasoned writer with eightbooks under his belt. He knows the military

world inside out. lie has e knack of devisingbrllliaef plots. Indeed, he has the block-buster’of rhe cenrwy m hi&fingertips. lieneeds only one thing more: he needs eghost-writer.

What is wrong aitb Perixope Red? Thepace is lively enough. There’s lots ofclevermilimry stmtegy end an excellent ba~lescene between a Brilish and Russian sub-muihe. Even the right-wing politics1 mes-sage is convincingly presented. But thereere no people in Periscope Red. that iswhar’s wrong. At least nor the kind ofpeople who live on eanh.

True, I’ve never met en American presi-dent or e PLO termrist oc a ChairmanRomanov of the Soviet Union. All Ihesane. it’s reasonable to expect lhal thesesorts of people do have thoughts of theirown, thoughts that exist outside ofRohmer’s political scheme of things. R isalso reasonable to eXp%l lbal these me”have en emotional range that goes beyondwanring lo bear up Le other guy or 10 cuprheirhandramundapiroffirmbreasts. For$12.95 a reader hes e right to expect tbesc

.ihing.%A thriller is supposed to mak YOU fall ouI-

ofthechairwilhexcilement. Whenrhereereno believable characters Iherr is oo sym-pahy. no personal involvement. Them, is noaclion. only frantic movement. And worsfof all, them is no suspense. PerisCOpC Redis a long. fact-filled cartoon. A bad cartoonbecause if isn’t ewe funny. The reader isleft dangling et Ihe end, wondering if rheU.S. and Ressia ever do go et ir tooth andnail. If the world were acre&y inhabitedby such cynical bores as Rohmer’s RobotsI’d certainly have a solution: I’d say,“Bomb ‘em all!”

TheScorpim Sancrion also has e delighr-ful beginning: a bloeted. radioactive corpsefloals LO Ihe surface of the Nile River. 11 isIhe corpse of a Larin American lermr!st.The presidcni of Ihe U.S. is eniving inCairn next week fore friendly visit. There isen atomic bomb waiting for him. To findthis bomb. the Egyptian president requesShis top inrelligence egenl1o work hand-in-hand with Israel’s top man -an expert on.nuclear weapons. The two agents nMunllyhale each olhu. They heve a bii job aheadof them.

I had high hopes for rhis book. After nil. itwes wriuen by two distinct authors: GordonPape and Tiny Aspler. & brains atobetter than one. i figured. And fhe blurbpromised: “T/w Scorpiora Sarrcfiorr is nchilling tale of political intrigue and intensepersonal conviclion. a gripping work ofIi&on fhaf is improbably close 10 realily.”

Never mind the blurb. Just read lhe book.It is beautiful. II is en aclion story. eromance, n comedy. e nerve-wenchingthriller built emued three sub-plas and halfe dozen flesh-end-blood. real-life people. Ifis e lravelogue of Egypt. e look et Le mnnylaces of Islam and the complexities of theworld’s oldesf political conflict. It hasmurder andrape, lender love. forlure. learn.and joy. And if all culminates et the base ofthe High Arwan Dem. The Bomb and Le

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world. this book guides us on atour of van EjCTs early creative lifeand reveals an even more precocious

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November, 1960 Books In Canada 11

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A prize-winning novel fmmQ”&c...

78, TWIE DRAFT DODGERa LO”i3 camn

translated by David Toby HomelA fascinating stoly of FrenchCanadian resistance to militaryservice, horn the ConscriptionCrisis tu the Vietnam conflict.Set in Quebec and NewEngland. The DraR Dodger is amoving portrayal of ordinarymen swept up in forces beyondtheir control. Winner of the Prix~mr&Ianada and the Prix

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A IZY coIlaction by anoui&nding poet...

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12 Books in Canada, November, 1880

Aswm: the monster and the beauty ofhuman achievunent. A final showdownbetween madness snd simple courage.

Tbii is sn important, if not thought-provoking addition to the annals of Cana-dian literature and a very line book. 0

Flai Thing, by Richard Wright. Mapmiiian, 145 pages, 810.95 cloth (ISBN0 7705 1881 8).

By I. M. OWEN

IT WOULD BE misleading tu say that I likedthis novel. The author carries out hisintentions superbly well. but adding tu myjoy in life was clearly no pmt of thoseintentions.

It’s about the isst few days in the life of.Chsr1e-s Fnnis. a near-alcoholic failed jour-nalist, divorced against his will fmm hissecond wife, whom he slill loves. He lives.in a dreary aptiment in a down-at-heel wof Toronto. where his only child, a “stemand secretive” buy of 12. visits him onSaturdays. The book upens on II grayNovember Saturday afternoon. Fords isgrowing uneasy because his so” went to avariety stum two blocks away a” hour agoand isn:t back yet. He never does comeback,andesrlynestmomiya pirofwinosfind him behind a factory, stuffed into twog&age bags. He hss been raped andmurdered.

A few days IaterFati receiwsatip fmma fightened young man. He knows whokilled the boy and, for a prlcc. tells Farris.Instead ofreporting this to the police Fardssets out to reek revenge, and finds it. Thestory ends violently, with bloodstaining thefirst snow of winter.

Intu this very short novel Richard Wrighthss paeM. without giving any feeling ofcongestion. a’variety of incident and sgallery ofchmctersdnwn wirhasure handand immense eeonumy of line: P’st. F&s’ses-wife; the young Englishman who nowlives with her. her amiable father. Bill

be&ty a;ld mm& noveillt; her crarsbrother Teddy, once a flower child, nowdoing well in real estste arid NnniQ to fat;and his good-natured but mnstsntly exsspemted wife Sylvia. Tti family’s ciergy-man, a mildly unctuous Anglo-Catholic, iswith a iine fitness called Bunny Buckley.(Farris, who has known him for years,dotisn’t know what to call him: “Father” btoo formal. and “Bunny” ir prepwtemus.)And there are effectively conhasted pur-tmiu of the two women. one old and oneyoung. with whom Fati has brief sexuale”co”“tefs.

I wonder a littIe whether the work mighthave gained by being either shorter or

longer: condensed inm a short story mconcentrate its impact; or extended m giveus more of Chvia Fanis’s life. If we couldhave seen him and Pat when they stillenjoyed each other’s company. if we couldhave lived with him through the year spentin Glouce,%ershire wking a novel. “thebsppiest year of an unhappy life” -if, thatis. we had been allowed m know him whenhe wss more than the pitiable slob he hasbecome I this final episode of his lifemight have risen m hagedy.

But thefscttobecelebmtedhere, withuutreservation. is that Richard Wright h& nowcompletely mastered the ad of telling astory. In addition. bii narrative prose irfauldas; my editorial fingers didn’t twitchonce ss I read it -a rsn experience. Andhis dialogue XCM ctToriles~ly natural, tmeffeieh attained only by a great deal of effmt.This book might .indeed be ealied ,hismssterpiexe, in the word’s original mse-the Meisrersrrick a member of a mediivslguild presented 89 his final credentials forrecognition as s fully quslified pwztltlonerof his crafi. I look fotwafd m Wright’s nestnovel-hoping. though, that he is keepingbll mind on cheeryid things. q

The Mad Trapper, by Rudy Wiebe,McClelland &Stewart. 189 pages, $14.95cloth(ISBNO7710 8976 7.)

By M. T. KELLY

RUDY WEBE SEEMS to be trying m createCanadian mythology in his wcxk. Even thetitles of his earlier books - Peace ShallDeswoy Many (1962), The Blue Moumimof China (1970). The Tcmpratioru of BigBear (1973) -send shivers down the mwtinsensitive spine by vhtue of their mythtcwertuncs. In his latest book. The MadTrapper. Wiebe has tsken the rmry ofAibsrt Johnson, the msd tmpper of RatRiver, and told it in a simple. straightfor-ward narrative that tries to give thb tsle ofmurder, chuc, and capture the effect of IIparable.

The book opens witb the silent napper-he’ll remain silent. almust mute. thmughthe Hihole novel -paddling a nft tow&dFL%? McPherson, LOO m.iIes north of theArctic Circic. At Fort McPherson we findMounties in scarlet dress uniforms. squaredaneerr. a pie-esthlg contest, weatheredfarmers. coiourful trappers, woodendialogue. and similsdy ludicrous inter-action between men:

*Ybw. l’m ncasosure.” He -rubbinghis stomach meFully.Milkn is the Mountle who winds up

chasing the mad trapper. If Monty Pythonhad collected these Canadian stereotypesfrom the opening scenes of The tiadTmppcr and put them on the air. he’d beaccused of overdoine it. Wiebeseldom eetsso heavy-handed &in, but the book isuneven. and much of it is smck.

The trapper. apparently. wants simply tobz left alone. He never says much, thewll-springs for his motivation seem m be alittle ditty he hums: “Never smile at awoman.. . . Callnom~nyourftfend.Ifyoutrust anybody. you’ll be scny . . you’ll besorry . . . you’ll be sotry in the end.” Thatand the fact that he pops Dodds Kidney Pillsand broods on faded phobagrapbs.

In fact. nobody talks much in this book.The chmactcrs belong to the school thatholds thzal twitching cheek muscles indicategreat internal tom~enl. The Moumies don’tlike the ptess at all. Their emotions areuntbilingly bureaucratic. There’s more thana hint of a Watergate mentality in theirsecrecy and ccmtemp for reportem. Sw-don. the ioumslist. is warded as swnrlvh&m. &ainly nbl a t&ho man like theothers. Wo~hfav.thePirst World Warflver:.who’s bmught m m help ttack John&n,refers to Snardon as “this fop”. Thereporta is terrified in the airplane. whileMillen doesn’t even glance at the dangemus“peaks edging in closer with each hammer-ing revolution of the Bellanca’s stminiw

Thou_& there’s a story-telling tradition inthe Noah. it’s missing from The AfadTmppcr. The book’s strength lies inWiebe’s obvious imaeinative obsessionv&b the land. There’s &me lovely feelingin his description, in the smell of wind, oftwo grizzly cubs feeding while theirmother’s claws “waved as gently as wingsin tbe air above Ihem*‘. Wiebe intended hisr;tle m be a simple one. and on one level itwrks. He builds to a good climax. and ascene in which Wop May is under atxpaulin fixi& his airplane and an oldIndian v:oman coma in to chant andprophesy is well done. lohnoon ls comparedto the Indian spirit Wend&, and thecomparison is haunting. But such simpleand effective scenes are too few. In spite of

muddle :I the book.We doneedmyths in thiscountry.andthe

mad trapper’s story obviously fascinates,and perhaps ubsuses. Wiebe’s imagin-ation. But ew.n in Greek mythology. andcettainly in Notth American Indian mythol-ogy. the gods am all too human. capriciousand orhitmty and sexual. In the lrish sagaTain Bo Cuoilngc. the blood-soakedhema sometimes seem as if they’re in aDublin pub. talking their lives away. To beeffective myths must be made articulate,and that doesn’t happeti in The MadTrapper. Our own glmsa and go& and

f&back into silence. 0 .

by Rupert Schieder

Setting the World on Fire, by AngusWilson. Seeker & Warburg (ColllnQ, 296pages.S14.95clolh(ISBNO436#604 X).

ANGUS w~~~)~‘sfollowinghasneverbeenalargeone, but it has been devoted. Bxpecta-lions about this book have been grrat. sinceit is his liter novel in seven yearn. It is alsohis filat publication since he was hlbted,after D. distinguished canxr as critic, author,wartime intelligence officer, and mostsignificant for much of his fiction, supetin-lendent ofrhe Reading Boom of the BritishMuseum, that centre of scholarly and oRenarcane research. It is significant, mo. in acansidemtionofthisl~test wotk,tonotethmhis earliest and perhaps still his finest workappeared in two collections of shon stories,The Wrong Sef (1949) and Suck DarlingDodar (1950). followed later by thesignificantly titled collection, A Bit OffrheMop (1957). These displayed the skilfulapplication oi a scalpel m the pretensions.

weaknesses. and sexual patticularitles of avoriely of chmkrs in unusual, oftendecaying situations. The stress lay on thedepiction of character and situation ratherthan 6n narrative. Each of the succeedingnovels from Hemlock and Afrcr (1953)applied this dissection m a variety of peopleand situations. geographical and cultuml,thatserved\Vllson’s widc.oftenspeci&.edinterests.

In tbii latest fiction. his 1 Itb, the intexstincharacterandsilustionmntinuer. butitisdominated by an all-consuming concern fortheme, embodied in two brothen and thegreat house of theii patrician family. TbeFundamental narrative sttnctyn is simple,

complementary brothers through D. .&cdproduction of Richard II, a French opeta,and a quite atniclimactic original play, allpmduced near or in Tothill House.

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the family. stands at the heattofEngland. inthe centw of London itself. near Wcstmins-ter Abbey. the Houses of PatliPment. andthe Ministry oFDcFcnce. Tothill House, liltcthe bmtbers. embodies an amitbcsis. For atthe centrc of the original classicD117th~century building. built by the wchitectPratt. stzmds the baroque Great Hall. dc-signed by Sir John Vanburgh. Tix classicalorder. bzdatce. and proportionof the Househas a its ccntrc, not disorder, but the“ordered disorder at the baroque.” So too,the brotherr: Tom. the lawyer, maintainer,timid, full of teats: and Piers. whom Tomlows. the director-producer. the attist-cre%r. confident. scornful of safety andlimitations. rash enough to court disastrousFailure.

The ceiling ofthe Great Hall is dominatedby the painter Vetio’s depictionofthcmythof Phaethon. \vho rashly seizes the chariotof the sun. driver wildly. endangering the

ectth. and - struck by Jove’s thunder-bolt conveniently nearby Ministry of DeFcncc.- Falls to his death. Fascinated. perhaps During the pcrFommncc. five pages t?omcarried away by ingenuity. Wilson has Piers the end of the novel. Scotland Yard arrives,stage a pcrFommnce of the 17th~ccntuty makes last-minute anests, and order iscomposer Lully’s opera. Phecrhon. ramted. One of tbc figurcs of disorder,establishing situational and thematic par- however. attempts to shoot Acts. but pcr-allels and laycts. Contmty to easy cxpccta- Feet love having cast out Tom’s Fears. hetion. however, Pien does hot Fall; hc rises to jumps. fatally. between Piers and the was-heightsoFaccIaim. sin, a substitute Phaclhon. rising in hi fall.

But wait. With one chapter. one tenth ofthe novel, to go, Wilson strains our acccp-tancc and admiration by presenting fa thirdproduction: this time an original play.written by an assistant gardener OF theestate. It is a pastiche. in two sewcs of thatliterarytemt,oFa 17th~centuryplay, includ-ing among other hetcmgcneous materials.aspects of the Gunpowder Plot. Actually,the catchlly guarded prcpamticms for theplay serve as a cover For the digging of atunnel by the revolutionary playwright andhis subversive confederates. to blow up the

I’m not.dewtcd to rcvicws that tnccplots. This summary. however. illustrates ashottaming in the form of this novel. Onerejects the possibility of Wilson’s havingbecome bmcd or impatient. He hm neverbeen a “modem” novelist in the sense ofbeing interested in the “well-made novel”and experbnental technique. His intcrrst iselsewhere. in chamctcr and setting andtheme. The characters here, sharply andemnomic~lly presented. are thematiolllygrouped as figures OF order, (Toti and thelesbian librarian). extreme disotdcr @the’

v.ww MYID .&NNE.%EY drowned. stupidlyand incomprrbensibly. in the momh of dwRia Gnn& in February. 1977. m tbc age of33. Conada lost en cnist and caricmudn wi,han onolney ability to peer inU, m2n’s souls.The Anneeley Drawings (Exile Editions.enpaginated. 59.95 paper). c small-fomutparfolio of60 of his earlier skelcbes (duet.inclediy the self-ponmit 011 the cwcr, incoloer, ir P handsame epiteph. And BarryColk,gb~Mr inwodecdoneum-memoir is atouching word ponmit of the anisl 8s a veryyoeng mm. ,101 l o n g otT ,he boat hornNonbrm I,elmd. big-boned and bluhing.beginning to find his unique. sqtdggly line esP dnyh,,nwn on dte book ages of the oldTomnm Tdtgmm.

studio, a convened one-mom schoolhouse oeee hcdidfor,heTomnmSymphony acdtbenurBcewe,ton, On,., wmehedeetrikingbus, Sh;vw Fsrtiml. However. the drawings oknOF George Bemerd Sbaw form end aform IOn much of lbelr impse, when squeezed&If under his ewioos fingers. Tk eyes downbyspaceconrioes magezinecdi,omtowouldn’t come right. he kcpl complaining. fit standard column Bidthe. And when

The eyes, the windows oftbe saol. cm the Qneds post unwisely camdssioned Annekcmx md glory of any Anc-xley ponmit. the ley pornails of the Qcecn end six piitierparks of ebamcker ,bat turn cedauc in,0 minirDaforthc deAni,iwsetofsumpsin,heat. Some critics. nodng the, Annesley gcncr- _ urly 1970s. ,hc mselrr were ludiemes.

Publisher Calleghan. who nn ,h;Y&wei~ book sec,ion inthe lme 1960s andwas Anneslcy’s fin, 9z,tmn. has else see” fit,o inclede wo of his own litenry esreys Fromthilprriod. ttishrrd,osecwhy.Tbeyreadas

elly dmw fmm photogmphii referencea and Money was always e pmb,em with Anoes-.rcldom fmm life. dismissed him u jest ley. \Vemtdd ncvercffordtopay himwhmbeanother clever copy dneghtsman. They WEE was vmnh. of c0om.e. bet he kep insistingblind. The haunmd eyes of hi Hider, ,hc that cxposem and fmcdom from edilorislad-eyed hcmrnily of his elderly Cherehill. imerfeance were mom impnuet the,, ,hethe bleary-eyed humoet og his Sir John A.. sizeofthefcc.Hcwcscqeallygenem!xinhis,be defiant glem of Benrand Russ.4 yld the dealings silh The Cane&m Form ad

rhoegh the essayis, w-em on illl inlellectoal

blank stem of Joyce Qml Gas, never cemehorn my phmognph. They ceme horn deep

.-.

.,./-- -. ,-

Sonrrd~ Night. less so with Ihc richerToromo Cl& awl MaX He was beginningto ,eccive mgelv commissions fmm suchU.S. pebkado~ 2s Yiw New Yorker andThe Athnric. and p&ably would have

actd nip. If the drawings once complementithe words. ,he words no loegcr complementthe dmwingr. Tkey merely prove that theyoung Callaghan. for ;111 his flashy insights.lacked somelbing Annesley posses& in-

j’~.>received mom had k no, bad his telephone

. yanked out e&r P 133.50 feed with Bell.

naty: eomm,.Anne&y wee e good friend of this

nmpdne end we commissioned seven1dravingr Imm him in our udy defl. I can

i I. .._’ - <., ‘. Bet es he cheerlidly poimed om. he diin’t. “f ; !’ ‘. +- .. needmuchmoney.Arlong~lheeouldrmp

-’ .r;;(+$, .+~$;,, f together enough ,o pay dte mor,gge andwxcs on his beloved sehwlbcur. nm hi

E,

dilcpidaed Fmd. and dovm a few jers withd,e boys o, the Gemcbridge Inn on Se,e,da,’

: .,: \ ,_ I‘ nights, he wan content. Besidu. he addalwayr pick up a bit on the ride by held@ e

:

__$&& ;‘: ’neighboerwiUl~eplceghingor,he haying.

amember his glowring Gewge Woodcock ~mnc~~~s~lesstsmpsnmenlalanistend an onkind version of Piem Belton II c I 3+‘*$!& /ii?,

/S&r.

then David Annsdcy md no memoir candmdiaml Moentie. He c,ro did Diefenbaker cdequaly crpea the rem of his apprmncefor one of cm, covers. aldmugh k warned es and pemonalily. In looks he reminded somehe was growing powerMy bored wilh Diif people of D. H. Lnwmnce. end k ccruinlymd,hcboredomsbawedebit.Themleof,be

” ,;/’ shad e lo, of Lwmnee’s raw imensily. Be,edwtil-page canomds,. consndy puuing /#‘/ . whem Lamnce was dark. Annesky was allnew cxprssrions on old faces. wee ana,her?e within Anneslcy end expmrsed acommunion light. He meld fill c mom no, only wi,h life,o Annrs,ey. He might try the nme face k&men enis, end subject that tnnscended betelso with hop end well-being. He had ,besev~mt,imer. but once hewessmisfiedbe had ,imeandsprec. s o n Of &em,. mrcrly spc”tenco”r. Ibelcaught ,be es~nce of ,he subject the lines Annesley liked dnwing lop, pmfembly meked women’s huru and made men glad.bzamr locked in his creative compmer end life si2e. beeeew his style necdcd space. A iit hir feneml i,seemedthaibalfofBervenwhe lended 10 tme bxereU. typical Annerley pomeit bes no bold edges. uiedtocmwd imotbe small Anglican church

Houewr. he wu fvcinmed by the pmr- Instead.tbefo~emcrgesesifbymagixfmm end sin nmng men. fighting bilck unmanlypcnofmpmducingtke Annesleylinc in thres a bramble of apparently wuclatsd ljnes or is team. canicd him thmugb tbe freezing rain todimensions and kgac working with day reggesmd bye Few deR snukes. His style vcs hisgnrr.during ,hc ,311 ye= of hi life. Visitors 10 hi idealforpos~nsndhcwPrjes6ypmudofthc --WUGLAs-MIRsHN.L-

14 Boo!3 in Canada. Nowmber. 1980

__ ._.._ -._-.._~......-r .~.

J,

playwright and the essusin). end those whopresent il cmtstent menece to order andpropottkm. such es the erratic great-gnndfathr. the alcoholic mother. and theuncle. P victim of his teste for flagellation.The father. a fighter pilot. fell 10 earth, evictim of a little monster who set the worldon fire. Hitler. and there err other parallelsthat I hrse nut mentioned.

The chtuxters are not developed betrevealed. serving Wilson’s usual concern.the e*.position of a thematic situation. Thisperp~~e is. I believe, best embodied in hisshon statics end in Anglo-Sawn Atdrudes.an early novel that is reeIly e most skilfulinterweaving of P number of related butscperete threads. This latest novel, likesome of its predecessors such as The Olddlcn ur drr Zoo. No La~yhby hfa~tcr. andAs If B? Magic. I enjoyed fat Wilson’sinvention. his salid. quite Viclotien andEdwardian evocation of piece. his fescine-lion by patticular subjects, some “a bit offthe map”. aed his constant brilliance. Hen,however. his brilliance is unfortunatelydimmed by his excessive ingenuity. 0

The Elements, by Tom MsmhalJ. Obbtat Press. IS3 PegeO. $17.50 cloth (ISBN0 SS750 336 51 and $7.95 paper tI.SBN 0S8750 337 31.

By ALBERT MORITZ

To%1 wwtxt.‘s impn5ssiveselecliott t%mhis four books organized around the clessi-ml elumrnts 16;. weter. eatth. air) is ev:ork primarily concerned with the enigmasof history and guilt. Mershall has sharpenedthe outlines of his ambitious undettalring by

‘The m&t imp&tent testuelchanges mod-ify sequence poems to clarify intentions andcontinuity. For instance. Marshall has help-fully removed the page headed “MoreDefinitions” in The White Ciry. when itinterrupted and confused his fittest poem,“Or There”. “MK and the implosion ofthe FLQ”. the longdialogue tbatdominetedThe Eurdr-Book. has been limited to twobtief excerpts. and other deletions ot tear-myements also help The Earth-Book.

Other excerptions are not es successful.The sequence “Words for an ImeginrryPicture” fmm Xxgic IVarer is representedby P selection tbet is not self-contained,since it fails 10 define its three chatactets.Mershall has treated Magic Warcr severely.

reducing it to 31 pages here: but it mightwell hsve been cut to only “Politics” endthe sequence “Islands”.

These and other such changes make TheElfrrrorrs k authoritative Metshall text, etleast for the time king and for the poemsincluded. But it is regretteble that thepublisher and author did n’ot make this Imote definitive book. There is no author’sforeword or stetemenl of intenlions. criteriaof selection, or theme. Not even a table ofcontents 10 offer en overview of the took.‘Only a vague publisher’s blurb stetes thatMarshall chose his “best poems” end thathis work is “a way of seeing reality es beingmmpmed of the four elements. . .“.

The poet’s slatemeet on theme and stmc-lure would be wIttable, because stmctwe- purposely made so prominent - ism-eciselv ‘the weakest wxct of The E/e.;nnm. _ and drama&es Marshall’sdifficulties with his vigorous. large-mindedpoetic ettetppt. The grouping of the poemsunder the fourelements is often far-fetched.and this reflects other. deeper st~cturesunjustifiably imposedon the metetial.

The Elcme~rs deals with the pmblem ofpain, but in very concrete and local terms,the terms of Cansde and its history (tbii ls toleave aside a mere specifically universalcounterpoint theme besed on metaphoafmm physics). Metshall is impressivelysuccessful in making his national visionboth topical and sy&lic of all mankind’sbloodandauilttelationshi~tothee~handancestors.- Like many &th Americanpoets, he is concerned with reclaiming the“second chance” thet Europeans squrn-dered by inscribing their old lusts andcrimes on the supposed rabula naw of theNew World. In “Politics”, snow sym-bolizes the new beginning that, historically.wes offered us, and which is always possi-ble for each individual:

Mashall’s concern remains constant.thounh his slvlislic and imaeinrtivestrenethg&in de&g with it. The early Y&c-donald Fork” mydtologizes John A. Mac-dontdd. end the book’s lest poem does thesame with Laurler. Though neilber man canbe exempted ftom the etliludes or actions ofhis time. Matsholl manages 10 see both esvisionaries of e new order. rejecting oldways 10 stm oftesh:

For Marshall. the social struggle ofCanada is identicel with tk inner effottrequited of eech penott. “Listen,” he seys.

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“Wmy ‘thing’ inside is outside too.” Andhe re-interprets Iaurier’s doublful remarkthat this is Caneda’s century-a predictionthat has not come lo pass politically - lomea something txue in the inner, poeticrealm. The efforts of Canadians lo mhmhistory, to live up to their fresh stat. formthe u)th-centmy pmjectpor excellence.

This movement From the sock& objectivesphere to the inner life occurs throughoutThe Elwwnrs. “Politics”. for instance. isfollo\ved by “Islands”. a sequence thattmccs a personal purification in dialoguewith Cmuda’s landscape end people.

The wo major poems tbet conclude thebook - “Out There” and “A Messagetiom the Garden of the Gods” -cover thesame 8round of historic guilt end personalrenewI. They forge persistently “towedwhat new direction/ what new floweringthat is not empim”, and lead to Mmshall’sparting celsll:

Cikcn.g;w ~nrrr nakedse(fup 10 rbc grc0rgas. 10 rhe air,to rfir waw, n rhe r,m’sjire,to rbc smnvcmd irs blinding birdoflighr.the wbin rify

In one way thii is tme and fine: certeinlyindividual ioner renewal must precede so-cial renewal. But in another way it is aoevasion. The passage is too facilely madefrom unresolved. objective social problemsto the claim of ao iooer renewal thatsomehow, unspecifically, subsumes orsupersedes them.

“Politics”, for instance, knocks down aman of strew, ii simplistic concept of theimperialism of “conquest, cross”, end thenproce& to e” uneamed assenion:

This room is the new self, the new arbiter ofhisto and the future. But has it reallyovacome the deathly forces? And em wetoday really more oriented toward socialjustice? Following “Politics”, “fslands”does not et all show the sleeper wekeninginto time to deel with these questions. Itshows instead the self receding out of time,still probing within and meanwhile gazingrather numbly et the encircling outer forcesthat compel it.

Marshall himself misires this dilemma.and to this exteot is tied to the centmlWestern ider of the full reality end dignityof the objective world. and the need toharmonize it with the.requimmeots of spiritmtd justice. Yet his thought is weakened byao automatic ou couront disregard of thiitradition. from which all hi most insistentyeemings and espitations in feel spring. Hisseeming preference for Eastern and

18 Boo!eln Canada. November, 1080

~.__;_,_ .___.. __~._~_..~_.__._ -__~ - -,

shamanistic modes of thought abets histendency to slip away from tbe essentialpemdox of his material. the impossibledemand that inner light should have powerupon society end histqry, towmd the idea ofthe sufficient self. Still. like the Bible and incommsltoothermytbographies, Menhall’svision ends in *city.

The Elcmenrs leads us to expect -though it does not give -e greet epic, theepic of the cullun-brioger. the foundinggod who establishes e new life baaed onrevelation. But lo say so is only to honourMarshall. for kuge poets make us expectthis. And in The E/emenrs. he is surelybeginning, not concluding: 0

A Planet Mostly Sea, by Tom Waymao.Tumstone Press, 64 pages, s5.00 pper(ISBN 0 88801035 4).

Blue Sunrise. by Bert Almon, Thistledown Press. 60 pages. 814.00 cloth (ISBN0 920066 30 5) end 86.95 paper (ISBN0 92006629 I).

By STEPHEN SCOBIE

IN A BEEF note et,tbe end of A Planet,%fosr/y Sm. Tom Waymen quotes Keats’sfamous end pmblematical dictum, “Bceutyis truth. truth beaqty”, and comments that“while he [Keats] end many ertists sincehave come down on the side of the first ofthese equations, it should be clear t?om niypoems that I believeonly tbesecond”. Bothof these mcenl books of poetry tiumWestern publishers em in fact mom in-letested in truth than in beauty; b-xbofthemrefuse most of the tmditional techniques formalting stetements “poetic” - elabomtemetaphors. intricate rhythms. arceoe sym-bolism -and rely instead on the authorityof fact.

These lines come from “What theWomen Said”, the second section of “As-phalt Hours, Asohall Au”. one of the 1v.niOo8 poem-~eq&nces thm- make up TomWwman’s small collection from TumsmneF&s. Waymae records these words not espart of a superior satiticel poke at peoplewho eat at McDonald’s, but as fact, as partof the daily texture of life in en industrialtown. Fact is the accumulating evidence onwhich Waymen builds the increasinglypolitical assertiveness of the later sectionsofthepoem:

This theme of money end time, andWayman’s insistence on work es e camelexpmience of human life that finds fnr toolittle e.xpMsion in our cultme, will befamiliar to reedem of his poetry. In thirsense, “Asphalt Hours, Asphalt Air” coo-taies few surprises: like all of Waymen’swork poetry, it is eeute., intelligent. andnecessary.

It’s the other poem - “L.od8 BeachSuite”-that gives adiffemotand interat-ing penpeclive on Waymen’s poeuy o ffact. He approaches the tmditionel domeinof the lyric poet - &smlpttve. meditetlveport&s of nature - and even hem hcrefuses the techniques of tmmformation.Totem is one gestme towards metaphor -the tide as a “furious/ w&hewomanlthrowing out! pail atIer pail” - whichwould be a pleasant if uoremarkeble imagein any other poet. Jo Waymae it seemsrterlling by virtue of its isolation. His naturepoetry, Iii his work poetry, seeks itsauthority * the naming of fectsz

Many reedem will find such lines flat,prosaic. lactiing in “significance”.insufficiently image-making. But over thelength of the sequence., the technique has itsowe effectivenas: again. thue is an ac-cumulation, an acuetioe of detail, thatcreates. out of the most impersonal ofmeats and mate.rials, a personal voice.

Bert Almon’s El& Surisse. appositelyand attractively minted in blue by Thistle-down Press, ii&o e book that m&s verylittle use of mta~hxs. symbols, or&kingtransformations. Like Waymen. AlGwrites about everyday life, appealing to thereader’s recognition of the familiarity ofwhet he says tather than m the mad&sadmimtion of his imaginative pow’er mtmnsformreelity. But Almondoershapcbis

for the situation that will become an image.and his nmi’elive impulse is mom clearlydirected toward the well-formed mtecdote.Many of his poems are coocise. economi-tally mlated incideots. closiegonaneatlinethat unobtrusively but firmly suggests theinnate significance of the event, or itspossible widerapplicatiow.

Theopeningpoem. “ForNaocyGoie8toWY”, is a good example. It tells of howAlmoo picked up a young girl. Nancy,hitch-biig with I! large but placid dog,Maggie. The poem briefly and effectivelysketches the girl’s character innocent.idealistic. rmrting, naive. The only overtcommentwmesiotbefiaaIlines:

I’ve merenoughpimrcrmuisfcwe merchants on rhe ,,a,&

. This international bestseller tells of a scheme. so daring and flamboyant, yet so elegantly

+

manoeuvred, it rivals the fascination andhumour of THE STING.

. / In 1872, four ‘American ‘rogues decide to‘take’ the Bank of England. Their dashing

madventure leads them to London,. R i ode Janeiro and Europe. Gripping and

\ exhuberantly told, Stephen Sheppard’sstory has been applauded around the

Here is an inside look at that vanishingbreed which cheerfully ran a large part ofthe globe without taking work too serious-ly. Included are the correct attitudes tohave toward money (it is vulgar); sex (it isvulgar); business (it ls vulgar--unless, ofcourse, it is run at a heavy loss), and so on.Douglas Sutherland is a most witty ex-emplar of this vanishing species . . . and hehas written a perfect self-parody of thistype . . . a mock guide to gentlemanlybehaviour.’ --The New YCX& Thee.‘This witty rumination on the noble breed .. . reaffirms our faith in the Englishman’sability to laugh at himself ’ --The TorontoSItaIr.

November. 1990 Books In Canada 17

THE INVASION OP CANADA1812-1813Pierre BertonHisloy reads like a fast-paced novelin this mqgnlflcent account ofthe Warof 1812.

TAETliIRDTEMPTATlONA Novel by CharlesTempletonThe blockbuster olTempleton’scareer-the story of lhe most mes;mcrizlngevangelist sinceBillyGraham. ’

ODD’S ENDA Novel byTim WyJyhne-JonesWhwcr of the $50,000 Seal BooksFirst NowI Award for 1980-theseason’s most terrifying thriller.

THE PASSIONATE OBSERVER .Selected WrlHng+by Donald CreightonAn?cr. commilment and penetratinginslghts illuminate thecollection ofCwighton’s best. most controversialwriting of the last decade.

.$199?1

THE MAD TRAPPERANovel by Rudy WiebeThe celebrated author of The Templa-lions ofBig Bear brings to Ilk one ofCanada’s most powerful legends. I

SM.65

A,SUPERSONlC DAYoregory ClarkMore than a hundred warm and whim-sical cotumns-timeless humour fromGreg Clark’s Packsash. .

SIZS

C A N A D A / T H E M O U N T A I N SRandy MorsePacked with brealhtaking beautifulphotographs-a book asspectacularas the mountains it depids.

THE CHARCOAL BURNERSA Novel by Susan FlusgraveAsavage, astonishingly powerful tirstnovel from one of Canada’s moslertravaganllygifted poets.

$14.95

THE BIG GENERATIONJohn KettleHere they wn~e...llw mllllon kids whoare changing the face of this nalionl

rra

TIIETIN PLUTEANovel byGabrielle Roy2Yanslaled bg Alan BmournA brllllant newtranslalion ofa Cana-dian classic, handsomelyslipcasedwitha HaroldTown dtawinoofthe

THE SCORPION SANCTIONANowl byGordon P’ape&Tony AsplerA Presidential visit to Calm...a hiddenbomb...a frighteningly credible, fast-paced thriller from the authors ofChain Reaclion.

9,495

THE SACRAMENTPeterGzowsklThe hue and powerfully written storylived by Bra1 Dyer and DonnaJohnson-twoyoungcanadiaa planecrashsurvivors who refused to die.

LADDERSTO HEAVENEdked by OscarWhIte MuscarellaBased on theexhlbltlon which drewmillionsacross North Aniertca, thisisaspectacular tribute to thecreativespirit of the Ancient World.

THE NORTHERN MAGUSRichard GwynCmc 01 the country’s most respected.incisive pa3ilicaI writers levels anunwavering eye at Pierre Rudeau-lhc maaician who inlriaues and/orinfuriates “5 all.

$I?35

TAEWORLD OI’PARLEY MOWATFzwleyFlowatRanging from impassioned outragelojoyful ribaldry a big. bounlifulsclcction of thcvery tirst of Mowal’swriting.

TllECHRISTPlAS BIRTHDAY STORYMargaret LaurenceA new and \‘cry special Christmasclassic for ~aullgchildrrn...wlth glow-ing illustrations by Helen Lucas.

1995

HELEN IN EXILEA novel by Ian FiclachlanMore lksn the v\traordinary story ofthrccwmncn and tkrcc generalion.+this is already being halled as alilcrarx masterpiece.

MAZINAWPoetry by Stuart MacKinnonA unique Canadian epic poelil. aseaqdess fusion of past and present.history and nlysticism.

F7&,PA.I

CLIpTalLGabrielle RoyProm one of Canada’s most cele-brated autkors comes lhewhimsicalsloryofan extraordinary cat...= beau.tiful book enchanced by brilliant. full-colourillustrations.

II195

DADDY’S GIf&AVew Personal Memoirby Charlotte Vale AllenThe trueand deeply movingstoryofalittlegirl whoshared a~ unspeakableSeCret...Wlth her father.

.wias

IiARDROCKMININO:Technological Changes andIndustrial Relations at INCO Ltd.Wallace ClementPro,,, the author of The Carradialiara-Cc%‘-poratePlile, a bard-bilting look atCapada’s wealthiest mlnlng company.

L16.95

TIlEPOLITICS OPPREIGHT RATESHoward DarlingThe history oftbe issue thal oncedivided the counlry...and why freighlratesare still creating controtersy.

57.95 ,P&!

BEGlNNINGS:A Book for WidowsBetty Jane WylieIn a newly revised and expandedquality pap.erback...the invaluableguide to survivlnglbe dealh of a .

C. D. HOWEA Biography by Robert Bothmttand William KilbournAvailable& the Rrst time in paper.bsck...the llrst major biography oflhcman who wielded more power tllanany politlcian in Canada’s history.Recently awarded Ihe presligiousAlbert B. Corey prize in Canadian/Anwrican relations.

DIDTHE EARTH MOVE?Cartoons by AlslinAlslkl is al il again...wilh a brand newcallcctlon of devaslatingly Rmnycartoons.

1895 ,PAJ

___. __.:_,l,__: .___ _ ;,. ____,- .-r--,y_* 3 --.-..rw . . .a T. T.m..-.i-:- -x-.-7.. C.-c.m.mv _ ~1 -..-. _

P U B L I S H E R S

The DfctIonaty of Imaginary PlacesAlberto Manguelillustmted by Graham ~reenfieklWorlds of enchantment. fantasy and horrorhorn literature. film. and music. describedin over 1200 entries with 11% maps. and 100dlustranons. An international publishingevent. 1gooks for 2wybody: AlternateSelectIon of the Literaty Guild and ScienceFiction Book Club) $24.95 untilDecember 31.1980. $29.95 thereafter.

Images;Contemporary Canadfatt RealismMarci Lqmtan and loulse LlpmanA beautiful collection of 20 palmbxgs by 20 ofCanaila’s top realist painters. Each poster-sned print ts sultable for framing. (Books for2wybody and Book of the Month Club)$14.95

20 q oe!a in Canada. November, lBg0

If you like, you ten read this poem Mktenin Deceinber, 1970) es en emblem of thewhole flower-child geeention of the 1960sheading into the wintry realities of the1970s. but Almon does not insist on thatLid of expansion. The poem works best etits immediete. anecdotal level.

That first peem also establishes Almoe’sown stence for the book: a” observer morethen e participant, but a sensitive, con-eemed, sympethetic observer. Having ob-served e possibly fete1 ear accident duringtheday.he himsel~goes tobed “thinking ofI house where no one is sle&g”. “Mark-ing the less gnmmatical papers” of HongKoag r&gee students. he reflects ene~ilythat “the red pencil is en oar blade comingdown hard/on heeds that cling to the side ofa small boat”.

Almon’s poetj mekes no lerge claims tocosmic significance. His work is quiet,understated. intelligent. informed bye nicesense of humour. finely crefted withoutevenly displaying its technique. Blue Sun-rise is scantly one of the major books oftheyear. but it’s a very pleasing one. 0

Poems. by Anne Heben. translated fromthe French by A. Poulin Jr.. QuarterlyReview of Litemtwe Foeby Series (tince-to”. New Jersey), 60 peges. 510.00 paper.

By ALBERT MORITZ

~~ls~s~~~o~~s~ver~ionofAnneHtkrt’spoems displays the qualities that have medeA. Foulin. 11:s 1977 translation ofRilke’sDuino Elegies and Sonners 10 Orpheusperhapr the most admired and qwted bookof poetry to rppear recently in the UnitedStates. Poulin, e distinguished Ameticenpoet, e native of Maine but of FrenchCanadian descent. points out in en after-word that this work “marks the first timethat s relatively subatentlel collection ofAnne H&en’s poems in tnnslation hasappeered” in the U.S. Hdbert hemelf hssassisted in his tmnslstion end selection fromher f&nres (1960). He renders 10 fewerpoems than did. Alan Brown in his stillindispensable Poems by Anne Hibert(Musson. 197.5).

Foelin refers to the work of Brown andF. R. Scott, and the many words andphases he shares with them certainly represent not coincidence bet careful stedy anduse ofthe~priorwsions. On theother hand.numerous words, lines. and passages are

e

seen fmm a fresh, revealing angIe. Thebook’s chief importance. however. Is tbenew tone Puulin has found in Hdbert - emore colloquial, speech-bssed tone thanWY heard by Scott and Brown. ‘IVithHebert. es with Rilke, Poulin echieves avoice that does not disguise the poet’s own.and yetspEaltJalanguagebasedo”stsndardconversetioeal English. The poet’s beautyand intensity ere made to rise dllcdy out ofour daily talk.

Genenlly. Scottalsodrews Hdbertoetofastendatd modemEnglish. bet it isclearlyawritten. more literary language thanFoulin’s. Approximately the seme is treefor Blown. who in addition goes funherthan the other two toward emphasizing enote of hientic, incantatory surrealism.

These distinctions are more cumulativethan locel. bet canibe okerved to someextent in brief psssages. Here we the threeversions of the first steera of “Lu Chambre

fermt+e”. Poelin:

cerned thee Poulin to preservethe eompem-lively latinate syntax of French. Combinedwith H&a’s solemn. unadorned noens endverbs. this lends theirtransletionsa gnomicformality appropriate to one side ofHeben’s genius. But Foulin’s Anglo-Saxoncompression and speed result in e poetrythat. thoughstillnsewedendeommending,impresses es with its urgent relevance.

Foulin’s Hdbert appeals s one segmentof a five-book volume published by Theo-dore Weiss’s Quoncrly Review oJLiterafure. After more than 30 yearr as amagerine, this distinguished peblieationhas decided to produce imtead twoomnibusvolumes per year. each ~onteining et lmtfour complete books. Of the IO books in thetint two volumes, Foulin’s H&en Is thebest byaverygreetmerginindeed. Itistobehoped tbst it will soon be ewxileble sepe-mtely. perhaps expanded and without itsoccasional typographical errors(“scapulas” - meaning “shoulderblades” - es e tnnslation of scopulcrircs.when surely the eomct “scepulars” weswritten). F’oelin has produced e book ofgreat importance to both of Canada’slitemtws. 0

Although the emphasis is on the rugged We&t this season,there are plenty of other treats for those who measureout their lives in coffee-table books and talk of’Michelangelo

produced by Christopher Hume

THEWEST~~1s IS THE year of the West in Canada.Publishers have spent considerable energydiscovering Cylada west of the Rockies.Perhaps the proper word is “rcdiscover-ing”: the big item this season is PacificNonhwert Indian art and there’s nothing?tev:*’ about a cultural tmdition that datesback tbc.urvlds of years. The appcaram-e oftherebooks-th~arefive--baresultofthe general rebirth. or renaissance. thenative arts are experlcncing throughoutNmth America. Last year saw PollocklSinclair’s The An of Nowal ~forrissmu. alarge and colourhd production that hasenjoyed smne success. Befom that. andsince the early 196% it was lnuit prlnto;mdcanings. Theonlyreally “ncw”nativcart is that of the Woodland Indians. (It canbe dated fmm the “discovery” of Morris-sea” in 1962 by Toronto art dealer JackPollock.) The case of the Pacific Indiansdiffcn hugely: they have mnantmtcd onadapting ancient art forms tu prcscnt-daytechnology and cmnomics.

Most Indian languages have no wordfor “at”. So it took awhile for the c4Eptto sink in. But it did. And with good result.HaidP carver and printmaker. RobertDavidron. is an excellent example. If oneindividual can embody the changes North-v:est cost Indian art has undergone in dtelast 15 years. it must surely be this man. Histay is told by Hilay Stewart in RobertDavidson: Haida Printmaker (Douglas &hlelotyrc, 117 pages. $24.95).

Born in the Queen Cherloltc Islands.Robert Davidron benefited from e remuk-ably traditional Haida upbringing. To non-lndirn eyes. the Davidson family wouldhave apparcd poor. their one-room houvehad no nmniy water orelcctticity. None ofthat bothcrcd young Davidson. AuthorHilary Stewat tells us. “What youngRobert’s life la&cd in modem facilities wasmade up for in the warmth and love offamily and relatives.” Fmm a very earlyage Davidson showed a stmn8 imast incarving. He pmduccd his first miniature

argillitc totem pole before he was 13. Heleamcd from both his frdher and gmnd-f&a, who perhaps kept in mind the factthat Robert Davidron’s great-grandfatherwag the rcnowned Halda carver Tehayrcn(Charles Edenshaw). By the age of 19

Bill Reid. Two y&s iater he had achii~edenough recognition to be teaching IU K’san,the reconstructed Haida village near Hazel-ton. B.C., which housesaschoolforI.ndiana&t%

In 1969, Davidson, “saddened.I. th&the= was no art in [his] village [OldMassct], nothingleftofthegns~~come to know about”. decided to carve anderect a mtcm pole. R would be raised amidmuch pomp and circumstance and a greatpotlatch. The project started quietly butwhen CBC and NFR film CL&S arrived, thevillagee tecame excited. The pole-miringceremony was directed by Davidson’s89-year old grandfather, one of the last toremember old Haids ways. Three wcelcrlatex the old man died.

Davidson took up print-making because.he wanted “something incxpwive to offer

for sale”. From his ratbet modest linteffom in 1968, hchardevelopcdintooneofthe most accmnplishcd Haida printmakersto have appeared so far. Hilary Stewart’sbook follows hll gr~wlh and pr08=Ss, print

bv mint. It makes for remarkable viewing&dreading.

Of all the Pacific Northwcet Indian erts.argillite carving is the most exclusive. Andfor good rcaoon: ergillite. D. soft. jet-blackslate (carbonaceous shale, for those whocare to know) is unique to one remote valleyin the Queen Charlotte lslauls. For ccn-turles it mmaincd I Heidn scc~% In thehands of Haida carven, argillitc was tram-formed into miniature totem poles. bowls.boxes. elates. and so forth. Much of Ihemystery surrounding this ancient art hesbeen clcercd up by Leslie Drew and Doug-las Wilson’s Argillite: Art OF the HaidaU&ncock House. 300 oases. $40). Wilson.himself a Ha& c&v&, .and Drew. irepotter and editor, have done e thoroughjob of illuminating vinually all aspects ofergillltc carving atia cetvus. Their bookcomes copiously illustmtcd end is a liiih-light of the season.

Next we have Objecls of Bright Pride(Douglas and McIntyre. 128 pages,$22.95). a catelogue prcparcd by AllenWaniwcll to eammpany ee exhibition ofNonhwest Coast Indien ert et the AmericanMuseum of Natuml History. The bookconteins numerous illustrations. many infull colour and all absorbing. The titlecnmw fmm Bill Reid, the Heidecervcr. Hisword0 deserve repeating:

%isea~tobemmeeetranccdby~cRc&in ofy. sceing ddr ins@adoFahatilobrceres. An ugly build@ can make ebeautiful min. and e beautiful mesk in thedark OF many yam. soFtened by wear,becomes a symbol WbiCh tells us tit thecycle OF life, dcalh. deeey eed rebiib is enawal aed teauifcl oee.

T%ir is net wlut ti crealors intended.Tbesc were ebjeets OF bright pride. 10 beedmircd in ti eevmcss of their crisplycarved lines, the powerful flow of smvelcgeet curves eed MICS - yea. ad inthe brigbleess OF F&I paint. They told thepcepleoFlhemmplaeeessoFfbeiiculNr6,the contimdng lineages OF Ihe gr~UFmdliir. lbeir closeivss m the magic wculdofuniversal myul oflegend.The objects in the cokction a~ moIc

OUTHOUSES OF THE EASTTcxr by Ray GuyPbao~rqbr bJ Shermlrn Hiness9.91 72 pJ.cL’ 50 mlwnr j&rs

This is rhe phuwgraphic study uf ruralmnvenicnces thar has taken Mr. Hinesecruss fields end bugs. He has capcuredin full phurogrJphic culuur rhe sear ufmany sulirnry sojourns which, withRay l;u<s humumus text bewmes ahmdrnme hardwver buuk. Nuw id irssecond print& OUTHOUSES is apwven berrseller frum coast to coast.

NInmu5 Ptm~tstit~~ Lwrr!a~P.O. Box 9301

Stadun A. HalifaxNuw Scotia B3K TN5

22 q oo:a In Canada, November. 1880

artificts than art. The mJsks. pipes. blenk-ets. charms, cooking utensils. and daggersall bed e purpose. Usefulness. hOweVer,didn’t preclude beauty. Pacific NorthwestCoast lndisns never talked of ‘%I”. butthey did have a hiihly developed aestheticsense. Even the most utilitarian items -spoons and ladles-provided an oppmtun-ity to dcepnte and celebrate.

Many pieces in the museum were otigi-nally made to be used in vetious cem-monies. This proliferation of rituals, socharacteristic of West Coast Indian life, ispartially explained by the natural abundanceof their lend. All besic requirements of life- food, shelter, and clothing - wenreadily aveilable. “It has beensaid.” writesWardwell. “that the Nonhwest.Coest In-dians attained the highest development ofeny culture evertoexist without thebenefitsof egticulture and animal domestication.”Freed from the constant demands of dailysurvival. they “had time for the development and ettectment of elaborate cere-monies end for the creation and menu-fecture of the objects that were to be usedwith them.” The remnants of these once-

‘,flottrlshing civilizatiom em on display inclimate-controlled museums and galleries.If you can? make it to the exhibition, tbecatalogue is an excellent altemetlw.

AR nourishes the hungry soul: bodiesemw food. And so the people of K’san havegiven w Gathering Whet the Great Na-ture Provided: Food Treditiom of theCitkran (Douglas & McIntyre. 127 pages.$18.95). The Gitksan people, members ofthe Tsimshian tribe. lived in north centralBritish Columbia llround the Skeena River.Their diet was as diverse as the flora endfauna of their environment. In the old days,all the Gitban had to do wes gather endenjoy. “It wes e good time.” say the tribalelders. “There was no need for our e”ces-tots to work et gydens, because so manyroots end berries and plants just grow hen.Them was no need to grow beef or pigs.because lots of 80% caribou. deer. gt’O”“-dhog, porcupine. and beaver lived closeby. . :*.

Among the delicacies described are pinenoodles (not needles, noodles), boiledmoose nose. mast rabbit ears. smoked endroasted porcupine (“It filotes better cookedover an open fire”). berbecued beaver tail(“The main thing toremembersboutbeavertail is not to overcook it.. .‘*I plus manymom. Also included are chapters on pn-serving and storage, cooking methods. and-for i ptutlcularly reveeling few pages -etiquette: “A well-brought up pawn didnot speak unnecessarily whileeating nordidhe refuse proffered food.” The Gitksananswer to the @-old problem of beingunable to finish the meal is LL model ofsimplicity; “Ifthetewas morethanhecouldpossibly eat he . . packed the food in acontainer and carried it home.” Insteed ofnoisy thank-yousandcopious compliments,Gitksan guests would happily smeck theirlips and emit loud. satisfied burps.Gafberirrg W’har rhc Grmt Nature Providedsmtck me as e very unpqossessing book.

Althoughonemightappmnch ittheweyonewould a snack - expecting little - theK’san people have put togeth6r.a feast fiatleaves the reeder’full and pleasantlysatisfied.

Fiom pine noodles to cellul~d.. . 1 Filmbuffs will be fascinnted withamthercuriavrbook from Bill Holm and George IrvingQuimby. Edward S. Cttrtir in the Land ofthe Wnr Catto& (Douglas % MeIn-,I32 pages, S 18.95). Curtis. the gmetpioneering photogmpher. spent three decades working can his clessic ZO-vohmxphotognphic hiitary of Notth AmericanIndians. “1 went to prdduce en irrefutableretard of a race dwmd tu extinction,” heraid. pnd did just that. In 1914. Curtis madee dtame-documentary film abdu! aboriginallife among the Pacific Ndnhwest Indirns.Despite rave ieviews in New York andSeattle, it was + box-office bomb; Curtis andhis backers lost their shins. For someunknown meson his movie. In rite Land ofrhc Head Hmrers: A Drama of PrimirivcLfi on drc Sirores of the Nord~ Pac$c, gotlost shortly afterwards. The world forgotabout its exisrence until 1947. when GeorgeIrving Quimby accidentelly stumbled on itwhile sorting through an old lilm collectiondona6d to the Cliicako ‘Field .Mtqtmwhere he sewed es cur&w). Running theancient nit& reels thmugh e pmjector. heimmediately recpgnized the ‘%vork ‘esCurtis’s. Unfortunately it exploded. Thusbegan e ZO-year. S25,OOO odyssey that sawthe film resmmd.cdited. soundadded.and.now. the publication of this book.

The authotx actually tell four stmia: thesage of Curtis: the making of the film: thefilm itselF and their adventures piecing ittogether. When Curtis reached the North-west Coast, he had already completed workon the Navajo, Apache. Sioux. Crow andCheyenne tribes. He had met, interviewed,and photogmpiiedsttch men as Chieflaephand the legendary. Gemnimo. Despite themtnenee long essaeiated with those names.it wes the Kwaki&l Indians m whom hedevoted the largest of his’20 volumes andhisonly film.

Inhabiting thecaistal areeamundNootkaSound, the Kwekiutl possessed e rich anddnmetic ceretn?nial life. Although in al-most constant contect with Europeans sbtcethe late 1700s. Kwekiutl culture remainedrelatively whole in l9!-% When Hobn endQuimby had finished restoring Curtis’sfilm, they immediately took it to PortHatdy, B.C., to show the local Kwakiutl.someofwhom knew originalcastmcmbets.It wes the Kwakiutl who suggested that asaun;l tmek be added and tindertook toprovide it.

The text is clear and co&z and full ofhscinating titbits. But tbe many photo-8mpbs em what make this book so extta-ordinary. Most IIFS production stills. Thebest were shot between takes: CurIis’s fiercehead-hbntets rum out m be over8nnvn b9yshaving e good time hemming it up for thecemems.

Helm and Quimby deserve much credit

for their effolom to restore Curtis’s film. It issomething they accomplished with obviouskill and much love. Togetbu they haveadded achapterto Aim history and providedan affectionae. intimate glimpse of Indianlife.

It didn’t take white men long m realizethat the Fxcific Northwest is one of therichest na~uml settings in the world. Fop.architects. the coa%al regions mnning fmmnor&em Oregon to southern British Col-umbia have provided some measure ofinspiration. Dick Busher and Harry Madin.photographa and architectutal wriler. ex-plore ‘*one of the most distinctive anddistinguished regional styles of residen-tial xchiteclurz in the world”. CalledContemporary Homes of lhe PasificNorthvat lDouglas & McIntyre. 224pages, $37.50). their book offers sanemouth-watering examples of what can beaccomplished when the well-heeled decideto pool twwces with the best arcbitcetunltalent available. The book takes a detailedlookat32houserderignedbyua~hitecb.Bush& photographs reveal. plate afterplate, bow P variety oftwes and styles havebeen adapted mrspecificenvimnment. Themajor atzhitectuml objective is to conformto the natural setting without disturbing it.On the West Coast, problems stimulate thearchitect andthe solutionsdeliiht theclient.The rest of us must remember that there arelaws agaimt ttespasing. In the meantime.we read and dream. . . .

The historic Yellowhead Route ttavetsC(the country hrn Prince Rupert., B.C., toPortage la Prairie. Man. From its begin-nings in the early years of the fur trade. theYellowhead Route has been transformedinto a modem interpmvincisl highway.Startiy at the misty Fxcific coast, thmugh(he snow-covered peaks of the Rockies tothz endless flatness of the prairies. theYellowhead Highway offers nearly 2.000miles of incredibly varied landscape. WithTke Ycllowhend Route (Oxford. unpagi-nated, S14.95). Oxford Uniretsity Ptesscontinues its wholly remrrknble RegionalPortnits of Canada Series. Fully awate thatthese books arz meant to be see” rather thanread. the people nt Oxford concentrate ORthe visual. Some are bettet than others. butof the I7 books in the series there isn’t oneclunked and The Ye//owhd Route. withphotographs by John de Visser. Bill Simp-kins, and Robert Taylor, rates as one of the‘best. By avoiding artiness. the thrre con-tributors to this book succeeded wheremany would have failed. Theits is a crisp.clean. unsentimental rem& the camem isnew allowed to intrude. The pictures dothe talking.

S~Pratcbewan Landapes by RustyMacdonald l Western Producer PrairieBoold. 91 pages. S24.95)comesacrorsssasell-intentioned book by a man who hasdeep attachments to that province. Theatthor. P vetemn journalist and winner ofthe liadak International Color Cenifieate ofExcellence, doesn’t get a fair shot atdisplaying his talents because of the book’s

pooi reproduction qualities. It can’t com- Mountall, by Randy Morse (McClellandpare. for example, with the Oxford series: 6 Stewan).ihe colours n&r ring ttue and somdpicmtes are dowmighl fuzzy. Each photo-eraoh comes with a shott excerpt fmm$rie litemturc. Saskatchewan% land-scam has not been done justice.

ART BOORSTHE GREAT Canadian Art Boom continues.A newplleryopns in Canadaalmosteveryday. If the boom continues much longer.

The Canadian nonh has been discowedonce again. This time the explorer isBritish-born attist and writerTed Harrison.His book, The Last iiorizm (Merrill. 1 I2pages. S24.95). represents a triumph ofproduction over content. The strongestadjective that comes to mind is nice - anice book by an even nicer man. For anartist. Hation makes a nice writer. His

makes;hc &der f&i nice.The introductionby Pierre Benon (it too is nice) must seta record: How many has he written so far?My main complaint is with Harrison’spainting: I wish 1 could be nicer but. . let’sjustsay they’renotso nice. Foran atiistwhorelies primarily on colour. H~trison ginsevery indication of being the visual equival-ent of tone deaf. The word gaudy cmnesclaoe to describing his work. Restricted toblack-and-white, Harrison fares much bet-ter; his drawings are the most successfulaspeel of the book.

The following books fmm or about theWest are expected this fall but were not yetavailable as we went to press: A PictureIibtory of Britih Columbia. by GeorgeWoodcock (Hurlig): and Canadaflhe

th& will soon be dmre artists than philis-tines. For publishers this must be goodnews:artis thestuffofwhichbig.expensivegift books are made. This year’s crop maylack theglitterofthe 1979offering but alotof ground has been covered and the choicesare many.

The Canadian on book of the year isunquestionably Paul Duval’s extravagantlook at tbe last surviving member of theGroup of Seven. A.J. Casson/His Lifeand Work/A Tribute (CerebuslRcnticeHall, 285 pages. $75). By virtue of hismembership in the Gmup of Seven and hislongevity - he was born in 1898 -Carson’s paintings are pmbably the mostsought-aRer of any Canadian artist. Hisexhibitions at the Roberts Gallery in To-ronto open to long. anxious queues. Whenthe doors are finally unlocked, art loverspmctically wratle each other to the groundmaking sure they don’t miss their chance atwhat may just be one of the master’s lastrvorks. Afterthe dust has settleda few hourrlater. the walls are plvtered with little redstickers signifying that all has been sold.Unused cheque books are put back intowell-lined pockets; the unlucky will have towait for the nert.show.

.

WHERE’S THEtext by William Mansell

by Elizabeth Willmotpaintings by Gary LowForty-eight full-c&w portraits

Miss Willmot takes the reader backto the early days of tire fighting in

by Canadian artist Gary Low

Ontario when fire brigades consistedcapture the twenty-six most widelydistributed species of falcons, hawks,

of volunteers who passed leatherwater buckets from hand to

eagles and owls in their habitats.

917.95 clothThey are aecomplnied by Mansell’s

hand. lively and informative text.S29.95 cloth

!3w@ PUBLISHING LIMITED

DRAkEAilJ

This magnificent pieceofreporting is the first biog-raphy of Jeon Dropeauthe political dreamer whosegrandiose vision lay behindExpo’67ond the MontrealOlympics, and the man whodomtnates the city to thisday Three years of meticu-lous research coupled withinnumerable interviewshove led too behind-the-scenes biogrophy that isalsoo full-scale lifeondhmes 0 vigorous portraitof Quebecand Montrealfrom 1916 to the present.On 0 stole appropriate to itssubiect, thas fascinatingbool; crocl:les with onenergy resembling thotofMayor Dropeou himself.I l l u s t r a t e d

~~~%Lover

Available at betterboo!:stores acroee Canada.

24 Boolr In Canada, Novembsr. 1980

Cassonwa.snotafoundbwnemberoftheGmup; he didn’tjoin until 526. Writing ofCesson and Frenk Cemdchsel. Dennis Reidsays dtoy “never approached the position ofleadership held by [A.Y.] Jackson and[Arthiw] Lismer. Both remained modest. ifenthusiastic followers of the Groupstyle.... Cesson in particular produced enumber of large oils. . . that. . . areuniquelyhis own in color and mood.” DuveI doesn’tprovide e critical epprairal of the artist esmuch as en affection&? biography. Morethen anythii. the book is a visual pleasure.Eighty-seven colour plates. all chosen byCarson, highlight thtb giant publishingefforr. If the response to Duval’s book is asoverwhelming as it has been to Carson’spahuings, boolt-storeoweers bed betterhirebouncers.

On much less exalted s&de is JmoldMotris’s latest volume. 100 Years ofCeoeditmDrar?~ge~thuen, 197pages.$16.95). Morris occupies e unique positionon the Canadien utt scene. Not only does hesev what he thb&, in (urns that can beudderstood, he also has a sense of humour.One gets the impression that Morris is a mannot &.ily im~ssed. yet his love for themedium always shin- through. Becausedrawing hus remained beyond the nomudpreoccupations of Canadian critics andcolk.ctots. Morris’s selection gives a newpeapecttve on the artists included. Dmw-

‘ing, he tells us. demands to be &wed as anatt form in hself, notsimplyasapreparationforpainti~ or sculptures.

The most scholarly work tbii yeercontesfrom Dennis Reid. Our 0~ CountryCanada: Befug An A-t df the Na-ttouel Aepiretious of theRbtclpal Leud-scepe Arlists in MonWeel end Toronto,1860.1898 (National Gallery of Canada,454 pages, $29.95) is its full title. Reidopens with e couple of intasting “cautio-narv ouotes.“: ‘This is not the absoluret& 1 don’t believe everyfhing I sey.”IFrom Jean-Luc Peoio. whosuaested thesekds precede all l%dian hi&y books.)Whether we believe everything Reid says.there’s certainly enough of it. His text is esexhaustive es the title. The meet thomughstudy yet of en especially intriguing en ofCanada’s development, Reid’s book isrequired reading ior serious students of ourcouetly’s aIt history.

Andre Biller has soeut his lifetimesomewhe= just beyond ihe mahtstream ofCanadian ert. During his 83 years Bieler’scontribution Iws remained all but umeeog-nized. Inaddition to the 27 years hespent atQueen’s University es Professor of An andResiit Artist. Bieler organized the his-toric Kingstoe Conference of 1941, whichled to the creedon of the Federation ofCnnadien Artists. Born in Switzerland in1896, he arrived in Canada in 1908, almostI2 years old. He returned to Europe to fightin the Frrt World War, and later to studypebuing.

During his lifetime, Bieler has embmcede number of styles, all v&y cdourful andhasine to the eve. He is e thouehttid

its inhabitants ere evidence of deephumanitarian impulses. More than anyother book, Fmnces K. Smith’s AndreBleler: An Artist’s Life and Times(Merritt. l76pages,E34.95)shouldservetom&e the artistbenerknown b Canada. Potthat reason it k en imporIent book. Smith’sbook is entirely worthy of its subject; themany wlcur repmductious me of excellentquality and her text does e competent job oftelling theartist’s story.

David Douglas Duncan’s Viva Picasso(Penguin. I53 peges. $19.95) is dte happiest book of the lot. Picasso would havebeen 100 in 1981 so Duncan, agood friendof Picasso’s for 20 years, prepared thiscelebration. Duncan’s photographs showPiassoatwork,at playorbofh. (Often theywere the same.) Sometimes he is portmyedsitting and staring pensively et one of hiown cunwsses. In o&r shots. Picassoclowns with his kids, with Cocteau. withwhomever. Duncan’s pictures em wonder-ful -every oneofthem. Picassocombinedendless energy with unli@ed creativity.Here we see him surrounded by the clutterof his studio: elsewhere he tums the skeletalrrmeitn of a fish eaten at dbmerjnto bwtantart. Bleke wrote about energy being eternaldelight. F$casso surely knew whet BIekemeant.

The Great Book of Freuclt Impres-,sioulsm by Diane Kelikr (Methuen, 440pages. $110) is just that. Reading it mightbe almost s good for the muscles espumping iron. This gigantic pmductionshould be shown only on gold-plated,diamondcncrusted coffee tebles. picturesgalon.withatextprintulbigenou%forlhesight-bnpeired.makedds volumestundout.Come to think of it, the book is so big andlavish, it should probably be given e teblesll its own - 6x1 away fmm any coffeedrinker.

“St+htg out to write about Kal Appelmakes one feel like a mosquito in II nudistcolony - one does not know when tobegin.” With these words MamhallMcLuhun opens his introduction to ken-Clsrence Lambert’s Km-e1 Appek Workson Peper (Methuen, 256 paga, $71.50).The book k another visual beauty, butIhere’s too much author end not enoughsubject. Appel’s colourful and chaoticpaintings ere accompanied by lhde poems(“Clown 1 want to be like yoeffhe anti-mbot”) as well es text. But anyway, thebest featun of the book is Appcl’s art. All261 wodts were chosen by the big Appelhimself. They arc typical of his playful.always happy approach to at. “My urt is Ichildlike,” says Appel. One wn rlmc~thear the smile in his words; certainly onecan see it in his painting. Appel’s pleesureinfortosudcolourmake~biibookadelight.

A number of art books were still in dteworks es we went to press. Clarke f&e isoffering Rebecca Sklcr’s Tbe RoyslCetmdlen Academy (224 pages. $24.951,Thii year k rhe centennial of the Academyend authorSislerchmni&s its history. Onehundred c~our plates end en additional 100black-and-white photographs will + in-

__ .______~_ --.__-- _.~._ ~__ . . _ -..~.-...~.-.____.I_,

cluded. Collectors and dealers will no doubtlook Forvxd to Art Auctions: Sales andPrices, 1976-1978. edited by Harry Campbell (General Publishhtg). Also from Gen-cnl Publishing is a six-book se& entitledThe Arliit’s Pointing Library.

PHOTOCKIIPHI’ HM not been igoorcd. Themost interesting new faeeon the photo-graphic scene belongs to Joyce Bamnio.Her book (the firrt) is called 42nd StreetStudio IBeetty and Church. $50). If con-sin0 of 41 photographs t&en in her studiolocated on 42nd Street in the heatt of NewSorl:‘s scs industry. The subjects - alllocals - dmp in between sets to pose ForBamnio’s curious eamen. Most are eroticentataiws - strippen. bondage and dis-cipline pc~omters. porno movie stau. andso forth. Some glare into the camera, othersleer: om wll-known stripper brought alongher parmer. a young male lion. to rompv:ith.

And so we asked: “\Vhat’s a nice younggirl like Joyce Bxonio doing in P place like.End Street?” “Fmttntasy.” she explains,“has alvr;lys been important to me.” Afterycxs of beiluty cootats, pmades. Vdetorpulls. squat danecs, horse shows. and soon. she decided she wasn’t getting enough:“I got tired OF finding Fantasy only on the~~hndr.“ThatproblemwssElkeneareoFby 42nd Street. where it’s Free-floatingFantasy 24 whores a day. Erotic entertainerssuit herneeds petfcetly: “~y’rcnotshy.”

Bxonio’s major eonecms are. however,photographic. Once the film has beenrsposcd her subjects eeme to be people andbecome pictures instead: “The solutions tothe pmblrms arc photographic.” Andphotography is something this 34-year-oldLay blander takes very seriously. AftergradWing Phi Beta Kappa From Ohio’slirnyon College. she entcrrd Yale to stttdywith Wolket Evans. He impressed on herthe value of natural Iighting. Now shein&u on sunlight; nothing else will do.Barottio h= said that photography comescloser to liter~turc than any other art. Shecomidcrs herself a stay-teller and it’s hardto disagree. Her piclurcs sometimes R-pulse. sometimes amuse. but always in-trigue.

The Art of Csnadiao Nahwc Photo-graphy, cdited by J. A. Kmulis Wortig,1% pages. 527.95). is a different kind ofbook. Knulis gives a splendid behind-thesecne looI: at 37 photognpherr. Not onlydoes he detail Be technical aspects of theirv:ork. but also he tells how they manage tonroid getting killed by irritated subjects.Stephen J. Kcrremann giws some helpfulhints to thmc planning to snap in urrurhwihilm: “There is a rule of thumb. If youarc using a 200.mm lens and the grizzly bearfills your frame. yoo’rc in tmuble.” It’ssuch Wits that make this book so entertain-ing and so helpful. Examples of the bestnature photography being done in Canadaabound. Reading this book gives one asmuch insight into photography as it does

StQrytehg. D rn . . *

a fine and ancient craftnow perfected

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combines the perfection of CURB Bloonnn’~story-telling with Tchaikovsky’s expressive

and well-loved music.The same superb combination is heardon one of Caedmon’s newest releases -the ly@cal, beautiful S~EX@MI~ BemnQ~. ’

.And consider the delights ofPaaUdinnmnn ffm CEntismm~ told by .

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November, 1080 Book In Canada 25

v:ildliic. For these reams alone. it comeshighly wornmended.

And now. ladies and gentlemen. the moatspectacular photographiclartlgift bookofall time. Itcomes intwovolumes. weighs6S pcunds. measures 17 by 20% inches,costs a mere $5.400, and is entitled The~Utkan ~eseaesafMfeb&ttgelo. Fcrsixmonths. well-known att photographerTalashi Okttmuta spent his evenings climb-ing P scaffold erected nightly in theSistine Chapel and taking pictures OfhliibelmIge~*‘r fscoeS. No expense was,pxed. Even the printers had to clamber upthe scaffolding to check the proofs.Ninct>-nine of the haok’s images areprinted life rite. So accurate and ccmpleteis the production that the publishers promise?I truth. clarity and intimacy never beforeporrible”. (Too bad it’s just B book.) Thet60 volumes are currently touting Canada.Sipniiicantly. this marks the first time abook. not its author. has been sent tc makethe rounds. Only 600 copies have beenprinted and Canada rated nc ~OIT than 25.Scvenl have already been sold so prompt-nen is advised. Mcrhuen b handling Cana-dian diariburion. An advance of S1.000will bc requbxd. Of course, for that moneyyoujwtmight beabletonmmgeatripto theVatican to see the real thing.

The Lipmac sisters. Marci and Louise.have tamed up with Lester % OrpenDam), to produce a kbtd of sequel to theirw-y ruueessful previous collebomticn.~w~I~~Tw~II~. The new book Images:

Contemporary Canadian Realism($14.95) ccnsists of 20 reproductions, suit-able for framing. of works by ec equalnumber of Cenrdiec painlets. All type ofrealism - magic. photo, super. and hyper-are tqresented. Meet big names on thefigurative twt scene are included; namessuch 35 Denby. Pratt. St. Clair, Cclville.and Forrestall.

Also expecti Clarke Imin will releaseRick Butler’s Venbhbtg Canada any day.Butler hap esscmbled some 250 photc-gtephs of Canada all taken before 1914.And Gege has ammunced e bock by NinaNelson, called simply Canada. All we

be superb.

MISCELLANEOUS

reference category is -the m&umentalCambridgeEncydopedla~fArchaeology@‘entice-Hall, 495 pages, $35). edited byAndrew Shenatt. In addition to highlydeteiled chapters on humanity’s earllutems. there are intetesting sections devotedto the development of &heeolcgy itself.Whet makes all this so intriiuing is the feetthat archawlcgicrl science has undergonesomething of e revolution during the pastdecade. Technology has enabled modemman to hob-nob, in e sense. with his distant

of e recognized eipen in the field. ihe

facts straight from the Ur text.

The Dlctimtaty of Imegittary Pbxces(Lester & OQCU Dennys. 438 pages,S24.95. $29.95 aRes’Dec. 30, by AlbertcManeuel and Gianni Guadelupi, tops off thelcng‘iist of books chmnidi@ the Fantastic.Fantasy has always been e part of humanexperience but these drays we seem to begrowing deadly serious about it. There’ssomething almost connadicmry about thenotion of a dictionmy of imsginery pleccs.The first plea I locked for wes Hell: itwasn’t included. Neither was Heaven. Nottoworry. Gyncgtaphiais listed. Incaseycudon’t know, Gynogmphia is “a countrywhere women ate totally dominated bymen. and where all laws are entirelydepegdent on the will of the male”. Thedictionary tells more about this curiouOplace but. uefcrttmetely. “its loceticn n-mains unknown. .“. So much for Gyccg-nphia. Whet about Jabbenvccky? Agein

deduce it probably &ii “somewhere inEnglaui”. Unfcttunately. “the only infcr-mation on this place is contained in anAnglo-Ssxon poem published in Lnckbtg-Glm Land”. The country I’wetu to visit isRomancia: “Legend has it that tnvellerswho enter by the Gate of Love leave by theGate of Marriage.” The climate is muchbetter than Canada’s: “The air is so pureand nutritious thm is no need to eat. Thetwo main foods of tbb nrea are air andlove.” By the way, all Rcm?.ncians are“yOUng. healthy and very beautiful”. Butbestofall. “whoevertravels willbecomeas

br~utiful so its inhabitents”. Wbct ere wcw:oiting for?

If turkey vultures. rough-legged buz-z~s.sharpshinnedha\vvb,andthelikearewh3t m&c your imagination t&e tliiht. thisis your lucky season. William Menscll andpobucr Gny Low have put mgcther adct;liled. beautifully illurtmted. and cx-twmcly r&able North American Birds ofPrey tGagc. 176 pages. $29.95). LOW’Spxintingr hsve a strange. almost forebodingquzdity reminiscent of Alex Colville. Hiiv:olk tnnscends wildlife ett. He armngcshis cew’~scs so that the viewer wants tolook beyond. The action is either about tohappen or is going on where we can? see it.M~~nselt’s tcstcombina ascicmitic~x~nnn~for accuracy wilh an engcaging infomnliry.His knowledge end aflection for thesewinged carnivores is in evidence through-out. Closet bird-watchers be warned: lhisbookwill bring you into theopcn. No matter

whet the neighbow may think, somepeople sre attracted to bii. Not to beoutdone. the Univenity of Toronto F+rcsshas brought out an exquisite study ofNorthAmerican plants - And Some BroughtFlows (164pages. S24.95J. selected andjntmduced by Mary Alice Downie andMary Hemilton. The delicate. precisewater-colours src the work of E.J. BeveIl.Each of the 70 entries - fmm ash towintcrgrecn - comprises a painting andquotations from a wide.sclcction of earlyexplorers and scttle~~. The title comes froman account of Martin PmbLbhcr’s arrival etLabrador in 1576: ‘1He commanded hiscompny if by any mcsns possible theycould get ashore to bring him whatsocvcrthing they could first find . . end somebrought flowers.” Revell’s many minormestcrpieecs xc the chief glory of thisquietly beautiful book. The more one looks.tb$moreonefinds. 0

by Douglas Hill

From Gothic houses to mildewed sbarnuses,the old genres are always the best genres

IN Odd’s End. by Tim Wynne-Jonest.bfcClclland B Stcaert. 228 -. $14.95cloth). the folks et Seal Books have chosen,fin;llly. 3 first-nte book for their $50.000first-novel awni. Odds End is inventivetmd skilfully written. yet trendy enough to3sswc commercial success.

As the novel begins, Malcolm and MaryClose the’s PII English professor, she’s epainter! xc returning to their isolated homel.Odd’r End) on 3 peninsula in Mahone Bayon Nova Scotia’s south shore. They findcandler lighted snd B lavish meal prepared.but no cook and no explanation. Days pass,and pcculiv and disturbing events occur:it’s obvious that someone is trying tofrighten them. and succeeding ct it. By theconclusion, Malcolm and Mary are nearlydriven apart and driven mad, the police ereinvolved. terror tmd violence hove becomethe orderofthe night.

Wynne-Jones tells his story through al-tcmming nxrat%cs: se objective voice forthe desperate couple’s actions and reec-lions. a “theatrical. overblown. u&al”voice - a sort of Gothic baroque - fortheir creepy houseguest. The stt~t~teworls v;ell. as dou the author’s attention toatmosphrrc. to details of climate and seasonaed setting.

I’m not a fan of the litcreturc of evilposrcssion that seems wzendy m have8ripp:d the mu-market, bcst-selJer lib1 bythe throat. but I’d judge Odd’s End to be ancwmplxy contribution m the genre. Then&uc of the terror involved msy lack tbcdepth dut e few similar stories have. but onthe surf;lces and psychological under-

sotfeces, things should bc scary enough formast rcadea. And the imagination in evi-dence is e bonus.

***The Suicide Mwders, by Howerd Engel(a&e Irwin. 200 pages. f12.95 cloth)intrqduccs Benny Cooperman. e small-town, small-time private detcctivc. Thenovel has several plcaoant fectwcs: a strongscnsc of place (St. Catharines. Ont.. orthemabouts. and Toronto). gaod police-procedural work, e greet (meaning horrific)Jeviish Mother. On the whole, however. it’srather amateurish sod mtber too close to itsChcndler/Hemmctt/Boss Mecdonsld mod-els.

The plot is complicated. but carefully andconvincingly put together. It concerns justwhat the title suggests -murders that steteken for suicides. There’s considerablegood, old-fashioned sleuthing. enough vio-lence to keep things moving, and somecharactcts you can believe in. Only thedialogue occasionally falls below compe-tence.

The naaativc is first-person shamus. andit’s the key to the book’s effect on thereader. Benny talks 8s if he’s committed hisfevourite detective novels m memory: “Mybreath tested like I’d been baby-sittingsomebody else’s false teeth, and when.1sneezed my sinuses smelt of mildew.”There’s a surfeit of this, but some nicetouches. too: “I got up with what in a tallerman would signal that the intcrvi&v wesco~cludcd.” If thii sort of private-eyeprose. and the view of the world it cxprcr-scs. is m your taste. you’ll enjoy the book.

NOBODY 5WlNGSON 8UNDAbyHtIlty~ll

nn his childhcod Tcionto. where ‘hcKtq swings on S.mdclV”* toaccktkncI internatlonal filmmaker. HanI&@ talent and ternCIty have wn a- to tie @eats Fdel Cashxc Chagall. Tennessee Willicsnonord Cohen, and rtmny mora Wdtecdotes. reminiscences and 3hawJfphotoamphr.

November. lg80 Books in Canada 87

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;,>

.. ‘iv.::

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1

lease don’t misunderstand. As journalists, we respect thepleasure of fermented g-rain as much as the averageperson. Some of us, perhaps, a little more than theaverage person.But we also know that it’s a fleeting satisfaction.

Happily, we’re able to suggest a cheerful alternat&: twelve monthsof Mu&y Nf$t.This year, Saw&y M@ is a particularly appropri& gift. We’ve madesome changes in substance and style. Our new design is a fittingshowcase for Canada’s finest writers who, in our pages, turn their skillsto issues of rinportann: in government, business, media, and the arts.If it’s been a while since you looked in on us, you’ll find some verypleasant surprises. Saturday Nignt is tbe kind of magazine you’ll enjoygiving to friends. (You11 enjoy giving it to yourself, too.)

Pm cum

0 StartsSATURDAY NIGHTsubscriptionforme mo...just $8.88 a year.

q Payment enclosed.

c l Bill me latex

For U.S. and Commonwealth subs4 eons., add S3.50:elsewhere add 84.5P.

Mail to MTURUAY NIGHT64 Fmt Sweet East. Tomnm. Omario MSE IR3.

Eogcl robtitles The Smicide Murders “ABunny Cooperma” Mystay.” To me. thisimp& more will follow. If he can tightc”up hi?. rt~lc P bit. sod stake out his ownknitory c\m mom firmly and less dcriva-lively. the next novel(s) could be quitefond. This one was ccttainly fun to read.

:: :: 3:

Rntmpio ICircle Publications. 160 pages.S4.95 Papa) WPI not. The author. TylerTrofford. niscs dullness to a” insistcutwhine. Only the typos, and the crmn ingr.m”nar and spelling. provide relief tbnnthe’adium. The hook is so ineptly wrhtcnsnd prodoccd as nearly to obscure. theponibility thra Trafford ir intelligent andha something cogent he wants to say.

The novel is set in Calgary. Hooper. thehero. is in the middle of some sort ofphilosophicrllemotionnl crisis. He loses hisjob as a reporlcr. wanders and drink, takesUP with a sympathetic young woman. hasdreams of the symbolical soti. None of thisis the least bit int&ting. It’s all solipsism,and nothing nxl&mr its banality. “Therczso” he didn’t, or couldn’t, get oat of bedin the mornings was not that hc didn’t wratto go to work and not that he wanted to stayhome. It was that he didn’t want to doanything.” Well. now.

My dictionary gives. a0 one definition of“cnrropy”, %I oltimrtc state o f i”atuniformity.” Imagine that,= you will. It’s afair description of Enrropin. “Boring” isanother. 0

by Michael Smith

Farley’s people and what we did to theirminds looking for the Northwest Passage .

FOR htm, OF LS. F&y Mowat needs nointroduction. He has becomi notorious overthe past 30 ycxs, if not always as theprolific author and editor of 25 books, andfor maoy of his readers The World ofForIey Mowar: A Select ion from IilsWorks !blcClclland & Stewart. 338 pages,S16.95 cloth) will contain nothing new.Still. hi:. editor. Peter Davison. did feel aninuoductioo needed writing, and-thoughMowat is one of the few Canadian wrhetswho has always enjoyed internationalpublication - it lwds me to believe thisbook LL dimted mostly toward the U.S.market. Aficrall. why else would Davison,” rcsidcnt of Gloucester, Massachusetts.iind it “e~zsrary to offer the supcrtloorrpidentitiemion of Stephen Lexock Y “thegreat Canadian humorist”? Even the jacketphoto comes from that dreadful Aqxrica”pnpularizcr. Pwpie magazine.

A glon~z at the map that fronts thecolkction shows n Mowat world that’sdominmcd by the Arctic and the AtlanticOman - both places where,. as Davisonpoints oat. man shares with the animals a”clcmental conflict with nature and againsthintsslf. Beyond the physical world. Mowatcharts a sea of desperation - in histerrifying battle memoir reprinted fmm Andh’,r Birds Sung (1979). in the perils of arhipwr& fro”t Grq Seas Under ( 1958),and in patticulu in his portmils of theEskimos hc wrote about in such books osP,~)ple qfdw Deer ( 1952) and The Desper-UIC Pwplr I 1959). His description of theordeal. xmst. and vial of Kikik. a” Eskimowoman who killed herown half-brotheranddaoghtcr during a” Arctic famine givessensitive but unremitting witness to therather innocent remark. in aoothercxcuPt,that for the Eskimo “food “tams man . .than rdmost anything else.:’

Thteeccnturies earlier. inMay, 1619, theDanish explorer lens Monk left Copen-hagen with two ships and 64 me” in searchof the Northwcsl Passage. When he rc-turned. in September, 1620. only two of hiscrew wcrc still ali+w. The Joumal of JcnsMtmk 161~162&editcd by W. A. tinyon(Royal Ontario Museum. illusnatcd. 40pages. 53.75 paper). relentlessly tallies thedeaths of the othela as they wintad,ice-bound,onHudronBayncarwhatnowisChulrhill, Man . Kenyon’s intmductionsays most of the men pmbably died fmm acombinallon of scurvy and trichinosis(whatever it was, the cxpedilion’s twophysicians were unable to diagnose or heat

of the kc winier. By la&de,wioterhtg Place was about 75 milts far&rsouth than Bergen, Norway, ad the explor-em knew that the entire Norwegian coastremained ice&e. They didn’t realize thatthe coast of “orthcm Eompe is warmcd bithe Golf Stream. while Munk and his ox.”were to fact t~nperaturcs so low that theirwater kettles cm&cd, and the ship’s can-nons broke from their mountings when findas a ftmcml salte.

The Bella Coola region of British Col-umbia was visited by cxplorcrs seeking theNorthwest Passage under command of Cap-tain George Vancouver and, almostsimultaneously. by Alexander Mackenzie’soverland for-trading expedition. BellaCools bv Cliff Kooas fDouelas & Mel”-tyrc, ill&&d. ~96~&&s, $5.95 pap@ is

that begins with the Indian migrationsAsia across the Bering Straits and ends inmodem timcs. It dwells mainly. however,on the plight of the Indians in the 19thcentury as white traders kindled mepidemic of s~llpox (some re-sold in-

fccad blankets plundered horn Indian carp-ses) and brought ‘illicil liquor into theircommunitia. Kopas tm”slates their co”-tlict into a series of adventure stories,rcokte with hcroicdisloxoe.amboshcs. andg&c.

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On Rrstblosh. thereappasto benothingbut lists of “antes - 267 pages of them.front ceosa tecords, church tiles, andvarloos di~cmrlcs - in The People OFOwen Sound. researohed and edited byMelba Morris Croft (114 Scve”th.St. E..

.Owe” Sound. Ont. N4K lH7. $11.00paper), but hismrleal detectives with aprcdilectio” toward minutiae will find someentries fascinating. It’s inlu-csting mspecu-Iatc. for example. on the evcnh -p”um-ably involvitlg slavery - that led aIOO-year-old Afrlcan-born black ma”.knowli only as John, to be registered in theccn%u of 1881. The same ccmlrr lists thevocations of most adults, so I’m curiouswhy occupations a=“? givzo for sevenyoung women who lived together in a localhotel. Or perhaps I have a dirty mind.

I enjoyed reading Below the Bridge(Breakwaler. illostmtcd, 126 pages, S9.95paper). Helen Pqrtcr’s recollcctlo”s ofgmwing.uppoorin the South SidcdistrictofSt. John’s, kfld.. during the Depressionand Second World War. I would haveenjoyed them cvon more if she had turnedher rcminiceneer into fiction. Portcr writesbelievable dialogue, and has a fictionwriter’s Jenritivity m tbc small distincdonsof language and gesture that turn real peopleinm ch+z?rs. Her memoirs arc warto.earthy; and wryly observed, but - pmb-bly because they stick too close to fact -they finally eomptiseonly a”albumofsmalllives. Her memories of her practical,complicated family. a birthday pviy in awhorehouse. and the local coal dealer’swhite hmcs, black from rhc dust. provldcthe kind of raw timber that. treafed diffcr-ently, invites the trlena of a” East CaraAlice Munm.

Tbc biographies of eight Prince Edwardlslandels sketched briefly by Lester B.Sellick in Some Island Me” I Rcmembcr(Lnncdot Press. 72 paga. 52.95 paper)invoke an old-farhioncd moral didabticismthat’s obvious in such chapkr subtitles as“The Long Road m Success”. Sellllk’ssubjects rvlge from his father, Edward W.Sellick (“A Christian Gcntleman”L toKeith S. Rogers. the man who intmdocedDo” Messer to the sinvavcs (“RadioPioneer”), and a remarkably dcxtmurtinker, John M. Ma&cod (Y-k SolvedPeople’s Fmblcms”). In case hll readersdon’t get the message. Sellllk also likes mend his compositions with a homily, prinkdin capital letters. My favoorhe is hiscomment on B saintly senior citizen MmedJohn E. Cameron. who exemplified thephilosophy, ?.IVE so THAT YOU NEED NOTwoP.P.v EVEN IF YOU s0L.o vcluI( PAll?.ca ToTHE BlGGEsr oossw IN TOWri.”

The pork& in Did the EariJt Mow??.180 dmwings by Aisli" (McClelland ‘&SkWm, unpaginated. 96.95 paper) arc

November. lge0 Books in Canada 29

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rather lea flattering. Aislin. a.k.a. Terry box of Cmyola etayons with the comment,Masher. 6 probably the country’s foremost “Now I ale’1 no Deemler . . . but 1 get by!”editorial catmonist now that Duncan Mac- Actually. judging by Wicks’s newspaperpherson hes retired. though he’s not likely cartoons, collected in Wicks (McClellande v e r t o match Macpherson’s d e f t & Stewart, 223 pages, $8.95 paper). evenmaliciousness IAislin does a devesteting crayons ete too sophisticated a medium forRobert Stanfield. bet none of his caticetures his primitive. miniature doodlings. It seemsseems to get Trudeau quite right). Appm- all too typically Ctmedian to revere en artistptiately . one of his non-political drawings is who. by his own admission. is “rotten atof a beaming Ben Wicks emerging from e drewieg.” 0

i?fdEhti~W by Linda M. Leltch

Why problem-solver George Boweringvows never to write another historical novel

BORN IN THE Okanegen Valley. BritishColumbia. in 1935, George Bowerleg is emejorliterery force in Canada. He attendedthe University of British Columbia, wherehe was a founding editor of Tisb. theinfluential West Coast poetry newsletter.His nttteemos puhlicatiom range fmm liter-ary criticism to short stories. novels, andmany volumes of verse including lXeGungr I$ Kos’nor and Ro+ YorominFmu. for which he received the GovernorGeneral’s Award for poetry in 1969.Boweting’s latest work. Burning Wow. isrevlewd ott pep nine. He hes heeo esrlter-in-residence and lecttmx at SirGeorge Williams University end is cur-wetly a member of the English deptttnentof Simon Fraser University. He spoke withLinda M. Leitch dtuittg a recent &%t Coastreading tow.BiCt Do YOU thief we will be seeing less ofrbe hisrcriro/ordoeuacnfo~y~~leof~~Iionin Camdo?Eewering: I am utlerly bored by the DonGoneridge syndrome. the documenterypoem., the Gory Geddes stuff. all thatbusiness of seyieg. “Let’s go and 6nd aCanodiul hero like Riel and write a play oren opera or e long poem or e novel abouthim.” All you had to do to have a hitCanadian ploy doting the past five years westo have a one-word title and that one wordnnold bc the omoe of some famous p&t orRCMP officer or politician or Indian orwht&w. William H. Gess [Figures oJFiccin,r] says what most people went infiction is easy history or lnry sociology.sociology without the statistics. Peoplexmt to go to wherever it is in Ontario sodsay “Gee. it’s just like Alice Munm’sstories.” The thing that keeps her going isthat it’s conteer-oriented. In the UnitedSlaes we had the young kid growing up toleomtobcenadultintheSooth,inChicego.Meom’s given us tbe ceoedlaogirlgm~~iegup to be an adult. All these hew. succeededon the basis of content. on the readers beingable to see themselves teflected in the book.

30 Booke in Canada. November, 1990

I went through thatonce, bet wereallydon’thave to do that again.

0 nccessory smgcfor mosr people.Bowering: But here’s ee exemple of wherelitemture is supposed to retlen penple’slives to them so they will go out end say.“I’m not going lo teke eey more of thisshit!” The CanLil pmfs went lo do that on enational sale. dtey want Canadians to be

tick.BiC: The arricrrlotion o f a n~rionelideorby. . .Bowerhtg: Yeah, and of course coodngfrom tbe West Coast. I see that es anotherkind of exploitation, in the stone way thatthe CPR wee. or as another kind ofcolonieliration.~ I also see it a5 eo affmtttegeinst what I think lileretwe is for. I don’tthink thet liter&we ls e tool of self-impmvement or industrial well-being or

psychological comfottoranythinglikelhat.BiCt Then wlror umdd you soy rbe wirer’srole b?Bowerleg: I see it tomlly the other wayamend. When I’m writing eed efter I’vewritbm, I’m not interested in the rekeion-ship between the book and the public. I’monly interested in tbe relationship betwew

the book end the writer. myself. If1 felt (IS ifit beeame clear to me who I’m trying tospeakto, that’s when I would be suspiciousceougb to quit vnlting.BiC: Be: in n lo; of your work #here is onexpririr comciozrsoess of rhe audience.BowrIng: I telk straight to them. You see,the realllt novel that pretends tbet there is nobook them, that pretcn& that there is noaudience, depends upon gelling the eedi-exe. You sbouldedmitto lhemstraightoff,“Lwk. I’m makiog this book up.” Howmany times have you heard a writer say.“Well. first of all I created the chamcterrandthcnrheytookonatifeoftheirownand1 just tried to follow through.” Tlmt isbullshit. They’re fooling themselves. I wantto come ckee with the eediena. I don’twent to play that game of saying this is anovel, therefore it’s tic&m. and then tryinglike crazy to m&e it seeet like it’s &oe andthen saying none of these characters repres-ems anyone in reel life. The only timeanyone ever says tbat is when it’s II lie.BiCt Not on/y have )YBM moved rhroqhpoetry. short stories. and novels. bur jawrvorkofien r~mlsaprmccopodon wbb rhcshifdnz of boundaries berween thosegenres:BowrIng: When I wes e kid I lived in esmell town in the interior of B.C. and theonly tiling to be found wu ie the dmg-state end the bus stetion. That menot I wesreading Amezican novels and short storks.So the1 wes my idea of how to get out ofthen and meet whatever I wes capable ofdoing. Sol stated ooteodwotea coupleofrealiitlc novels. Bet I ws also interested inwriting poetry and I found out that I gotreception for it. that is to say it gotpublished. I wrote lyrio poetry for a longtime until I found out I meld reelly do that.After that, why do any mcm? So I got intolonger poems. I found out that the diatitntion wes not between pm.u end poeUy butpmse cod verse. and poetry can be either.And pretty soon these long poems begin tobe written with sentences instead of lines.but tbey’nz still not fiction necessatiIybecause they don’t do thiings that fietioeusually does. I do several of these. likeCurious and Autobiology. and then I think,“Heh. maybe I ceo do this PT, e novel”, andwhet happens ls A Short Sad Book. So nowI’ve witten Burning Water and it’s ehistorical novel. I can’t stand the idea ofwriting two bode in e row with the samepremises. It’sgottobcapmbkmtheteeed~solving. The histoticel novel was e pmblemthat needed solving gk.tt the context of thethings that I’d been wiring, so I11 neverwtite attotbcrbstoricai novel.BiC: You see each work as rqwc~endnS aproblem M be dcob Mb?Bowetingt Yeah. it’s e termbotmwd bornpainting. For painten it generally meaessolving pmLdems with the medium endthat’s what they have always done. ‘Iixyhave(oworketaweyofgettiegpainttostjcktotbe well. forinstance. Ifigwwhal ifI’m not solving problems. then I wouldprobably he pmduclng a commodity. I feelwriting witbout tbeoiy is e waste of 6me.

Bit2 Iliruld.wu so! r/rot rhc novel is dead?Bovarittg: Five yeen ego I said that the lastnovel MS publiihed in 1950 and dtat wesThe Ummuble by Sam Becken becausewhat he did in it wes t&e wkt had beenhappening in the novel from 1750 up to1950 and go es far es he could po&bly go.He got rid of those things that we the worstenemies of fiction: theme, plot. character,wtting. alI those things. and he produced eI.Klo-p~ge book lhat one picks up and mdsthe wey one reads P novel. Since then. I

-. _.._.~_____

haven’1 exectly dropped the idea, but Iguess I’ve flipped the coin over and said.“Okay, the novel is simply a suggestion onthe pal of the author.” There wes e timewhen they drew gmphs showing whet enovel or a short story wes. II is e person’sduty then if he has that in his be&ground tofind every way he possibly ceo io counterthat notion. It would then become inventiveand crektive on his part to cut through thatwith something else to destroy what weshappening befon. 0

by Bob Blackburn

Why people who ty and guess aboutthe foreseeable future need a dictionary

IN wts TAME of the so-celled communi-cation, explosion, we are losing valuablewords et at alarming rete because so manyof today’s communicators ere ignorant andcareless ofdiction.

Dicdm is one of those words. If you tell enwspapzr reporter today dtat his diction isbad. he dny reply that it doesn’t meUrnbecmsu he is notonndio or television. Youaill then explain that, no matter what theIrmentably pcmtissive Webster says. dic-tion ha to do with the choice of words, notthe manner of pronouncing them, and ifdicdmi is used to replace cnrmciadon. thenw are IelI without e suitable replecementfordicdm. He may then say he is sorry. andwill try and do better.

TV tuu/ . is e vulger idiom that hesbeen with es for more than e centuryIThackcmy end Matthew Arnold used it). IIcon be useful as e quick way of saying, “Iwill do it. but it will t&e effort”, but theformal idiom. try ro . . . makes mm sense.II requires less physical effort to say. “I’ll~‘n’&it”than”1’Il~todoit”.butlhetis not a good reason for wiling the former.

The sameculprit may plead that his faultydiction is not very unique. possibly he likesthe round of the word mriqrrc. and prefers itto rmrrrrml. which is one of several words hecould have u?ed to say what he mead.Oniqm has i( unique meaning. and is indanger of being made worthless by beingforced to keep compny with such inapplic-able adverbs es rer.v. more. most,smnnlwh& or ruther.

It wa a problem unique to such oralmeans of ~communication es bmadcestingthat brought about the dean&on of theword mwwnrurily. which for hundreds ofyears meant fore short time. A newspaperwirer is not likely to be ceIlid upon to tell usthat something is going to happen I momentfmm now: e bmedcester is. And H) bmed-casters. with characteristic indifference togood diction, began using momea:aril~ forthet purpose, so diligently that today those

of us who wish to use the word correctlymost, for fear of being misunderstood by e

some unsatisfactory ci&umloculioo.The verbi offences of these dunderheads

deserve unrelenting anger. but et times it isdifficult not to smile. A commetuetor toldus recently (and it wes no slip of the tongueor typewriter - he said it twice) thet theprovincial premiers were blaming the fail-ure of the constitutional conference on thePrime Minister’s intransience. While itmight be tme that some premiers yeem for amore transient Trudeau. the context shouldsuggest to anyone. especially a professionalcommunicator. that infrurrsigencc WY

roeant.But wipe that smile off your face. The

seme person is about to tell you that thesituation is unlikely to change in the fore-seeeble future. If he nn foresee the future.he shouldn’t sey unlikely, because he mustfinow whether thesituation is or is not goingto change. politicians in panicular love thatphmse. It appears with estonlshing fre-quency in the daily press. es it should.because if anyone actually can foresee thefuture. that’s news. And you’ll notice thephrase is always used in a negative seose:no, in the foreseeable future. They don’t telltn what is going to happen. The termbelongs in the rrrtmlogy column. not in theoows pages.

Should time demonstmte that the politi-cian misread the “foreseeable” future. it issomet& said it wes because “his fectswere wrong”. Now. by definition a fact

been wrong. It wooid be all right (pjeese.p/em not abight) to say tkt he chose thewrong facts on which to base hii conclu-sion: it wes the choice thet wes wrong. Thebets may have beeat mistaken (by him). buteither they were true or they were not hcts.

And that’s e fact.What’s et issue hen is not melrly

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A SHORT HISTORY OFTHE PEUNTED WORDby Warren ChoppellThis cornprehensIve history is theleadlngr survey of the subleti inprint. It dramatizes the impact ofthepdnledwordon man.andpresentsalively history of westem printing.calligraphy. typogmphy. and book-binding. Illustrated with over 200period engravings this Is the story ofmen. materials. and lhe develop-ment of the e* Itself.Quality paperback $12.95

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lion of our chief meam of letting each other- or ounelwr - know what is on ourminds. 111 on essay on the decline of the mof editing. Time magazine recently came tothe conclusion that “pmper usage mattersbcwuw witing is thought and clear writingb reential for clear thinking”. Time iscmainly not without sin. but that at least!?a un rspmsion of good intentions. Thetrue enemy is not the writer who makes amiatkc. It is the writer who doesn’t give adamn. vzho is ignotant of hi ignorance or*imply comfotubk in it. who is unaware ofor indiffertint to his destructive power. Heis guiit~ r%f perversion, and if he thinks thatb il n;lsty thing to say about him. he shouldloal; it up in his dictionary. which is a bookdesigned to help him with his diction. 0

GLEAM PN HIS EYESir:I mad Doegtos Hill’s review ofFaJJ@ iaP/oce(August-September) with cwridemble intexest.eince I had just read the beak without very much.I decided early on ,bat choracten who Kerrencoumgedtogeasetbeirpenlses withspotummusethemes micmphones werenc4qoismy thing_ or m,her tba uniting tba, relies so heevlly ontba kind of ottentlon-gmbbing was a bit IO0 CoyIO, my ms,o.

Bu, I’m writing not to nke issue wilh Hill’sevaluation of Ann Beau* (since. os they sold inthe old days. q,ror kem$es 101 smreeriae,, butmther to ak if you or he cm clvify the senseof the dosing evsluetion in the last sentence:“Tixe book shimmers.” I suffaed ftom a Stodgyold-hrhioned eduntioo. in wbiih bookS wereowally good or b&i. and I’m quite oat of touchwith the oew tetiology. Are “shimmedog”

bookrgoodthingrorbad things7Mydlaionaryism?, moth help to me he= - admittedly I onlyhave the OW et hand. Acwding to thet. themost common meaning of “Shimmer” ir *‘togleam with a wemoloes OT Rllkedng Light”. IsHill beingimnicthcn?Isl!-erwy subtly informingus La, Fai1bz.g in Place is nolly rather vague?

Orisbeusing”%bnn&~inono&b,alsense.meaning wmethly like “glimr”? Even so. I’mstill somewhat a a loss to undersmnd his velucs.Isgliner(shimmr?legood thing?Somewhcrea,,be back of my mind is Pop’s ceneue of“glitt’ring Thoughts rbuck out a, ewy Line”.That’s old-fashionedcriticism. of CouIIc; I admitI’mnotopwilh,hetrmds. So1 wooldbcgm~fulif you. or Hill. could shed a little more -or Plittte less - ligh, on the question. A glimmerwould help.

John K. LocuTOiU”tO

The .Edira repfiic: Mr. Lucas obvrourly fotmdthe book gleting.

ABUSIVRPUBLISHRRSir:I find it ls fully I8 years since lack McClellandlast wme on abusive later about e review by meof a book he hoped to make a million out offLeaen. Octobed. l%e book at tbot tbne was

f~lance~umalin. lhen w@ hired on slaff in1967towork with HarryBoyleon,hePmjecfseries. Among his early work mre severalprofiles of such writers is William Faulknerand Ernest Hemingway. Most of his time.however. bar been spa, harnessing andpkugingtheaoati~~talmnlrofother~ople.nebosneverborbouIedardesi~tog3,into the limelight hiMelE “I gucsr in work-ing wilh wrlrn and oaon and creativepople it doesn’t seem to divide into thepople ‘OU, front’ and the people behind ,bescenes entil eRait’s presented. When I wes akid I listened 10 ,he oldSrogc series and band‘p&wed by Andrew Allae’or’modocedbyFmnk Rme’; well. tlmt wes the nicest kind ofcredit I ever thought I’d want:’

Nor was his litemry career launched withany lhooght in mind of his fomw wife,oethor Maian Engel. “e remS to writetec~tlrc it’s ho. “Somcrimes. writing TkSuicide Murders. it seemed as if i, was oil

IN ,“I \,IWLE Of a swcee5fol career pm.ducing uch litmary and sehwl crams es;Isrll~:h~c~ for CBC-Radio. Howard Engelhorb~gonpmduciydereni\r novelsaswefl.His fir.,. Tlrr Stdcide Dfurdcrs (reviewed onpage 271 is to bc followed next year by TheRw.wm Gww. The detective in these booksir Benny Coqvmun. a 33-Jwr-old kocbelorliciog in J small On~rio town ad earning hisliving from the divorce and family nrer martdctccme~ ignore. Eogel says: “I stanedwith: Thv Suicide Mwdw~ in 1979 justafter reading The Rig Sleep. In The BigSl‘q Marlowe I&S o lnofabw Itom Otherpcoplc. mostly from cops. far being Icheopic. a p:epx. He lhinks be’s emnewhotbetter Ihan Ihat. and saye g,andly that hedoem’, do divorce or family work. And IIhought.Ph~,t.bootadeati\rrhojurrdoertba,? The biigcst thing in his day would be toget ioml~ed. like Marlowe. io murder. WithBenny Coopaouo. morder will alwS3x sonofcomc in by the Side door.”

coming ou, of the typewriter. I remcmbxpanicol~rly one scene toward ,he end inrhllh Benny knocks on a door. I broke offthe& and when I picked it op again I dldllrknow what was going to bappn on the otherside of tba, door. I only knew wgwly whaml going to snsm~ it. ItJustcamcootof,he,yfewlter. end I was deligbod. It was likeplaying back o lap recorder.”

His biggest infloence in choosing u) wbedetective fiction gar back to his childhood.“My mother was e great reader of detectivestolies - a great ruder. pried. end not osnob aboo it either. \Vhen J was sick a~ S kidshe would dweys nead to me: some,bnes aFmnk L. Rskard mystery ,,OveI, an q leryQueen. oro Nero Wolfe. I can r,ill rem-emberthe ehncrrs in some of Ihose books.”

T&r, Skids Nurdws was written i nEn@‘% rplrc lime. after be decided be couldforgo hi, watching televieion for a while.Them’, a possibility tha, the entics of BennyCootwomn will tbemrlres be the subject ofa TV wier. Actor Al Warmm ;md somepmdurerr. ore currently reviewing reriptr andJircorGng ideas. A QnadiSn detective isma. il, are wite8-S of Camdian detectivefiction. “Of the two writers of detectivetinme that I can think of in Canada.” wyrEngcl. “One will John Harris. who dii TheItiwd W&d ,.f W’rr Bra,,k. but 1lxU WBS aonr+hot book. benose he died soon aftertkat. It 867~ a book of brilliant ptvmiw Hecould hove become ss interesting a~ tbe otherConSdian I’m thiokiog of. and that is Rosshhcdonald. Hl Lew Archer books en “cryVrCll pm together. digging back in limeromcbmes IO second and third gmemtions.well b:low the calm sorface level of thestory:

Clarke Irwin is intcrened, “01 only in nmreBenny Cooperman etmier. but olro in olhertypes of novrls Engel may heve to offa inthe fulere. “e writeSpc-%yoswellm,d hadonII&e paem published in @wee’s Quor-ler(r,wo yzarrrgo.and his hncifel dmwings- wnler the po-name “Foe” - apparfrequently in Books in Conedo. Cwremly atIhe CBC he is building upalow-badge, seriescalled Focus Canada. which feetons liter-ary. mesic& and historical topics fmmMoo&y to Friday after the two o’clockSItcmoon news. He is nt4 yet interuted inbecoming a full-tims writer. “Rit now Ifind the work I’m doing still challenging, justes I found doing Anrh&&v challenging. Ithink ooe of the pitf& a titer falls into istha he tuomcro wrirrr. and in the end tba,‘sall be know. Them’s nothing coming in.MaybebeingapmdwerattbeClJCisprettymmled breeding. too. but St leiut it gels meon the sebwy regularly. If you hsn to m&eLe pilgrimage from ted to typwiter wayday. nod ths ty~awriter’s in the nut mom orjut downsubs. the= e.reo’t any convcrs~-lions in the etidor that you haven’t headbefore.”

Engel. 49. began with the CBC u e

32 Booke in Canada. November. 1880A

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l hop i, won*, be so long nex, lime. lack’s,r,,ers arti grer, fun.

C. P. slaceyTmo,,lo

OWEN 6-lQODWIlWEDSir:I havecon,~ ,WXQW,r ccnaininpedenti qmtin,inl. ht. Own’s wiidy. Hmrrwr. Inowsse,bX,herc is il ~uong comekuion between his wilingand rwding skills. You describe him as someonewho “bs long been a crklcal followr of HughHood”. A folloacrhemigh, well be. bul~farashir crkicrl faculdes are concerned. I prefer tojudge ,hum an evidence mlherlhnn on NIMUT.

Na*hm! ia hi. notice o f None GemfineIl’iflwar TKs Sigwxwe (August-Seplembeddarr he cw, nach ,be CUR: of Hood’s IaW,collcc,ion of rho,, sbxles. Hood’s bwk of 12rlorier inumbzn do mean romerhing beyondthsmrclxo 10 Rood) b no, simply abou, “,hefa,rencr, of cons”“,er soclely” or abou, “Qopu-Iarmusic”. ltisaboutthe signuureroFour,imes.bc lherc in commerce, media. spMs, or ~riTiMtcliws. Bu,. in all faimesr m 1. M. Owen. I shouldnaw.Qx, him losee beyondlhr liou-rl wme~lydesumm;lry~pzceUofHood'r fic,ion.Alterakducs”‘,O,~:~n,ooliuQ~nHood’s finnhne nowIsin TIM Xn Age s&es as a charming album ofTommo life in the 19% and 19MR Suchinnocence hxdty waaanu any reply as devuta-ting BI -me ,ha, ,CUU~I criticism could pmvide.

&u I cmna In Owen liar in his TomnrOnlanbliss wilhou, mking up some poinu he rm!xsabou, my bwoducdon 10 ,he book. He issurprised 10 18% Ihal I find Chrisdan allegory in

Hood’s works. I sqges, 10 him lba, Hugh Hoodwould bs morr ru@sed if I did nol make such amading. especially in view Orlbe frC ,bM Hoodhas repeatedly inviled crilics m imcwm, all his,is,ion as such. For exntiple. Iiwd calls IVlrire&we. IlWrc Ground *‘a wJllious &gory orparable”; yolr Can? Ger III& Fmm Here a“,arge,y Ch,ir,ologte,,l” ti nnd do I haw ,orepa, whr, he says of TheSwing 11, The Gardenand A New rlrlrns? Owen could sap\= himselffunbe, embamassmen, if he only looL Ihe lmubleu) mad’morr carefully. He is uncluously smugaboa everything- even Hood’s hockey players- md 1 don’t wan, m sunk him. bur I shouldquok timd on his own biognphy of JeanBCliwu: W’s ahom a hem. and ,he Ins, word in,he book is ‘Gmil’. and Ibe lrst lime we seeBdliveau he’s wandering amund holding lhirhuge silver cbaliec in his hand wbiih is IheSranley Cup” No, it’s Mt quite lb Lau tiQQer.b u t i,‘r aMinly an I\rthuri;m. or Christian.emblem.Oran, IbelngmoacademtcfmO

As for,he”,rini,ari~n”,ideofTi~ Fnrir Man.T!w Men, Man. and The ~fanngrr. I refer OwenLo Hood3 own cxplanr,ion. quned in a, inler-view with I. 9. (Tim) S,m,herr in B&re TheFkwd. Owen is the ,yp of crklc CaLi, couldwell do wbbou,. if it is ever m mrdure. ew 10survive ill desrriQ,iW crilics who mcasue an by,heir own very Qmvincial imagiM,ions whichaQQty only geographical or,hcma,ic crketi.

Dollarddes Om~uux. Que.

Owen gins himself way by the jest hechwsestoplryon “melhod”. Qiliudontjump10 conclusions nearly as quickly as Owen das.nor do they invenl inlerprrlalions on lhe flimsles,of wx,wd cvklmce. They aad very carefully -unless, like Owen. ,hey prier being ad men for,beirown very mediocre minds.

Keith Omebtnn

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ACP.OSTIC FANS WILL quickly spot Calgaryand Montreal in the above “user (look 8,the first letter of each word). Readers areinvited to provide funher examples basedon any Canadian ciry. Stephen Smbic ofEdmonton (“Enervated dwwy mindrlorigi-nate nmhing. I Thick oil nauseaws”j re..c&es 925 for this urbane and wkty idea.thus contradiering his own mher unkindacms,ic. and a similar sum will go to ,hewinner. Address: CanWit No. 57. Books inCunoda. 366 Adelaide Srrret East, TomnloM5A lN4. The deadline is Dec. 1.

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Qiil.”

RESULTS OF CANWIT NO. 55GWEN T H E conrtipared n?.,ure o f tbenation’s mails this fall. it was hardlysurprising that Canada post should emergeas the favourite target in out mottoescomes,. The winner is 1. A. D’Oliveira ofDonMills. On,.. whoreceivesS25 forthwehighly sppmpriatte sentiments:The Tommo Smr: “All ,he views ,hal’s Grit 10

November, 1990 Books in Canada 99

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34 Books in Canada. November. 1980

,hecwnwrs.for,heyshatt inhibitlheeanh.”TkeSupremcCounofCanada “The subjsdwha

is mdy toyat ro ,he chief magistna will sallleou, of cmm.”

The Greenpace Foundadon: “Nothing without ilp o r p o i s e oraseal.” ’

-Manin H. Zeilig. Winnipeg* : *

Revenue Canada: “We came. we saw. weaudiled.”

--Miriam Ram. Winnipeg

THE FOLLOWING Canadian books werereviewed in the previous issue of Books inCanada. Our recomniendations don’tnecessarily reflect the reviews:

FICTIONThe Third Temptation; by Charles Templelon.

McClelland 81 Slewan. Wilh his third stab a,ticlion. TempleIon has hauled hknsetf Out of,ke rhtock pi, of clever ptolr and produd Bserious nowl ofcharacter and mnnl dilemma.More power u) him ,ba, it’s alsa highlycmerminiy.

NON-FICTIONThe Sacrament. by Prier Gwwski. McClelland

% S,ewan. A hawowing W e o f m&msurvivJl plus a tin,-n,c joumalis, equals theson of factual thriller ,ha, TJw New Yorker isjus,ty famous For.

Deferam toAu,hortty:~ThECarcofCmada, by2&m Z. Frtedenk-xg. Random Housz. Animrni~n,Americrnrociologis,puls his fingeron ,he un& quality lha, makes us differen,fmm his nrlive coun,,ymen.

Tlx Northern Magus. by Rickmd Gwyn.McClelland B Soewm?. The magus to, magi-cian) is Trudeau. bu, by ,he lime Gwyn kaStinirkcd exposing all his tricks you’ll wonderwhy he cvergn OR suge in ,he fin, place.

POETRYCollected Poems of Raymond Sourter, Vol. I.

1940.55, Obcmn Press. A naluml populirllakes us wandtin lhmugh the ciry s,ree,s.finding love and whotea and p~wtiy andpace.

THE FOUOW,NG Canadian books have beenreceived by Books in Canada in recentweeks. Incbision in this lit does notpreclude areviewornotin in afulue issue:

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HE EXPLORERS.THE ARMY OFFICERS.POLITICIANS,PREACHERS, BUSI-NPSSMEN, ARTISTSAND ARTISANS, THEBUILDERS, THETEACHERSTheirpre-cise and informativebiographies againstthe background ofthe period in whicheach lived, form theDictionary of Cana-dian BiographyAlready published:Volume I (lOOO-17001,Volume II UiOl-17401,Volume Ill (1741-17701,Volume IV (1771-18001,Volume IX Wl-18701,Volume X U871-1880).$3.5 per volume.

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A nation is the sum of its people.

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