FEATLrREsKing nnd 1. Heather Robertson wins our eighth annual first-novel award for Willie A Romance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .._.................. 7Mokw. Booner. snd bo. It isn’t s dant leap from the murky world of small presses to the caves of Fragge Rock.- .

ByBwbam Wade . . . . 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ................. 11DmmaltcReadings. Canada’s playwrights are moving beyond “kitchen-sink realism.” By Richard Plant.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13After the Storm. In Z?i~?SaltLheBlizabeth Spencer comes to terms with old ghosts. By Leon Rooke . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

REVIEWSSweet Polson/Condng Soon, by Pierre Twgeon; The Mm with a Flower in IiLr Mouth, by Gilles Archambault . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19LotusMan, by Gildas Roberts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... 20TbeSingingBsbbi,by~Avery;AFintCl~Punml,bySoniaBirch-Jones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31TheBest of Modern Humour, edited by Mordecai Richler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .The Medusa Head, by Mary Me& . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ::The Strangest Dresm: Csmadiao Communists, the Spy T&Is, and the Cold War, by Merrily Weisbord . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..23Canada Home: Joltalla Horat& Ewing’s Fredericton Letters, 1867-1869, edited by Margaret Howard Blom

and Thomas B. Blom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .............. 24Appmocber to the Work of James Reaney, edited by Stan Dragland; Invocations: The Poetry and Prose of

GrxndolynlwacRwen, by Jan Bartley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25The lblnslr in Place: Essays an FItlion in North America, by George Bowering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26TbeB~lnLion,byA.l?Moritz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..... 27The Anglo Guide to Survival in Quebec, edited by Josh Freed and Jon Kalina . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

DEPARliwnnlEeId Notes

That’s HntMainmmt, by Eleanor Wachtel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3First-degree Bums, by D. W. h’ichol.................. . . . . . . . . . . 5

$ag~,Oor~lglish,byBBobBlackbum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6En(ervie~~wirhDavid~enbcrg,bySheriePacaorski . . ...39

First Novels, by Paul Wilson . . . . . . .._.... . . . . . . . . .._... . . . . . 30Letters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33The Editors Recommend . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33CanWll No. 92 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34Books Received . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Bob Dhxkbum writi frequently about English asage in these pages. Pauline Butling is a Freelance wirer in Winnipeg. Toronto ardor Gerard Cof-fey’s drawings appear Throughout the tssue Cover artist Iaura Femsnda recently moved 10 Tomnto from Calgary. Judith Fitzgerald’s eighth col-lcction of poetry. Benmlh the Skin o/Pmmdti: Ihe Piq/Poem. is to be published nexl month by Black Moss Prcds. Keith Csreblan is the aulhor 01Hugh Hood (Wayne Publish@. Montreal writer and tran4ator David Hornet wmments on the literary xene on both sides of Boulevard Saim-Laurent. Elwtrn Moore L P short-story writer in &mwille. 01% Shirley #night Morris is a contributing editor of Books in Cana&. D.W. Nlchol isBook in Cbnada’s Edinburgh correspondent. GutI Pern? is a Toronto freelance wrber. IUchmvJ Plant. who reaches drama II Queen’s Universily,is edit& an anthology of Onadian plays for Penguin Canada. Helen Poner is a freelance wriler in Mount Pearl. Nfld. Sherie Poswrski is aT~mnto fredance wita. Leon Raake (Shlrulcrpan’r Dog) is a novclisl and short-story writer in Victoria. B.C. Phil Surguy recenrly completed afunny novel about rhe spiritual life in Vancouver. Baylor Wsehtel is tbeatre reviewer for CEC-Radio in Vancouver. Bnrbma Wade is editor ofNewwwe&. Pad Wtlson is P Toronto writer. translator. and rock critic. David Wbwh is a freelance wriln in Montreal.

EDITOR 0 Michael Smith MANAGING EDITOR 0 Wayne Gmdy ART DIRECTOR 0 Mary Lu Tams

!

GRNERAL MANAGER and ADVRRTISING MANAGER 0 Susan TraerCIRCULATION MANAGER 0 Susan Aihoshi CONSULTANTS 0 Robert Farrelly 0 Jack Jensen

~ CONTRIBUTING RDITORS D Eleanor Wochtel (West Coast) o K.G. Pmbert (Prairies) 0 Douglas Hill 0 Shirley Knight Morris

z 0 Stepben Scobie 0 Sheila Fischman (Quebec) 0 Terry Goldie (East Coast) 0 D.W. Nichol (Europe)

._ ..__ _._.A . ..__ __.i-_-i._i_.YL.I~~~

-131!zlt1s enwtimmllent prize meant to acknowledge new, “F-and-coming talent, went instead tq

soxa.m\:’ THE Oscars have created theprototype of the avwds ceremony,

veteran Bill mlerd, the AN’ Club’sdynamic artistic director and the only

whether it’s televised or not, and last guy in town to open a new theatre (awar’s first annual Jessie Richardson . ‘225seat revue howl durbw a recession.iheatre Awards in Vancouver - theJ&es - featured the by now familiarglittery couples alternately readiw outthe names of the nominees, the discreetservices of black-tuxedoed minions fromPrice Waterhouse who tabulated thevote and sealed the envelopes @lease),special avardr for lowtime devotion to

Then two of his pro&ction~, Ann Mor-tifee’s Rqflectiom on Cmoked Walkingand Sharon Pollock’s Blood Relations.picked up three awards apiece - half,that is, of the dozen prlzcs presented.(Only tw4hbds of the categories weregiven nombmtions at all.)

While we didn’t have Heath Lamberts

eongmtulation tbat survives even theassault of selected musical numbersfrom recent productions. Everytblw butsouintinr at the cue cards. Even tbe fusta&d to be announced, for best sup-pwtIng actress, ls also the one thatoptns the Academy Awards (to keep youfrom tuniw in late to avoid best gafferor assistant electrician). And, not to beunduly cerebral about it, even thefashions flagrantly emulated the come-back exposed at last Aprils movie gela- shooldcrs, the left one suggestivelybared or the more daring completelystrapless, molded look, set off by tinyplllbav hat and demure veil.

In short. the sell-out crowd at the ArtaClub Theatre on Chmwllle Island mdi-ated a sense of occasion. “Everyone”ras there. William Hurt was flown in; hehid behind wrap-around songlasses.Order of Canada medal dangIing againsta blue polka-dot frilly shirt. He wea upfor best actor in Walter Laming’sPlayhouse pmductlon of Mass Appeurl.but no Easterner was golw to carry offone of those tote little IZloch angelicabstractions. arms rained, head stilt(designed by Australian-born CarlMetten). Tom McBeath, a fme localactor, won for The Kite by W.O. Mit-chell. Produced by a spunky suburbansummer tbeatre. it’s not a show thatmany of the voters were likely eve” tohave seen.

Peer voting means that people blsldethe industry can demonstrate allegiancesor vent hostilities. Significance.therefore, can be read into the fact thatthe first annual Jessies turned into anArts Club sweep. The big clue was whenthe Sam Payne Award, an honorary

in a kilt (moonbtg last ye&s Dons inTomnto), beachcomber-adman JacksonD&es proved a winning emcee, good-naturedly subverting Shemmn (ToMtgDirty) Snukal’s inane patter about 100years of theatre lo Vancouver. PiaShandel-Southern played strelght man,

pregnant at the time.Awards ceremonies arc an explicit

oaslon for stock-taking, so it’s ironicthat tbe Jessles were launched during sparticularly bmusplcioos season. Why becoy - it was mostly insipid. But it’s atndsm that every year tbe reviewers bomoan the lack of risk, the weak-kneedretreat behind a safe season. And everyyear there are a few productions thatpoke their way through end rise above.Last season it wes Blood Relation and apowerful rendition of Pin&s The Cve-taker. For whatever reason, this seasonfeds better. But I think we cao more orless forget about risk. K2 and Top Girls

probably lead tbe race, but then thereare bafflers like Godv~~~and that toem-moth weste, a $200,000 praduction ofThe Murder ofAugu.ste Dupin.

To be fair, nowadays risk means dar-ingtoput tiashowatall. Lastyearsawthe demise of Katbryn Shaw’s spiritedtroupe, Westcoast Actors. As if tounderscore the lMlllty of tbe critics’plabn, death followed II&hour pro-ductions of more sdventomos newwork. In tbe summer the slack wespicked up by en enormously popularrevival of The Norman Conquem. Itcould have been worse. It mold havebeen Nell Simon.

Another new venture WBS a summerShakespeare Festival under a tmit inVader Park. Three plays were pmduccdin repertory not only to employ actors“between engagements.” but also toteke advantage of the presence of twotalented English hands. Henry Woolfand Susan Williamson. Actually, thelocal acting pool ls good, despite theraids Chris Newton staged a few yearsback to fti out his Shaw Fatlval.

As for playwrights, we seem to beexpuiencbtg a brain drain. Tbe all-maleJewish mafia that used to hang out atSzasz’s cbolesteml dell - ShermanSnokal, John Lazarus, Leonard Angel- bes been depleted by tbe departureaof Tom Cone and Sheldon Rosen. Mar-garet Hollingrworth recently moved eastto Toronto, but not before two of herplays were produced: Ever Lovingwhich, after playln# mast to coast, Ii-nally came to a Vancouver stage; andher new, more demandii &cc., WarBuby. In fact, this year new plays byVancouver playwights seemed to growin pairs. There was Paul LeDow’stribute to Garland, Jr@!, wblcb badlyneeded a script, and his Children of theNight, a homage to Bela Lugosi, whichbadly needed a second act. Jesse Bodyantomed in a dubious but atmosphericm&oge of street life in The StoreDetez-five, a play that started to look awfullygood when Tamabnoos produced blspastiche of Western motifs, SkullRiders. A cult ad campaign uw con-sidered to lure patrons t.o tbe “worst-revlewd play in Vancouver b&tory.”

Wblcb brlnm us to Vanwuver’s mpstacute shortage: crltlcs. A @ary pur-

. ___ii._.._-.,_-._ .iC__.-__~_-

pose of the Jessies themselves, apartfmm celebrating a “healthy artistictheatrc scene.” was to fffl the publicawareness vacumo left by the critics.Last year’aaward nominaring committeewas able to muster three critics, aa wellas representatives of fimders and thetheaw coommnity. This year two of thethree reviewers departed midwaythmugh the season. The lack of a criticalcontext in Vancouver is sharply felt.Pan.45 am convened to worry the issoe.Arts gmops meet with newspaper pub-lishers to no avail. Whatever one maythink of Ray Conlogue or Gioa Mallett.at least them am established people toSt mad at in Toronto. Hence, when thePrcwince reviewer left for Stratford. thetabloid waited months to replace him,apparently hard pressed to find mmeoneon staff to work weekends and faceU-minute deadlines in order to producethe four paragraphs that represent “indepth” coverage in a tabloid. Mean-whilq over at the Sun. the drama criticwas replaced last year by the rel@kmreporter. When he in tom moved over tobecome television reviewer, his job wasftied by the former visual art and musicreviewer. A local TV station fd itsreviewer for being too “soft.”Truthfulness and modesty compel me to

note that only CBGRadio has main-tained a commitment to reviews of ma-sonable length. Both the morning and

critics. myself serving in tie morning-aftcr-thenight-before slot.

With this relative neglect, regardlessof what’s put on the sta8e hem, Van-couver seems doomed to be the peren-nial Second City. Competitiveness withToronto, glib assumptions about thedif-femnt “scent” am inevitable. Giventhat Vaacouver has less than half thepopulation, it can certainly boast avibraot the&e life. Four of the IOChalmers nominees this year were vao-couveritm (at least at the time). By con-trast. the Jcssies pmctise protectionism.Unlike the Dams, which honoored JohnGray’s Rack and Roll. and the Chal-mers, which gave the prize to ShermanSoukal for Talking Dir& visiting showsaren’t el&ible for a Jessie. And by somequirk of mlea Talkfing Dirty (soon to bea major motion picture) is up for thisyear’s prize3 in Vancouver. OrigbmUyproduced in October, 1981. whence itproceeded to break box office records byplaying for I5 months to im.000 people,it was remounted last summer beforeiea$ tooomnto. How’s that for alit-

Nonetheless, prizes confer a sense ofhistory and celebrate (establishment)achievement. Surely it would endermincany autheotic radical fringe to belegitimized this way - even by a nomi-nation. After all, last fall’s art “event,” *The Ocmb.?r Show. hadn’t quite been@sed by the splendid new VancouverArt Gallery, just overlooked. But whereis the cottiog edge of theatre here? Thealternate vemm? To the mst of Canadawe’re Bii& B.Ww and T&g DWUemnh~. That’s entmtainm~t. (That’salso a iam& echoing from Broadway tothe West Bud.)

O n e pmmisising group, IieadlioesTheatre, eagagw in formal&d apit-propoutside conventional the&e spaces. Itfust hit the street with a stinging attackon real-estate greed, an early498osphenomenon that undermined the moralIibm of a generation (and left the rrst ofus perpetual maters). It followed thissuccess with an anti-ouke show, Underrbe Gun, which hs towed outside thepmvioor But where was Headlines (oranyone) when headlines were real& be-ing made around here during last sum-mer’s explosive budget debate and thetrue street the&m provided by Solid-mityf With the ~oliticd heat risivz.

Subscribe to OPERA CANADA and tour theworld, with the music the&e magazine that isII veritable enycfopediu of opem news and

q iYE§ i will tour with OPERA CANADAenclosed is my cheque fir one year (4 issued$12 - in Canada, $15 - elsewhem.

OR

q Please send me one free sample issue, thenI will decide whether to subscribe.

Name

ProzllShlte

Send cheque nnd coupon to: OPERA CANADA366 Adelaide Street East, Suite 433, Toronto,Ontario MA 3X9.

. .A.-- . . . . -y-p_.-e, .,_ ,_ ,. ,, _. -_*--..--.

retreas featuring sex-comedy retreadsand remote “classics.” Not without ex-cepdon, of course, as every easy paem-Uzation invites.

There remains enough teal substatteeto Vattcouver theatre to keep onehopeful. And there is a” audience.Theatre conslsteutly outdraws music drdance or visual m. With more thanSl-rulllion earned through season ticketholders, aud another S2-mUlion insinde-ticket sales, theatre makes back agGmr percenti of hs operating coststhmugh eamlogs (as opposed to grants)than either music or dance.

But a sense of dlrectlon, which is whatawards tulght be thought to highlight, isnot clear at this time. The atablishmeutof new oerfonnloa soaces in the city anumberbf years & promised a pa&lblossomins of performance. Actual pm-ductlon h& b&n ““even. almost -&-dam. under the cotts!mints of avallabil-ity of rights, fiscal pressures, attd theidiosyncrasies of taste. In the absence ofdircemible trends, perhaps one mustIcave it to the theatre historians,academies more attuned to mauufactur-ing theories and discovering patterns.Meanwhile, we’ll have to ehezk out thetube on April 9 so we’ll know what to“var this June for the Jessies.

A gmln. which in England is generallyglvrn to horses, but in Scotland support5 ths people.

SO DR. JOHNSON defined oats ln 1755,aud the Aytshlt’e poet who was to sow somany wild ones was born four yearslater. If Robert Bums had a penny forecery time a human mouth has sung ooeof his lyrics on New Year’s Eve, he’d notout of folk to give his mUllotIs away to.In lie” of posthumous copyright fees -aad barely weeks after echoes of “AuldLang Sync” have faded from the Tron0” Homaw - lhe ScoU give Bums 9celebration unlike any other. BumsNiiht has to be the most eontrolled formof tutarchy io the world. fmm the ritualpiphtg io of the ha&s to the mega-bnin-cell drown& i” mal t whisky.!1%at other poet has been suog fmm thethroats of so many7

Justice is more than poetic lu Bdln-burgh. where Scott gets a monumentand Bums gets a tdght. Why has Bumsbecome so ensconced in Scottish tradi-lion7 HOLY has he come to be Scotland’smost exportable bard7 I’d need a doze”

acres of type to plough an explanation,but for MW I’ll make a wee furrow: likeoats and salt he was of the earth, full oflust and living. After stardom, igaom-inv. and excise. the “oet-cum-Pl&hmatt was siiu * mitt of the~eoule. He distilled the jovs of evervdavii&g and offered eve&& a dram: _

Here in Edinburgh, Bums festivitiesstarted two days early with the lauuchhtgof the Scottish Poetry Library. Ottly theScats, as one of the organieers pointedout, would dare to launch a poetryUbraty lo January. And, true to fomt.one of the worst blizzards of a wry bbzaniy season hlt the city. With We&and reservations I trudged forth expect-ing att empty hall, but this was not to be.Nothing l&e ao impossible challenge tobring Scats down from Orkney or Skye.Some 300 lunatic& lovers, and poetspacked St. Cecilia’s Hall to welcomeNaomi Mitchison, So&y MacLean,Norman MacCaig, aad Kathleen Raine.The Commonwealth was back iu fullflower: fmm India came Btutice deSousa; fmm Australia Chris Wall=Crabbe; aad from Canada Red Cogs-well. The Canadian contingeut was wellfottifed by Douglas Lochhead (thisyear’s vlsitlng professor from MountAllison) and Gill= Dumcher, the Caoa-diaa co”sul+mteral (who fundshed abottle of Canadian Club for .thcoccasion).

Alter a whetter or two of receptionwine. we were give” tumblets of CullenSItink (which tastes a lot better than it. ..-. ._.. .._sounds; it’s ftsh soup), followed by For-far Bridies (a sort of meat pie in theshape of a semi-P&bee), aad hvo kindsof vegetarian hag&. After careful inqul-sition, the supplier of the last dish -MaeSweetts of Bmatsfield - admittedthat the meat-free innards had beeawrapped iu the usual hag& way, ttsiugthe stomach Unii of a sheep. Okl habitsdie hard; hut there’s some sound Scot-tish sense behind ir: ,the sure sign of agood hageir is the sputterlog of hotliquid onto the guests llanklng thecarver, and plastic linings don’t yield tothe knife itt quite the same way.

After GaUoway Cream, a dessert thateatne in three consistem% - depettdhtg

cm how fast you were: runny, heavenly,or waxe” - the Scottish paerr primed uswith verbal liqueurs. Mitchison,MacLean, and MacCalg each contrl-buted d&s of their works for auction-ing. Mitchison read a lassie’s reply to abrusque husband’s love-making thatended. if memory serves, “Thank God.I’ve escaped.” MacLean aud MacCalgcomple.mented each other as “makars.”M&eatt giving translations of his ve&in BugUsh and Gaelic. MacCaig hascaught the chill of pre-snow Edlnburgb:

The night tinkles like Ice in gkmes.

Lemes we glued to lhe mvemenLv wi;h/rust. :

~wi~;owv airfumes nt the shop,

lMs the door. and sldkvjnzst.After the reception we all shifted to.

the upstaitv hall for intemational after-eights. An honoured guest “5th at leastone Scottish granny Kathleen R&eoffered some of her poignant Highlandremembrances in verse, and Pred Cogs-well feted us with some receutly writtensestbtas, closing with a profoundepigram that encapsulated the hutiwof a ooet’s lot.

Eu-rdce de Souza writes from a triau-gulaiity of influences emerging fmm Iu-dll under two Bajs: Portuguese, whichgave bet a Catholic upbtiu&, audEnglish. which gave her a language. She

, concluded her poem “Sweet Sixteen,”from her volume Fix. with theettde.o&aUy superstitious observation:

At sixteen, Phoebe a&d mCm~;yP when ycdre in II ’

I mean. mu know what.getihrgpirggem and allihat, whenyou’te dancing?I. slween. amwed heryou muld.And Chtis WaUaceCrabbc paiuted

“Melbourne” as a good place.)to be

Through pen’ersity of fate, the onlyinvited poet who works in smts dialect- Alexander Scott - was laid up withflu. We needed a Ron ButIia to CornpIe-mem the English, Oaelic, and Common-wealth voices, but he is Pted CogsweU’scotmterpan in the Arts Council’s ex-

changs program this year. In spite of theiionic absence of Rdinbwry or Lallansserievin, the Scottish Poetry LibraryAssociation generously set the scene forthe most vibrant gathering of Clan-Rarth in years. “For A’ That and A’That,” the descending spirits ofFerpusron, Burns, and, more recently.Robert Ciarioch would have lent achorus of assal to this opening,espe&Iy when the other opening (o!Talisker) got under way. The Scats havealways had a knack of making a littlelast l ong . i%nui mwma medllllmurevena, as Sydney Smith offered as amotto for the Edinbugh Review: “WCcultivate literature upon a littleoatmeal.” - D.W. NlcHOL

Do not argue with The Editor: he isone of those who understand the difference

between an accolade and a destruct

I AM ONE of those who believe that manyof oar problems with English can besolved simply with the use of logic andcommon sense.

Yes, I am one who believa that.I even b&eve that them am writers

who would put an s on believe io the fastsentence without thbtkiag about it. But Ifmd it bwedible that some of themargue with The Editor (lx who broughtthe problem to my attention) when hegently corrects them.

There’s no need M ND to the library.In the fNst sentence, those are the peoplewho believe, and I am one of them. Inthe second, I am one (a person) whobelieves.

It’s just one of those things. . . .1 wish everything were that simple

@atticularIy the subjunctive). I’m stillfGhtiag rdth people about gone (orwar) missing. They say that if you caogo hunting then you can go m.Mng, andI say that if that’s the case it only meansthat you are a poor shot. If a personvent shooting, he went to shoot. If hev:ent missb~g, he went to miss, and thatmake; him 01: in my book.

Then they tell me that missbtg isdescriptive of a condition, and so ismad, sod if a person can go mad., he caogo missing (and. of course, that u1 somedoles the case). I KaUy IJon’t know \vlmtin hell to say to that. If he goes v/en-

ehing, then he is hunting for a wench, so

ior a~misr. I-dmmo.simpler to say he can’t be found. that hehas disappeared, that he is inexplicablyabsenr from his hbitat, that he ain’1

been seen around lately, not nowhere, orjust that he’s m&ing’l

Possibly not. Possibly go mi.?&.g issomething we need today.

But I now fmd I’ve been worry@ invain, because tbe term has gone out ofstyle. The journalists who used to saythat someone “has gone mimii’ now

say that he %as turned up missbIg.”Well, now, that’s better. That’s in a

class with Sam Goldwyn’s “include meoat” (if Sam Ooldwyo dii indeed eversay that). It’s cute. Pal it in your bookof cute exprmsions. Don’t fret about it.

Serioosly,gomi&gisawdga&monits way to becoming accepted idiom, andifyoathiakyoueandoao#biagtostopit, please let me know.

I AM INDEBTBD to John Lloyd Monkmanof Oxford Station, Out., for sending mea Iist of goofs committed by CBC “per-sonaIitics” and just plain announcers.He reminds me, for instance, that someof them are so upset by the fact thatthere is no such word as desinrer thatthey are determined to coin it, as both anow and a verb. Alas, it has long beenused behind the -es in joomaiisticcircles, as in “let’s do a destruct on so-and-so.” You will also see it osed, bysloppy people, “ftcad of destroy.~nemww410?s It III any way deserves

He also met&s mL?chievious whichis a widmpread vernacular corn&on ofmirclricvous. I happen to love it. I justthink it’s a more expressive word withthe extra syllable and tbe sbift inemphssis, and it has a permanent placein my colloquial vocabulary.

But I go along with Mr. Monkman’sobjection to such pleoaasms as “haltand lame” and “clear and limpid.” HaItmeans lame and limpid means dear, andit is limpid that no bait excose for the useof eithet phrase is acceptable.

AN Q~nde~ proper& is an embrace OIslapontbeslmalder~tbtheflatofasword, signifying file conferral ofknighthood. That’s what it is, end,according to the OED, that’s all it is (ex-cept to musicians and mathematicians ina very special sense). The permiaiveU.S. dictionaries now approveits misuseas an expression of praise, and that’sridicaloos. But fukome still means whatit has meant for hundreds of years:disgustingly exce&ve.

In February and Iv&t&, after wbat-SiSIlSllE SnMund hiS latest Iv&nationfrom the leadership of thgt party, manyreporters were telling us that this or thatperson had given him an accolade,which I took to mean, as I have alwayssuspected, that he must be the mostbe(k)nighted leader this country has.everbad. when they reported tbat he hadreceived this or that “fulsomeaccolade,” well, I didn’t know what tothink These days, when a jomnlistusesfulrome, we amleft to try to deducefrom the context whether be means it orsimply doesn’t understand it, and usual-ly we end up saying, “We’re not. . .quite . ..SUE.“O

Heather Robertson’s characterization ofthe secret life of Whim Lyon Mackenzie Kin8

is the best first novel of 1983

r-m ~t~tini ANNUAL Books in Canada Award for First Novels- and B ehque f0r $1,000 - s0e~ M wthu RobPts0n f0rll’illie: A Romcmae. published by James Lmima. Robertson’scharacterization of the secret life of Wllllam Lyon MackenzieI2ng - volume one of a proposed sales called The Ring Years.- was the fast choke of three of the four judges on this year’spanel. A strong rmme+up (one that might well have won inylotha year’s competition) was Tolemble La& of Violence,by Pabert G. Collins (Lester & Orpen Denny&)

‘Ilxmgh there vme fewer first novels under ccmsldemtionthis year, the competition vmparticularly stiff. The judge4(novelist and short-story writerMatt Cohen; Dan Mozersky ofProspero Books in Ottawa;Leslie Peterson, book editor ofthe Vancouver Sun; andnovelist and playvnlgbt RachelWyatt) worked from a sbmtlist prepared by Paul Wilson,who writes a column aboutfirst novels for Books InCanada Besides Willie andTolemble Lew& of Pioiolet~~~, itincluded: Tlte BiggLst ModemWoman of the Wodd, bySusan swan (Lester % orpenDenny@; Not Workbtg, byGeorge Szanto (Mscmillan);and Figurer on o Wharf, byWayne Tefs (Turnstone Press).As the judges’ comments indi-cate, all vxre strong contendersfor tile prize:

B2att Cohen: This must have IfeatherRobeaunbea a good year for fmt novels. I found ell of the ftitsreadable st the least, and often much more than that. Perhapsthe level of accmnpllsbment reflects the fact that at least threeof the wlters - Susan Swen. Heather Robertson. and George&auto - have published e&slvdy in other m&Ilums. -

For me, tvro &the novels wme so equal in appeal that theydeserve to be cc-winners: they are Ivirie, by Heather Robert-son, and Not IVorRing, by George Szanto.

Ii’llle is a long, engrossing read that captures a part of ourhistory in a way both frivolous and fasclnatlng. Like Robert-son Davies’s Fifr Businms, Willie examines a class of peoplewho have been reputed to be stuffy and nanuw and fmds thatthis predictable fqade is a cover for mu& more cantenkemusand adventurous lives. As a onetime Ottawan I particularsenjoyed Robertson’s deliberately irreverent romp past some ofthe more sacred cows of the nation’s capital. But although thenovel is always readable and interesting, Robertson ls some-time; like a eomlc who will sacrlfme anything for a good line..By the end of tbe book I felt that a portrait of a very unusual

Mackenzie IGng had been p-ted, but the man himselfseemed as unknowable as evez - though a lot more amusing.

Not Working is, like Willie, a book of bmad potentialappeal. But unlike Willie it seems to have dropped totelly outof sight immediitely following publication. That ls unfor-tunate, because Not Working is a cleverly constructed andgripping novel about en ex-policeman from California whocomes to a small mid-westem U.S. town and learns about it inthe course of trying to explain the deeth of his daughter’s boy-friend’s father. It may sound complex - it ls - but the novel

is compelling from beglmdngto end. In tbis exceptionallyaccomplished fmt novel, time,narrative sequence, and char-acter are all expertly juggled.In some ways Not Workingnarrows itself to the seope ofthe hard-boiled detectivenovel, but it has a wonderfullyliterate surface, and its perfectpa&g gives it red emotionalimpact.

The novel that almost madeit wes Figure.9 on (I Wh& byWayne Tefs. Figures on oWharf is a vwy convincingportrayal of the dllolUtlcm ofa merrlege under the pressureof an affair. The fu&t half isextremely well-written, butgradually the charactersbecome Iess believable, andeventuelly the novel loses theforce with which it began.Nonethdess, Figures on awho~istheonlyoneoftbe

five novds that attempts to survive without documentary cat-ches, and though it eventually fells to’sustaln itself, thecheraetem remain memorable.

Den Mozersky: In last place is FI,yorc~ on II who& by Wa&eTefs. Although not badly written, the theme of infidelity andmarriage breekdowvn is dlchdd and overworked. end onewonden why anyone would bother writing about it unlessstmming new insights could be revealed. The novel cbmnlclmsewn months in the lives of Mllael. hls wife Patti&, and hlalover Mary. Each chapter is prefaced by a brief Ilesbback intoMichael’s sexual past and, although interesting, these flesb-backs do not really add very mu& to the story. Be&ally, it isthe story of e specific %iengle” love-reletionship that neverrises above itsdf to invoke wider appeal or universal meening.

Fourth position goes to l%e B&g& Modem Woman qftheWorld. by Susan Swan. This wes the biggest diseppointment.primmily because it had the biggest potential. It is flatly writ-ten with uulmpired prose that shows no excitement even when

James M. titon AND Calvin w iVioor~

At the age of 35 Jack Miner was anilliterate brickmaker.and guide, regardedby many as the deadliest hunter inCanada. Twenty years later, Jack hadbecome the world’s best knownconservationist, one of the mostrespected and beloved men of his day.

THE STORY OF WILD GOOSE JACKexamines the remarkable career of thisvisionary man. This lavishly illustratedvolume contains over 125 historicphotographs, plus 8 pages in colour.

o based on the film Wild Goose Jack,winner of four awards, including BestFeature Documentary in the Nature andWildlife category at the American FilmFestival

0 published in conjunction with NationalWildlife Week _-,

describing events or incidents of significant emotional impact.At the same time, the book is very poorly edited and contaimobvious historical and lin&dstic inaccuracies. Words BT~ usedthat were not even invented during the period in wbieb the“memoir” is set: 1888. Words such as “feminist” (page 88)and “bullsbit” @ape 138) did not enter the English languageuntil 1895 and 1915 respectively. Once the reader becomesawere of these errors the book begins to umavel, and theauthor’s credibility becomes suspect. There is no IX@ feelingfor the historical period, and the ,@xoacters, althoughphysically freaks, ere never really revealed to be exceptional orfreakish in temperament, character, personality, or inte8ect.Essentially thisisadull, sloppilyedited book. Too bad, becausethe trestment of this subject wuld have been scintillating.

Third place goes to No1 Working, by Geor& Santa. This.the only exemple of genre fiction in the group, is a competentlywrittenand fast-paadmurdermystery.Thechanuws~wtal-ly believable, and the plot is plausible. The murder end itssolution ere conventiona.I eoougb, but the book’s therm Lies inthe character of Joe Leay! who bes his own problems: on-employment, tensions in hur mar&, raising two daoghtas,mle reversal, a guilt-ridden pest, and a burning in the tip of hipenis. He not only solves the crime, but’ the book ‘ends on apositive note, with most (if not e8) of Joe’s problems solved ordealt with. In short, this is a thomogbly likable book, well-writteo. well-plotted, and well-paced. In fact, of the live booksthis is the only fie I e@yed reading.

in second place is Toh?nzbk Lcvds of Violent, by RobertG. Collins, a di&ctieeI novel of considerable depth and pm-fundity. Set in 1999, after a world-wide cataclysm, it ic thestory of one man’s attempt to come to temu, both intellectual-ly and physically, with a world devoid of conve@ionel institwtions. This is B novd more of ideas than anything else and tbet.perhaps, is its most obvious flaw. However, when the authorsticks to straight descriptive narrative the book can be powa-ful end haunting. The mood of impliiit violence and death Ispmvocative end frightening end, et times. the writing is exceptionally powerful. Tolercrblle kvds of ylolenn is more like alast work of an author who has written many books: it is awork of summation rather than initiation. It reminds me ofIvfacLeooan’s Voices in Time and, ss such, ranks as B forcefoIwork of imagination. But aa a final. note first, novel.

Willie, by Heather Robertson, is my fist choice. Althoughthis book is badly flawed by a confusing structure and toomany voices, it contains the most interearing writing and ideasof the five novels under discussion. The liws of the three pro-t&onists - Lii Coolicen. Telhot Papineau, end WilliemLyon Mackenzie King - are revealed through letters enddies. and so we learn not only about the livea of thesecheaters but also about the time and place in which theylived. The book is a veritable gold tie of infoonnation aboutCanadian (Ottawa) politics during the First World War. Itsgift for detaiI is overpoweriog. This tie!i~ portmit ofthe psyche-sexual life of Mackenzie King is so fesdnating thaton this basis alone the novel deserves fti pIace.

I am convinced sloppy editing is responsible for Willie’stlaws. There is no dear-at delbwation between letters of dif-ferent characters, and the introdwtion of a third-person oar-rator, apparently at random. adds to the confusion. Theepistolay novel is not new, and one would have thought thatmodem typographicel techniques would have been employedto elleviete obfuscation. Once the reader ovacomes this con-fusion of voices, however, the novel t&s on brilliant dImen-siom. This is a great way to interpret our history, and one canonly look forward to tbe next volumes with enthusiasm.

Leslie Peterson: Vladimir Nabokov obsaved that there are,three points of view from which a writer eon be consider& esstory-teller, teacher. and es enchanter. “A major writer com-

._,, :_ --- .-byry_..-,-.,_.,~_345.n___c -..--.

POBpagesl7iS x 10%SZS.95hardback

ISBW 0-88794-129-x

I

I1

IIIIIL

Bikaticm and Its Contents

,----_--___-----______--

_ Li _ ., .._. .L,_~.___ ..-.__G . . _~~ii____ ~..~ .~I.. ,_ ._ _ _~

i

I ,. I

“Justdamngood.. .”Barry BroadfootThe Vancouver Sun

‘One of the year’s best. . . ’peter Gzowski“Mornhgside” CBC

“T&s of the Chilcotin funnier thanLeacock. . .I*

Eatle GrayThomson News Service

“St. Pi touches the heart. . . *’Ottawa citizen

“A must read. . . ”saskatoon star Phoenix

“In France or Germany they woulderectastatueinhishonour.. .”

Victoria Times-colonisr“May well wiu awards forhum&. . .”

The Globe and Mail

QuiteliteraUy,thmhasnotbeenasinglebad review of this book. III fdct. therehasn’t been one that wouldn’t qu$ify asa rave. Wtk and Otfm.&mnts has nowgone into Its third printing and IO,000people have read these short stories.Don’t miss one of Canadian litetature’smRjor events. $19.95

Doubleday Canada Liinited

bins the three . . . but it is the enchanter in him that.predominates and makes him a major titer.” None of thefive finalists merits. as yet. anythiog more than a tag as story-teller. Though we may never hear from some of them agab+the imagination is wide, the workmanship commendable.

Tolerable Levels of Violence, by Robert Collies, leads mylist by a hair, by virtue of its inte.llectual structure. Here wehave multi-dimensional prose, sure and precise in its void.wound taut, an apt vehicle for Cdlins’s 1999 Ottawa Valleywasteland. And while his seenado of detritus and destruction- anarchy loosed upon the land - is unmitigatingly power-ful, it is relieved by an articulation of rebirth and renewal. Un-fortunately, the author can’t resist demonstrating that he is inhis workaday life a professor of English, and knows hiShakespeare.. He merely shows how the solemn is always readyto bushwack the serious - sod impede the narrative while It’sat it.

The B&g& Modem Woman @the Wodd. by Susan S-no,comes a close second, WiSrits echoes of John B&b’s wonder-ful The Sotwved Factor. Like George Bowedag’s fictionalbiography, Burning W&r, diversions on the theme of CaptainGeorge Vancouvp; Swan’s hook takes as its focal point a reallife, then emb@iers it with fantesy. Anna Swan, her colossal1’6” heroine, wes born io Nova Scotia, exhibited by P.T. BY-num, and received by Queen Victoria. Swan offers us in thisenchanting burlesque a camy sideshow with dess. Yet this isno mere spectacle, for the inventive biographer presents uswith remarkable insight into the mind and soul of 811 oversizedhuman being. Amid the freaks and feats of derrinedo there ispoignancy, a realiition that between effective farce end mereflqm there rests a delicate balance.

Willlc A Romance. by Heather. Robertson. is a curiousamalgam of fact and fiction. It is a work that, one thinks,ought to be hiihly regarded. Indeed, one feels almost uncivil innot picking this formidably researched wbrk as the winner.But. in the end, it doesn’t meet John Gardner’s diium thatfiction must induce “a vivid and continuous dream” in thereader’s mind. The diary is a masterly form in the hands of amaster (but first you need a firm grasp of the trade). Fictionalcharacterization based on real life hes its pitfalls, even whereWilliam Lyon Mackenzie Ring is concerned. For hmpe endeloquent style, Robutson gets top marks; for the impetus re-quirrd to carry the reader through 359 pagq only middling.

Both George Szanto and Wayne Tefs tried their best. butonly a wizard can turn the routine to glory.

Not Working, by Szanto, while competent, lacks originality.The story of a diillusioned cop who has fled to a differentmilieu for reappraisal is well-plotted, with only adequate depthof characterization. Szaoto, a playwright, excels in the stagingof his well-paced narrative, pulliw on the disparate threads.Still, it remains an entertainment, a one-act divertissemenr

Figures on o WharJ by Tefs, should have been a short story.Tefs possesses well-developed powers of observation, andtakes a paintedy approach to’his literary catwas, but there issomething lacking, inducing a sense of ennui. His temporalswitcbbacks prove eonfusing, even when flagged with dam.

Rachel Wmttt My fnst choice for tke award is det%itelyHeather Robertson’s Willie A Rommu!e. I found the book tobe very well-written, smooth end dear in concept, funny,fascinating in its details, and ovwdl extremdy readable. It hasa fme structure that wits the material pufectly.

My second choice is Robert 0. Collii’s Tokrabk Levek 4fy”ioknce. The idea is frighteningly real, the witiog is sensitive,and there is a pervasive feeling of humanity in it.

Third I liked Susan Swan’s The Biggest Modern Woman ofthe World. The humour in this hook appeals to me very much,as does the subject @eing on the tall side mysdfl). On a differ-ent list it might have been a fast choice. Cl

-‘.‘. --.. ,. - . . :- -- : .-.ei: ..,, y.,y;.- ,.... -:...-, &- :-_5 i:._y.,. .C;<;,..?:!;:.;! _,.- ‘--‘.7“?,.: .;;T-_-~.y%’ .li _ ----

__; ___.: i.._. . .--..-- ._L-.---.

REPORT

Whatdoes writing a sonnet have in commonwith writing lyrics for television’s Fraggle Rock?

Perhaps more than one might guess

By BARBARA WADE

THE SCENE IS the Great Hall, the busy underground collection weren’t necessarily experienced in writing for children or forof stalagmites and pools that cornprism the central tele.visiott, but who were good writers.” Colbetl s”g&?estedthoroughfare of Fta@ Rock. Mokey, a tall. fuzzy-haired several names, among them Lee, winner of the 1972 Governorcharaaer straight out of the Whole Earth Gztalog. is running General’s Award for Civil Elegies and Other Poems, butafter Boober because she has a poet” she waots to read to him. better-known lately for what the Globe and Mail describes asBoober, vwatiy ids cap pulled down so low that his eyes are his “dditful doggerel” bt such books for children ascompletely shielded, has had enough of the noise and bustle of Alligator Pie, Nicholas Knock, GarBage Delight, and theFragile Rock to last hbu a lifetime. He’s not interested. “But tecently published Jei& Be/&.Boober,” Mokcy entreats, “a poem is a gift.” “I’ll always remember my first meeting with Demtis,” says

The wher of those words may have put a good deal of his JubI. “He came shambling into the ofiice and spent 15 minutesowtt background into .-i..- ‘--them. He is novelist and !

telling me how wrong heWBP for television, how

poet bp Nichol who. busy he was, how it wasdon.g with Dennis Lee nice of us to be in-and David Young, has tctwted but it was reallyrecently branched out a dumb idea.” However,from the remote (though when Juhl suggested thatequally exotic) world of he write lyrics for thesmall presses and literary show’s sprigs, ra therquarterlies to the fantasy than the scripts. “myresltu of Jii Henson’s ears pticked up,” sayswddy television pro- Lee. He and composergram. Fmggle Rock. Phil B&m” bad beenThough Lee is already working together on

;iFFz

ewhtatio” “As *eon asI heard it,;’ says Jubl, “1said, ‘That’s what Prag-gles sound like.’ ” Sincethen, Lee and Balsamhave written all the songs(indudbtg the theme) forthe series. Their quota“s”auy consists of hvonew songs per show,

veil-known as achildrzn’s writer. Nichol(author of such books asThe Mar~yrology, Horsed’Oeuvres, and thethrewiay novel StillJ andTouttg (Incognito,Age& Provocateur) arerecognized much morefor their venturesome,out-of-the-mainstreamvxiting than for their TVscripts - that is, if theyore recognized at alI.Fraggle R o c k , co-produced with the CBC.__ ~. tailed ‘R&l or Marjory,aud seen in 86 countrter, is providing them with a seater

2 audience than &ha had dreamed possible.2 The CanLit connection began about two pars ago when

3 creative director Jerry Juhl and senior writer Jocdytt Stevett-2 soa moved their core cast of Muppeteers to Toronto to beein2 rork on Fraggte Rock, which they intended more for children2 thao the Etitish-produced Muppet Show. “I was looking forE Canadian wirers to fulfd the Canadian-content directive for2 the show,” says Juhl, formaiy head writer on Tlrc Muppt” Show. “I talked to SW Colbert, head of light entertaimttentg for the CBC, and told him I didn’t waut to go the w”ventio”d2 route of practised televisIo” writers. I aanted people who

the living trash heap, and intended to ilhuninate or highlightthe stoty.

Lee, in turn, introduced the idea of writing scripts for Fmg-gle Rock to his literary colleagues, including David Young.Young. weditor (with Matt Cohen) of The Dream Ctuss An-thology, is an editor on the board of kh House Press, withwhich he has bee” associated since 1972. He had newt wtitteueither for children or television before, and feels “it was a biistep for alI of us. Incognito took me five years to f&.” Thestat&to-finish prows on Draggle Rock takes about threemonths.

Young gabted btsiit into the project through extensive col-

laboratlon with JUN. stevmwn. the dh%xtors. and the per-formers. “It’s a very collaborative pmwwss.” he says. “JerryJuhl just l3wws an enormous amount about how children’stelevision can work . . . . This is a team of people who have avery clear idea of what they want the stories to be about. Ithink they believe that if you really care about cbanglng theworld, you either go to the top of the power straetore or youdeal with kids. There’s a lot of serious thought involved.”

Young found that “you have to simplify your thinking”when preparing a script idea. “I agree with Demds’s idea - hesaid you have to find the ldd within yourself. Fortunately, inme it’s not too far below the surface.”

x-m SET AND pmduction oftices for Ruggk Rock are in an“nasrumi~ building on Scollard Street in Toronto’s Yorkvilledistrict. In the studio bp Nlchol is watching the shooting of hislatest s&t. “The Dav the Music Died.” Over M staae crewand perf&&rs move among the t&ted caves of &e set,manipulating Rag&s or remote-control devieea that add atouch of electmoles to the artistry. They continually watch

behind scenery, to make sui a telltale hand or wire doesn’t in-trude upon the shot. Writers must be present throughout thechootin~ of a script, and may suggest changes or cuts from thefloor. Nichol moves quietly through a scene, sat&l slung eveshis arm, to suggest a slight change in wordbIg for one of theperformers. In the darkened corridor behind the set to hisright, a rehearsing performer manlpulate3 hh puppet Fragglea if the two were engaged in quiet conversation.

During a break in shooting, Nichol says he agrcu withYoung’s assessment of the collaborative nature of the show.“It’s essentially manipulating a set of piveos. The restrictionsare just like wrltiug closed verse - a sonnet ls equally a set of

LIES MY FATHER TOLD ME

T%iFWHITE BliNG DOG

JaGi5wson.LES M;UDKSA&GLAlS

34.95AFiER BABA’S FUNERAL

SWEET AND SOUR PICKLES

T%ziLIFE ON i-iE LINE

Steven Bu.dt4G&Uen Booth

TAWN&TEAMKennethKlons4 gGBrianShein

%.

pq%?mq%% cl2a.NAWIIwxlmm mnnmo sbnw* tYJIII) ,mlz¶-Ed~

...... _.c__.-. ... . .,A___ -. ___ ~.

re&k?tions.” Nichol won the Governor General’s Award lo‘1970 for, among other works, his anthology l7te Cosmic Chq2A~I Evening of Concrete and The TrueRwnhratStory CrfBittythe Kid. Hh novel StU, published last fall as the winner ofPulp Press’s annual ThreeDay Novel Writing Contest, uws.says Nichol. “part of a year of experlmentatlon. As is titingfor Fruggk Rock.”

Nlchol has some experience in writing for children, withsuch works as Moosequ&?s and Other Dkafem, Onn’ ALullaby, and The Mun Who Loved Hir Knees to his credit. Hefound the birth of his daughter two years ago “put you back intouch with the klod of writing you enjoyed when you were akid. On R&e Rock I am wrltlng for the kids, but I’m writingthe Rind of story I fmt began writing as a kid. I’ve just never ‘-had the occasion to “se my adult skll on it. In a curious way,it’s a fulfdment of something I was thinking about when I was .seven or eight.”

Neither Young nor Nichol has any sense of saipt-writing asseparate and apart fmm his prose or poetry. “All the writingyou do interrelate&” says Nichol. “There’s too much of adichotomy in people’s minds between ‘high’ art and ‘low’ art.It’s just writing with a range of possibilities.” Young agrees.He has just completed a program called “Manny’s Land ofCarpets,” which is, he says, “essmtkdy about the waychildren watch television - what cm happen to them whmthey open their eani to all the voices inside that box. I found itfascinating to eommmt on the medium we’re speaking in.”

The only difference, Young feels, comes in the size of theaudience for his work. “In literary prose writing you’re writingfor an audience of. say, 12 people. It’s a much more hermeticactivity. By contrast, Pm&e Rock is seen all over the world.It’s a good fe&g to think you may say something that’s gotsubstance for a large number of people:’

He got some sense of how large a number while on tour forNational Book Week in the Yukon last year. “The kids I WBStalking to found out about my involvemmt withFmgg~eRock.They didn’t care mything about books, or literatere’ln general- all they wanted to know was why did Oobo do such-and-so?Why don’t you get Booba to do &is?‘*

-0 9.utmu.v writer.9 for the show involved a ceriaioamount of training, notes Juhl, if only to leant “the necessitiesof television. We essendally write tiny little three-act plays.”(His two other regular writers, Sugltb Vamghese and LauraPhillips, have extensive experience in the field.) “After somefine-tuning, we found these people brought very fresh thingsto the show.” Fmggle Rack is expanding its repertory ofCanadian writers with the recent addition of novelist TimothyWyooeJones, who is writing some lyrics and developing scdptkleas while Lee fnishes a book on cadence.

The experience has been mutually bmeflcial. “I end upsoundlog like I’m pmselytllg for the show.” says Young,“but 1 was completely overwhelmed by what these people weretrying to do. I feel like I’ve landed in heave”.‘* Young andNlchol express Little interest i” expanding their mpximce toother television shows, and neither watches much TV in hisspan rime. “Other chlld~n’s shows seem ill.concelved andpoorly motivated by comparison,” says Young,

“I r&ly turned my back on tiralght-ahead narrative when Iwas 20,” says Nichol. “So writing for Fmggfe Rock has been amatter of getting back to basic story-teUlng values. What I’mmost aware of is that it’s allowing an outlet for me in writing

that I haven’t neeessarlly had. It’s tremendous to get involvedwith new kinds of wrltiag that stretch your ability.” He hasfound that “uclng television - and using puppets and televl-sion - is different. You have to convey a lot of the storythrough action.”

Lee remembers a time when he and Young were watching aoepisode of the show on television, and Young pointed out that

--.- -- .__~r-,__._-~_..... ....I ... 11..1 : ..,,xz~~~~rc~=~.~ ...... .n. .... ... -- --. .._. ._. _,

__~____ . . . . . - -. .-..... - ---.-.- -- -..-.. . ~. ______ __~~ ~~_____~~_

the words were not necessarily paramount-just the opposite television or film story is knowing when not to use words.of what he wa accustomed to in his other writing. In this way, ‘TranslMing fmm one medium to another is very dlfticult,”Lee feels, working on the scripts for Fmggile Rock may have says Lee. “You have to be humble. Write” such as ourselves usecontributed sometF”g to the three writers’ understanding of the words on paper as their greatest tool. In a way, the s”cessthe use of kmguage. “A writer is a different part of the fabric of literary \titen working for Fm&e Rock was that theyon television. One c.f ,tie great gifts a writer can make to a ’ weren’t wiped out.” 0

. FEATIXEREVIEW

The year’s theatre publications reflect -a significant shift from the ‘kitchen-sink realism’

typical of Canadian plays in the 1970s

THE REALISM of early 1970s drama inCmmda, as challenging and invaluableas it has been, has always appeared topossess shortcomings against whmhplaywdgbts, particularly thorn of anexperimental “iturn, have battled. As aresult. at the same time Leaving Home,Of rhe Fid&, LaIely. Creeps, and “anyother realistic plays we” being staged,the dramatic undercurrent was a searchfor differcat mod” to exprers post-naturalist - even post-existentialist -world v&s that were not Limited bytheir determinism or other “latedaspects. This year’s published dramashows some of the results of that searchin its wide variety of non-rdiitkdmmatlc forms and anti-naturalisticphilosophy. In short, if published playsme an indication. we no longer have admma totally dominated by what somedetractors have called +uly ’70s kitchen-sink realism.

That is not to say there are no newplays in a realistic mode. Superficialreal&m and the elementary psychologyto go with it are the expressive cenVeJfor Sherman Snukal’s Talldag Dirty(Harbour Publishing). a box-office suecess in V”~ouver, then again in Tor-onto, where it controversialIy won the1993 Chalmers Award for best play. Alacl: of clarity in what the ChalmersAward recognizes is at the cent” of theeommversy. so no one should attack theplay on the gmunds that it do” notdeserve the honour.

Of its type - a neatly crafted. corn-mercial sex comedy based on incon-gruous situations and light, wittydkdogue - Talking D/r0 is a commend-able and very popular play. Its moral

By RICHAlzD PLANT

stance ti. simpleminded and blatantenough that even the most obtuse spe@tator cannot miss it. It’s also bllbly con-servative, so that it does not offend -nor challenge - its largely middle-classaudiences. Really, it’s imitation AlanAyckboum without hi dark, bitterquality, and with somewhat inferior wit.

Harbour Publishing also brought outone of the year’s most engaging depar-tures from realism in Morris Panycl?sLast Call, a “post nuclear cabaret.” Theserious shortcoming of this publishedscript - and it could not be otherwise -is that print cannot captmx the enter-talnii theatricality of the performance,especially the .vbtuoso songand-dance

!-e?@-’routines of the auth&/actor, who playsan “caped convict, Barr 0~s. and hispartner Ken MacDonald as a blindpianist, Eddie Morose.

As this provocative, witty cabaret setsit up, the two are survivors of a nuclearblast that has IevelIed the city where theylive. Both are dying, and they a”

thrown rogether in a Beckett-like “la-tlomhip that sees Gross carry@ a gunwith which he constantly threatensMorose. He thereby enforces his beliefthat “the one with the gun is God.”

Paaych’s dramaturgy is sopblsti~tedenough to layer realkim by having Grosssearcbll for an audience to watch tbllfti cabaret. when be and Morose ftiapianoamongtberuins-andauaudi-ence - the show is on for “al. (Or wasit on for “al when they safe Lust CuG’sopening song?) Whatever the eat+unlike “any natumllst/“alist plays, this.macabre fantasy, so loaded with irony,offers no4mple social or psychologicalsolutions to the world’s problems. In-stead, it “cog&es the complexity ofhuman nature that has led to disaster.

One of the cabaret’s most effectivemoments - and ode that repudmtes anysimple answers - occurs in a false end-ing. The entertainment ls so infectiousthat the duo have the audience singing anc‘st&lc chorus of “Last Cau, l a s tchance of all/-Forget all your sad-and sorrow/Let’s drink a last beer/Asfriends while we’” hem/And maybewe’ll be here tomorrow.” On thoseupbeat last two lines tbe audience,despite having witnessed a very grittyevenbxg, is ready to go home happy.

But as the lights fade (and as theaudience was applauding the night I sawit) Gross breaks In: “On the other hand,Ithlnkwe’vemmmgedtosbnpIifytbbngsjustabit . . . . Ithink [tbeendinglsjabit ,naive.” And surely it is. So we aretreated to a different conclusion, whichdrives the cabaret’s point home witheven momforce than the bitter, apocal-yptic comedy we had witnessed

.__ ~_ .._... _.~... .._ ..A..._L _

throughout the evening. In a emnkywhere cabaret has come to mean anevening of hentbnental listening to songsofPiaforIrvingBedin+LarrCllllhasput the bite +.ck into a tmditionaUyfiew and meaningful genre.

In the mid-19706, the translated wuksof Michel Tremblay, in particular.brought an increased awareness toE@ish Canada of how Qu&b&.oisplaywrights were breaking the boun-daries of traditional realistic drama.Again in 1983, with Jovette Marches-sault’s La Saga des pmdes motdll&s,published in English as Sage of Ihe WetPlenn (Talonbooks), we have a vibrantexample of experimental, non-illusionistic theatre.

The play’s dramatic force oomea fromthe rich poetic images that reverberatethroughout the six scenes. Dediited toMichelle Rossignol and Gloria Oren-stein, it finds its dramatic action in themeeting of four authors - LawConan. Germaine Gu&wrgont,Gabrielle Roy, and Anne ISbert - vhocombine their radically different timesand perspectives as they gradually growtoward a collective creation, the bii ofa new work of art: ‘%omment /esforceps vinmnt mu hommes” (“HowMen Discovered Forceps”).

The discovery during their creative actthat “we’re just a bunch of wet hens”leads to thelast section of the play, whenthe authors face the “moment of truth. . . bare [their] breasts and strut throughthe primeval muck.” The scene is +nexuberant expression of their newfoundawarwss of thesublimespiritudity endearthy reality of being female. It is partself-parody and part joyous celebration:“The nit is alive like the fust momentsof spring”; “Verily, wily, I say untoyou,thepartofthehhmthatiswetisberhen-hole, the vaginal spring, the mucousthat mocks everything parched andw; “The great book of women hasbegun. AU that was lost will be found,saved end deciphered.”

If readers want a glimpse of the tradi-tion out of which dramatists like JovetteMarchessaub and Michel Tremblay’havegmvm. they can turn to the fourthvolume of Canada’s Los1 Plqys. Cal-oaial Qwbec: Frenek-Caaadiaa Drama1606-396.5, edited by Anton Wagner andpublished by the Canadhn The&eReview. The eoueetion offers sevenplays, all address by one of the play-wights “To the Young Actors of theTheatre f&i&6 at Quebec” in 1894, enda useful selected bibliography.

Although seven plays can hardlyrepresent 360 years of theatrical activity,these am carefully selected to highlightimportant aspects of Quebec tradition:the intluence of European dramatic andmusical forms, French neo-dassidsm,

lgth-century heroic tragedy, 19th-century historical melodrama, RomanCathdicism, British supremacy, politi-

early recognition of Fren~h-Cans&nheroes - in short, the evolution ofFrench-Canadian sensibility in drama.

Marc Leseaibot’s well-known mu-que, The The&e @Neptune in NewI+unce, is included. pmviding evidenceof French theatre activity in Canada asearly as 1606. This new translation, in afluent, contemporary idiom that retainsthe tlavour and sense of the original, isby Renata and Eugene Benson.

Between Lacarbot’s masque and the

popular acclaim in 1880 in Montreal andQuebec City. Paquin’s Riel, on the otherhand, lacks any real semblance of stageable drama. There am sudden, inexpli-cable character chenges (in a mere eightlines Riel’s would-be assassin is con-vinced not to kill him), and actionsimpossible to stage - for example, alethal ritle battle between Gabriel Du-mont’s followers and the British army.If Riel was meant as a closet drama, itslanguage gives no appearance of greatfelidty; any audiince appeal eomea fromthe force of Paquin’s patriotism and thevirulence of his attack on the injusticesenacted on the M&is.

The seventh play is, unfortunately,the only .U)th-century saiptz GratinG6linas’s very popular Yesterday theChildren Were Dancing, which was fustperformed at the Com6dibCanadiennein 1966 end in English at the CharIotto-town Festival in 1967. It maker a titttigend to the coUec!ion, for it is the lastplay by one of the founders of modemQuebec the&e. Moreover, the play’smoderate stand in regard to the fiercetensions between jts protagonists - aQuebe+mm feder+ F a$ l!$poFti-

nexl play, Joseph Quesnd’s Colas and cauy active separatist bon, who is involv-Cdinette or the Bail(lzCo&tnded, are ed in a bombii campaign - makes it184 years of various dramatic forms,lamdv in relieious or educational insti-tutmns or by amateur theatrical groupsof garrison offcers and private citizens.Whereas Colas and Colbtette is theLibretto of a comic opera, hmocuous iflightly entertaining. The FrenchRepublicans oran Evening in the Tavern[lsoo) is the work of a politically corn-mitted author (thought aLso to beQuemel) who sat&k& attacks a vulgargroup of libertine republicans inRobespierre’s France.

an important play at a time whenyounger writers like Tremblay are ex-Dressinn a muscular Ou6b6cois

Despite its flat, lengthy, rhemricalspeeches, The Young Latour, yitten byAntoine Gerin-Lajoie in lg44, mustoccupy a speeial place ‘in French-Cans&an eonsdousncsr by virtue of itshero, Roger (the young) LaTnu. Theelder LaTour, in love with an Englishlady, has pmmised the British coatml ofa part of Acadia Tom by great anguishover his divided loyaltie?, Roger refusesto relinquish the land and preservesFrench possession by defeating hisfather and the English in battle.

Two other plays, Papineau byLouis-H. Frwhette and Blzear Paquin’sRte/, celebrate French-Canadian hemcrwho oppose British oppression. In Rlel,ontaio Orangemen receive particularlystmng abuse: “If you are one of themyou curse Christ and wade in the bloodof our [M&is] brothers. Fanatical sect!Bloodthirsty sectl And above all, aFmacophobic sectl”

Papine+, a typical latel9th-centuryhistorical melodrama, was performed ta

&tsibiU&If I have a.aufbble about this cdl-

lion, it is that the tmndators, Eugeneand Renata Benson, Louise Forsyth,and Mawr Moore receive no attention.Effective translation requires an artisticsensibility as well as facility in the hwlanguages. These trapslations have bothqualities.

LUG+ ti Cull,. Anne Chi&tt’s Quiet inthe @ad (Coach House Press), whichopened at the Blyth Summer Festival in1981, was a nominee for the ChalmemAwards. On the surface, Quiet in theLand s e ems a simple portrait ofdomestic strife in aa Ontario Amishcommunity. But because the charactersare so fldly drawn, and because thenaturally microcosmic sihmtion containssmall issuer that are inbermtly large, theplay takes on added significance.

Yock Bauman, a youth at odds withtraditional Amish beliefs - as are manyother young people in his commmdty -is driven away from his love and homeby a strict father, soon to be bishop.When Yock becomes aFirst-World-Warhem his actions repudiate Amish beliefsand align him with the %igh people”outside the Amish way of life. At thesametime,hisactionsrevealtohimtheprofound truth carried in his people’straditional pacifism end avoidance oftechnological change.

.a .,. ,.a_ . ..~ ..;.:z+.:... , . . ..yws= ,, . . . . __ .., . -..l’ : .=77.-----

What rhe play aUo\vs us to see is themulti-level (social, religious. metaphysi-09 devastation that canes from a clashbehveen discipline and desire - a werbehwn personal freedom, thevdll (evennecessity) to seek change, and ages-oldcisdom. While this ls largely a realisticplay, Cbislett seems to have found thereaIirtic mode inadequate. She subtlyvaries the convention so that more thanone action and one location are placedon stage at once. The effect is a state-ment to the audience that it ls not watch-

& o n of what life’s actloos canIf ever a Canadian playwaht has led

the wy beyond rhe real&tic convention,it has been James Reaney. In 1983 hisrenowned Donnelly trilogy wasreprinted by Prers Porc&ic in a much-

useful notes by Jem& N;onan. &o putinto print was Gyroscope (PlaywrightsCanada), which shova Reaney mohin a different direction fmm whataudiences have come to expecl from hisima&tlve, mythopoeic dramas o fCanadian history.

Gyroscope has at its care a witty,satirical purpose reminiscent ofReaney’s au4 poetry in A Suit ofhkt-t/es. This new play derives its shape, inpart, from a search by a young doctoralstudent, Mattie Medal (Meddlesomenfanie). for information to use in herthesis M life md art as seen through apact (Hikla) and her husband (Greg).Mattie’s activities interweave withG&s as he tries to join the Guild of the.Herpers, a local assodation of WOrnelIpoets that includes Hilda. A climacticconfrontation is set up between Gregand Hilde ar they compete to seewhether GreS should be admitted to themild (he bar abeady defeated the othermembers).

When readers discover that the corn-petition is an improvised sound poem, inthe fashiw of Ihe Four Horsemen, theymay sense one of the reasons the play

wes so poorly received at its TarragonTheatre performances in 1981. But withits humorous, resonant imagery, Gym-scope makes fasdnatbg &g. It of-fers to a literate, sopbisticeted audience

cupine’s Quill) around a hlstoricel fuurefmm the Windsor area. C.H. Gervaishas aoswered James Reaney’s wJl forplays tbat translate regional event orcharacter into drama J.O.L. Spracklb~,a Methodist mbdster who championedtbe campaign against alcohol andimmorality during Prohibition yemx,has in this play become the ReverendLeo Stockton, whose t&bt for clean liv-ing leads him to kill a childhood friend.Babe Barkley, the owner of a localsaloon. Although the court findssto&ton not guilty, me play assures usthat the rest of his life will be a troubledone:

SIOCXrOt+ 1 shall be a va6xant and awanderer on earth. andannk;;;xl meets me

MRS. ~VILLIS: The Lord answered bii.“ NO, if anyone kills

.Cain, Cain shall beavenged sevenfold, sothe Lord put a mark onCain. in order thatanyone meeting himshould not kill him.”

Despite hints at lmnies that mightexpand the compass of !lXe F&htingParson, it is closer to documentary&rout& than rich drama. Yet, .asReaney would want it to, the play opensup another tale from “Souweato”history tbmu~b the art of the tbeatre.

Wilfred Watson is probably betterknown as a poet, but he has been anactive playwright for more than 20years, writing and sta,& daring, ex-perimental scripts like Let’s MurderC.&mnestra According to the Prht-ctprcS of Marshall McLuhan, whiih wesperformed in Edmonton in 1969.GR4MSCl x 3 (Loo&spoon Pm) is anallegorical fantasy, to use some of Wat-son’s own words, based on the life ofAotonlo Grams& w h o m Mussolinikilled so that hls martyrdom wouldbecome pert of fascist mythology.

In a freemented cbmnoloev. the olavpresents &msci% relation& with hi;wife and his mistress (who also becomesMusrolti’s m&tress in order to aidGramsciL ex~l0rio.g how the two womennourlslj -his -0ppoiltl0. to fawlsm. Itmakes a fascinating study, mhanced byWatson’s poetic dialogue, much of\vhicb is printed in “stacked grids,” akind of concrete poetry for the stage.Certebdy the play will not be toeveryone’s taste, but it represmts thechaUen& of convention that is essen-tial for a vital theatre tradition.

What Is to Be Done? (Quadrant Bdi-ti0ns) is important in the same limitedway. Written by Mavis Gallant, thisgroup of s- from the wartime expa-iences of two Montreal wmen -Jenny, 18, unmarried; Molly, 7.0, mar-

CAREERS IN PUBLiSHINBE6lN HERE

BOOKSAugust 13 to 24

COMPUTERS IN PlJBUS#INGAugust 27 to 31MAGAZINES

September3to 14

APPUCATlONSANDINPORh~ltONDeadline for alI op$cationr1984. For infonnohon and

fmmsx Plew telephmw-6180w(416)9M13306

TheBanffaltKe

Solving the mystery of the“‘ghost” is a challenge thatNicky can’t ignore, whileAleka is tom between herdesiie for friendship andher loyalty to her mother.Two lively and engagingstories for young readers.

$5.95 paperJames Lorimer & Company

d

AHWIORYOFPFtAmlETBEATRE

A fmslatton from the edition by R. Vachon and1. Lmglais of n symposium study of II wntmuersialtopic. 110 pp. 1983, cloth $19.95, paper $12.95

&&!I~~~ Naw from Talonbooks:JovelIe Marohessaull’s play,

amgo ef- Wo l309 Wono-theTarragon Thsatre hit1 One

nIghI in the Promised Land,four women meet Their

name9 are: Laura Conan.Germsine GuBvremonl.Gabrielle Roy an;t&n;

He was the only Acadianever to be elected premierin his province and in hisown words “I builtdemocracy in NewBrunswick.”

,;i ;g 8 pp. illus..

aperback

‘Heinrich’s magnum opus. To be read and woradfor the writing, the drawings, and the science.”

-Kirkrrs Reviews

A Biologist’s Lie in the Field

BERND HEINRICH

Volume Five

Includes annotated bibliographies onMorley Callaghan, Mavis Gallant, HughHood, Alice Munm, and Ethel Wilson.

“This is an esecntid reference work.”-Choice

T .--*ir.----.. .-r..---Y _ ,,-.__C._-_

___ ._ __iS.~. .A__. __ ._.--

ried with an unwanted child and a hus-band overseas - cammt be described asdramatic. Closer to a collection of proseti~tion vignettes - the kind that quietlyreveal glimpses of Life or human eharaoter - rVhur Is 10 Be Done? lacks Ihe in-tense unity and dynamic force that theconflict between evolving charactersprovides for traditional realistic drama.What seems meant to hold these tignet-tes together is their chmnologicdarrangement and a persistent irony thatundercuts their air of nostalgia.

In esrence we experience a collectionof ironic insights about wax and peace,justice, fascism, Marxism, and the newworld expected to evolve after 1945.hIor specifmally as it relates to Mollyand Jenny - or to women in general -we see a world of social ~I@Ax.s thatneed to be righted. Tbe effect of the playis of life pass& by, a bit zanily andslowly, repeatedly introducing the qu&tion, “What is to be done?” You may

go to sleep in the the&e, but if you areawake to the proliferation of littleinsights, the play will foster the darklyhumorous amwer: “It won’t happenagain. It won’t happen agabt.”

IF Scl” SEEK more traditional drama,CBC Enterprises have just the thll. Inconjunction with CBC-TV’s televisingof Stratford Festival productions, theyhat-e brought out the fmt three in aseries of plays by Shakespeare -Mocbelh, The Tempest, and As YouL.USC 1t - in glossy, vdl-illustrated edi-tions that contain brief- too brief to beof value - comments by their respectiveStratford directors. The festival’schanges to the standard Globe editioniwe recorded following the text. alongwith a few notes on line readings and

designers,and the literary managers.

The virtue of this project must be thatit preservea and makes accessible theillustrated text as performed by one ofCanada’s important companies. Theatrehistorians may find these publicationsuseful; audiences may nostalgicallyrecall an evening of tbeatre, but at $9.95thesete.xtsdonotrivaItheArdenora

“lakeI.Two other Canadian plays bear men-

tion. Roblm Skdton’s Tbe Paper Case(Ooltchan Books) addresses mntcm-porary life by interweaving the story ofthe famous Roman general, R&us,with a Second-World-War tale of asuicidal. lqauucinating British Army oft%cer. Although overwritten and lessdynamic than many audiences wouldlike, this verse drama reveals anotherplaywright seeking modes different fromthe realisti*naturalIslic combination.

This same search is evident in themore successfol drama Under Coyote’sEye (Quadrant Editions), by HenryB&d. In poetic prose and evocativestage pictures, Bds$el projects onto thestage the mind of the last male of theyahl Indians, Ishi, who must dccldewhether to father children with his sisteror follow the laws of hi tribe that forbidincest, and thereby let the tribe die in theface of white encmachment. A shaman,Ishi’s sister, and other tribal membersare joined in the cast by white Indian-killers. The characters of Ccyotc.Rattlanake, and Eagle embody thearchetypal forces at war in Ishi’s mind.An imaginative and stagcable play.

One ignorabIe play is David Knight’sThe Conscript Fathers (Childe Thurs-

d a y ) , which dramai7.rs the mentalanguish of four undergmduate me” overthe fact that a young woman, Gvhom aUhave slept with, is pregnant. Who did it7Whocares?

maueruc’sp”blishingaroundCanadiaodrama has been light. Only a reprint ofBetty Lee’s Love and Wbtslw, the storyof the Down Drama Festival (Simon& Pierre). and a study by RenataUsmiani, Second Stage: The AllemativeTbeain Move”le”t In Cnllsda Cbdver-rity of British Columbia Press), are newon the market. At fmt sight Usmiani’swork ls bound to arouse’enormous inter-eat, especially since no other book-length study of this important topic hasappeared. After reading it you will likelyconcede thaf as a spotty overview ofwhat has happened chiefly in five “alter-native” tbeatrra in Canada (‘fheatreparse Mumi&., Tamahnous The&e,Savage God, The Mummers. andTh&ttre d’Aujourd’bm1, the book hasvalue. If only.

If only it were not% troubled by aprocess of rvductlve thinking - that is,by its author’s penchant for redudngtheatres or plays to categories, anddiscarding those that do not fit. If onlythe study did not have so many factualor conceptual errors. Q avvzaged themout at about one every five pages.) Ifonly the book did not spend so much ofits space on plot outlines of plays per-formed in tluae tbeatres. And finally. ifonly, in a 17%page book, the author hadpmvkled more than three pages of ana-lytical conclusions. After all thiscriticism hat do we have? A prbner ona group of idiosyncratically selectedsmall Canadian theatrea - a book thatmost be used, but with caution. q

CANADBAN FICTION MAGAZINEedited by Geoffrey Hancock

The currenl extraordinary issue, #47. features:A DECADE OF QUEBEC FICTION; interviews

with WES THERYULT and NKXILE BROSSARD:KWO-lilarary portraits of Gudbec writers;

REXAN DUC~ARME - a profile: and fiction byFRANColS HEBERT. GERARD SESETTE PAUL PARE.

ADRlEN TH2RIO. ANDRE LANGEVIU SUZANNE JACOB:HELENE MERLIN. JMIEITE MARCH299A”LT. JACOUESSROSSARD. and MADELEINE OUELETTE-YIMALSKA

Nor” avmlal.e m ““lverslQ an4 my bDOk,oreh. or a, ST95 ,mnBox 946. Stalion F. Toronto M4Y 2N9

SubscriptIon: $2014 ISSUeS

: ~_ .: L.... i . . . .._ _..__. ._._ .._ . _.___ ____.~ ___,___ __

FUTURE REVIEW

Seeking order out of a maelstrom of characterand plot, Elizabeth Spencer’s new novel

is mostly about coming to terms with old ghosts

The Sali Lbte, by Elizabeth Spacer,Doubleday, 302 pages. $21.50 cloth(ISBN 0 3s5 15698 7).

ELEABETH SPENCER’S stature as a short-uory miter was confim~ed by t h eappuvance in 1981 of her collectedstories, smne 33 tales spaming fourdecades of authorship. 7he Suit Line,her fmt novel in some while and a mostambitious one, is likely to cc&l herplace in the front ranks of the novelform 5E well.

Imricately and densely populated,elaborately plotted, snd always gracefully worded. the book is ostensibly setin the early 1970s along the Gulf Coast,where Mississippi’s heel comes down,abhougb its greatest strength, undeni-ably Spencer’s own, is its radiant evoca-tion of a place not confined by thesespecitlc years. For a Mlsslsslppian. theGulf Coast - bounded, say, by Pasea-.@a dbn on one side and New Orleansbright on the other - and, more par-ticularly, Gulfport would be the beacon.If you wem young Spencer, up in Car-mllton in centi Mlsslssippi, and driv-ing for the coast. Gulfport, likely as not.

out mea&fully, in a way never to beforgotten, for it was here the Old Southshed its burdens and the new worldopened up with pmmlse. It is for thisreason that the salt line - that point inthe terrain, whetbet in Mississippi orelsevhere in the south, where you fastscented open \vater, scanted escape -was xl bnportant.

It is where Spencer has come out inthis novel, in an imaginary town calledNotchald, midway tm the real Z&milestmtch of r/bite sand linkbrg Gulfportwith Biloxi. Montreal-mated for a longtime now. Spcncex has been expansive inher “se of locale (Italy, Montreal, NewYork, etc. frequently serve), but whenshe does elect to remm to tbe coast she’does so with an instinct for detail sharpas asorcere?~ wand, and with an undis-guiaed love for the place powerfulenough to make it exclusive& her t%-

By LEON ROOK6

tlonal property. While she has, as onedoes, “taken pp resldmce in the world”-tbisfmm~prefacetohercolle&dstories - %ere are lmagm that nevergo away; they do not even fade.”

No fiction, in 1969 a killer storm,&rricsne Camille, devastated much ofLouisiana, Mississippi, Alabama. Thebackdrop for this novel is Camille’saftumatb, with scavenging over and the

the old, spmcer accumtely reeds,looked “surprised at itself, and seedy,like people after major surgery.”

Amie Canington, the novel’s centralcbamcter, has bought an island, a bat-tered old hotel redolent with history,

and a row of wrecked houses; he yearnsfor a mast rebuilt in near-image of itsprevious glory. and is intent M wardingoff what he can of mcroacbing fast-food outlets, gaudy motels, bowl&alleys, parklug lots “as bii as lakes,”and miniature madside golf coursescomposed with dinosaur motifs. (Youshoot %e balls along thorny spines andinto their yawning gullets.‘) In the past,Amie saved lives. But for such as tbis?

Amie has vision, but no money.Enter Lea &ham former “best”

friend and old amde& colleague fromthe brutal ‘609; Lex has sheen, a newlyacquired we&b to laminate his cripplbngtroubles, but his vision is festering. Hewants revenge agaimt Amie, and.hasgrounds. That is what this novel ismostly about, in one form OT mother:rebulkling, remnection, coming t oterms with old ghosts, with memory, sct-tig the past to order - getting backinto life. Freeing oneself of the “lockedUR” pact and its passions. Seeding thenatural flow.

In addition to Lex and Amie, there is .Mavis, sexy. down-home, alluring. faoing away from two faceless maritalcouplmgs and an ill-consummated affairwith a racketeer. There is the racketeer,Frank Matteo, u+rmly but curiouslydrawn. with one painful and secret mar-riage behind him, intent now on securingAmie’s island for syndicate smuggling.There is L&s smoukiedng and doomedwife Dorothy, “glow product woman”(endeating, I found), wanting as lasthope to - her ancient trysts withAmie. There is her beautiful and vir-twms daughter Lucbtda. “polite accream,” lacy, a rosebud in lavmder, andwfrping herself like * glmrdian ofsomething” - soon to cast off her 2“born again” attitudes following a sex- *wdIy loaded epiwde with Amie in a 3l ighthouse . There ti Antic’s son, srecKned dropout, who believes hisfather murdered his mot&r. There isthat mother, Evelyn, Amie’s wife and !umfort, dead by cuncer, but present in Eghostly essence tbrmlghout the novel. E

(Ghosts, I should say, mx common asgulls in The Suit Line - all, aside fromEvelyn, who comes across drearily, en-tichlng it greatly. Spencer is not we toshy away fmm life’s knprobables, or“improbable truths,” ghosts bdng acogent part of her landscape andmessage.)

There is, too, a host of lessercharacters: a maramilng gang of dmg-$es nlclsamed The Weasel% Ellen.s**r of a congressman, saved fromaddiction - it does sound funny - byAmie’s intelleauel stimulation: BarbraI:., the darkle, accommodating mistressof Amlc - who does, for a guy who’simpotent dm%g much of the book, fmdhimself circled bv a renmrkable host offemales; and &I intriguing minorcharacter - the onlv undfkd fire inthe book other thankbra - th; blackbusboy at Matteo’s restaurant, whoahvays seems to know more than he’stelling.

All this is a heady mixturn, as eachgas his or her apportioned time. But forall this teeming life, which is Life, anddespite its astonishhuzly sldlful mat&m-la&m, the dance ofiiterlocklng I&%,there is sometimes a sense of overload.Necessary, you might think, for theauthor’s purpose. “We live aamngforces,” says Amie. ‘9Zvery -cmve”t in the world. if you’re noticing.comes near enough to make you feelit . . . . The heart makes houses foritself. They get broken into.” For someQex), the cmssxurre”ts, the past, are“all quicksand”; others (like Matteo)sre not in the habit of looking back.

Presiding over this maelstrom, takingas brother/mentor a massive smilingBuddha (“alI debased in mud, formergloty fled”), is Amle Carrlngto”, stead-fast and relatively tranquil despite all hismsnoeuwings: the calm eye of the huni-cane. If - other than abundance-thenovel has any difficulties. they largelyreside in Arnie’s portrait. He’s too give”to self-destiptlon, a trait that wears.(I’m “an eecentrtc old widower” . . .I’m “not the rampant Ilon I used to be”. . . I’m “king of a mined country” . . .I’m “a broken down old bilIy goat . . .no great guy.“) His past hero& - res-cuing a v:ou”ded soldier ln Korea. ma-cuing his son i” Colorado, fiery eapo-mm for black intergmtion at hisbackwater co&e, eve” his love forEvelyn - have a fabric that’s decidedlythin.

But these are sntall qualms - bicker-

of-?% S& Line’s buoyancy.V?hatever his flaws, his voice .is cIear:“Take risks for improbable truths . . . .saw lives . . . . Let the past continuenatumlIy, live on. Flow I” olle strea”l.”

Ardmt rIlesrages. 0

By ALBERTG MANGUEL

Sweet Polso”/Ceml”g Soon. by PierreTurgau, tm”slated from the Prcnch byDavid LobdeU, Ob&on Press. 176 pages,519.95 cloth (ISBI’l 0 8g750 498 1) and$9.95 paper (ISBN 0 8giSO 500 7).

Yhe bfa” with a Flower I” Iils Mouth,by oilles Archambault, translated fromthe Fre”ch by David LobdelI, OberonPress, 136 pages. 519.95 cloth (ISBN 08g750 501 5) and $9.95 paper (ISBN 088750 502 3).

Eoom =uN xwa Literary fate is acurlou. one. I” English his ove+writtenstories are mom often nmembemd thanmad, but in French (where his name has

‘be& shortened to Edgar Poe), laCharles Baudelalm’s passionate transla-tie”, he continues to exe&se a powerful

i i”fluence, and in Quebec he has fatheredtiters as different as Mlchel Tremblay(in his short stmi&s) and Pierre Twgeon.Poe’s long, Iatiniaed phrases flow natur-

ally in Baudelaire’s prose, and allow the

to-become cleara, better mapped.ror and the grotesque are the backboneof Pierre Turgeon’s novels. Turgeon setsout not so much to explore thae themesas to confirm their existence, finding inthe life around him the ghosts andghotds that haunt the world of Poe. ForTwgeon it is we, the living, who areburied alive; it is on our own heads thatthe House of Usher fails, end across ourovm bound bodies that the deadly pen-dulum swings inside the pit. Twgeon’sdusky domain is. of course, Quebecitself.

I” Sweet Poison (a feeble tremlatlo”of Pabe so mart comme faire I’amour -‘Tvla!xing One’s Death Like MakingLove,” originally published in 1969)Edouard, having deserted from thearmy, tries to hide antong his family inMontreal and is betrayed to the militarypolice by his own mother. If Edouani,the ronm”tlc hem, ls reminiscent of Poe,Suzanne, the mother, is pure Sadez “Letfamily bonds never be sacred.to you,”wote the Marquis de Sade in Adiette.“It is false that you owe anythbtg to thebeing that gave you life; and eve” morefalse to suppose that you owe anythlingto the being you give life to. Why should

blood have the right to dictate its ownlaws?”

Happiness Is not allowed in Twgeon’sQuebec; nothing. not eve” cmdty,comes easily there. “Cruelty.” saysEdouard, “requires a long appre”tlee-ship. First, you have to learn to hateyour body. You smash the mirrors.those ancient symbols of man’s “ar-clssiim. The” you take a sliver of glassand mutilate yourself. When you’vetaught yotusdf to hale everyth@ aboutyourself, when you’ve become your ownworst enemy, you stop feeling pity foranything or anyone.” In the end,Bdouard nmkw Baudelalrc’s famousprayer his own: “Oh God give mestrength and comage to look upon wheart and body without d&gust!”

The question that mists after readingSweet P&on h: why the a”ger? Whythis urge to tear down those 19th-century idols - family, state, church -so close to the 21st century? TurgeO”‘Sanswer seuns to be that, at least inQuebec, the idols am stUl standll, andthat they need detnolithing. The result isa description of one man’s battle againstthe mabn of darkness,

In Coming Soon, written four yearsafter s*t Po/.wt, the anger Is stillapparent; but it has become a” bnage ofreality instead of reality itself: a filmmade in the streets of Montreal. As inAlai” Bobbe-GriUet’s Project for (IRevolution in New York, we are nolonger certain whether the scenes show”are from the film within the tiction orwhether they are the finon (Turgeon’sreality) of the novel. The writer has con-taminated the real world with his meta-phor; art has berome larger than life andtwice as real. Coming Soon. however,lacks the sense of immediacy created bythe sheer fury of Sweet PO&~. meonhas bewme mom reasonable, less mov-ing. And yet, Coming Soon is, in spite ofthe deliberate waft, a powerful novel.

Torgeo” is not only a good writer. heis also a good publisher. I-Us new corn-pany, Editions Primear, is pla”“tng tobrI”g out 40 titles in June, makieg use ofTurgeon’s expetimce as editor-in-chiefof Editions Qoinae, certsi”ly one ofCanada’s most important publishing .companies. Among the many authorspublished by Turgwn at Quinae wasGilles Archambault.

Comljamd to Turgeo”, ArchambaultKMI innocuous. Ten years older thanTurgeon, the author of more than adozen books, Archambaolt is less a tellerof tales thsn a” evoker of impressions, adealer in sketches, descriptions, thewatercoIours of the mind. The Man withu Flower in Hir Mouth is a radiooperator who lets his thoughts carry himthrough his workl”g day, back to thewoman he has loved, to his frustrations,

._ z:__ __;_ __&_A~ ____. _~.._--.._ -

to his growing age. Salvation, he feels,v:ill come with his grandson, “I’ll do mybest to persuade him to become a jour-nalist. He will be the instrument of myrevenge.” The reader knows that eventhat wish is somehow impossible. Inanother book, The Absent-MindedTr,wekr, Archambault outlines his ii-tentions: “The slow confession I amabout to make today. . . has in the endno other merit than to allow me to ad-dress myself in a low voice to a readerwho will perhaps recognize in passi-the expression of a feeling that will notleave him indifferent.” Unforlunately.unlike Twgeon’s novels. most of At-chambaalt’s “confessions” do leave thereader indifferent. Unlike Swef poison.T/x &im with a Flow in His MouIhdoes not seem a necessally book.

Whether in the excellent writing ofTurgeon or, much less, in the prose ofArchambault, there is a sense of comingto terms dth reality - of highlightingits bleaker aspects, stressing its worstpoints -to achieve perhaps in the end aclearer image of the battleground. Thenature of the battle itself, hs ori& andits outcome, remain whispered, undefined, but the characters who tight in itare alive, recognizable. and in their crea-tion lies, ultimately, the writers’achievement. Cl

Lotus Mrm, by Gildas Roberts,Breakwater Books, 223 pages, $6.95paper (ISBN 0 919519 30 X).

tra ratwmn7 To review a comic novel.If one follows such guidelines asbelievability of characters and plausl-bility of situations, one is apt to becriticized for taking the book tooseriously. Signs of racism and sexismshould be seea, we are told, as revela-tions of the protagonist’s hang-ups, notthe author’s. But so many comic novelsare spoiled by what appears to be thenovelist’s desire to get back at someaspect of society with which he’sfamilii. I found that to be true ofGeneml Ludd, John Metcalf’s otherwise

u&r&y where s&o&ship is bf mini-mal lmportanee. I find it to be occa-sionally true of Newfoundland’s RayGuy, who at his best is one of NorthAmerica’s fmest humorists. And, inLolusMar~, I find it to be true of ClldasRoberts, a writer of t&m who hasallowed his coasiderable pift to besquandered on a novel that seems to bean attempt to get even with Canadiannationalists, certain university typed.and feminists, to name just a few of histargets.

There is no doubt that Gildas Roberts,a professor of Bnalish at MemoriallJn&ersity of Newfoundland, knowshow to write entertalnii. He provedthis with bis short novel Chemical Eric,published about 10 years ago, whichdeals with the dramatic changes in thelife of Eric LeRoax (note the surname)after he takes to swallowing the“greeni& supplied to him by SolBordello, offspring of a Mafia-typeMontreal family and a student atCenotaph Unlvenity in Newfoundlandwhere Brie teaches English. The first 70

bf-Chemimf Eric. and are the-best iartof Roberts’s new novel.

The theme of Chemical Eric (nowBook One of LohaMan) is an intriguingone. It opens with LeRoax being takento task by the acting dean of arts. astony-faced Scotsman named StephenGray, because in his seven years atCenotaph, Eric - a South African likehis creator - has not even begun workon a doctoral thesis. Aided by chemicalhelp from the pnemus Sol Bordello,Eric changes ovemlght from NumberOne Wttp to Macho Man First Class.He also completes his tjwis in recordtime. Roberts’s account of how he doesthis, and the literary happening that wn-eludes Book One, contains some gen-ulnely funny moments, marred some-what by a fmtion on bosoms, bottoms,and bathroom humour. Jean-Paul Pot-ter and the kilted Tartan MacTavish areslyly accurate takeoffs of two ofCanada’s best-known literary lights.However. the portrait of Marvel1Chestnut ls a vicious one, foreshadow-ing what is to follow.

Book Two takes Eric from New-foundland to Columbus, Ohio, where heworks for Dr. Frank Frommfleisch atthe Center for Human CommunicationStudies, Ohlo Christian University. Dr.timmfleisch is perhaps the only reallyfunny character in the second half of thebook: As his research assistant, Eric’sactual job is to teach all of Dr. Fmmm-fteisch’s coursed while Fmmmtlelschlocks himself up in his library carrel andgets on with bis writing and rewaxhz“But as Brie drew closer he could see

Dr. Fmmmflelsch crouching almostmotionless over his little metal deskdiligently annotating a 5 x 8 fti card.From each of the books crammed intothe shelves above him, long, buff-coloured carrel slipa protruded likesterlfe. blighted mm.”

The other people Eric meets at OhioChristian are treated less kindly. Thebeauteous Dr. Helen Eve Richards,“wiMer of such awrds as the Magoun-Norgarb Prize and the COCUP Laur-eate, -editor of Dolt, Swinehart’sgiant anthology The Gnzut Bridshers,”is seen mainly as a woman of insatiablesexual appetites who jumps from bed tobed with reckless abandon. But thisslioukln’t be surprising; very few of thewomen in the book are seen la anythl~but sexual terms. Eric is obJgsed with“sanltiaed female crotches.” When hegoes to see Dr. Harvey Krapp, directorof the Center for Human Cmnmuniatlon Studies. he is greeted by a girl“almost as vaginal-douche lovely as theone downstairs.” From the be&ning ofBook One the women are interchangeable; whether a swetary, an BngIiihprofessor, or a student, ewy woman’smind is constantly on cqpulation.

The men don’t fare much better.Eric’s roommate, Ra Llm, says thingslike, “I do a lot for Amelica in war. It isa pity my father 10~s his civil lights inKolea Genelal Park, hau, he is a badonel” I don’t think I’ve come acrosssuch a stereotype since The House ofPelerMacGrqor wao on the radio yeeraago. In fact, Sol Bordello comet acrosstu one of the few likable characters inthe book. I also rather liked Dr. J.Oedipus Fish. dean of graduate studiesat Cenotaph, bat I’m not sure that I wassupposed to. Objectionable characterslike Ray Pople., Sam Evans, and MiltonMarkedteyn - ~‘aswarthy little Jew witha baldi pointy head” - are almosttoo bad to be trae. Of cowse Ray Popleand the lustful Sally Heissbroek get whatthey deserve. It’s amazing how many ofRoberts’s charactqs get Lied off lavarious bizarre ways: I counted sevenviolent deaths, rather a lot for a comtcnovel. Anything remotely connectedwith the political left (“Pete Seeger mb-bish,” affmative actton) is a targethere; much of the time I saw Roberts asa funny Barbara Amiel.

I’m not sorry 1 read Lotus Man.Glldas Roberts has a genuine comictalent that is used to best advantage inthe fbst part of the book. But I suggestthat before he begins his next novel Dr.Roberts should shake up the mtlk ofhuman kindness in his veins. Meannessis not an essential ingrxdient of humourbut rather the reverse. It ruins manysituations that without it would havebeen truly funny. 0

Ey E.LVHiVA4OOR.E

The Sb@ing Rabbi, by Martin Avery,Oberon Press, 104 pvs. $17.95 cloth(ISBN 0 38750 490 6) and $8.95 paper(ISBN 0 33750 4914):

A Flrct Unm Ftmeml, by Sonia Bll-Jones, O&ban Books. 160 pages,53.95 paper (ISBN 0 88982 058 9).

ht.4nTLN AVERY’S short stories stretchthinly betwen two far poles. One pole isthe quiet cottage country aroundGravenhurst, Ont.. where Avery grewup. from which he fled, and to which heIrter returned, even thou& “The land-scape lacks a certebt significance. . . .Nothing important has ever happenedhere.” The other pole is Jewvi~hness: afaith he et least temporarily adopted: apeople and a history he has taken intohis fiction; a country, Israel, where helived on a kibbutz; and a way of telling

Bashevis Singer. a little from innumer-able stand-up comedians. “I convertedto Judaism.” Avery writes, “because Ifelt that was about as far es you couldgo. It is too difficult to kam Chinese.”

Unfortunately, it is more fun to talkebout Avery than to read hi. 7X.e Sing-ing Rabbi. his lint full-length book, isshort end slight and holds much vexingclevemess. One piece consists of badcomedy-club routines. Another seemsinspired as much as anything by a desireto pun “Soviet Jevny” vvlth “SovietJwzllery.” Trying t o anqex GentileCanada-to the ptioses of his eccentricwould-be Jewish sensibility, Avery

of notions, not places. And just aboutthe only character of satisfying depth inthese ei&t stories is the apperentlyautobiographical “I.”

Nevenbeless, The Singing Rabbi hasgood moments. I think of the gracehIending of “Jerusalem & Home,” thetension between contrary lovers in “Pm-mlsed Land/Nerrfoundland.” end all ofthe title story except for the Bd Sullivanintroduction. This story, the book’sbest, presents an elusive spiritual leaderrho mantes to unite in his person thecwld of tape recorders end the world ofcabalistic spells. To hear him is “likelea!% Toronto in e fog and getting lost

somewhere over Eastern Eumpe inanother era” The frustrated IOI@~~here may be Avery’s own. The story, atany rate. is stylishly framed and stronglytold, and gains from the moral am&-*es at its core.

Avery’s alienation (“I have always feltlike an outstier . . .“) shows itself notonly in themes but also in manner. Helikes to move outside his characters.stepping away toward the higher groundof irony. He favours effects of wit,coolness, distance. SC& Birch-Jones,author of A First Clasp Funem/, is awriter of quite opposite bat. She’sintent on burrowing inwards, on fittingherself back into the skin and feelii ofB girl gmwlng up in Cardiff, Wales,around 1930. And she’s after warmth -the warmth of white china mugs tilledwith steaminr! tea. of just-wed knickersand aunts’ h& and f;unily fghts.

Blrct-Jones tells all 10 stories in thisfumt collectjon in the artless, rattling-along voice of the girl Sarah:

did. He looked just like the fat, babypigs 1 used to see In Cardlff mprkel on ,saturdnys.Submerging herself in Sarah - even

to the unwise extent of wtiting ‘%‘pose”for “suppose” and “‘cept’, for“except” - Birch-Jones pmduca Ii*tlons that rrminded me of a child’scmyoned pictures. They’re quicklydrawn and vigomos, in bright mlousthat seem emotionally right butrudimentmy. Characters, typically, arefat or thin, handsome or ugly, kind orunkind, loved or hated. The readermisses an adult voice, misses the depththat might have .comc from settingSa.+‘~ percep+ns then e&ml thea”tnors pereepuolls now.

Sarah tells how she made Uncle Shad-rach stop molesting her; how her charm-lttg, gambling father won e fii-classfuneral for a poker mate; how shehelped breek up a fiery romance be-

My Uncle Shad& was a chazza. Atleast that’s what my mother said. Achvza is a pig, B slob, but a UncleShadrach w Jewish I always thoughtof him as a Jewish pis. But I did wonderif he could be a Jewish pig when a pigwasn’t Kosher. I thought he was called acharra becdure he looked like a pi& He

worthy Canadian logger. Merchant-classrespectability serves as e tatteredbackdrop to all matmw of unrespectableacts. Sarah is met+ced by drunken louts;she spies on three different sets of illicitlovers; she ls forever spotring bumsbeing patted and hands going up skirts.She eavesdrops, too. Tbii is folksy,entertaining shnff, a little sentimental,

For heme, whimsical readers and writasbefuddled by the fincr palms of gmmmaf, tibeguiling reference keeps you smilinin;~explainiag how to make gmmmat

E & Wagnails &dad ColIege Dicdonatycm EditiOn

my mid, ir’s the best of the lot for otu putposes in’ - W.E. Messenger, U.B.C.

Canadian words

Indispensable for everyone who writa or Jpeaks, featming almosta queer of a million synonyms, antonyms end related words.Thumb-indexcd $19.95 Plain 617.95

Authotitative ltekeme Books h Finhenry & Whiteside

.._. .._ ._. _ _., . _ _._.... ..__. _-

the dialogue colomful and stagy. Astory about the deaths. of Sarah’sbrother and grandfather is stark andmcwiag; mostly, though, the writingcarries milda rewards - the rewardsnot so much of art as of memory andanecdote. 0

The Eest of Modem Humour, editedby Mordecai Ricbler, McClelland &Stewart, 561 pages, $24.95 cloth (ISBN 07710 7479 4).

IT HAS NEVER, to my lmowkdge, beenposted on a bulletin board anywhere,but reviewers of anthcdogias seem tofollow one unbreakable rule: ig”ore thecontents of tbe book in auestion andcram the space you’ve been given wltb

left&i; the-more &i&ds and helpfulbusiness acquab~tances you can name,the better.

Well, I have tm friends who deserve tobe included in The Best qf ModemHumour, nor any bums I wish to pat.Moreover, I can think of only fourauthors - Paul Hieben, HunterThompson. Tom Shatpe, and GeorgeMacDonald Fmser - nrh”se absencefmm the ccdlection is remarltable. Forsheer funnbmss and technique, Hibert’sbiography of Sarah Biks. the sweetmnmtrm of Saskatchewan. is eaual toor Getter than any of the wbrks &blerhas selected. Few humorous writers havereflected, and contributed to, thecraziness of their times as sueeessFu11~ asHunter Thompson did in the late 1960s.Tom Sharp& outraged satires ofEngland and South Africa are savageIyuneven, but very much of what he’sdone is excellent; the police intermga-tion of the title character in wilr is abrilliant piece of sustained comedy. AndGeorge MacDonald Fraser desert aplace, if only because he’s accomplishedthe scarcely possible task of witluggood, consistent humour over the courseof almost a dwn novels.

Otberv.%se, Richler’s anthology c”mescstremeiy close to living up to its title,

and it’s pretty welI a treat fmm one end you do mmedy, you am not sitting at thetc~ tbe other. I could quarrel with a few amwn”os’ table.” Yet an ostensiblyof the selections, but I won’t. In tbe &rious kiter can present the world wirhforeword, Richler wires that hi basic any manner of sloppy thblkblg and bn-wit&m for the selection of material precise prose and still be tbougbt good.was that it had to make him laugh, while a comedtan, if he or she is to sue“sometimes at - o’clock in the teed. must be well-nigh perfect.momiw, before my first cup of coffee,which may have -bean pl&ng dikti

s%%zking Off’ and “The BreakingUp of the Wbships” are both examples

pool.” who can argue with that? Also, of superior wiiting and tmgi-cmnedy ofI’m grateful to the book for sparking my the fmt order. And. if sanrality aadinterest in the work of the novelists Betyl marriage aren’t serious enough for youBainbridge and Lisa Alther. doubters out them, Riiex has not ex-

P.G. Wodehouse, Evelyn Waugh, eluded really serious topica like nuclearRobert Benchley, Groucho Marx, madness. Donald Barthelmds ccmtribu-Damon Runyou (represented by the tion is “Game,” which is narrated bylovely story “Butch Minds the Baby”), one of lwo me” who, armed with theirJames Thurber, Peter de Vries, Kingsley doomsday keys, maintain an under-Amis, S.J. Perebtmn, Kurt vonneg”t, ground missile installation. It begins,Philip Roth, Joseph Heller, Donald Bar- “Shotwell keeps the jacks and the nib-th&e, Thomas Berger, Woody Allen bet ball in his attach6 case and will not- in short, almost everyone you’d allow me to play with them.” Whatexpect to find is hem, as well as many of more need be raid? 0the more recant humorists. The sebtions a r e arranaed chronoloeicallvacmrdii to the-authors* bi&at&,from SteDhen Leacock’s Ybztrude theGovera& to lan Frazier’s “Dating REVIEWYour Mom.”

But what gives this collection its extrabite, carti= it way beyond the predic-table, is that Richler has clearly gone to

vious candidates; and he has had thecommon sense to include humorousnon-tiction, which accounts for nearlyonequarter of the 64 selections. Thereare swatches of memoir by V.S. Nai-paul, Jessiea Mitford, Non! Ephmn,

By SHIRLEYiWTGHTMORRlS

H.L. Men&en, Roy Blount. Jr. andJohn Mortimer. The essays include TomWolfe’s exelleat “The Mid-AtlanticMa”,” Truman Capote’s hilarious andultimately moving tale of the day he The Medusa Head, by Mary Me@,accompanied his cleaning woman on her Talonbooks, 162 pages, 58.95 papwrounds. and Wolcott Gibbs’s (ISBN 0 88922 210 X).eviscerating New Yorker profile ofHenry Lute, the TimeLife empire, aad IN The Medzua Head American artistthe tarribleTimese.lanaua that mevail-ed for so many yea.6 1’i3ack&d ran

and autobiographer Mary Meigsdescribes one year d”ri”a which she and

sentences until reeled the mind.” Andbeginning on page 66 is the extraor-dinary comspo”de”a that resultedwhen the Ford Motor Company askedthe poet Marianne Moore to help themname a new car. Utopian Turtletop wasmm of her joyous suggestions, but theyignored it and called their car Edsel.

Drawing attentim to the non-t%tio”selections is not to imply that they are inany way more true, relavam, or incisivethan Roth’s “Whacking Off,”Thurber’s “The Breaking Up of theWinships,” and the rest of the fiction.That’s a necessary caution, because toomany people still believe non-fiction issomehow superior tc3 fiction. Similarbigotry holds that humour is not serious.Or, as Woody Allen “ace put it, ‘When

her long-time-lover, C&adian novelistMarie-Claire Blab, lived in a m&“ga Ltrois tith a French woman writer, iden-tified only as An&&. Both were .w mm-pletely mesmerized by Andrte -althwgi~ one wonders why, as hercharacter, which dominates the baok, isunappealing, not tc. say downrightobnoxious - that their relajioasbip wasseverely damaged and healed slowly lateronly after the two titers, ravaged byfears and nigh-, tiaged to put3,000 miles between themselves and thestrange Andrk.

Considering the title of the book - adeszription of An&be as she appeared inher frequent unprovoked taatmms -deranged might be a more suitable’adjective:

. . _A.i_ .--I ._ _-

“The Medura head,” for lnstace,which turned us not to stone but tocowardly jelly, “as the result of an“La1 d e ddsarml,” when And&.htrrelf paki%d by terror. fr&htmedothers. She accepted andably the grandidea of her Medusa head. which gaveher a chance to analyx her “Nats ded&rroi.” exerclsu in excmeration. butfled if tic analysis contained any 10cusation . . . she muIt have learned theuses of her Medusa head at an early age.when the appearance of it fit struckfear into another pason. and she “otle-al that prople could be manipulated byha altcmaions of rage and sweet tract-ability. F’wpls are gmdually broken inthis way. = they are broken by morerelied forms of punishment andravard in pdrans, tonme chambers.and conc.zntration camps. . . .while the allwe of such a” irmtio”al

and terrifying woman re”tabts a puule,one must concede that it did indeedexist, for BItis based her “owl, ALifmmy r?ffir, 0~ the same complexcharacter. Both writers cottvey alove/hate relationship with An&de, butfor all Melga’s skilful writing she is stillunable to explain satisfactorily to thereader or (one gleans from her atten~ptsat justification) to herself just why theyremained so long in the clutches of anightmare tii~.

I” 1981 Mcigs, who now lives inQuebec, published her wamtly praisedautobiogaphy, Lib Erkwe: A Se&P&m/f, in which she confesses lhat hertalent ls for drawittg rather tha” pain-tlttg. She might have applied the samedescription to her writing. Tfie MedusaHead is a literary drawing, a sketch,delicately pencilled on a small canvas.She illustrates with fa perception thethree major characters and severalintrl&g minor ona - especially An-toine, the pederart to whom And& is,married:

Eve&lng about him v/as beautiful.Hi5 line nervous feature3 and curlycreyino hair fitted his DO”atello-sk”llwith its bumps like the skull of asraceful. brilliant boy, il French boy -thin-lipped. scnsltive and arrogant.Antoine wore English shoa. made ofthe tine;t leather that money could buy.and tweed suits, dth the subtle colounof a French autumn. His mavellmuhznds that played Schubert and Hayden(but .4ndr& v!a~ as j&mu of Antoine’spiano Y she was of his boys), his tblnmouth with Its thin wile, for he seldomkughcd in the vulgr way we Anglo-.%soos laugh, the extreme subtlety ofcvcty cwd that came out of bls mouth- I still cannot think of this man, whoconformed so perfectly to my ideal ofm;mly beauty, without a certainrcgmt.. . .It is this sensitivity in the writinS. the

artist’s eye for detail, eolotu, texture,mood, perfectly captured descriptions of

a Paris apartment, a Cape Cod house. afarm in Brittany, an antique lamp. anexquisite meal, that @fe the book itsbeauty and grace and fasclnatio”. Butlacking s large ca”vas, boldly executedin vivid oils, tbe characters remainelusive and remote. The very qualitiesthal give the book a sort of bteathtaking

glhtg to under&ad the chaxt&s’feelintxs and motives. by what the authorchoo& to leave bl& in her drawing,by what she does not - perhaps cannot- aplain.

Obviously we are meant to feel sym-pathy for the meek, fragile, child-likeMarie-Claire; instead, because we knowshe is a talented wonm”, probably farmore intelligent than the cruel, over-bearing Andrk, and because we do notunderstand why she behaves as she does,we wish she would .$op cowering andwhitnperbtg and obeying. AlthoughMeigs writes of MarieClaire with love,she cannot disguise the fact that herf r iend appears to wallow in amasochlltic self-pity, which amuses thereader to bewildered impatience.

with And&? W’hy didn’t I leave? . . .An autobiographer can only resolvewhys like tbii by further stem scrutiny ofher own soul and the plaintive wish thatpeople would not insist on reasonableexplanatio”s. . . .”

As for And& herself, since theauthor camcat supply us with a %aso”-able explanation,” I can only echo theopinion of a friend of Mary MC&S, whocommented so”tetb”e after the e”isodewas over, “I thought she was a” &““lti-gated little bitch.” 0

REVIEW

By DAWD HOMELMeigs herself - who perhaps contes

out best of all the unlikable characters- a”noys us. Her Yankee good senseqtticlrly ICC) through the “witty, chamt-btg” And&. to the femcious monster The Strangest Dream: Cnaadimtundemeath, but instead of packing her Catmtunists, the Spy Trials, and thebags and gettins out she spends a Jiear Cold War, by Merrily Welsbord. Lestersulking, inwardly rebelling. pitying & orpen Denny& 2.55 pages, $18.95Ma&Claire without offering to help cloth (ISBN 0 88619 029 0).her, snd despising And&. Only occa-sionally does she make sane small feeble THtS IS A book of social history that

gesture of defiance. She scents in a “pulp with the words. “I begi” to write astupor, a hypnotic tram?. book about commuttists so I can under-

What motivates these bright, indepen- stand my parents and the ethos in whichdent women to behave as they do is I was raised. I expect to fmd the want,never clear. Meigs blurs the charcoal communal, and hopeful spirit that Isketch with a car&d finger when events remember as a child.” From the start

Merrily Weisbord takes a positionagainst that naive idea we all absorbed inschool that history la somehow “objeetive,” that there is no mom for personalexpIanatlons - that it is amngely out-side the individuals bwolved. She makesus dream ha stra”gest dream along withher and her characters. and on the waywe learn of the tie and fall of the corn-mtmist movement in Canada. a periodextendiS from the Deprc.wion in’ NorthAmerica to Khrushchev’s revelationsabout the StaLbtist darkness in Russia.Therein is the cycle of belief and dlsljhvsionment that chamcte&d those whothought communirm was the way to abeI& world here o” earth.Marie-Claire endured a year of A”dt&‘s

slow torture. I think she RalLes the Weisbord introduces her people as inweakness of her own attempt to explain a play. The setting is Montreal. early inwhen she says: ‘Why did I hang WHave you n&r rested in an imp&ible

the 193Os, and the characters are im”ti-grant Jews from Eastern Bttmpe, who

situation, semi-paralyzed, with the hope brought their social w”vIctio”s withthat it will have * happy ending. . . . them in their nteagre bsggsge. and aWhydidIwaitayeartomaketbebreak handful of politicized Ftach-Canadian

~- --..-._ -._- ._._ -.--.- _

_. __.__. .__.___._-.-. .., ,.F-7-:----,-. r-----.__.

_.I_.__~. ___.._.~.

workers. Because she is rooted amongthese people., Weisbord was evidentlyable to interview past &tivists whomight have remabxd closed-mouthed toless sympathetic inquiries. To such pewple, the choice in the 1930s wss betweenfascism and communism: the FreeWorld was not yet committed to stop-pb~g the Nazis, and on the domesticfmnt the Depression was running un-checked. With its insistence on equality,commmdsm seemed the only choice.

In Quebec, Canadian communistsproved such 8ood organizers that theysoon attmcted the repwsive wrath ofPremier Duplmsis. who instituted thePadlock Lava, by which any buildiithat housed suspected seditious activitiescould be padlocked by the police.. Corn-mm&t-led strikes were enormously sue-cessful. and tbe resulting police repres-sion only heightened the communists’thirst for action, even at their ownphysical peril. These were romanticyears, when it w= easy to believe.

The begin&g of the end was the I939non-agmssion pact that Russia signedv&h Nazi tiermew. Though very fewparty members wue swayed by rmnmusof Stalin’s “Moscow Trials” in the late1930s. it must have been hard to acceptRussia signing a treaty with a fes&.anti-Semitic state, even if the Sovietswere only stalling for time before the biishowdwn. The Canadian CommunistParty suddenly found itself an ally withGermany- the enemy - and wasforced underground, whiIe many Jewishmembers refused to swaUow the bitterpill from Moscow and left. This patternof purge, either self-ad&istemd orordered from above, was repeated timeand time agaim first when MP Fr@Rose v:as sacrificed by the party afterbeing accused of spying; then over thenational aucstion. when the TorontoParty boss& mad& Montreal drop its in-tercst in Quebec nation&m; and fmallyover Khrushchev’s revelations of life anddeath under Stalin. These internal warsof atuition fmally helped d&my theParty.

Once &many invaded Russia andthe latter became an ally. communismbecame acceptable for a while. Then theGouzenko affair ushered in the ColdWar. Fred Rose, the only CommunistiriP Canada ever had, was accused ofpassing military information on to aforeign power, the Soviet Union (eventhough that power was aa ally). Weis-bard is sure Rose did engage in spying,and she is able to tell us why by explor-ing the amordii devotion to theparty - and, by extension, to Russia -that Canadian members upheld. BeliefIn the norkers’ paradise was so strong it

bordered on religion, and the fact thatRussia.wes a Westcm ally made it easierto help them out. Given herbackground, Weisbord tends to pardon,and it is tempting to sympathize withRose after reading about the pitiful imi-tation of justice provided by the Cana-dian government as it prose&cd himand his comrades.

In the end, assaulted from within andwithout, the party fell apart, and we feelan odd sense of loss, so well has theauthor drawn us into the chamctem’liver. Some crititx +ve objected to tbeebnost ZIwclistic side of 77l.z strangestDream, but they are missing the point:this is history from the point of view ofmen and women who lived it. For a cou-ple of hundred pages Wcisbord makes us&e%m along with them - the dream ofa fair world no long= dreamable hem onthe brink. 0

Canada Home: JuUnm~ IioratinI!Hng% Fmderlclon Letters, 1867-1889,edited by Margaret I-Iows.rd Blom andThomas B. Blom, University of BritishColumbia Press, illustrated, 425 pages,824.95 chlth (ISBN 0 7748 0174 3).

JULIANA HORA~ EWWMGS photographshmvs a thin, severe-featwed woman,nose too long, pale hair drawn back inan elaborately braided knot. She looksolder than her 28 years, prim and stem.That misleading image has sensibly beenrelegated to the frontispiece of this col-lectkm of her letters to her family inBngIand while she was living in Canadabetween 1867 and 1869. The jacket, abright, dan&g watercolour of the Fmd-ericton waterfront. dves a far truersense of her book.. -

Juliana (Judy. Julie, or low to herfamily) w& thi &con& daughter of thevicar of Ecclafkeld, in Yorkshire. Hermother, Margaret Gatty, was an authorand naturalist. Juliana was a children’sauthor (still known for Ja&anliwamong other titles) and an amateurartist. In June, 1887, she married Alex-ander Ewing, a composer (best known

for his settbxg of the hymn “Jerusalemthe Golden”), a student of Near Easternlanguages. and like hex a cbildmn’sauthor. Rex, as he was called, had beenforced by family problems to give up hismusical tminbm and 80 into the army: aweek a&r thedmar&e he and Julianasailed for a new posting in Fredericton.

J.H.E., as she generally signed her-self. wow her fust letter on the boar.and thereafter mailed one about everytwo weeks. They. are spontaneous. lov-ing, cheerful, full of family jokes, withan undercmxnt of homesickness nm-ningbeneathlmef&wescent happinessin her mar&c. She dcscribcs Prcd&-ton as it affects her persmmlly. She saysscarcely anything about politics, eventhough the Ewings’ stay in Canada span-ned the period from Confederation tothe withdrawal of British troops fromNew Bmuwick. The occasional farmeror Indian appears, trading from door todoor. but otherwise the letters arepeopkd almost exchwively by cuhmrdand educated friends.

What they do give is a detailed por-trayal of one stratum of Frederictonsociety - its sleigh rides, balls, andmusical evexdngs, its fashions anddomestic arrangements, its gossip andworries. They vividly show a novicehousekeeper coming to terms withdomesticity in a new country - thefecklessness of Irish servants, the dif-ficulty of buying highqualily goods, theendless preparations for winter.

J.H.B. was captivated by the sceneryand climate of New Brunswick, end fes-hated by its natural history. Themoods of the St. John River provide acontinuaus backdrop to the week’seven@ the weather, with the dangers ofsunstroke in smnmer and draughts orwet feet in winter. is a constant pm00cupation. J.H.E. was rarely deterred,however, despite her weak health andRex’s over-soliiitous care. She sketchedendlessly, indoors and out, winter andsummer, and her acute, often humorousdrawings Ilhutratc slmost every letter.She delighted in snowshoeing and cance-ing, but failed to appreciate the thrills of

’ “coasting” (tobogganing). She avidlycollected specimens of local plants,helped Rex tune the church organ. sangin the choir, taught drawing, wall-papered he-r own ditig mom. sup-ported the work of a mission church in

I, the cmmtry, and bad a large cbcle offriends. Rex’s military d&s do notseem to have been arduous; they left hbntime to train the church choir, found theFredericton Choral Society, studyHebrew, learn to sketch, and sham in hiswife’s outdoor activities with boyishenthusiasm.

In 1869 Rex was posted back toEngland, and the Iart letter in the book

is fmm Mrs. Gatty to a relative, express-ing the funily’s delight at being togetheragain. In the late 1870s Juliana’s healthdeteriorated a”d she was unable toacco”lpa”y Rex on his next foreign post-ing, from 1379 to 1883. Shediedb 1885,aged 44.

J.H.B.‘s Fred&ton letters were writ-ten in fits and starts, as time allowed.and the editors have take” pains not todestroy their rapid flow and informality.They have not changed abbreviations(shld, cld, Smas, Govt. yr, &) or punt-tuation (heavy use ofdashes and pare”-there& they have retained many spellbumktakes and also Gatty m spellingstmd sbmg. The result is prose that islively, but often uncomfortably denseend-jerky. It is a shame that the fewnotes that are important to the meaningof the test could not have bee” printedas foot”otes. sparing readers the need tocheck ev& senrp;loas scholarly an-notation at the end of the book.

For the 8e11eml reader, the letterscould with advantage have been cut con-siderably. There is llot enough variety inthe Evfings’ lives over two years to needthis many pages: the density of the textmakes slov: reading. and the familyjokes a”d sentiments tend to cloy. Thestrongest appeal ties in J.H.B. and Rex’sappxently idyllic marriage, and inJ.H.B.‘s originality, ingenuousness, andsense of fun. The reader who does reachthe end of the book may well be sorry tosay goodbye to her.0

Appmcches to the Work of &mealZz:mzy, edited by Stan Dragland, BCWPress, 235 pages, 98.95 paper (ISBN 092OZO2 64 8).

Eovont!o”o: The Poetry and Pmss ofGccndoly” Mock”, by Ja” Bartley,University of British Columbia Press,130 pages, $12.95 cloth (ISBN 0 77480177 8).

J.&YES “w.Nws PcmdS are often likesquarelIe: - rather like his o”v” water-colour that decorates the - of StanDragland’s collection of critical

arroroaches to his work. Reaionalisma&e cannot explain his I&.rature.Georae Bowerinr! writes of “a marriageof ‘d&we”G and myth,’ pmbabtthe shortest and best definition of theregional&t’s art,” bat notes Rea”ey’sdensity in poetry and drama, “a densitynot only in the denominative, bat in thesymbol, irony, rime.” The dew&y isgive” full effect by metaphor, whetherthii be the play-box whose props andcostuna famish Reaney’i theatricalimagination, or the nunemus bIbScalalIasions, varnished by a transformationof Northrop Frye’s brilliant exegasis intoallegoricsJ art.

The 11 pieces in Approach~ to theWork of Jamtv Reaney give us alI themajor perspectives, ranging fromReaney’s documentary regiomliim andmelodramatic theatriczdity to his parodicplayfi$“ess and subtle amgogy. RichardStingle, a close frimd of Reaney’s,traces the burgeoning interest in Pryc atthe University of Tom”tq, drawing at-tention to Reanr$s romanticism aad of-fering a close textual itlterpreration ofGyroscope, a pIay that orice baffled theToronto theatre critics. Although mawpassage in Sttngle are heavily academicin toie and styI& they are neve@&sshighIy instructive of Reaney’s intell-taal and tbeatricai subtlety.

One of the dktbtctions I” this book isthe light it sheds on Reaney’s paradoxes.In a” interview with Jean McKay,Reaney reveals his ingenuous, innocentside - the side that loves “accidentalcharms,” Walt Disney, farm w&s, andso on. This ir a side that has an aeknowl-edged genius with moving coUage& butit is counterpointed by a side that issystematic, allusive, and rlehly compact.The cou”terpoi”t is probed in twinstudies of the Donnelly ttiIogy by GeraldD. Parker and Disne Bessai, and in Jay

I” his afterword on Remey’s rele-vanee. Dragla”d palls together pointaad counterpoint to show that Rea”ey’s“system” is one of coherence, reintegm-tie”, and recuperation. Reaney is adocumcntariao of shapes as much as heis of tMtaM, bat evm the simplest ofhis art is wmplex. The hazard, asDragland notes, is Reaney’a self-

&o permits mythology to bloom out ofmundane or quotidian reality. I”reading her poetry there is a temptation,as Margaret Atwood o”ce commented,“to become preoccupied with theoriginal and briUia”t verbal st”faw shecreates. at the expense of the depthsbeneath them.” Tti enough, bat whatare these depths? Are they “wstical? Are

arx they, as Atwoodshowed, source4 of a” i”fomling nwththat is translated into life aad poetry7

The virtue of Jan Bartley’s Itwoo+tiom is its effort to nxead the poet’s“taps. Although It Is mated In the“mystic nature of Ma&w&s vision,”it heeds MacBwe”‘s signposts, maminernumerous sources and influences(thoagb ipnori”g Hart Crane and Dyla”Thomas. two of Ma&we”% early idols),and directs the reader to a deeper par-ticipation in MacEwen’s.poetry and her

Takiig the mystic quest as a aortheme, and the amorphous prese”ce of amascuhe Muse as a d&t symbol,Bartley’s book - the fxst tidl&“gthstudy of MacEwe” - focus attentionon major leitmotivs (light and dark. goldand silver, the revolving wheel or circle,the rising fm, magicia”, and daaw). In*general, however. it complements

Cana@an FictionWith a Tang!!

NEW

The Boughwolfen& Other Stork Al P&man

Maud’s Housea novel William Gough

The Loius ManB novel Gil Roberts

Put some lifein your Canadian Spring

Order thesef;;; books now-

BreakwaterP.O.Box 2188NewfoundlandAIC 6E6

reader know what he is doing. Bat thmReaney (like many of our best writers) isa teacher, and while this generates adidactic thrust it also alerts us to hivision of eonte”lporary Canadians as ar-chetypal sleeping giants or lost princes.A vision that is, fw, both regionaland allegorical, and a triumph of sym-bolic knaghmtion over mundane fact.

Symbolic in a different mode isGwendolyn MacBwe”, whose poetry

._._.-._-.- ------ --~ -_-_- .?--z.l--~ .~

; ._ : .._- .~_ ; ,.__ I..__ ..__ _.,

Atwood’s earlla exploration (in Peelsand Crirics) of the myth of the Muse inits Various incarnations. Bartley tracesthe various forms in the novels Julianthe h%g~cian and Klng ofEgjp:, King ofDreams. the short story c&xtionNoman, and the various hooks o fpoetry. In the first novel the Muse isshown to be a human magician “cloakedin the divine thmugb his reluctant rc-cllacfment of the Christian myth,” andin King of Egypt, King elf Dreams “apresumably divine kii who fails in hisattempt to translate divinity into humanterms: In MacBvvcn’s poems the Museas shadow-maker inhabits the mostcsotic of inner landscapes, aad within aoatmosphere of strangeness. horror, andecstasy the Muse (ghost and god, demonand healer) is hdtiator of the process‘%:her&y stufaczs arc broken a n drepair& to reveal a mythic kvel of real-ity.”

Bartley shows how Ma&van’s rawmaterials emhracc a wide raoge ofesoteric sod psychological sources -Jacob Bochmc, early gnostic texts.Jung, alchemy-and how the poet con-structs a Litwary mythology that ahns atsyntberiziog opposites in psyche andcosmos. “I want to construct a myth,”MacEwn has said, and the shaping ofthis myth has sustained a pmlifz andresonant -. 0

REVIEW

The Mask ia Place: Em oa Fkllonin North America, by George Bowwing,Tornstone Press, 164 pages, $9.95 papesUSBN 0 88801 074 5).

BoV:EaINo*g CHALv3aatsTIC wit andhumour serve him well in thcsc essays,written over the past dozen or so parson an assortment of Canadian andAmerican prose fiction writers. Most ofthe essays are ground breaking essays;his panning with words or playiag withideas or mixing metaphors help to openout the subject and to move the reader(and himself, too. presumably) towardinsight and undcrstandii. His ap-proach stimulates thought by provoking

reactions from the reader. You maylaugh, or get mad, or disagree, or wantto argue a point with him, or ask ques-tions. But you will not be bored. He willalmost always set you thinkiog.

There are 13 &says and aa introduetory note in which Bowcriag firstjustifies his prescntatlon of a Cana-dian/Amcricac mixture by asserting that“Canadian fiction.. .does not suffer bybeing seen in a North Americanmntcxt.” The book includes’ essays onHawthorne. Richler. MargaretLaurence, Audrey Thomas, GertrudeStein, Sheila Watson, Jack Kerouac.Douglas Woolf, David Young, and bpNichol, as well as three general essays cx-plorbxg the theoretical base of modernistrealism and post-modernism. The essaysare not dated, but it seems likely thatthey arc roughly in chronological orderbecause Bowzing’s grasp of the issuesbecomes gradually more detailed andastute. He himself suggests there Is atheoretical progression “leading fromprc-realism through realism to post-realism.”

The theoretical essays reflect the con-cems suggested by the title. They treatthe fiction writers’ various guises anddisguises. In “The Thne Sided Room”he shows the prctcnw., essential to realistfction. lhat neither the writer nor Ihebook exists, and he delights in pointingout the contradictions in that position:

One writes a bock and then tries tc-make the reader agree that he is actreading a book. The rcadcr is cnjolnedtc eocpmte in a shell gsmc ss scoa ashe opens a modernist novel. First beswthat it is celled liction. so he separata itfrom non-iicdon. Then he nolicu thatthe author. say Hugh Gamer. uses asmany dcviccr as he deems necewu~ tcmake it seem real - the name of streetsin Toronto. dclailed dcrcrlptlonr of hischaracter’s 1968 Chevrolet. . . So nowthe reader ls led tc spree that what he isgetting is the stm&ht pods. or a wia-dew cm10 his ovm world. Then he looksback to the begiming of the book tomake Sure, & reads that “the chamctenand ewnt~ in thii novel are ficlitious.Any resemblance they have to peopleand eveats in life is purely coin-cidmtal.” We know that co author 01pcbllsbcr would say lhcl calerr Ibeopposite were true.

The post-modem writer, on the otherhand, says Bowcring, invites the readerto pay attention to the mask itself, andto the activity of writer writing.

But Bowering himself makes nopretcncc at offering a definitive statemeat on post-modernism. You will notfti a simple handy definition here;rightly so, since the mode is still cmcrg-ing. But you will find signposts thatpoint in the dir&ions some recentwriters have taken. In “Nichol’s Pmse”he finds “the intent is not so much to

illuminata the world seen and remcm-bered from the eyes (a la Muaro), as totell outward what’s behind the eyes dw-ing composition. Where plot isn’t hap

iccli~is primary.” In ‘lGenr&ct,*’ ashort essay on David Young’s firstnovel. Agent Pmvomtcur, he talksabout how Young disrupts plot and rimesequence with a narrative that doesn’t goanywhere.. for&g the reader to payattention, simply, to what is present (aspatial rather than temporal structure).And further, “the language is not traas-parent, as it is supposed to be in the

but highiy opaque.”Particularly useful as a source of in-

formation on the direction.4 of post-modernism is the essay “The PaintedWindow,” in which he gathers togetbw

& the new & the change.” and explorestheir implications. After quoting JohnHawkes on StmCNFZ, Bowcring says:“the whole quotation from Hawkerillustrates a major shift in attention -whe the realist had seen his writingas a window, the post-realist presentssomething opaque. Notice that Hawk=spoke of meaningful density, where arealist might have striven for clarity.”He slso offers a new definition of theterm “poetic pmsc.” It is not “theDylan sing-song or the Joyce-comelatclia,” but a structwc: “Time inthe book is not sequential &linear, butrepetitive.” And he points to a pheno-menological approach to character,quoting Raymond Chandler: “We donot see who people arc but what they do.

We see doing.” Appropriately for anessay that is explorativc rather thandtinitive, he ends with ao ima&mrydialogue between God and man, whichIcaves one puzzling over the qwstioas itraises.

But the essays are by no means allthaorizlng and playing with words andideas. Bowring has clearIy done hishomework. His discussions of individual

of the worl&. The e&ys on AudreyThomas, Hawthorne, and Laurcncc areparticularly detailed. In the Thomas

vcj astute handling of hw characters’inner fears through two short-.&y ml-lections. Or in an essay on “Sheila Wat-soa, Trickster,” along with a romerimesplayful discussion of Watson/Coyocc’strickery, he considers the major criticaldiscussions of Coyote’s role and pro-vides important iafonnatioa about thecoyote in Amerindian mythology.

Most of the essays have been prev-iously published inmagtines. bat it’suseful to have them brought together

_ ,-.-.. .-_~---- .-_. ..~. .--.- _~. ~.._ --... _ ---......... ~_..._._. _ ____ -..I-.

of repetit ion of Bowwing’s favouritehobby horses (inevitably, since theways were witta over a number ofyears as individual pieces), takentogether they serve es innovative diicus-sionr on questions of form and languageand theme in both the new and the oldliction, questions important to anyoneimdved in investigating the processes ofwiting. They also provide a record ofone contemporary writer’s response tosome of the books around him. AsBcwering comments in the introduction,referring to the thread of thought in thebcol;: “That thread will not hold anyminotaur from escape or havoc. In factit v:ill not even lead to daylight. But ilrill tell a reader where this en-mazedcaptive has been.” Cl

Ey JUDITH FITZGERALD

The Vizitatlon, by AX Moritz, AyaPress. 91 ms. 97.00 paper (IBBN 09205JJ 33 9).

-r~aaa IS htw” to admire in A.F.Motitz’s first major c&ction of poetry,Title V&?th. Divided into four parts,it provides a wider audience with a fmeintroduction to a writer of talent andperception. The parts are not entirely

quences; h&&r, &ch conrains anumber of exc&mal poems.

Of these, the title poem of “Musicend Exile” stands out as exemplary. It isa potent aad prov0cative statement oflove and loss gently wrapped in revoht-tion and regret; its languege drips withIusuriant images that belie the starknessof its subject matter. Rich end subtle inturns, “Music end Exile” achieves ad&ttouement rarely equalled in Englishpoetry:

And )w:JOOU bmw that then k nothing within

Iheirpocw,not men the wik of rope and the

pktokrhat mm! Raw hidden in their rmm:ocmsimal~ Ihere k suicidebut anollm aln.a~s comes andfi/k the

place. . .

W I L L I A MK E.N N E D )’

UR IE IEIDAuthor of Legs and BiUyPhelan% Greatest Game

Every word is right, there is bloodin the veins of every character.

A emotional work, it is never sentimental.”- Toronto Star

$!L95

Don’t miss William Kennedy’s two earliernovels in the Albany Cycle.

Billy Phelan’s Greatest Game $5.95 Legs $5.950

Joe Levy was a" WW$I tutied housa-husband In the q&t, little town ofDoble. Wyoming.. .unGl the fatal car ac-:idenl. To Levy. thal “accident” lookedhike murder, and he found he couldn’trtop lhinklng like a cop. He began to un-%ver a wmplex web of pcwir that con-rected small-town politics with blg-timenob money.

4vailable in April as an AVONIaparback. $ 3 . 9 5

2061 P&COWAN GOAD, SUITE 210. SCARSOROUGH. ONTARIO MlS 3YSTEL: (416) ZWIHO4 TOLL FREE: 1.GOO-ZG&3331

Atwil1984.aoc.kSincMwb 27

__I._ .__ .._ . . .._ --.. ..--..r . . . . I~_-.- in_: .-...... _-.I._._.~.~-.:I.___ ,.... __~__..._--__--..T-~_.,.~-.:

Mxitz offers readers 21 poems in“Music and Exile,” but many of tbsmdon’t belong in this section (or anyother). “Thoughts in a Bank Blevator,‘lfor example, doesn’t really tie in organi-c@ with the powerful title poem, uordoer it seem conncctcd to the taut“Pianoforte,” a poem that plays itselfloudly and softly In turns.

Part two, “Pl-a~r for Prophecy,”contains 22 poems including “Areas,” along poem within a long poem (as itwere). Again, the simple orga”b%ionalfacts of these sections can be faulted.“Areas,” cons 12 poems, standsbat alone. It is a fine scqepuence, begin-nbtg BS it does wltb “Badlands” andcoucluding with “Fog Hollows inTown.” In it, Morltz marries physicaland mental geography in a series of in-tense passages:

A r,xnce - whwe k my bo@?Il’aer bums in the air. . . .Of the remahdng two parts, “You,

Whoever You Ate” is geaerally moresuccessful thao “The Visitatloa.” Theformer contains 16 w&integrated med-itational pieces concemlng sacrifice andsalvation, while the latter ls a long poemnorrated by a confuslug fmlde perspna

Both sequences address divine mysteriesand damucd miseries. As well, they 00casionally depend too heavily upon anallusive framework that may be less thanconvincing for some readers.

In all four parts, it is dear that Moritzis a gifted poet with an uneniug sense ofazt and craft. The Visitodon is musical,and points repeatedly to an exception-ally fme ear for details of cadence.When MO&Z pares down an almosttoo-rich allusion system, the results arestmlghtforward poems that speak do-quently. Superbly executed, fhese poemseffortlessiy combii with a startlingsense of lyrical grace. Here, Marks ls in-tensely unique in both phraseology andimryery. 0

REVIEW

By DA VID WINCH

The Anglo Guide to Survival loQuebec, edited by Josh Freed and JonKdlna, Edeu Pnxs, 148 pages, 89.9spaper (ISBN 0 920792 33 2).

THE gmmas of the Anglo Guide to Sur-vlwl in Quebec recognized early on intheir project the risks of publishlog“sub-Nafional Lumpoon’, materi$thepool of v@ters for this couection ofQuebec satire is made up mostly ofCBCMontreal and Go&& reporters,and only one of the book’s 21 co”-trlbutom is a humour wrlter by trade.Still, the results turned out surprlslnslywell, and some of the contributions tothe Anglo Guide could sit wdl in the bestFrench or American satire magazines.Most important, perhaps, is that readers5d the collection extremely funny, andin its fust two months the bqok sold60,000 copies.

The Anglo Guide is an “instantbook,” h&bed in bars and newsroomsin mid-1983, and it shows both the ad-vantage and the dllventages of thegenre. It ls unswervingly topical, and thekind of situations that it pamdii -Angles at odds with the buteaucmcy,moving to and moving back fromTomato, fling the perfect hot dogsteotn~ - are as chatty and popular asthe Bxpos’ lat& pennant letdown. lidsreflects well the daily-journalism e+-pexiencc of the core group of con-tributors, but it means of course that thebook will not wear well. Reading theAnglo Guide in 10 years will probably bellkc readiug an old Parti Pris manifestofmm the 1960s; the livdlnm will stillshine thmugb eveo though the urgencyof the concems has vanished.

The lead-off piece in the Anglo Guideis Gazette writer Mike Boone’s veryfunny “A Voyage Eart: A Wdd-Guide to East Bad Montreal.” Boone’seye for slgnltlcant detail and his wil-lbtgnw to deal in some of the crudestand fun&at stereotypes givw his artlclethe bite that real satire needs. Boonewrites about Montreal east of the M#nas if it were a foreign country, and posl-tious himself to give guidebook-styletips: “ ‘Tourist moms’ are generally notfor tourists. If you still haven’t got thepicture, they’re rented by the hour, not

the day.” Or, “Do not tarry in clubswhere men an metbodlcally dousing thefumitum in gasoliue and stacking .&blesagainst the exits.,’ or, “when driving,be mbtdful 61 a few ouirks unkme toEast End drivers . ._ . . Mot&&dvehiiti -. cam, trucks, motorcycles,hearses. etc. - travel at 100 km/h in tberight-hand lane. The left lane is reservedfor motorists malring illegal turns.”

Josh Freed’s .contribution, “Funstionhlg as a F”nctionlmi%” is sbnllarlywell-observed. Quebec has ret up aoaffirmative-action program foranglophones lo its all-Freucb civil ser-vice, and Freed plays it s-t, reporGing on what it’s llkc to be one of theseAnglo pioneers in the bureaucracy..“Carry Le Lkwir at ali times” and%witcb to smoking Gitanes,” advisesFreed, who then adds tips for A&s asto how they should talk, dress, eat, andeven work in their new milieu: “Keep inmind that Quebec civil servants are ashard-working asany. . . .The usualCanadian Civil Service Code applies: It’sokav to leave car& but if vou elan toI& late, thm you’d be& have adamn aood excuse.” Qu&6cois civil ser-vants,-ca”ti0os Freei, are notorio”sbans vh.w~& and their back-brcddogwork schedule is frequmtly interruptedby two-hour lunches. excellmt wines,and aunouncements that the lbbstmhave flnal& arrived fmm Ila de laMadeleine. The Aoglo, then, may haveto spend long evenbigs boniag up onFrench cuisine, and leamiug to chattercasually about the latest concern of LcMonde or Lc Nouvel Obaprwleur.Othenk., he or she will simply notmeasure up to the rrqu&mmts of beinga f~ctioonofn.

But if the Anglo &de succeeds inturning up a few gems, it also lndudesseveral contributions that are undevel-oped or have problems bt couceptlon.“Le Jacques Strap: How to Become aFrench Athletic Supporter” ostensiblydeals with sorting out Frmch sportsvocabulary (i.e. gmnd chekm means“gmnd slam homer”). but it also tries tobe inslghtful about the Expos, the Cana-dims, aud their faus. The piece comeaoff as forced and perfunctory. and reallycontains very little “news.” AndGo&&s columnist Nick Auf da Maurtrbw to draw up an elaborate historicaljoke - which might have worked - tothe effect that Quebec’s key historicfigures, tight back to Jacqued Cattier,have in fact been British agents. Auf daMaur has boasted that the piece wascomposed fast, in two weeks before theAnglo Guide’s publication. Troubleis. itShOWS.

But if the Anglo Guide is a book-for-theseason. it is also an extremely goodr&lection of the “ev+style Auglo of

1923: bilingual. bemused, and a deter- francophone society while at the samemined QUebeckU. After a few r&dings. time rejecting every cultural change inrhat rimaim with the reader’s mind are the province after, say, 1969. Thesome sharp defiitioas of what it is to be a assured tone of this book is very en-unmealEl; these adopted-h4ontreakrs couraging. and its often aaay humour is

.

tmordimy degree on night life, anticstreet-crossing customs, err& dlivers,bizarre Frzmil-English social pattern& andfood, food, food.

Politically. the Anglo Guide isimpeccable: it avoids completely thereactionary tack of some Quebec com-mentators, who profess support for tbeemergence of an assertive and modem

language-debate” that canarise in madeas’ minds when the subjectis contemporary Montreal. But the realmessage of the Anglo Guide is the factthat it was published at ail. For if thereever were. any serious threat to theBagIiih language in Quebec (as does notseem possible) then no one would belaughing this hard, now, would they? 0

INTERVIEWI

‘The best way t6 be a Canadian film-maker,’ saysDavid Cronenberg, ‘is to make a film and

be Canadian, and that’s what I’ve always done’

By SHERB POSESORSKI

CRITKAL RESPONSE t o D a v i dCronenberg is split between those whofti hi films repulsive and those whoherald v;hat William Beard has called his“vixersl mind” and con.sisteat style.

PolI&geIu)), or their own cinematic past(John Carpenter’s remake of TheThing). Their gellaal perspective Is

as his recent adaptation bf StepbenKir@s novel, The De@ Zone. Cronea-berg made his first X-mm film.Trmsfers, in 1966, and slncc then hasmritten and directed two feature-lengthart films - Stereo and Crimes of IheForum - and six other commercialfeatures: ~hivem, Rabid. Fosf Cornpony,The Brood, Scmmem, and Videodrome.Last fall be was honoured with a retro-spcctive at the Festival of Festivals andcith the publication of a book of critla.essays on his work, The Shape of Rage:The Fibrns of David Cmn@nber& editedbv Piers Handlii Nieaeral Publishin&Bbrn in Torontgin 1943, Cmnenb&studied biochemistrv at the Universitv ofToronto, but svvitched to English aiterone of his short stories won an EpsteinAward. He lives with his wife aad twochildren in Tomato, where he spoke toshelie Posesolskk

En&s is Canadn: My do you closs~your films es adult horror~7bne?David Cronenbeq$ There is a splitbetwm horror f& meant to be eater-mining ftis for kids and tbosc meantfor adults. Frequently the people whomake horror tibns are trying to recaptare their own childhood (Spielberg’s

kids bit often boring for adults because

D&d Crone&ergthey don’t deal with issues that touchadults,oa an emotional level. My filmsoperate on the level of adult experlen~e;they address adult sexuality, fears, andintelligence. Unlike Spielberg andCarpenter, I’m commurdcatiag~ withmyself in the present. My ftis are actsof the present.BIG: A centml pwccupatlon 4/ yourwork Is the split between the mind end

the body - (I spill of which yourchamcter.s otdy become (IWM qtler lheyhew contmcted some disease, ore n?erde&h. Suseo Soot= hru written lhet“dirwre LF the will speaking through thabo& II Ianguoge dmmatizing the men-tal. ” C&n you rrpplv that to your work?Cronesberg: Yes, that’s very related tomy films. It’s a very medieval concept,the belief that your physical beingrepresmted your soul, and disease wasconsidered God’s will. The body and themind are intertwined, even though theyare often considered as.dlffereat. so thatwhen the body is sick, it’s hard toseparate the sickness of the body fromthe sickness of the mind. when theentity ls diseased, it affects both mindand body. If you are looking for apositive aspect to disease, it is that it’ssuggestive that we are a coherent entitythat cannot remain separated for Ioag.Part of the maturing process Is wmiagto terms with yourself as a total entity,onethathasaliniteend.Inmyf~Imii trying rnw different ways to cometo terms with disease. agbtg, death.There’s a Japanese philosophy that saysall of life is a preparation for death.That’s absolutely true.BIG: llte chamclem in your films en? allobsmeed In one sense or another.Cmnenberg: The prime mover in manyof my films is asually someone who isobsessed with control - attempting inone way or anotha to control his cn-vironmeat,, be it his body or his techno-logical environment. At an-e& age Ilearned that the beat way to learn aboutsomething was to be obsessed with it.Obsession is the best mode of l&ning.It is a compulsive d&e to keep on coa-netting with, an iasiice on abptrae-ting. a particular object of desire fromthe rest of the world. Art is a form ofabstraction. If you want to include thewhole universe in your work, you haveto do it by abstracting certain thingsfrom your eaperlence. Only then canyou deliver the whole thing. It’saecassary to continue focusing down tothe exclusiveaess of au otba tkings, sothat you create a laser-like ray that bumsright down to something that’s extraor-dinary in its interfor.BIG: Do you consider your fibm to bepersomd statements?Cxoneaberg: Yes, bat not la the normalsense. They are perSonal statementsbecause everything about them, in them,is me. Film is a collaborative medium;nevertheless, the ultimate choices filterthrough the director. When you writethesaeenplay,thecharactersareaUpztof you. When I write, I believe v/bat thecharacter says because part of me tries todissolve my own approach to language.Then as the actor creates tbe character,he beliew it. It is a mistake to tbb& that

-_.-. .., - _- -.. ;--;-_-..= ,,

- _..L__ ._A.~___.~

v;hat n character says or does is me,because I’m all of those characters at

tlicting. end up with is a verycomplc.. creature, which is what I am.The films are personal statements. butthey are not pmjections of me. The ar-tist is not necessaily the art.l%E How do yourfilms apress a Can&dion identity7CmneoberC: It’s inevitable that my fllsexpress r certain kind of Camdimlsmbecause I’m Cmadim. Many people stillharbour the assumption that you have Mnude B historical fti M dramatire theCyladion identity. averything is lookllgbackyards. My god, where is ourpresent?

Years ago, when I went to the Cam-dian Film Development Corporation forfunding to make Shivers and Rabid,they judged the scripts in terms of theiiCa.nadimlsm. The critaia were literally.Does it have Mounties in it? How canthose scripts redly be Canadll? It’s anaberration to search after the exclusive,unique Canadian subject. Rather thantrying to find our essence, what we areas a totdlty, vfe look for the unique, lit-tle crystal of Canadlanism that no oneelse has my part of. That’s perverse.There’s nothing that ls Canadian thatdoesn’t connect with sometbiig else inthe wrld. Such a mechanistic conceptof what a culture is is doomed to failure.

I think that Yideadmme is one of themost Canadian flbns ever made. There isa unique character, Brian O’Bllvim,based on a modern Canadian hero -Marshall McLuhm. He is as much a partof our new heritage as MarieChapdeiaine.

Too many fti-maltem use Cana-dlllsm to justify the value of a fdm.Falling all else, it’s Canadian. Well,that’s never enough. It still has to beseen as a film that works or doesn’tnurlc. The best way to be a Canadianfilm-maker is to make a fti and beCanadian, and that’s what I’ve alwaysdone.Ziic: Has the Conadtan criticot response10 yourjibns altered?Cmaenber@ I’ve always had supportfrom Cinema Canada, the CanadaCouncil, the CPDC. I never felt like anoutsider, but I did feel outside the off-clal Canadian fti industry. Now I’mgetting establishment reaction. The tonehas changed - from dlsmissll me assomeone unimportant to dismissing me

lmpmtmt. -CIC: The direction of the scmenplaybased on Stephen King’s The Dead Zone~:w the ~7% limeyou d&ted a fdm forrbich the screenpf~ I%= not wrttten byyou. IStot was it like7Croncnbe~: On the set and during the

editing pmcas I dealt with the sameproblems I always have: how best toconvey what the script requires. 1 wasvery involved in the writing and thestructuring of the script. Debra Hill, theproducer, and Geoffrey Beam, thescreenwriter, and I sat in a hotel momfor three days and reinvented the novelfor the screen. Reinventing it ls the onlyway to be faithful to the work - tothrow away the book’s stnxture andrtivmt it as if you were thinking of itorlginauy for the screen. Stephen Kinghas said that it’s the best adaptation ofhis work that he’s seen, and the reason isthat we didn’t worry about a literaladaptation. what we are faithful to isthe tone of King’s novel.

Bit: How does The Dead Zone dif/rfmm your own work?Cmnenberg: The characters are open,naive. although their relationships arecomplex. I don’t normally worrywhether‘ the main characters M sym-pathetic. A character doesn’t have to besympathetic to work. You j* relate tothe character on s different level. But in’The Dead Zone the characten are veryemotionally aecesslble. Whereas inVideodmme t h e y are complex andguarded.BiC:’ What do you rspond to bz~ibns7Cronenbeg: I’m pretty catholic in mytastes. I PO to fhs to.be surmised.amazed, -imused, entertained~ anddemolished. 0

FIRST NOVELSI_

Larger than life: from the sprawlingstory of an unruly Titan to a skilful, if familiar,

look at the havoc adultery can wreak.

l$y PAUL WTLSON.

The Blggsst R4odem Woman of lheWorld, by Susan swan (Lestu & orpenDennys, 340 pages, $14.95 paper), la abii, unruly, and mbztainhg behind-the-scenes novel based on the life of the19Uwenhuy Nova Scotia giantess AnnaSwan, who @ew to a height of 7%“. wasa star attraction ln P.T. Barium’sAmerican Museum in New York at thetime of the American civil War, endwent on to become a celebrity in Europeand a court favcwite of Queen Victoria.Evmtwlly she settled down in a smallOhio town. where she “declined in hersleep” in 1888 at the age of 42.

Using thll skeleton of historical fact asa starting point, the author (who sharesher heroine’s surname and Is describedon the cover as “the tdlest womanfreelance writer in f.%nadrl”) fleaha outher I%titmal portrait of a fasdnatlng andsometimes infitrlatlng woman. ThroughAnna’s own narration - her “RedTsme Spiel: as she calls it, enhanced bydiaries, letters, and teatbnonials - sheglvea us an intimate. inside look at lifethrough the eyes of someone who cannothelp looking dawn on tbe rmt of us froma vmtagepdint several feet above OUTbeads. For Alma, pempecdve is au.

It is a menstnx of the author’s abilitiesthat the book cm be grasped, apprcci-ated; and enjoyed on several different

levels: as %tmight story. a.3 colourfldsodal history, -as ptui enteaeinmmt,and wm as a novel of ideas. Not SW-prlsll, there is a pungent, Rabdaislanflavour to Anna’s narrative, ringedstmn& with the bold colowlnn of thed&t tzdl tale and the h&-upirony of an old camey’s confea?ion. Thebook Is fidl of wonderfully bizarrescenw that are both funny and disturb-ing: Anna d&lowered by a sly and randydwarf wieldlug a huge idde; Annarescued from a fiery inferno in Barnum’sthe&e by a crane, and thm driventhmu.& the crowd-lid N e w Yorkstreet.5 i n * llmousiire, gltig theAmerlwn public its fti free look at apopular attmctiat; Anna in audiencewith good Queen Victoria. who d&plays

-.one of Swan’s tdents is ha ability to

portray comic eccentricity. Among herfw creations are the American glmtCaptain Bates, late of the Confederatearmy, who even* becomu Anna’simpotent husband, and Hiram I&la,also known as Apollo, a pro@4 of P.T.Barnum who takes Anna and Bates to“conquer Europe.” Both mm are fascl-nated by her, but in entirely dlffermtways. Bates sublimates his inadeqwle.slntiddreamsofbeing,witbAma,tbe

progenitor of a new master race ofTitans who will eventually supplant“normal” humanity. There is a chilllogscene when Bates, v~ho is obsessed withthe “scientific” aspects of gigantism.watches la hiding as a physician exa-mines, measu~s, and catalow Annafor posterity. Apollo, on the other haad,is “normal.” but has the advantage ofbeing sexually adept. Hi mind is usuallypreoccupied with gauging the publicmood. but suddenly he finds biif -against all his business instincts -beingkreslstibly attracted to Anna. This turnsout to be his undoing,,tboo& in themeantime he provides Anna with someof her most satisfying hours.

Swan’s portrayal of P.T. Barnum isfascinating BS well. Barnum’s great con-trlltion to Amelican free enterprisev.a-5 hls discovery that human cwlosltycould be harnessed to human misery ona scale that made a lot of money at thesame time as it satisfied the curiosity andalleviated the misery. His secret was intake the midgets, dwarfs, fat ladies,human skeletons, Siamese twina, anddants who were under contract to himand presenting them to the public in adignified guise, the @se of enlighten-ment. His actors would deliver cleverlycomposed spiels about themselves andperform, in dewt costumes, scenecifrom popular plays and pantombnasketches. And he paid his actors well.Tom Thumb, another Barnum protig4.

natioml cel;brity. So, in fact, wasAnna; one year she made SXl.000. AsSwan presents her, there is no questlonthat lo the deepest and strongest part ofher nature she enjoyed immensely play-lo2 all the mles that working for Barnumallowed her to play, despite her occa-sionally caustic observations about theindividual as a mere “businessgimmick.”

Of coarse, Anna ls the most complexand interesting character in the book.She is part Victorian lady, and partfeminist hemine a century before hertime. Her revelation of the intimatedetails of her life and her shrewd andentettala@ observations of the worldaround her more than make up for theprice of admission. She absolutelyrefuses to treat her size as a liability. Sheis spunky and cheerful and cbia-uppishand competent in a way that I associatecith many of the grown-up women Iremember from my childhood, and sheis appealin& frank about her ovm sen-suality. But she can also be strident,nasty, and self-centred, and she oftencloaks her meanness in the pompouskm&wage of ideological rlgbteousness.Toward the end of the book, in anattempt to describe hn sense of isolationamong the follcs of seviue, Ohio, she

writes the following lines to her mother:I feel 1 am acting out America’s rel&doorhip to the Canada Marlin [herhusband] is the imp&al ogre while Iplay the role of genteel mate whobelieves that i f efayone ts well-mannered, we can inhabit a peaceablektngdom. That is the nstlonal dream ofthe Can&s isn’t it7 A civittzcd gardenwhere lions lie down with doves. I didnot see the difference until I married

- Marttn. We pdwss no fantastes of con-gurst and domination. Indeed. to befrom the Canada ts to feel LU womenfeel - cut off from the base of power.The point heTe is not whether she is

ri&t or wrong but whether anyone\vould actuaUy write things like that toher mother In the year 1874. I fmd it far-fetched, but who knows? In a book aseatefully researched as thii one obvi-ously is, the an&&m, if that’s whatit is, could very well be deliberate. Still,such moments obtrude only rarely, andthe book’s main stre@hs, its lusty goodhumour, its warm intelligence, its comicsense aad its good witlng, triumph overits flaws.

If The B&H Modern Woman of theWorld sprawls ouhvard, defying one tocontain it, Flgnrw on a Wharf by Win-

nipeg author Wayne Tefs (TumstonePress, WI paw, $8.95 paper) is anintensely lntmwted novel that drawsone into its world through a fmelywrought design of delicate detail. Thestory is a classical one: of adultery andthe havoc it can wreak. The bare bonesof the plot are familiar enough: Michael,a university teacher approaching middleage, has been married to Patricia longenoagb to have pmduced two children,now-both adolescents. and to havebecome tired of the se&up. To compm-sate, be is ha* an affair with a stu-dent, Mary, who ls also married. Thesituation, though somewhat tense, ls!inewithhim,andhehasnode.siretochallenge fate by resolvb~ it in a reapon-sible way. Patricia, however, suspectsthat som*hing is going on and. in herterror of having the familJ bIeak up, shepursues the matter, eventually discoversthe truth, and goes on the rampage, thusdertmylag any hope she might have badof reconciliation.

Tefs manoewres us skllfolly throughhis story, moving deliberately tbmugh acomplex accomulatioo of detail. Wewatch, almost mesmerized, as a sentenceis expended to light a cigarette, another

Charts, words snd plctures highlightthe character ofthls

3

dynamic Canadbm city.New this Spring from

sntlstlcs caoada.~?$w$.&

.eEndorsed by the Toronto

SecquicenteooialBoard.

._ _. _ .-. .~ _. _.i_____l~_-.- .~~ _____~___

MkmmmpuhraThe New Status §ymbd?

RESEARCH:What are the Impllcationr?

I

esseltiaiviewpoint for school andpublic librarians. Each issueiddresses your practical andrelevant conkems straight on.Special review sections keep youinformed about new professionalreading. paperbacks for childrenand young adults, magazines foryoung people and microcomputerdevelopments.

EL is-“innovative,imaginative...among the best oneither side of the border...highly

(Ana T h e L a w

recommended” according tolibmry Jomul -it’s well-written and produced...an

Enmgemy fib-P

absolute must” says CanadianMats&a/s -and MugaM@ forLfbrariar has just said that EL is“necessary” for Canadians and“deserves reading” by Americanssince there is “no comparable.American publication”

If you haven’t suscribed, youdon’t know what you’re missing1 .

ISIWWINCY I,IHWUNBox 4696, StatIon D,London, Ontario N5W 5L7 The wli$ng on the wall

830 per year/S27 prepaid

I

to curl rhe smoke above the smoker’shead, a thii to notice the bubbles in asoft drink sparlile in the l@hL The eroticpaaages, end them ere quite a few ofthem, w equally detailed. Canversa-tionr are ehvays to the point.

Superficially, Figures on a Whqfreminds me of thee French movies ofthe '60s end ’70s - the sluggish erotictragedies with a long. slow, sensuouswind-up and a brief, violent kiiker. Butthe resemblance is really oz;tpgf&l, For Tefs’s chactempampered, Fashion-plate creetures ofiheClalllc hneglnation but real, recognizablepeople who are very much OF their thne(1979) and place (Winntpeg), despite theFact that they are acting out whatamounts to a universal drama.

Tefs’s best-dravm char&e& to mymad, is Patricia, the monged wile. sheupsets the belance of the book sombwhat because the author’s eentml in-terest is in Michael, but Michael is sohopelessly wmpped up in himself end hinezd to be admired by r,omen thet he

evemmuy loses our sympathy. Mary,the mistress, has a strong physicalpresence, but is otherwise a shadowycreatore with little in the way of a tmgi-ble personality. Patricia aloneunderstands Michael In a complex way,and her tragedy is that she eaonot com-pel hbn to Face up to whet he is doing.Despite tbis weakness, however, FF@reson B Wzarf should establish Wayne Tefsas a bright new writer with en ability tocomb conventional territory For atti-tudes end emotions that still exist, eventhough we sometimes seem to haveForgotten them.

IPI htY REI’IE~ of Feldqfmg (February) Iinexpllcobly atulbuted Da&l Defoe’sA Journal 4f the P.bgue Year toJonatben Swift. I apologize For anyagony thls may have caused to anyonewho noticed. 0

I An1 WtITINO t0 pmk?St @IIN theraiew in your February issue by J.D.Carpenter of the nav books by JeniCooan and Bronwen Vhllace. Surelythis is the kind of stupid writlog thatshould be extinct by oow, but apparentlyit isn’t. Carpenter Follows perfectly theformula For such reviews:

(a) Begin with a reference, usuellyderisive, to Atwood.

@) a0 on to sneerblg genemSzation9about “the world OF women’s poetry”end “Our women poet%”

(c) Concentrate throughout the reviewon analyses of content rather than styleor technique; this will allow the reviewerto talk et tedious Length about himselfinstead of the work under discussion.

(d) Say somethmg positive only when

the writers stick to subjects mom appro-prlate to their sex. In Couzyo’s case thkls only when she “lays aside ha wea-p?ns” end writes about some&ii“joyous” like childbirth; in Wallece’rc89e it is when she writes with “d&ate

’ gmce” about tbe loss OF a loved one.(e) &nom things like the fact that e

number of the poems In Wallace’s bookwon fmt place in the National MegezlneAwardsoneyea&andthatshewesafinalist the next year.

(0 Conclude with a classic complaintabout how these women don’t use “theirgift For beauty” because “they’re soserious.”

Surely Books in Cwzadu should beable to offer us sometblllg better thantbls.

D.R. BvoySurrey. B.C.

IS THIS “Another World” or just aman’s glib review of “women’spoetry”7 J.D. Carpenter ls dead lvmngio his review of Couzyn end Wallaceabout the “world of women’s poetry.”Whet has changed in that other world ofpoetry, preoccupied es it has been withthe themes OF love end death For cen-tories7 The freshest and most originalvoices of my gene&ion em women: RooBorson, Erln Mourd, Robyo Sarah,Dii Hertog. as well as Bmnwen Wel-lace, ere just a Few outstandingexamples. How can a mviewer somistad a poet es to n&eke point oFview For self-interest7 l-o say that“Stenley’s Ladle3 Wear, Cii 1952” is

about e little girl lost in Kresge’s is com-parable to saying that Pat Lane’s poem“Luna Moth” ls about rent.ing a mom.or that Othello is about a losthendkerchtef.

Klnsc?lla’s CompIaint

1 IMAolwE W.P. Khlsella% diatribe iayour Field Notes column ~ebmary) wlIlgenerate cold prose &the hearts ofbooksellezs ell along the Tram-CanadaI-I&my. As I live at the end of themad, end suFFered thmugh the rea&your author Fouhd the least commodi-ous of all, I Feel bound to mmment.

ICbxella read at the Volume One bookstore io Duncan, B.C., in late 1983. ItWBS an uninspired readll. Duncan isgood enough for Audrey Themes, Den-nis Lee, Phyllis Webb. Alice Mumu.UC., etc., bni defmltely & large no&for the ego of W.P. Rinsella.

What has sudden Fame done to thismen that he cannot deep in an ordinarybed7 Does he thh& he is Prhuxss Di7DOgheneedacanopy7Ishepmgmnt,For God’s sake7

I can thtnk of a tone, and the wordselmost tit: Won’t you go home, BillKinsell& Won’t you go home.

Linda Rogers’ Chemeinus, B.C.

delete potenflal& libeiloys state-

THE EDITORS RECOMMEND

THE muownai Canadian books werereviewed in the previous issue of Book.5in Guaada. Our recommendations don’tnecesserlly reFlect the reviews:

PICITONCharnelem and Other gteriu. by Bill

sehcrmbnxker. Talonbooks. Years IsIn,From the saleay OF British Columbia.author aed narratoc real1 their Africanpast in a spellbinding s&d OF short rtorirrthat draw their strength from the tetoientelwcee ticdon and Fact.

. NON-FICTION _The Oxiord Compnnlon te Canndlmu

Lltemture, edited by William Toye,Oxford. Though one may qulbblc end-lessly with my such relcrence work, ToyeIs jvltificd in making his intmductoryclaim: “In spite of all weaknesso . . . there

is offered hue a w&h of detail end eOm-mentxy, and many new inri&ts.”

T h e TYuther, by L&m Cmzier, CoreauBooks. In four previcu books the tin oflove has been Cmzier’s special territory..The process of turn& blttemus into hopehahzwtalcwone,balncw,nolongafightiag. she offnr us a v&x with a vision.

’ CXIVWTIVO. 9 2

there’s peace, then thm’r war. thenthere’s Peace a&.

0 N,ne,een EehIy F o u r : Btt Brotherdoesn’t want Winston to see his girl-

friend Julia. Afts much pnsuasion,Winston and Julia decide not to see eachother anymore.

0 T8e Sun Ah-a Rlws: Jake Barnes. whowas wounded la tbe war. goes fishing andto the bollfEht with Mends.

0 The Fall ol the House af Usher: RoderidxUsher’s &a, Madeleine. comes to visitunexpectedly. All hell breaks 100~.

*mmt mwmts wvUl recognize in theabove lines a parody of not one but twofmms. Levtis CarmU’s “Jabbenwdty”nnd Joseph Howe’s “Acadia.” Con-testants are invited to submit similarverses that coallate two or more well-know poems, of which at least oneshould be Canadian and ape bad. Theprize is 325, and $25 goes to DouglasMcLeod of Halifax for the idea .Deadline: May 1. Address: CanWit No.92, Eoofis in Canada. 366 AdelaideStreet East, Toronto M5A 3X9.

!%ouIPr, of CanWit No. 80oui r2x$Esr for lowcalorie sommariesof hcavywight tomes produced enoughtight reading to keep Reader’s Digestbusy for. v.‘eU. a couple of minute%artyray. The winner is MarIt Fortier ofToronto for the follo\\+ng iite titles:0 lZ@membmnce of Thiws Past: Marcel, a

would-be writer. tends to forget tbiw.until one day he nmembcra.

0 1Rr and Peaw First there’s IV?, then

Classlfled fa tes : $9 pef l ine (40char&era to ths line). Deadline: first ofthe month for issue dated follovrlnamonth. Address: Books In CanadaClaa~Ified, 389 Adelaide Street East, Tomntof.15k 3X9. Phone: (419) 393.5436.CA!3W PAID FOR PEWQUIFJ paperback.%good wndltlon. Gall Wilson BOobaIler,198 Queen W., Tomnto. 5983924.OLD ArJD RARE BOOKS. CanadlanaCatalogues. Heritage Books, 896Polmeraton Ave.. Toronto, Ontarlo MEG,ss9

MSED LcaG”J 9OOKS. 30 day free Bxatn-Inatlon. Write J.L Heath, 66 Isabella St.9109, Toronto M4X lN3.0.2%0949.

Honolwabk! menIions:IiRemembmnce 41 Tbi~ Past: himeel

Proust stays in bed to write down amemory. He faw asleep. When he wakesup he has forgotten it.

0 Les?d&mb/a: J. VafiwnsteaLc aloaf ofbread. Is chased by policeman Jaw% whoslips. breaklng his neck. That night theValjeans eat bread.

-Jerry Williams, Montreal

0 Em: Lou’s been slecpiag in my bed.-Tom Williams, Calwry

0 bfacbe~h: Macbeth is enmurag6.d andsupported by hh wife (an assertivewoman, bat always a lady) la his rise tothe top. They give fascinating dinnerpartirr.

- Natafls Mayer, Toronto

0 TbeFire.Dw,lem: Staay, B confused andunhappy housewife, gives hersdf a goodz;k to and all of ha problems a~ then

-A.M. Thomas, cslgw

BOOICYRECEIKED

THE V~L.~WING Canadian books havebeen received by Books in Canada in re-cent weeks. Inclusion in this list does notpreclude a review or notice io a futureISSUe:

,_ .I_. .---_ ..--------

UP

FALLING INTO GRACEA profde of Earle Birney

By Fraser Sutherland

SECOND COMINGR.C. Hutchinson’s novels are enjoying a revival

By M. B. Thompson

WITHOUT A PARACHUTEDavid Fennario continues his leap of faith in Montreal

By David Home!

Plus reviews of new books by Pat Lane, George Bowering,Steven Freygood, and an interview with Elizabeth Spencer

Available in betterbookstores everywhere

or delivered directlyto your home.

Ten times a year.Shouldn’t you subscribe now?

-___-___--__~--__----~~--Yes, I’d like to subscribe to Bookr.41 Canadu 0

Name

Address

Postal codeI1

cheque enclosed 0 Biume cl II

SUBSCRIPTION PRICE SL2.95 A YEAR II1 US.95 A YEAR OUTSIDE CANADA

Jf6M&assrmEal,Sunrr)2;

I nmma. cm. MU IX9 IL - - - _ _ _ _ _ _ - - _ _ _ _ _ _ _ - - - - _ _ _ J

--._-. .-- . . _. -. .A....L _,- .T..._ .-...li_.--.C I ---.e-.x.-..-

*a

‘I’

L

What percentage ofEnglish Canadians read intheir leisure time? Howmany books are read eachyear in Canada? What arethe most popularcategories of Canadianwriting? What is the mostimportant single source ofawareness of books?

The answer to these andhundreds of otherquestions

BOOK READINGIN CANADA

about books and theirreaders can be found inBOOK READING INCANADA, acomprehensive study ofCanadian reading habits.Written and researched bywriter and publisher JamesLorimer, with researchassociate Susan Shaw,BOOK READING INCANADA is available for$50.00 from

THE ASSQCI[ATIOPd OF CAPMDlAPd PUBLISI-ERS70 the Esplanade, third floor, Toronto lW5E 1R2

mmB9S wnwxLook for our catalogue at theseselect bookstores. Tear out thepostage paid return mail coupon,fill in your name and address,and send it to us.

BOOKScDAF.I

-ERARY PRESS GROUP

‘n”wn

THE Li7

The five successful entrantswill correctly answer a skill-testing question in the field ofCanadian Literature. Winners tobe announced at the CBA BookShow on Friday, June 22,1984.

GBBBB9S WMEREto pick up our catalogues:0 Duthie Books 919 Robson Street

Vancouver. B.C. V6Z IA5(604) 68444%

o Aspen Books 10624 Whyte AvenueEdmonton, Alberta T6E 2A7(403) 433-7352

0 Mary Scorer Books121-B Osborne Street, WinnipegManitoba R3L lY4 (204) 475-3651

0 Longhow Bookshop6X Yonge Street, Toronto. OntarioM4Y 128 (416) 921-9995

0 Double Hook Book Shop1235AGreene Avenue. WestmountQuebec H3Z 2A4 (514) 932-5093