TRENDS MOVE OVER DEEPAK CHOPRA

Eckhart Tolle has struck-it-Oprah. After being selected for Oprah’s Book Club in January, Tolle’s A New Earth (Plume/Penguin $15.50) zoomed to number one on the New York Times Bestseller list in the paperback advice category, prompting his 1998 bestseller The Power of Vancouver guru Now to resurface at number two. Eckhart Tolle

Both titles simultaneously rose above interactive, web-based class, discussing Martha Stewart’s Cookies and a vegan A New Earth one chapter at a time. Ac- diet book called Skinny Bitch. cording to USA Today, the day before All 61 previous selections for Oprah’s the first online class began in March, Book Club became bestsellers but, ac- more than 700,000 people had signed cording to the bookselling chain Barnes up as participants. & Noble, A New Earth was the fastest- Born in Germany, Eckhart Tolle re- Book club maven selling pick of them all. portedly underwent a major spiritual re- Oprah Winfrey was Selections for Oprah’s Book Club had birth in 1977—finding inexplicable bliss turned on to Eckhart Tolle been limited to classics and novels, but to replace suicidal despair—while study- by actress Meg Ryan. the talk-show host was so taken by Tolle’s ing at Cambridge University in anti-ego, pro-consciousness message that England. vember 30, 2007 to a sold-out audience. own channel, Oprah & Friends, on XM she reconsidered her rules, saying, “I Tolle, aged 60, provides an advice Common Ground was the first publica- Satellite Radio. started thinking, ‘Why can’t I choose it? column for Joseph Roberts’ Van- tion to review Tolle’s breakthrough By the beginning of March, Tolle’s It’s my book club. I can choose what I couver-based Common Ground maga- book, The Power of Now. publisher said more than 3.5 million want.’ Duh!” zine. To mark the 25th anniversary of Also in November, Oprah and Tolle copies of A New Earth, had been Oprah took her support further by that publication, Tolle lectured at the recorded three programs for Oprah’s Soul shipped. It was first self-published in collaborating with Tolle for a ten-week, Vancouver Convention Centre on No- Series, a weekly radio program on her 2005. 0452289963

APHNE BRAMHAM’S FAR-REACH- ing and essential The Secret Lives of UNVEILING POLYGAMY Saints: Child Brides and Lost Boys in Canada’s Polygamous Mormon Three wives good, two legs bad: Orwellian tales of Bountiful

DSect (Random House $32.95) not only reveals how polygamy Debbie Palmer’s memoir is dedicated to her own eight and sex with minors have been perpetuated, with minimal children’s “unspeakable horrors before I brought them out.” Among many others who contributed to her extensive re- prosecution, on both sides of the 49th parallel, for decades. search, Bramham clearly credits Palmer as well as B.C. au- It also examines how young men and boys are victimized thor Jancis Andrews in her foreword. by Mormon polygamy almost as much as their female coun- “Except for an angry email from Jancis Andrews in April, terparts. 2004,” writes Bramham, “I would never have written about Because leaders take numerous wives, the sect’s under- Bountiful at all. Jancis was responding to a series of col- educated males are often unable to marry and are exploited umns I’d written for the Vancouver Sun on the illegal traffick- for cheap labour, or ostracized. The exposé estimates fun- ing of Asian women and children into Canada. damentalist Mormons under-pay their employees by 40% “‘Why didn’t I write about Canadian girls being trafficked in comparison to their neighbours. Some Mormons believe to become concubines to polygamist men?’, she angrily de- a man needs a minimum of three wives to get into heaven. manded.” As Bramham admits, she has picked up the story from Accordingly, Bramham, an award-winning columnist for the Vancouver Sun, delves into the private lives of Mormon where Debbie Palmer’s memoir of her escape from leaders —the Bountiful, B.C.-based Bountiful left off. Co-written with self-publisher Dave Winston Blackmore self-appointed prophet who has had more than 25 wives and Perrin, Palmer’s Keep Sweet: Children of Polygamy (Dave’s Press, $28.95) won the Vancity Book Prize for best sired more than 100 children; Warren Jeffs—who accu- mulated more than 70 wives in Salt Lake City in the 1990s book pertaining to women’s issues in 2006. Self-designated prophet Rulon Jeffs was prior to his recent arrest and convictions; and his father Herself the oldest of 47 children, Palmer was forced to given two more brides, Edna and Mary, by become the sixth wife of the community’s leader when she their father as gifts for Jeffs’ 90th birthday. The Rulon Jeffs—the patriarch who named the Fundamen- was 15. Assigned to two other older men after that, she fled Mormon leader had more than 60 wives— talist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. in 1988 and has since been profiled on CBC’s Fifth Estate. and his son Warren has more than 70. Secret Lives 978-0-307-35588-1; Keep Sweet 0-9687943-3-5

Publication Mail Agreement #40010086 Contributors: Grant Shilling, Mark Forsythe, Ayla Harker, SUMMER Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to: BC BookWorld, Joan Givner, Louise Donnelly, Hannah Main-van der Kamp, 2008 3516 W. 13th Ave., Vancouver, BC V6R 2S3 Heather Ramsay, Cherie Thiessen, Shane McCune. Writing not otherwise credited is by staff. Produced with the sponsorship of Pacific BookWorld News We acknowledge Photographers: Barry Peterson, Laura Sawchuk. the assistance of BC Issue, Society. Publications Mail Registration No. 7800. BOOKWORLD Proofreaders: Wendy Atkinson, Betty Twigg. Canada Council and the Vol. 22, No. 2 BC BookWorld ISSN: 1701-5405 Design: Get-to-the-Point Graphics. Deliveries: Ken Reid Province of British Columbia, through the Publisher/ Writer: Alan Twigg Advertising & editorial: BC BookWorld, 3516 W. 13th Ave., Ministry of Community, Vancouver, B.C., V6R 2S3. Tel/Fax: 604-736-4011 • Email: All BC BookWorld reviews are posted online at Aboriginal, and Editor/Production: David Lester available on request. Annual subscription: $19.08 www.abcbookworld.com Women’s Services.

3 BC BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2008 BC BOOK PRIZES HOT PARTY LUKEWARM SPEECHES

OMEBODY’S GOTTA SAY IT. THE LAUDATORY sophistication level of the BC Book Prizes’ Sorganization is being consistently sabo- taged by lame acceptance speeches.

One of the worst speeches in 24 years was made by Egoff Prize win- Emiko Morita of Douglas ner Polly Horvath who spent less than a minute on stage, making a & McIntyre and Egoff PHOTO trite joke about successfully bribing the judges, before walking off with Prize nominee Meg Tilly her cheque. TWIGG Livesay Poetry Prize winner Rita Wong went the esoteric route, advising eve- ryone, “The spirit of water is what makes eve- rything possible.” High-minded Robert Bringhurst didn’t deign to show up to receive his Evans Non-Fiction Prize, we were told, because he “hates” such ceremonies. This hatred didn’t stop him from accepting the second Lieu- tenant Governor’s Award for Literary Excel- lence from the Book Prizes in 2005. PHOTO

A book about the trend towards “eating PHOTO locally” was judged the best book about Brit- CHENG

JAUK ish Columbia, but its authors J.B.

MacKinnon and Alisa Smith also GEMINI LIESL Nominees Ron Smith and Theresa Kishkan Nominees Lisa Cinar, Michael Turner and Gillian Wigmore didn’t show. No explanation was given when a representative from Ontario’s Random House spoke for 20 seconds to accept their Haig-Brown Prize. Perhaps the champions of localism were away. By contrast, Ian McAllister and his wife Karen arrived from their home on Denny Island, flying down from Bella Bella, leaving the kids overnight in Campbell River, just on the chance he might receive the Booksellers’ Choice Award for The Last Wild Wolves. He did—along with its publisher Rob Sanders. “I hope this book gives a little back to the coast that we are trying to preserve,” said McAllister. This year’s Lieutenant Governor’s Award winner Gary Geddes did his best by quoting a Chilean activist who told him that in his coun- try, “Your book may survive [in Chile] but you may not,” followed by Margaret Atwood’s quip, “You can say what you want [in Canada] because nobody is listening.” Alone among the recipients, Geddes had the good manners to conclude, “I am deeply moved by this gesture of belief in my work.” When the literary tribe gathers annually to break bread, you’d think more than one person would overtly express appreciation—or acknowl- edges collectivity. The evening’s only animated speech was delivered by kidlit writer Robert Heidbreder who delivered a stand-up comedy routine about his mother while accepting the Harris Prize for best illustrated PHOTO book. His illustrator Kady MacDonald Denton was home in Pe-

terborough. BRADLEY ✍

Meanwhile the hard-working organizers, Liesl Jauk and Bryan SHARON Pike, have done a terrific job spreading BACK ROW: Fanny Kiefer (emcee), Rob Sanders, Rt. Hon. Steven Point, Polly Horvath, Mary Novik, Gary the Book Prizes beyond a ballroom. Their Geddes, Rita Wong. FRONT ROW: Ian MacAllister, Robert Heidbreder and Sally Harding. company Rebus Creative coordinated 17 finalists on tours and sponsored 64 events LORDY, LORDY, DON’T TELL GORDY in 27 communities in two weeks. In addi- The ascendancy of the Lieutenant Governor at the annual Book Prizes tion, $12,000 worth of nominated titles bun toss can be problematic for any British Columbians who don’t was donated to 24 B.C. schools. believe in kings and queens and hereditary power, but Rt. Hon. Steven Point was the only person with the gumption to use the For a complete list podium to make a political statement. Pleased to hear Book Prize PHOTO Society president Sally Harding acknowledge that downtown Van-

PHOTO of winners and couver is in Coast Salish territory, the First Nations L.G. joked, “We

BRADLEY are just having difficulties collecting the taxes.” Then he paused. “Don’t

TWIGG nominees, visit

SHARON tell the premier I said that.” Liesl Jauk of Rebus Creative www.bcbookprizes.ca

4 BC BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2008 Winner GEORGE WOODCOCK LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD for an outstanding literary career in British Columbia JJOYOY KOGAWAKOGAWA

JOY KOGAWA BIBLIOGRAPHY: Naomi’s Tree (Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 2008) The Rain Ascends (Knopf Canada, 1995) Itsuka. (Penguin Books, 1993) Retitled Emily Kato, 2006 Naomi’s Road (Oxford University Press, 1986) PHOTO Woman in the Woods (Mosaic Press, 1985) Obasan (Lester & Orpen, Dennys, 1981) PETERSON Jericho Road (McClelland & Stewart, 1977)

A Choice of Dreams (McClelland & Stewart, 1974) BARRY The Splintered Moon (Fiddlehead, 1967)

Janice Douglas of the Vancouver Public PREVIOUS RECIPIENTS: Library presented the Woodcock Award to Eric Nicol (1995) Joy Kogawa at the newly preserved Joy Kogawa House, now owned by The Land Jane Rule (1996) Conservancy of British Columbia, on Barry Broadfoot (1997) April 25th. Surrounding Kogawa with her Writers Walk plaque are members of the Christie Harris (1998) committee that spearheaded the campaign to make Kogawa’s childhood home into a Phyllis Webb (1999) heritage site. Paul St. Pierre (2000)

BACK ROW, David Kogawa, Deb Martin, Robert Harlow (2001) Sabina Harpe, Ann-Marie Metten, Todd Peter Trower (2002) Wong, Joy Kogawa, John Young, Andrew Audrey Thomas (2003)

PHOTO Metten. FRONT ROW, Richard Hopkins,

Joan Young.

TWIGG P.K. Page (2004) Since 1995, BC BookWorld and the Vancouver Public Library have proudly sponsored Alice Munro (2005) the Woodcock Award and the Writers Walk at 350 West Georgia St, Vancouver. Jack Hodgins (2006) bill bissett (2007) FOR MORE INFO SEE WWW. ABCBOOKWORLD. COM

6 BC BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2008 WHO’SWHOBC

is for Alderson

Sue Ann Alderson’s book about the Camosun Bog, The Eco-Di- ary of Kiran Singer (Tradewind $18.95), has received an ASPCA Henry Bergh Children’s Book Award for Best Young Adult Book. Each year in June the American So- ciety for the Prevention of Cruelty to Ani- mals recognizes books that feature an exemplary handling of subject matter pertaining to animals and the environ- ment. 978-1-896580-47-0 is for Baird

Irene Baird’s 1939 novel Waste is for Cohen Heritage (University of Ottawa $35) has been touted as the classic novel of the Hey, is that Al Pacino or Depression in Canada. When Globe reviewer William is it Leonard Cohen? French read it in 1973, he wrote, It’s Cohen, photographed on “Why it [has] suffered such obscurity for almost 35 years is hard to explain.” the seawall at English Bay in 1978 Newly reissued and edited by Colin by cartoonist and photographer Hill, Waste Heritage describes the vola- David Boswell. One of tile aftermath of the famous 1938 occu- pation of the main Vancouver Post Office Boswell’s photos was used for a by unemployed ‘sit-downers’ who were Georgia Straight cover story at the time. evicted by police with tear gas. Ten of Boswell’s photos, including an image of the singer-songwriter wearing a maple leaf over his crotch in Stanley Park,

PHOTO are now being offered for sale as prints

via www.davidboswell.ca BOSWELL

DAVID

twenty-year absence. While living on her parents' farm, she learns to confront the is for Douglas is for Elmhirst tragedy that has haunted her for years. Friesen lives in Delta. 978-1-55470-001-1 Janice Douglas has arranged Raised on a southern Ontario dairy continued on next page more than 3,000 author readings and farm, Janice Elmhirst headed the events—probably more than anyone BC Provincial Pest Diagnostic Labora- Waste Heritage cover art: else in the country—during her 41 years tory for four years before starting her Solitaire (1939) painted by at the Vancouver Public Library. She has own company in 2002 to provide con- Bertram Brooker also been an ardent advocate for child- sulting services to the ornamental nurs- hood literacy. ery industry. With entomology instructor The police violence sparked a pro- A gathering was held in her honour Ken Fry and agroforester Douglas test trek to Victoria in which the two on May 2nd to coincide with her retire- Macaulay, she has co-written Garden main characters participate. They are the ment, but she’ll likely remain active as a Bugs of British Columbia: Gardening aptly named Matt Striker, a 23-year-old literary catalyst and organizer in the to Attract, Repel and Control (Lone from Saskatchewan, and his simple- Lower Mainland. Pine $21.95) featuring 126 species of minded companion Eddy who is ob- insect most commonly encountered in sessed with the idea of one day getting a B.C. gardens. 978-1-55105-591-6 new pair of shoes. Vancouver is fictionalized as Ascelon and Victoria is Garth—both Biblical ref- erences. Baird said of the work, “I wasn’t Janice is for Friesen a journalist, just a writer, but the theme Douglas gripped me and it seemed as though After four well-received juvenile nov- journalists and writers both could share els, Gayle Friesen's first novel for a rare opportunity with a story like this, adults, The Valley (Key Porter $29.95) and at the same time do a little some- concerns a prodigal daughter named Gayle Friesen: thingRon Chudleyfor Canada.” Gloria who returns to a Mennonite com- adult entertainment See www.abcbookworld.com 077660649-1 munity in the Fraser Valley after a

7 BC BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2008 is for Landale As a series of poems arising from her research for a crime novel, Zoe Landale’s Once A Murderer (Wolsak & Wynn $17) ex- plores love, criminal behavior and poetry. Five years earlier her submission called ‘Once a Murderer: Poems for Three Voices’ won PHOTO the $6,000 first prize in the CBC Literary Awards. Landale cur- CODY rently teaches at Kwantlen College. 978-1-894987-23-3 GARY is for Muller is for Peace

After learning her great- Barbara Colebrook grandfather was a magician Peace has re-imagined the named Dante Magnus, story of Christ’s life from multi- Rachel Dunstan Miller’s ple viewpoints—God’s, Christ’s, heroine in her first children’s Mary’s, Joseph’s, Adam & Eve’s, book, When the Curtain Rises the moon’s, and even a don- (Orca $8.95), uncovers a mys- key—for an unusual collection terious rosewood box which has of spiritual poems, Duet for remained hidden for almost one Rachel Muller Wings and Earth (Sono Nis hundred years. $14.95). Her playful and mystical con- When the Curtain Rises will be fol- tent, directly drawn from the Biblical lowed by a second book called Ten record, attempts to address believers as Thumb Sam. 978-1-55143-615-9 well as agnostics, regardless of their reli- gious orientation or lack thereof. 978-1-55039-164-0 is for Neary is for Quan Kevin Neary worked at the Royal BC Museum for 24 years and co- Venturing from his boyhood experi- authored The Legacy: Tradition and ences in Vancouver to his adulthood in Innovation in Northwest Coast Australia, singer-songwriter-ac- Indian Art (Royal B.C. Mu- tor Andy Quan eschews gay seum $36.95) with Peter erotica in his second poetry col- Macnair and Alan Hoo- lection, Bowling Pin Fire (Sig- ver. It features photographs of nature $14.95), in favour of works by 39 artists from a ex- intensely-felt reflections arising hibit that toured Canada and from a formative bilingual the United Kingdom in the schism: Cantonese at home, Andy Quan 1970s and early 1980s. Newly English at school. 1-897109-22-9 reprinted, The Legacy has reportedly sold 25,000 copies since 1984. 978-07726-5609-4 is for Roberts

Including a hockey team of Aussie is for Olafson misfits called the Didgeridoo All-Stars, Kevin Roberts’ novel She’ll Be As well as operating his own publish- Right (Pilot Hill Press $20) is a comic ing company since 1982, poet and mystery that revisits Kitsilano when it was Ekstasis Editions head honcho Rich- still a Yuppie-free zone. Those were the ard Olafson has become increas- days, my friend, we thought they’d never ingly active as the publisher of an end. Robert’s second novel doubles as emerging literary the second release periodical, Pacific from William Rim Review of Gough and his Books. Olafson is partner Caren also one of the Moon’s new lit- founders of the re- erary press on cently-revived Vic- Saltspring Island. toria literary arts 1-896687-98-9 Richard Olafson Kevin Roberts festival. continued on next page

9 BC BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2008 COVER

Before and after his death, her efforts to clear her husband’s name are heart- rending. In 1995, he finally received a ComradeComrade LiLi TELLSTELLS ALLALL respectful burial, in accordance with her pleas, eleven years after his death. Comrade Li also describes the Great Famine, forced abortions, infanticide, dis- ease epidemics, foot-binding and opium production by the Communist army. Having joined the army in 1945 and gained membership to the Communist Party in 1953, she repeatedly reveals the cruel and catastrophic policies of Mao from the perspective of a hard-working humanitarian who steadfastly provided medical treatment in a society that was sick to its political core. Although literary flair is absent, The Doctor Who Was Followed By Ghosts mer- its comparison with the work of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. That is, after reading it, one can never forget that Mao was a monster on par with Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler. Dr. Li Qunying officially retired from medicine in 1986. She has twice visited Canada, once staying in Vancouver for five months. She now lives in Jinan, Shandong Province. Her youngest son and co-author, Louis Luping Han, came to Canada in 1991. He lives in Vancouver with his wife, Patty. 978-1550227819 M.A.S.H. UNIT IN CHINA

Here Dr. Li describes a makeshift war- time clinic set up in a villager’s home Li Qunying met where bandages and gauze were boiled her husband-to-be and re-used. Han Wende in few days after the clinic was set up, an unconscious sol- 1950 when they dier was carried into the Aclinic on a stretcher. He had been were 25 years old. badly injured in a battle. For the first time, I assisted a surgeon during an operation. We had no alternative but to cut off both his arms and legs. I tried to ignore the chilling sound of bones being cut through with a small copper saw. When the patient re- gained consciousness, and found he orn in Inner Mongolia in 1926, Dr. Li Qunying by fear of arbitrary Communist Party had lost all his limbs and had only his offers a rare first-hand account of medical, military and persecution during various regimes. In torso remaining, he became hysteri- particular, she focuses on the terrible cal, refusing to eat or accept treat- Maoist atrocities, as well as U.S. biological warfare, in strains that she and her husband faced, ment. The Doctor who was Followed by Ghosts: The Family beginning with a bogus accusation that “Get the hell out of here,” he yelled he embezzled two thousand yuan dur- when I approached him. When I attempted to feed him, he Saga of a Chinese Woman Doctor (ECW $28.95). ing the Korean War, followed by tried to bite me. He missed, lost his As a young medic, she marched Qunying suggests the United States trumped-up accusations that he was an balance and couldn’t turn over by him- Bthrough Korea from the north with Chi- dropped more napalm in Korea than historical counter-revolutionary. self. He struggled and swore with the nese soldiers who suffered terribly from they did in Vietnam. During one such Through a matchmaker she had met most obscene words he could come frostbite during the Korean War. bombing, when her husband-to-be her handsome and “harmless” husband up with in his Shanxi dialect. “Some got it so bad that their feet and Han Wende caught on fire, she was Wende when he was employed as an ac- A month later, the patient was sent shoes froze together into one painful able to extinguish the flames. countant. “I couldn’t find much wrong back to his hometown. An official ac- companied him home. “What hap- mass. Overnight, there were soldiers fro- “The soldiers lived life like a bunch with him except that he was a noisy eater, pened to him?” I asked the official zen to death. They had to bury them in of rats. They stayed in their holes dur- which I assumed was a bad habit that when he came back a week later. the shallow snow because the ground was ing the daytime and came out at night.” that he would break after we got mar- “His mother refused to accept her frozen so solid that it was impossible to But she stops short of validating Chi- ried. But he never did.” They were mar- own son. She said that it wasn’t her dig holes in it.” nese claims that the Americans used germ ried in 1954. son because he hadn’t looked like that As a surgeon’s assistant she had to warfare. More likely that was a bogus ac- The Doctor Who Was Followed By when he had left home. ‘What have provide counselling to soldiers before, cusation to cover up the horrendously Ghosts is as much a family saga and a love you done to my son?’ she said. I didn’t during and after their agonizing ampu- unsanitary conditions that brought death story as it’s a political exposé. To escape know how to calm her down. I told her that revolution came with a cost. On tations, when limbs were removed with to thousands of Chinese troops in sup- unwarranted (and ridiculous) political the other hand, the wife vowed to take a copper saw. Only high-ranking offi- port of the North Korean regime. persecution under Chairman Mao care of him for the rest of his life.” cials received anaesthetic. At nightfall ✍ during the Cultural Revolution in 1970, “What is he going to do?” she disposed of the countless arms and Just as chillingly, Comrade Li reveals she and her husband escaped to the “We gave the family two hundred legs by burying them in a hole behind the extent to which ordinary citizens in countryside where she aided peasants as pounds of millet as a settlement.” the operating rooms. China have been largely governed a barefoot doctor.

13 BC BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2008 POLITICS

HE LEGAL RUCKUS OVER CHUCK In tandem with the release of his thor- Brian Mulroney’s stolen a pick-up that night, Cadman’s story has arisen ough biography, Zytaruk, an award-win- hopes for ratification. and Deas was wielding an Tlargely because the wife of the ning reporter for the Now regional Victim rights cam- 18-centimetre Japanese late Surrey MP, Dona Cadman— newspaper chain, has been circulating a paigner Chuck Cadman Tanto fighting knife he bizarrely, herself a candidate-to-be for tape recording of a somewhat ambigu- was the British Columbia had stolen during a break- the governing Conservatives—has veri- ous telephone conversation between version of that unsullied in. “The blade ran between fied biographer Tom Zytaruk’s report- himself and Harper that has fuelled the Everyman who ventures the seventh and eighth age that a bribe was offered to her dying debate. reluctantly into politics— ribs,” Zytaruk writes, “cut- husband by two representatives of staunchly independent— ting through Jesse’s left It all adds up to a story worthy of a Chuck Cadman, circa late Stephen Harper’s Conservative movie, a movie that has already been a venerable tradition that 1960s, would go on to teach lung and into his heart.” party in May of 2005. made—twice. dates back to Cincinnatus, his son Stairway to Heaven After the funeral serv- Tom Zytaruk writes on page 272: “In- ✍ the honest man who twice ice that opened with a cluded in their proposal, she said, was a In 1939, the Frank Capra drama rejected his role as the appointed dicta- video about Jesse’s life, set to the music $1 million life insurance policy—no small Mr. Smith Goes to Washington starred tor of the Roman Empire in order to re- of Led Zeppelin’s Stairway to Heaven,— carrot for a man with advanced cancer.” James Stewart as an earnest po- turn to his family farm. a song Chuck had been teaching Jesse Dona Cadman reportedly told Zytaruk, litical neophyte who turned the nation’s ✍ on the guitar—Cadman grew his trade- “There was a few other things thrown in capital on its head. In 2007, the CTV Born in Ontario in 1948, Chuck mark ponytail in honour of his son. there, too, but it was the million-dollar movie Elijah recalled Cadman spent several years as an as- Some family friends have speculated policy that just pissed him right off.” how the Cree piring rock music guitarist before that Chuck Cadman’s resultant zeal to As the lone independent MP elected MLA the realities of family life led him assert victims’ rights and bring changes in the 2004 election, Cadman had the Elijah to Surrey, commuting to an to the Young Offenders Act was born of power to bring down the teetering Lib- Harper ICBC job in North Vancouver. guilt as much as grief, but he publicly eral administration of Prime Minister rose in the Then one night in 1992 maintained otherwise. Paul Martin with his crucial swing Manitoba he and his wife received a Cadman, his wife and their friends vote. Allegedly repulsed by the blunt legislature, phone call from their 16- formed CRY, a lobbying group dedi- overtures made by the Conservatives, holding an year-old son Jesse, ask- cated to addressing problems arising Cadman got off his death bed, having eagle ing for a ride home. He was from Crime, Responsibility and Youth. already lost 50 pounds, and dramatically feather, and advised to take the bus. Not CRY and similiar groups called for voted with the Liberals on May 19, rejected the long after that, while walk- amendments to the Young Offenders Act 2005, in a confidence vote on an Meech ing along the Fraser High- that was introduced by Prime Minister amendment to the 2005 budget. Lake Ac- way with some friends, Jesse Trudeau’s Liberals in 1982 to replace By saying “yea,” creating a 152 to cord, was senselessly stabbed to death the Juvenile Delinquents Act of 1908. 152 tie in the vote, Cadman enabled thereby scut- by a chronic young offender, Also riled by the Charter of Rights Speaker Peter Milliken, a Liberal tling Prime 16-year-old Isaac Deas, dur- and Freedoms, Cadman gathered thou- MP, to rise and break the tie in the gov- Minister ing an unprovoked attack. sands of signatures for petitions and ernment’s favour. Never before had an Deas and several other spoke out in public. “The average Ca- independent MP ever wielded so much drunk and stoned nadian,” he said, “is now afraid to chal- power in the House of Commons. youths had lenge, criticize or voice his opinion about Only a few weeks later, at age anything for fear of being accused of rac- 57, Cadman died of skin can- ism, sexism, elitism, red-neckism or any cer in his Surrey home, re- other number of isms.” vered as a local hero, and CRY sent 400,000 letters to Ottawa. nationally admired for his “Like a BC salmon fighting upstream unswerving dedication to against unrelenting currents and con- revamp the Young Of- founded by obstacles along the way,” fenders Act and for his re- Zytaruk writes, “Chuck struggled to fusal to act outside the make distant Ottawa listen, only to be bounds of his conscience. beaten back by disappointment.” More than 1,500 people After Cadman’s rising public profile attended his funeral at caught the attention of Reform House Johnston Heights Church Leader Randy White, “the original on July 16, 2005. victim rights guy in the House of Com- Did Harper know mons,” Cadman was elected as a Re- about the offer of a finan- MR.CADMAN form MP for Surrey North in 1997, cial incentive in 2005? Lib- then re-elected for the Canadian Alli- eral leader Stéphane GOES TO OTTAWA—STILL ance Party in 2000, becoming their Dion has suggested he Justice Critic. Cadman lost the Conservative did—but Harper denies it. FEW B.C. BOOKS, IF ANY, HAVE EVER GENERATED SUCH A NATIONAL Party nomination in his riding to stir prior to publication as much as Tom Zytaruk’s Like A Jasbir Singh Cheema, a news anchor at Channel M in Vancouver, PRESS Rock: The Chuck Cadman Story (Harbour in 2004, but won the seat anyway, as an independent. His plainspoken ap-

CANADIAN $26.95). The Prime Minister of Canada peal was hard-won, not a gimmick. / launched a lawsuit against the Leader of the “I have been criticized for the HANSON length of my hair,” he once said, TOM Opposition—the first time any PM “but I believe that it is what is in one’s has ever done so in office—due to head that counts, not what is on it. As for my jeans, sneakers and accusations arising from the book. sweatshirt, well, three-piece suits have governed this country for decades and I’m not overly impressed with the result.” 978-1-55017-427-4

15 BC BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2008 POLITICS

lumbia (350) were disproportionately high due to the strength of the labour movement and the Communist Party on the West Coast. The RCMP maintained files on most of the surviving Canadian veterans of the Spanish War until at least 1984. Brothers These details can be found in Michael Petrou’s Renegades: Canadians in the Spanish Civil (UBC $24.95), the fourth major book How idealism was on its subject, following Victor Hoar’s The Mackenzie-Papineau vanquished in Spain Battalion in 1969, William Beeching’s Canadian Volunteers: grim Spain 1936-1939, and Mark Zuehlke’s The Gallant Cause in 1996. he poet Dorothy Livesay When Petrou began Renegades in 2002, fewer than ten Canadian once immortalized the freedom veterans of the Spanish Civil War were known to be living, including fighters in Spain by writing a Jules Paivio, who had faced a firing squad. He was one of the T very few who lived long enough to see the erection of a new statue in rebuke to Canadians who failed to appre- Ottawa to commemorate the Canadian idealists who went to Spain. ciate their noble struggle in the name of No book on Canadians fighting Generalissimo Franco could be complete without a chapter on the eccentric and frequently international brotherhood: drunk Montreal doctor Norman Bethune. His affair with the “You who live quietly in sunlit space tall Swede Kajsa Helin Rothmann (who died 30 years later in Reading The Herald after morning grace Mexico) contributed to his expulsion after only six months with the Can count peace dear, when it has driven republican forces, but not before he had pioneered mobile blood trans- Your sons to struggle for this grim, fusion units. new heaven.” If western governments had been swift to confront fascism in the Grim was the right word. Most Canadians mid-1930s, it’s possible much of the carnage of World War II could who supported the fledgling republican move- have been avoided. The Spanish Civil War is viewed by many histori- ment in Spain went there as idealists, fuelled Alex Forbes and Walter Hellund were ans as the first battle of World War II. “The democracies avoided war by naïve views of Stalinism—only to confront two of many Canadians who returned until it was forced on them,” writes Petrou. World War II started only death, internal political feuding or their own from Spain wounded in the 1930s. months after most of the Canadian volunteers returned from Spain. disintegrated dreams. 978-0-7748-1418-8 Of the 1700 Canadians who volunteered to join Inter- national Brigades to fight fas- cist forces during the Spanish Before his Civil War—and of the 400 famous stint with who died—some 80% were Mao Tse-Tung’s recent immigrants to Canada. revolutionary That’s just one of the reasons forces in China, why Canada’s government— Norman Bethune along with France, Britain and (left) made the United States—failed to medical history rally behind the Spanish Re- during the Spanish public. Civil War with his mobile blood Only about 250 Canadian transfusion units. volunteers had previous mili- The Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion’s tary service. The numbers of soccer team in Spain in 1938. volunteers from British Co-

ot likely to be confused with the author of Gone With the Wind, Nour Margaret Mitchell has penned an autobiography, No Laughing Matter: Adventure, Activism & Politics (Granville Island $24.95), so-named because male colleagues in the House of Commons openly Margaret ridiculed her when she first raised domestic violence as a social issue. Mitchell Ontario-raised, Mitchell came to Vancouver with her husband in 1955, having played a critical served overseas for the Red Cross during the Korean War. It was her tireless role in ensuring advocacy work for low-income housing that led to her election four times, from women were 1979 to 1992, as the NDP Member for Vancouver-East. After Mitchell became one of the first Canadian women to visit the People’s recognized in Republic of China in 1973, she pioneered efforts to demand redress for Chinese- the Charter of Canadians who had been forced to pay the head tax to enter Canada. Rights and Mitchell also helped to create the Strathcona Property Owner and Tenant Freedoms. Association which led to the rehabilitation of older housing, new homes, and other community improvements. In 1980, after she voted against a pension increase for MPs, Mitchell began diverting her pay increase to an account to help the Frankly, poorest in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. She donated these funds in 1997 to establish the Margaret Mitchell Fund for Women. As well, her late husband established the she gave a Margaret Anne Mitchell Endowment Fund at SFU to help women from Vancouver East complete university. Although Mitchell, who served as the first damn Chair of the B.C. Advisory Council on Human Rights, received the Helena Gutteridge Award for Community Service (1996) and the Order of B.C. (2000), her autobiography—the story of one of Western Canada’s foremost feminists— has been self-published. 1-894694-65-0

17 BC BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2008 RELIGION BLAME IT ON NEBUCHADNEZZAR n November of 2007, about 35 people entered a cave in the Penza region of Russia, about 650 kilometres southeast of Moscow, convinced the world would end in May. While these folks barricaded themselves into the cave, their leader, Pyotr Kuznetsov, remained outside the cave. IAfter cult members threatened to of the least-catchy titles in recent blow themselves up with gas canisters if memory. With extensive Biblical quota- police evicted them with force, a priest tions, Bergsma matches prophecies to specialising in apocalyptic literature was current events. able to coax some of the sect members “I chose as a front cover for my book out of the cave before it collapsed. the map of Iran,” he writes, “showing a Such apocalypse- nuclear explosion, be- minded nutters are in- cause according to bi- creasingly common in ble prophecy Iran will Russia since the disinte- attack Israel with nu- gration of the Soviet clear weapons in “the Union in 1991, but they latter days” together are far from abnormal with Russia…. on the planet. “The latter years in In his fourth book, the bible means the Have a Nice Dooms- time period, when for day (Harper $16.50), the first time in 2432 SFU history professor years since Nicholas Guyatt Nebuchadnezzar de- has examined the stroyed Jerusalem in “apocalyptic obsession” 605 BC and took the in the United States Jews to Babylon, the where, reportedly, some Jews have again a coun- 50 millions citizens are expecting the try called Israel, followed by the return apocalypse to occur in their lifetime. of Jerusalem during the Six Day War in Is the Antichrist a homosexual? Will 1967.” the Tribulation finally occur if Russia at- Now retired, Dutch-born Bergsma is tacks Israel? God only knows and He’s a devout member of the Christian Re- not giving interviews to Larry King formed Church. He immigrated to yet, so Guyatt travelled around the U.S. Canada at age 25. to discover what the apocalypse-minded Doomsday 978-0-06-115224-5; Prophecy 978-1-60266-063-2 in the United States are thinking and do- ing when they are not voting for George Bush. Jesus, figure of speech It’s a literary as well as a religious HE PROLIFERATION OF DOOMSDAY movement. Evangelicals have thus far believers, and the reinvigoration snatched up more than 60 million cop- Tof the time-honoured antipathy ies of the Left Behind series of novels between Muslims and Christians since from two of the most popular Second 9-11, has given rise to the spread of in- Coming salesmen, Tim LaHaye and creasingly vocal anti-religionists such as Jerry Jenkins, since 1995. Christopher Hitchens—but According to Guyatt, these so-called that doesn’t upset Greenpeace activist True Believers in Jesus’ Second Coming Rex Weyler. are mostly cheerful about the impend- Weyler has explored his Quakerism ing end of the world. by writing a new book about what Jesus Have a Nice Doomsday also looks at really said—as opposed to what others how these believers impact the culture have fictionalized as his words. and politics of the world’s most power- Weyler in his The Jesus Sayings: The ful nation, and what their influence Quest for the Authentic Teachings of might mean for the rest of the godfor- Jesus (Anansi $29.95), surveys more saken world. than 200 ancient documents in his “The creation of the Jewish State in search for the authentic voice of Jesus. 1948,” Guyatt writes, “provided the Along the way Weyler discounts many missing piece in the puzzle, generating contemporary beliefs, making clear that the upsurge in apocalyptic belief that has Jesus never claimed to be the son of God. propelled today’s most famous Bible While referencing the investigative prophecy interpreters into the main- Biblical scholarship of Margaret stream.” Starbird, Nicholas Wright, Nanaimo self-publisher William Robert W. Funk and others, Weyler Bergsma concurs in We Have Also attempts to answer down-to-earth ques- A More Sure Word of Prophecy 2 Pe- tions raised by the German linguist ter 1:19 (Xulon Press $13.99), surely one Hermann Reimarus in 1760:

18 BC BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2008 Bruce Sanguin is a United Church minister at the Canadian Memorial Church & Centre for Peace in Vancouver. PHOTO

HAYLETT

CHRIS

What events reported in the Gospels ac- Great by Christopher Hitchens and The tually happened? And, what ideas and Battle for God by Karen teachings from the surviving record can Armstrong as healthy rather than de- be traced to the historical Jesus? structive. In other words, Weyler asks, “What “A vast and glorious landscape exists can we reasonably say about the histori- between the extremes of religious fun- cal Jesus, and what did this person teach?” damentalism and absolute rationalism,” Weyler’s intentions are not to debunk he writes. Christianity so much as to refocus on the essence of Jesus’s radical message: serve God by serving others. In doing so, Darwin be praised Weyler is willing to acknowledge the va- nited Church minister lidity of “secular and agnostic reactions Bruce Sanguin would to violence among fundamentalist U agree. With his passion for Christians, Jews, Muslims, and Hindus.” reconciling science and religions, Sanguin He sees books such as The God Delusion strongly believes that knowledge of an by Richard Dawkins, God Is Not evolutionary universe requires a new cos- mology that “simply cannot be contained by old models and images of God, or by old ways of being the church.” Having urged readers to rediscover awe by considering their place within the 14-billion-year history of the cosmos with Darwin, Divinity, and the Dance of the Cosmos, Sanguin has written a fol- low-up volume, The Emerging Church: A Model for Change & a Map for Renewal (Wood Lake $24.95) to provide practical tips for congregations to revitalize their churches and reflect on what an “emergent” culture within a Rex Weyler: From Greenpeace congregation might look like. to Prince of Peace Jesus Sayings 978-0-88784-212-2; Emerging Church: 978-1-55145-566-2

19 BC BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2008 FILM BERGMANESQUE, NO MATTER HOW SHE SPLICED IT

Ingmar Bergman with his editor Ulla Ryghe

OW THAT EX-HOLLYWOOD STAR MEG TILLY HAS BEEN NOMI- nated for a B.C. Book Prize, we’re pleased to report that the edi- tor for Swedish film director Ingmar Bergman’s films in the 1960s, including Persona (1966), Ulla Ryghe, has moved to Victoria and published her memoirs, Travels in Wonderland (Montreal: Conundrum Press $20). “I admired that in the editing room,” she writes, “Bergman was always more intent Non getting it right than being right.… Bergman’s capacity to let go of self-indulgent and/or superfluous material was also remarkable, and I never saw him fall for the allure of an image even though he clearly loved it.” Born in Sweden in 1924, Ryghe worked for the NFB in Montreal and helped establish film schools in Sweden and Australia. She was also editor for Bergman’s Through a Glass Darkly (1961), Winter Light (1963), The Silence (1963), All These Women (1964), Stimulantia (1968), Hour of the Wolf (1968) and Shame (1968). 978-1-894994-31-6

Wider Boundaries of Daring DEMONIC DRUGS The Modernist Impulse in Canadian Women’s Poetry How celluloid depicts drugs other than alcohol Di Brandt and Barbara Godard, editors $36.95 Paper • 978-1-55458-032-3 • November 2008 HE FIRST FILM ABOUT DRUGS, CHI- Announces a bold revision of the genealogy of Canadian tives and how cinematic representations literary modernism by foregrounding the contribution of nese Opium Den, was made of illegal drug use and trafficking (re- women poets, critics, cultural activists, and experimental in 1894 as a half-minute-long gardless of drug type) are linked to dis- prose writers Dorothy Livesay, P.K. Page, Miriam T courses about fears of ‘the Other,’ nation Waddington, Phyllis Webb, Elizabeth Brewster, Jay silent film (Kinetograph). Featured at building, law and order, and punish- MacPherson, Anne Wilkinson, Anne Marriott, and Elizabeth penny arcades, and produced by ment. Smart. Thomas Edison’s film studio called “I also write about alternative films and stoner flicks,” she says, “and I in- Open Wide a Wilderness Black Maria, it sparked a host of other clude a chapter on women and mater- Canadian Nature Poems nal drug use.” According to Boyd, some Nancy Holmes, editor “opium” movies. Today only stills of $38.95 Paper • 978-1-55458-033-0 • December 2008 Chinese Opium Den exist. of the most significant Canadian drug Environmental Humanities series films are: High (1967) directed by L. The first anthology to focus on the rich tradition of Canadian Despite the plethora of films since Kent; The Barbarian Invasions (2003) nature poetry in English,Open Wide a Wilderness surveys 1894, only three books on drugs and directed by D. Arcand; On the Cor- Canada’s various regions, poetries, histories, and peoples as these relate to the natural world. The poems range from late- cinema have been ner (2003) directed by eighteenth-century colonial pioneer epics to the work of published prior to N. Geary; and contemporary writers who are creating a new ecopoetic aes- Susan Boyd’s Trailer Park Boys thetic. Hooked: Drug War (2006) directed by M. Films in Britain, Clattenburg. Her Asian Canadian Writing beyond Canada, and the favorites are The Bar- Autoethnography United States barian Invasions and Eleanor Ty and Christl Verduyn, editors $38.95 Paper • 978-1-55458-023-1 (Routledge $95), a Trailer Park Boys (and The contributors to this collection explore how Asian Cana- survey that includes their Showcase epi- dian writing has become less ethnographically autobiograph- Canadian “drug” sode titled Trailer Park ical and more aesthetically and ideologically transgressive. films, as well as British Boys Xmas Special and U.S. productions, (2004). All These Roads from 1912 to the Some of the stills The Poetry of Louis Dudek included in her book Selected with an introduction by Karis Shearer present. Afterword by Frank Davey Boyd is keenly are from Broken Blos- $14.95 Paper • 978-1-55458-039-2 • Laurier Poetry series aware that widespread soms (1919); Narcotic This collection of 35 of Dudek’s poems written over the course drug prohibition (1933); Reefer Mad- of his 60-year career reveal his belief in the power of poetry emerged at the same ness (1936); Valley of and its influence on life. Shearer’s introduction provides a time as the discovery the Dolls (1967); career overview and Davey’s afterword discusses the poet’s of film. “Their histo- Drugstore Cowboy broad influence. ries intersect in inter- (1989); Postcards from Wilfrid Laurier University Press esting ways,” says the Edge (1990) and Order from your favourite bookstore or call 1-800-565-9523 • Visit www.wlupress.wlu.ca for more information Boyd, who focuses on Trainspotting (1996). war-on-drugs narra- Poster for Narcotic (1933) 978-0-415 95706-9

20 BC BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2008 guage lessons, dictionaries, cultural read- LOOKOUT #31 3516 W. 13th Ave., Vancouver, BC V6R 2S3 [email protected] ers and kids’ picture books now!” While Powell continued to teach at university and write “respectable” aca- demic papers, Jensen accepted an invi- a forum tation from Alan Haig-Brown to try editing Westcoast Mariner Magazine. for & It turned into a four-year stint. She has also written books on native art and mari- about time life, eventually setting up her own company, Westcoast Words, for her nar- writers: row-niche books on underwater robots and a guide to local totem poles. LOOKOUT ✍ After they produced their first Quileute school books in 1975, the phone in Vancouver started ringing. “In A Salmon on the Doorknob 1980-81, when we lived in Alert Bay, we wrote 13 books, helped with opening How one couple has happily worked “forty years in U’mista Cultural Centre, taught a pho- tography class, and had a second baby.” the margins” on behalf of First Nations’ languages Their commitment to the work didn’t change, but technology did, as did their rows and seagulls are squabbling in the road. From Jensen says. “We’ve been so busy writing methodology. “In the beginning, we and publishing ‘in the margins’ that thought good-looking, respectable school her computer Vickie Jensen can just see the surf we’ve never been a significant part books would be enough. Then we real- crashing on the shore, but the fog has totally obscured of the mainstream publishing picture. ized that while the elders might be fluent James Island at the mouth of the Quileute River. “But we have no regrets. Recently some- in the language, none had any experience C one left a salmon hanging on our doorknob. in classroom dynamics. So we added She and her husband Jay Powell Flash photography was not permitted It’s the kind of anonymous thank you teacher’s manuals to our repertoire. are once again in LaPush, a small native in potlatches or feast ceremonies, so that really means something here.” “When that didn’t prove as effective village on the northwest coast of the Ol- Jensen learned to work with very slow ✍ as we’d hoped, we set up a three-year ympic Peninsula in Washington, helping shutter speeds. “I also developed the negs The books they produced are copy- Kwak’wala Teacher Training Project, the Quileute [pronounced Kwil-LAY- and printed the images myself,” she says, righted for the native band. This ap- where teachers would not only learn yute] revive their language and culture. “Because we were always on a meager proach proved problematic for Powell’s about NASL (Native as a Second Lan- While Powell is off at the tribal school, budget, we were limited to b&w images teaching career at UBC. guage) techniques but could share ideas, cajoling a class of teenagers into trying and illustrations as part of our photo- “The anthropology department produce group materials, and get post words like kitaxt’ik’als (Go home) or Hista ready copy.” might have thought our work was inter- secondary credit, first through North Is- tasi (Gimme five!), Jensen recalls her first Long before computers were an op- esting and even important,” says Jensen, land Community College and later SFU. visit 36 years ago. In those days, 50 tion, theirs was a thriving desktop opera- “but the books certainly didn’t count for “Eventually we did our first immer- Quileute could speak their indigenous tion. They tape-recorded the elders and promotion or tenure since they hadn’t sion CD-ROM for young kids. Back in language; 600 could not. Very quickly used a typewriter with a special IBM been produced by a juried press. Aca- 1980 there were only old men ‘at the the number of Quileute speakers on the Selectric ball in order to produce the demics were uncomfortable with lan- log,’ singing the ancient Kwak’wala songs reservation dwindled to a handful. necessary diacritic markings. They used guage and culture books that seemed too at potlatches. Today, there’s a whole gen- “Jay and I didn’t know it at the time,” Letraset to transfer titles, hired an illus- much like pragmatic self-publishing, eration of powerful young singers (and she says, “but that was the beginning of trator, developed and printed photo- which in those days was categorized with dancers) making their own CDs.” our life together.” graphs, planned the layout, stuck vanity press works that nobody but the Forty years. Forty books. 50,000 pho- After Fred ‘Woody’ Woodruff, everything in place with tape or wax, and author would publish. tos. Plus thousands of hours on reserva- one of the last remaining Quileute speak- then found a printer who could print “But the process of “real” publishing tions and in classrooms. ers, had the patience to teach his lan- and bind within allowable budgets. took two to three years to accept a manu- It adds up to two of the most valu- guage to Powell, the young Powell and Jensen invariably lived on script, have it reviewed, seek subventions, able authors of British Columbia. anthropologist began his lifelong career the rez, often with a family, and returned edit and re-edit, proofread and print. Jay Powell’s forty years of anthropological work as one of the most essential linguists in year after year. Publications were usually “So, instead we did it ourselves, some- in the Pacific Northwest and Vickie Jensen’s the Pacific Northwest. celebrated with a community feast. “This times producing a book in six weeks. The 50,000 First Nations photos will be donated to UBC Museum of Anthropology in 2009. Since then Vickie Jensen has shot more body of work sort of sneaked up on us,” native communities wanted their lan- than 50,000 photographs and the cou- ple has helped produce more than 40 Vickie Jensen language and culture books for the and Jay Powell at Quileutes, the Kwakwaka’wakw, the LaPush, on the Halkomelem, the Eastern and Western Quileute Reservation Gitksan, the Shushwap, and the Nuu- chah-nulth. “A language is like a species of bird,” Powell has said, “that has evolved across thousands of generations. How hard would we work to save such a bird from becoming extinct?” ✍ Jay Powell first came to LaPush in 1968 to research his Ph.D dissertation as a University of Hawaii graduate stu- dent. When Jensen joined him in 1972, she was already teaching students who didn’t fit into mainstream schools. “We debated whether the languages of the coast were doomed and how to rekindle pride and cultural interest,” she says. “We eventually decided to produce a couple of schoolbooks that the elders could use in teaching at the school. “We felt it was particularly important that these materials look respectable, like ‘real’ schoolbooks rather than a handful of dog-eared mimeos. I insisted that they be illustrated with photographs of local kids and of village life on the rez.”

21 BOOKWORLD • LOOKOUT • SUMMER • 2008 THEATRE

Anita Majumdar Bombay Black

If there’s a new kid on the theatre block, following in Morris Panych’s footsteps, it’s gotta be Anosh Irani, whose latest play, Bombay Black, ran on Granville Island in February and March. Sub- titled ‘A Seductive Romance,’ Bombay Black Anosh Irani premiered in Toronto where it received the Dora Pollack profiled Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding New Play of 2006. Bombay Black ✍ is a harrowing tale of love, revenge, myth and magic evolved from an im- The more things change, the more they stay the same. The While serving as president, Academy 1, of the Royal So- two plays contained in Guillermo Verdecchia’s An- ciety of Canada, UBC’s Sherrill Grace is publishing age he had of a young woman performing an erotic dance in an apartment other Country / bloom (Talonbooks $17.95) were written Making Theatre: A Life of Sharon Pollack (Talonbooks by the sea in Bombay, while a blind man lurks in the shadows. “Why the decades apart but offer similar reflections of American geo- $39.95), her biography of the ground-breaking, New Bruns- blind man watching the woman dance,” he asked himself. political manipulations. Originally titled Final Decisions [War], wick-raised playwright who has overcome an abusive mar- Verdecchia’s first play, Another Country, was his response to riage to raise six children and win two Governor General’s Featuring Anita Majumdar as the dancer Apsara, Bombay his home country Argentina’s Dirty War in 1976-83. He cites Awards for Drama (for Blood Re- Black charts the seduction of Apsara by a mysterious blind man the complicity of the U.S. in the junta’s war against subversives lations, and Doc). As a playwright, named Kamal. Bombay Black and The Matka King have been jointly via the auspices of the public relations firm of Burson-Marsteller. director, actor and artistic direc- His most recent play called bloom is replete with images from tor, Pollock has been at the fore- published in The Bombay Plays (Playwrights Canada $19.95). “I think T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land as he critically examines the Ameri- front of Canadian theatre for four he’s one of Canada’s most promising writers,” says Arts Club Artistic can government’s so-called War on Terror. 978-0-88922-570-1 decades. 978-0-88922-586-2 ✍ Director Bill Millerd. ✍ As the first recipient of the City As the co-artistic producer of Born in Bombay, Inosh Irani was raised as a Zoroastrian near Bom- of Vancouver’s Cultural Harmony neworldtheatre, Marcus bay’s red light district. As an only child in a Parsi colony, separated from Award, David Diamond, co- published his revised Youssef founder of Headlines Theatre, has version of Adrift (Talonbooks both Hindus and Muslims, he used to tell stories to his pet cockatoo, digested his 36 years as a theatri- $16.95) inspired by the novel Sherrill Grace Polly. Having worked as a dancer and advertising copy editor, Irani moved cal activist for Theatre for Living: Adrift on the Nile by Egyptian Morris Panych has not only entered the mainstream to Vancouver with several friends in 1998. The Art and Science of Commu- Nobel laureate . Set amongst hip —he is redefining it. Naguib Mahfouz nity-Based Dialogue (Trafford partygoers on a Cairo houseboat during the U.S. invasion of “Bombay is a kind of place that is haunting and exciting,” $29.95). Diamond has written Iraq, the play begins as a comedy as a petty bureaucrat named says Irani. “It has a lot of soul but it also has a lot and/or directed 400 community- Anis falls in love with a hijab-clad journalist named Samara, Black humour of pain. And also every character you see specific theatre projects on social but tragedy arises from the friction between Western impe- David Diamond issues. His Headlines productions Aptly described as “dancing between hope and despair,” rialism and its counterpart in the Arab world: religious fun- in Bombay has a wonderful story.” ’s absurdist comedies have long attracted include NO’ XYA (Our Footprints), Morris Panych damentalism. An earlier draft of 978-0-88754-560-3 Out of the Silence, Mamu, Squeegee, Corporate U, Here and critical praise, as well as perplexed responses. In his latest pub- the play was co-commissioned by Now, Meth and Practicing Democracy. 978-1-4251-2458-8 lication, Benevolence (Talonbooks $16.95), which premiered the Magnetic North Theatre Fes- ✍ at the Tarragon Theatre in Toronto in September of 2007, a tival and produced by An HIV positive young fisherman from Nova Scotia hitch- shoe salesman and would-be screenwriter named Oswald, on neworldtheatre in 2006 in St. a seemingly irrational impulse, gives a hundred dollar bill to John’s, Newfoundland, co-written hikes to Vancouver looking for his mother and ends up living a street person named Terence. with Camyar Chai, its direc- on the streets in Death in a Dumpster: A Passion Play for The lowly Terence has continually worn a handwritten tor. The revised version, also di- the Homeless (Lazara $14.95) by Sheila Baxter. cardboard sign around his neck saying “hungry” for two years. 0-920999-09-3 rected by Chai, premiered at the ✍ In this screwball comedy-turned-nightmare, Oswald’s seem- Vancouver East Cultural Centre ing rash act of kindness leads to a reversal of fortunes. After in February of 2007. It received The Stone Face by Sherry some bizarre encounters with Terence in a porn theatre, (Anvil $15) con- the 2007 Alcan Performing Arts Marcus Youssef MacDonald Oswald ends up penniless and on the run for a murder he Award. 978-0-88922-585-5 cerns a first-time film director didn’t commit, involved with a former hooker, whether he ✍ named Alan who enters an altered likes it or not. Michael Lewis Mac- universe resembling the surreal In 2003, Panych’s Girl in the Goldfish Bowl—a poignant Lennan’s Life After God: The world of a film by comedian comedy about childhood, innocence and fish—received five Play (Playwrights Canada Buster Keaton. A world Dora Mavor Moore Awards, including Outstanding New $16.95) is adapted from a where even Samuel Beckett Play and Outstanding Direction of a Play. It also earned Douglas Coupland short does a walk-on. The play examines Panych his second Governor General’s Award in 2004. story and Coupland’s book City the way art is created and how a Sherry MacDonald Panych won his first G.G. for The Ends of the Earth in 1994 of Glass. The play revolves around life is lived. 1895636876 and his darkly comic What Lies Before Us was nominated for six high school friends searching ✍ the same award last year. 978-0-88922-584-8 for purpose and meaning in life Andrew Irvine, a past president of the BC Civil Lib- as they face the disillusionment of erties Association, has written Socrates on Trial: A play based Michael Lewis MacLennan Black like her adulthood. 978-088754-746-1 on Aristophanes’ Clouds and Plato’s Apology, Crito, and Dedicated to American poet Maya Phaedo adapted for modern performance (UTP $17.95). Angelou, actor Addena Sumter- The play tells the story of the trial and execution of the an- Frietag first performed her one-woman play cient Greek philosopher Socrates. Was Socrates really one of about growing up in Winnipeg’s North End the most ethical figures during the 1950s and 1960s, Stay Black and in the history of west- Die (Commodore $16) in 1995 at the Edison ern civilization? Or was Electric Company Theatre in Vancouver. It’s he a fake and a cheat about Penny, the only Black child in a largely who deserved to be put immigrant neighbourhood, who often hears to death for corrupting her mother say, “You’re Black. You’re going to so many young people, stay Black and die.” some of whom went on As an adult and a seventh-generation Black to betray their country Canadian, Addena Sumter-Frietag frequently in time of war? experienced frustration as a member of a vis- STAGETOPAGE In this modernized ible minority within the country’s theatre com- interpretation of an- munity. These personal hurdles led her to write cient Greek dialogues, Stay Black and Die, which gained her Theatre A ROUND-UP OF NEW WORKS the audience gets to de- PHOTO

BC’s National Playwriting Award and cide Socrates’ fate. The Centaur’s Theatre’s People’s Choice Award at play was recently staged Andrew Irvine: LAUENER the Montreal Fringe Festival. Socrates it to me at UBC.

978-0-9683182-7-0 Addena Sumter-Frietag JOHN 978-0-8020-9538-1

22 BC BOOKWORLD • LOOKOUT • SUMMER • 2008 23 BC BOOKWORLD • LOOKOUT • SUMMER • 2008 CRAFTS

uring her three decades tive essay, Getting Things Done: On Nee- dlecraft & Free Time suggests that knit- of publicizing other artists ting is a radically subversive activity in and their work, Paula an era that emphasizes materialism and speed. Gustafson avoided PAULA BE Inadvertently akin to the “slow food” Dhaving photographs taken of herself movement, public knitters are steadfastly non-efficient reminders that meditative for publicity purposes. That’s why and constructive activities can serve as Paula Gustafson’s third and final vol- antidotes to the established socioeco- ume of essays, Craft Perception and PRAISED nomic order. “It important to realize,” Stratton Practice: A Canadian Discourse REMEMBERING PAULA GUSTAFSON (1941-2006) writes, “that knitters are, by and large, NOT professional activists or political (Ronsdale $26.95), does not provide for arts magazines and served as the edi- Arlene Oak and Kirsty artists; nor should they have to be.... tor and co-designer of an illustrated bi- Robertson. any image of the ever-industrious edi- “Perhaps what makes knitting impor- ography by artist John Koerner. Paula Gustafson's own contribution tant is its stubbornness. It refuses to be tor. Instead, in a dignified afterword, More importantly, Paula Gustafson records the creation of Stardale Wom- pinned down. It is neither an economi- co-founded Artichoke: Writings about the en’s Group, a weaving cooperative that co-editor Nisse Gustafson has cally efficient way to clothe people, nor are Visual Arts in 1989 and became its sole was established to foster healing and self- knitters overtly challenging oppression and offererd a patchwork quilt of memo- editor and publisher in 1995. After its esteem amongst Cree women who live stopping war with fuzzy scarves. But what demise due to financial constraints in in and near Melfort, Saskatchewan. ries of her multi-talented mother. it does undo, one stitch at a time, is the 2005, she edited Calgary-based Galler- Shannon Stratton’s provoca- ✍ idea that efficiency is a cultural value.” ies West magazine. “When I was about five years old, my Craft Perception and Practice Gustafson’s first monograph, Salish mother began working with textiles,” she was co-edited with Weaving (Douglas & McIntyre, 1980), writes. “The scent of lanolin from newly . was based on her extensive research in Amy Gogarty sheared wool permeated the house, and Craft Perception, Vol. 3: museums in Europe and North 978-1-55380-052-1 my little hands were put to use carding America. She also produced a history of it to take out the chaff. the Crafts Association of British Co- “I also fondly remember foraging lumbia called Mapping the Terrain. through the wilds to gather goldenrod, ✍ lichen, cattails and chestnuts, which my Born in Abbotsford on mother stewed in a crockpot to make Feb. 25, 1941, Paula natural dyes. Gustafson died on July “When the wool was dyed and dried, 11, 2006 after a brief she spun it by hand on an old-fashioned battle with cancer. She wooden spinning wheel that went was widely respected for ‘thunkety-thunkety-thunk’ as she her breadth of appreciation worked the foot treadle. for the arts, not mired within “Later I would watch as the big balls any particular discipline or of wool yarn were deftly transformed camp. into sweaters, scarves and tapestries by To accompany more than 40 full- my mother's able hands.... colour photos of works in various craft “One glorious summer she took a media, Craft Perception and Practice Vol. bronze casting course in Red Deer. For III contains 21 essays by artists such as weeks, the old crockpot was filled with Mackenzie Frère, Ruth warm beeswax, which she sculpted into Scheuing and Murray seed pod-shaped vessels to be cast in Gibson; theorists such bronze. as Paul Mathieu, “To this day, I love the smell of Sandra Alfoldy, beeswax, not only for its sweet aroma, but also for the memories it evokes of my mother sculpting wax forms on the picnic table in our back yard.... All of these sensory experiences have stayed with me, and in many ways have influ- enced who I am.” Although Gustafson’s craftmanship extended to pottery, watercolour paint- ing, textiles, spinning, bronze casting and paper-making, her first love was always writing. “The sound of her electric typewriter was a constant clickety-clack,” Nisse re- calls. “In later years she replaced it with a succession of computers, the keyboards Nisse of which had to be replaced every sec- Gustafson ond year because she wore down the plastic keys with so much typing.” A recipient of the first Jean A. Chalmers Fund for the Crafts Award for critical writing on Canadian crafts, Paula Gustafson wrote more than 300 articles

“If, in the unlikely event I leave a few tracks in the sands of time, I'd prefer them to be dancing footprints, not plodding or tentative steps.” — PAULA GUSTAFSON

25 BC BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2008 reviews NON-FICTION MASTER OF MEMORABILIA Everything must be kept, including the archivist.

The Man Who Saved Vancouver by Daphne Sleigh Robinson declared the archives in Matthews’ (Heritage $19.95) house were the property of the city, and ordered his solicitor to charge that the goods were stolen. he remarkable and often amusing story of Matthews, however, had his own loyal supporters, how a blustery amateur historian named chief among them being John Hosie, the Provin- TMajor James Skitt Matthews single- cial Archivist in Victoria, whom he regularly bom- handedly created an archival record for the early barded with letters. The outcome was that the years of Vancouver has finally merited a biography, library board appointed Major Matthews as City Ar- Daphne Sleigh’s The Man Who Saved Vancouver. chivist and absolved the board from any future re- That a self-taught historian with no formal cre- sponsibility for the Archival material. dentials should have accomplished a task of such Battles continued—over the location of the Ar- magnitude is a heroic story, but it is comic in its chives, over acquisitions, expenditures on printers account of a colourful eccentric, almost a Dicken- and embossers, extravagant purchases of paintings sian caricature, in the grip of an obsession. and sculptures of important events and figures. No Matthews was an unstoppable juggernaut who matter how admirable the projects, nothing vanquished or outlasted so many opponents that seemed to be accomplished without controversy. the will to oppose him often simply evaporated. The statue of Lord Stanley near the entrance to Matthews’ apoplectic rages were legendary. Stanley Park was one such project. He conceived One visitor recounted that he once became so en- and executed the plan for it in 1952, optimisti- raged in railing against the maple leaf flag that he cally expecting 5,000 donors to cover the $4,500 tumbled from his chair to the floor. It cost. Luckily, in this instance, the funds took two people to haul him back. A “re- eventually materialized. storative” had to be administered by an ✫ experienced assistant to help him regain Along with Matthews’ tempestuous his equanimity. A heart-attack personal- career as an archivist, Sleigh provides an- ity for sure, one would have thought, but other linked narrative, his inner per- he lived to the age of ninety-one. sonal story. It begins in Wales where Matthews’ final triumph was his re- Matthews, the middle of three sons, was fusal to leave the civic stage after the Li- JOAN GIVNER born. The key figure of his childhood brary Council gave up all its efforts to was the mother he idolized. A strong- unseat him. “I have no intention of retiring,” he willed dominant woman of great beauty, seven years said in 1969. The next year he died and was given older than her husband, she was notable for her a hero’s funeral. His coffin, in one last defiant ges- restless energy. She had already instigated moves ture, was draped with the Union Jack. from house to house in Wales when she decided ✫ that the family should emigrate. They moved to When Matthews began his monumental task of New Zealand when Matthews was nine. He re- generating an extensive public archives for Van- mained there after their farming venture failed couver, at age 50, he was a war hero, having sur- and his parents began another series of moves— vived trench warfare only to find his position with Wales, South America, a return to Wales, back to Imperial Oil was to be less prestigious than the one New Zealand, a final settling in Wales—that would he had left prior to the fighting. Matthews did not continue throughout their lives. take kindly to this demotion and so, after a series Matthews himself left New Zealand for the of other unsatisfactory jobs, he decided to work on United States when he was twenty and soon arrived his own family history, and amass the nucleus of a in Vancouver. He often described it as a “magic city” collection of City of Vancouver memorabilia. growing out of a forest of trees taller than the monu- After Matthews persuaded Edgar Robinson, the mental buildings. Along the way, his story includes city librarian, to allow him to occupy a caretaker’s his early loss of a young sister and then a brother, room in an attic, and work there without a salary, the departure of his first wife in spite of his strenu- he took possession of “the dirtiest room in Vancou- ous efforts to keep her, the loss of the most beloved ver” (cobwebs, peeling wallpaper, fallen plaster) of his three sons, a second harmonious marriage, in 1931, brought furniture and memorabilia from the attempt to make a home in Vancouver for his his home, and put a handwritten sign saying AR- widowed mother, her sudden flight from that home CHIVES on the door. Having got a foot in the door, and the pain of being disinherited by her. he gradually expanded his territory and generally Now, thanks to Sleigh’s diligence, every biogra- became the bane of Robinson’s life. When he re- pher, historian, and amateur genealogist can eas- ceived a grant of $100 to be spent “under the di- ily recognize Matthews’ achievement in preserving rection of the librarian,” Matthews ignored the documents, no matter how apparently insignificant, librarian and recklessly overspent on acquisitions. and in recording interviews with minor as well as Matthews scored a major triumph by having a major figures. British MP and a president of the British Museums It is a moving story but I wish the author had Association visit both his attic in Vancouver and the pushed a little further than merely retelling it. Bi- Provincial Archives in Victoria. After his visitor was ographers often hesitate to veer into shocked by the contrast, Matthews, adept at ma- psychobiography or medical case history, yet the con- nipulating the media, exploited the situation to nection between these two highly idiosyncratic fig- the full. As a consequence, he was given a salary of ures—Matthews and his mother—bears going into, $30 a month out of the library budget and operat- especially since a rich collection of personal letters ing costs of $390. provides ample scope for analysis. Was his compul- One final issue led to open warfare between sive behaviour, his tendency to swing between eu- him and Robinson. Although Matthews was in- phoric energy and uncontrollable rage, the Major James structed to use library notepaper, he had his own perpetual dissatisfaction (Sleigh calls him “an invet- crested stationery printed. THE ARCHIVES stood erate grumbler”) related to his mother—an effect Matthews out in Gothic letters atop the city’s coat of arms, of her influence, an inherited temperament, or raised the while Vancouver Public Library appeared below in even a mental disorder? Since many exceptional and Union Jack miniscule print. When Robinson returned from creative people suffer from bi-polar or similar prob- every Sunday holiday to receive an invoice for 250 letterheads, lems, such considerations in no way diminish his great at his Arbutus he was outraged. He informed Matthews that his achievement or detract from his personal courage. work would terminate at the end of the year, where- 978-1-894974-39-4 Street home in upon Matthews removed the whole collection back Joan Givner, a life-long habitué of archives, was described Vancouver. to his own home—carting boxes back to his over- by Penelope Gilliatt in The London Review of Books as flowing basement for a whole month. “raping libraries all over the Free West.”

27 BC BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2008 review NON-FICTION DISOWNING THE PODIUM Christopher Shaw’s dystopian allegations in Five Ring Circus will infuriate some; galvanize others.

BY ROD DROWN payers of Calgary about a billion hausted. Five Ring Circus: Myths & Realities of the The troubles that beset the Ol- dollars. On the local Lower Mainland Olympic Games by Christopher A. Shaw ympic torch relay this year are but Citing the research of level Shaw says that there has (New Society Publishers $19.95) a foretaste of things to come. So Walkom and others, Shaw points been zero accountability by how will mega-event organizers in out much of the cost for Calgary’s VANOC and all other levels of eferring to Montreal Olympics was for infrastructure, government so far as the true B.C. deal with malcontents? Mayor Jean Drapeau’s over $451 million for luge runs costs of the games. R infamous claim that his CKNW open-line radio host and ski jumps —all later sold off He shows that the environ- 1976 Montreal Olympics had Michael Campbell has stated dur- to a private company for $1. mental destruction of West Van- about as much chance of losing ing one of his broadcasts that he ✫ couver’s Eagle Ridge will be money as a man has of having a believes the validity of hosting the In Chapter 10, while deni- duplicated in the Callaghan Val- baby, in Five Ring Circus anti- Games should no longer be de- grating the mainstream press for ley north of Whistler as that area Games activist Chris Shaw sug- its lap dog-like adulation of the is opened up as part of the Ol- bated. And even left-wing mayoralty gests that the 2010 Games will Chris Shaw games, he doesn’t spare the ympic venue and its support sys- make B.C. taxpayers really really candidate Jim Green advised back Mother Corp (CBC). tem. pregnant. in 2003, “Now is the time to support, now is the time to come “It was, for me,” he writes, “a He also predicts major scan- And Shaw continues to pre- on-side. It doesn’t do any good to run behind the parade real awakening to find that CBC dals as the financial shenanigans dict it’s going to get messy. Back and try to kick up dust.” could usually be counted on to in the Callaghan and the ath- in 2003, Shaw was telling If opposition to the Games will henceforth be deemed toe the party line and uncritically lete’s village are revealed. Maclean’s magazine, “I honestly parrot pro-Olympics hype.” ✫ anti-social behaviour, Chris Shaw’s Five Ring Circus will think this is going to be the most In contrast, private radio, TV Forget, too, about social scandal-ridden Games ever.” surely be anathema to event organizers and those who stand and print media sometimes of- housing or “inclusivity,” result- As the financially crippling to benefit from the Games. He is unequivocably opposed. fered up unbiased reporting. ing from the games. Rather Summer Olympics in Athens But free speech is more precious than gold medals. Rare exceptions cited include there will be more homeless, demonstrated, “a litany of prom- Vaughn Palmer, Daphne Brah- urban poor and displacement— ises—all later broken—are development that benefit Big they will chiefly benefit private man and Rafe Mair. and increasing gentrification. made about people and the Labour. business interests—and are When the games are over and environment to garner public Five Ring Circus also insists mostly funded by taxpayers. the total costs are toted up, Shaw support,” writes Shaw, “and mindless boosterism has over-rid- According to Shaw, the 1988 predicts there will be a deficit of once the bid is won, costs esca- den critical media coverage as Calgary Olympics was a prime no less than $5.7 billion. According to late wildly out of control.” journalists repeatedly fail to re- example of taxpayer gouging. He also forewarns that Shaw, of the 37 As spokesman for the anti- search and critique the claims He praises investigative To- VANOC will likely go cap in hand 2010 organization NO GAMES, of the Olympic dream mer- ronto Star journalist Thomas again, asking for additonal pub- people on the Shaw alleges the Vancouver- chants. Walkom who found that those lic funds, once its $27 million Whistler 2010 Winter Olympic Shaw looks askance at pro-Ol- supposedly profitable games ac- contingency fund (originally con- 2010 Vancouver- Games will mainly serve to en- ympics initiatives and events if tually ended up costing the tax- taining $139 million) is ex- rich real estate developers like Whistler Bid Jack Poole by building taxpayer- Corporation, 22 funded projects such as the RAV, Athletes Village and Con- are involved in vention Centre in Vancouver. Shaw claims those three infra- either business structure projects, along with the or real estate Highway 99 upgrade to Whistler, are examples of a world-wide development. phenomenon in which “real es- tate developers organize and drive the Olympic bids.” He predicts that security According to Shaw, of the 37 measures will become a huge people who were part of the expense and will serve to tarnish 2010 Vancouver-Whistler Bid civil liberties during the games Corporation, 22 are involved in and for years afterward. either business or real estate de- He concludes his book by velopment. predicting how each and every The words of Poole, Chair- promise made in 2002 will even- man of Concert Properties and tually be revealed as a lie. of VANOC (The Vancouver It’s an alarmingly one-sided Games Organizing Committee), attack on the credibility of the are used to support Shaw’s ar- entire undertaking and a gument that the games are less wakeup-call to anyone who is about pristine athletic competi- being lulled into a false sense of tion and more about real estate security that we can fully trust maneuvering: the powers-that-be. “If the Olympic bid was not For good measure, or rather happening, we would have had bad, Shaw also provides some dis- to invent something.” turbing information about the ✫ workings of the International Ol- Shaw also quotes political ympic Committee. leaders such as former Vancou- This group, which flies ver Mayor Larry Campbell—“ around the world (almost always [The games won’t] cost (the at prospective host cities’ ex- citizens of Vancouver) one pense) inspecting cities for their penny”—and accuses Big La- Olympics-worthiness, pays no bour of collusion in the process. taxes, is very secretive about its Big Labour pension funds are bank accounts and has diplo- often used to finance projects matic status. by Big Developers. Chris Shaw is a Los Angeles- Political opposition to the born neuroscientist who became Games has been negligible, a Canadian citizen in 1990. partly because former NDP pre- 978-0-86571-592-9 ILLUSTRATION miers such as Michael Harcourt and Glen Clark tended to sup- Cultural critic Rod Drown is the crea- FARRIS port job-providing infrastruc- tor and editor of the online Grab

ture projects and real estate JOSEPH News: Muse Views from Vancouver.

29 BC BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2008 reviews FICTION PHOTO

WIKIPEDIA / EVSTAFIEV

MIKHAIL

Vedran Smailovic in the ruins of the National Library in 1992.

The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway (Knopf $29.95)

recent essay by well- Andreas travelled B.C. nov- PLAY IT AGAIN, VEDRAN Schroeder elist Jim Christy After visiting Sarajevo, Steven Galloway has imagined the daily lives of complains that many people nur- three characters caught in the throes of civil strife in the early 1990s. HEAVEN turedA by creative writing pro- IS NEXT grams lack sufficient “real Dragan, a 64-year-old bakery at least seventy were with Smailovic for a fictional chil- world” experience to produce worker, survives as a loner. And wounded. For the next dren’s picture book about the Renovating Heaven by Andreas believable fiction. a young female sniper protects twenty-two days Vedran cellist, Echoes from the Square Schroeder (Oolichan, fall release) Depicting the human condi- the cellist whenever he plays Smailovic, a renowned local (Rubicon). tion within a war zone minus Albinoni’s Adagio to honour the cellist, played Albinoni’s Ada- Smailovic now lives in North- othing short of heroic. political context, The Cellist of dead. Her name is revealed in gio in G Minor at the site in ern Ireland. That how one would Sarajevo by Steven Galloway the final sentence. honour of the dead.” 978-0-307-39703-4 Nbest describe Andreas could serve Christy as a case in Schroeder’s 34-year-long com- The title and its intriguing Empty Casing: A Soldier’s Memoir of point. cover photo of a tuxedo-clad cel- It makes for great jacket Sarajevo Under Siege by Fred Doucette mitment to preserving and en- No less than 2003 Nobel list in the rubble [above] are copy, but Galloway’s cellist—un- (D&M $34.95) hancing Public Lending Rights Prize winner J.M. Coetzee has referenced in an afterword: named—is at best a supporting legislation in Canada. recommended it “a gripping character. For anyone wanting a non-fic- The Roberts Creek writer story of Sarajevo under siege,” “At four o’clock in the after- ✫ tionalized version of events in has officially called it quits on the but The Cellist can be dismissed noon on 27 May 1992, dur- Previously composer David Sarajevo, NATO peacekeeper PLR front, but he’ll continue as an exercise in imagination, ing the siege of Sarajevo, Wilde had written a cello piece Fred Doucette’s highly praised teaching at UBC and adding to lacking memorable characters. several mortar shells struck recorded by Yo Yo Ma called Empty Casing: A Soldier’s his list of his sixteen books with Kenan, a forty-something a group of people waiting to “The Cellist of Sarajevo.” Memoir of Sarajevo Under Renovating Heaven, due this fall. family man, risks his life every buy bread behind the mar- Ten years ago, Elizabeth Seige offers a Romeo Delaire- It contains three novellas of four days to retrieve fresh water ket on Vase Miskina. Twenty- Wellburn and artist Deryk Hou- like memoir of regret. Mennonite life in Canada from for his family. two people were killed and ston of Victoria collaborated 978-1-55365-291-5 the 1950s to the 1970s. GETTING LOST AND FOUND IN LYTTON

A Song for My Daughter by Patricia Jean Smith (Oolichan $22.95) “I’ve seen how easily woman beguiles man. Before my skin Dr. Rivers, who grew up in Prince George, is drawn to began to wrinkle I knew how to set a snare with a wiggle or a follow them for professional and personal motives. atricia Jean Smith’s West Coast novel of female wink. Men were always snuffling round me, like bears in The inexplicable Joan meets a medicine man named affinities, A Song for My Daughter opens in 1988 when search of honey.” Chief Raven’s Song. a sympathetic psychiatrist named Adam Rivers [the When their home on Kaslo Street can no longer contain Eventually an illicit romance blooms between the doc- Adam’sP River near Kamloops is famous for its sockeye salmon their needs, the trio travel inland—and tor and his virginal ex-patient Joan. Zhivago-and- run] sends an unlikely trio of his patients—Mary Chingee, inward—looking for psychic answers. Lara-like, they take idyllic refuge in a cabin called Joan Dark and Sally Cunningham—to a private group home, “Sally was quiet. She wondered what lay The Hermitage until her pregnancy intervenes. Harmony House, west of the PNE grounds, near the Pacific ahead of them…. It suddenly seemed Joan, aka the Salmon Woman, is drawn into the Coliseum. strange to her that she had been to Lon- Fraser River. “She will find her natal stream, spawn Born on the Nechako Reserve in 1944 and married at don, Paris, Frankfurt, Lausanne, Madrid and die,” says an old First Nations man, consoling fourteen, Mary Chingee of the Carrier-Sekani was Rivers’ and Barcelona.... But she had never Adam Rivers, “There is nothing more you can do first patient at the Fraserview Institute. Sally Cunningham is been to Prince George.” for her.” the spoiled daughter of Vancouver socialites, overly fond of The trio stay in the O’Dwyer Motel in The physician heals himself by sleeping in a the grape and the beautiful and mysterious Joan Dark, in Lytton, whoop it up at a rough dance at house that Sally and Mary have bought by the her early twenties, haunts the unmarried Adam in his dreams. the Thilcumcheen Community Hall, at- Nechako Reserve. The novel is narrated by Joan’s mother, a disembodied tend a Christian revivalist meeting and de- Patricia The truth is out there—in the bushes. Jean Smith voice in touch with the wilderness. “All my life,” she writes, tour to the Fountain Valley Guest Ranch. 978-0-88982-244-3

31 BC BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2008 reviews FICTION GREECE: novel’s end you will NOT THE MUSICAL know who made the Dictatorship and ideals in the 1970s better choice. It’s al- most as if Manolis has BY CHERIE THIESSEN labouring under a repres- created Petros as his

Petros Spathis by Manolis sive military regime ever idealistic other half, (Libros Libertad $22.95) since three right wing Manolis Aligizakis: motivating him do on army officers staged a suc- publisher and writer the page what he prob- n the 1960s, as the only cessful coup in 1967. Now ably longed to do in child of a hard-working spies are everywhere, person. 978-0980897937 farming couple on the neighbours can’t be I El Greco by Manolis harsh and beautifully stark is- trusted, and you must be (Libros Libertad $14.95) land of Crete, Petros is sent to very careful about what university in Athens where he you say, and who you say it ince conceiving excels beyond his parents’ wild- to. his imprint Libros est dreams. Dissention can lead to S Libertad in 2006, Graduating at the top of his disclosure, which can lead Manolis has published class, the budding academic has to disappearance. If you 11 works of poetry, no shortage of admiring friends take a well-educated, ide- memoirs, novels and dia- or consenting, beautiful young alistic and patriotic young tribes including his own women. man, and add an oppres- volume of poetry, El Petros has been offered a po- sive dictatorship, that can Greco, a tribute to the art- sition at the university, subject to be a good recipe for mar- ist who is considered his attaining an M.A. abroad. His tyrdom. To say much more one the forerunners of doting uncle and aunt, with is to give too much away. Expressionism and Cu- whom he has been staying in Ath- ✫ bism. ens, are wealthy and childless, so During the seventies, Most widely known they’re eager to contribute to his most Canadians knew very by his Spanish nick- international studies. But in lit- little about what was hap- name, El Greco, the erature, as in life, if it looks too pening within Greece, so in painter was born as PHOTO good to be true, it probably is. the spring of 1976 Manolis Domenikos AAA In Vancouver, where the published a brief version of Theotokopoulos in

Greek community welcomes his novel’s storyline, Spathis- TRIPPLE 1541. He moved to Ven- him, Petros completes his 322, in Canadian Fiction / ice while in his twenties graduate studies at the Univer- Magazine. and settled in Toledo, SAWCHUK sity of British Columbia. “The condensed book Spain, where he died.

Samantha, an Italian Canadian was a piece that J. M. Yates LAURA Calling El Greco a se- beauty, can’t get enough of him, and I worked on back in the Manolis has also added lash- portant. It shines a light on a time ries of meditations, Manolis ex- and he knows he can marry her 70s,” Manolis explains, “and it ings of love and lust, and placed in Greece’s history about which periments with an offset and likely take over Samantha’s was 12 pages long. The first two part of the story in Vancouver, little is known and lesser written. four-line stanza form, and de- father’s successful restaurant, or pages of the new book are from but it’s the author’s love of his Manolis was born on the is- lights in spilling image upon im- even stay in Canada and accept that condensed form… So I re- homeland that comes through land of Crete in 1947. Educated age unto the page, images like a university position. wrote the book and added a few most strongly in Petros Spathis. in Greece (BA in Political Sci- mind grasping splinters. The po- But Greece beckons. Ignoring things. I deleted about fifty Writing in a language other ences), he served in the armed et’s humor bubbles up now and constant warnings from his Dean, pages of the old text and histori- than in one’s native tongue is forces for two years prior to his again, as in the first poem, from Samantha, and his friends, cally placed the novel to be con- difficult to master. There are arrival in Canada. When Dawn, where death is personi- Petros is not only tempted to re- sistent with the November 17th numerous instances of mis- Manolis—the pen name for fied and addressed directly by turn home to see Madga, the events in Greece.” placed or omitted prepositions Manolis Aligizakis—immigrated the poet, as they both share a beautiful daughter of wealthy The student uprising in Ath- that could have easily been rec- to Canada in 1973, one year be- non-fat latte. and influential parents, he also ens on November 17, 1973, at the tified. Some of the textual er- fore the junta disintegrated, he The placement of many of El misses his parents and he has his same university where our hero rors are funny, seriously messing would have been about the same Greco’s works alongside the po- ideals: Petros has promised to encourages his students to join with the mood of the story. As age as his protagonist in the etry adds another dimension to help his countrymen overthrow in the fight for freedom, is cred- well, a discerning editor could novel. the work, enabling the reader the military junta that has taken ited with the ideological collapse have helped the author to more Whereas the protagonist stays to better appreciate Manolis’ in- a stranglehold. of the junta. The junta was not realistically represent the in Greece to try to make a dif- ventive meditations. 978-0978186548 Often touted as the birth- removed immediately, but those women in this story, and animate ference, Manolis chose to leave. place of democracy, Petros’ be- protests sounded the political the central character. Petros says ‘no’ to Canada; Cherie Thiessen reviews fiction from loved Greece has been death knell for the dictatorship. Nevertheless, this novel is im- Manolis said ‘yes,’ and by the Pender Island.

HITCHHIKING IN FRANCE ✫ Jo Beverley is a highly skilled novelist, easily one of Brit- A Lady’s Secret by Jo Beverley (Signet $7.99) cepts a ride with the Earl of Huntersdown, a handsome ish Columbia’s hottest selling authors. Anyone encoun- cad who is merely seeking amusement during a long jour- tering her lively dialogue can understand why. he age-old friction of sexual conquest and surren- ney. Beverley, who lives in Victoria, clearly enjoys what she’s der, the quest of a selfish man to spill himself inside For about 200 pages he cajoles her with his wit, gradu- doing, and her penchant for flirting with ribald action, with- T a beautiful woman, disregarding fears of preg- ally wearing down her defences, while out descending into soft porn, has nancy—the inescapability of romantic tension—that’s the Petra is fleeing from evil pursuers, hoping earned her appearances on the focus of Jo Beverley’s latest fantasy, A Lady’s Secret, to contact her real father in England who New York Times bestseller list while touted as a historical romance. doesn’t know she exists. producing 25 romance novels and Although Beverley acquired an electronic library of In return for his protection, he wants approximately 25 novellas. books from the eighteenth century for research, A Lady’s her body. They eventually do it furtively, Jo Beverley has won five RITA Secret contains few clues as to the exact era in which the for three pages, halfway through the awards. Her first Georgian novel, My seducer—an English nobleman who is travelling across book, aboard a ship crossing the English Lady Notorious, appeared in 1993. France with two male servants in his private carriage— Channel: A Lady’s Secret is her eighth instal- finally gains entry to his prey. They played, a joust of tongues and ment in her ongoing series about The love target is a beautiful woman fleeing from Italy, hot breath, then came together for the Malloren family. initially disguised as a nun named Sister Immaculata. It’s the unavoidable kiss… “No! she Once again her fiction will not the late 1760s but the politics of the day are largely irrel- gasped. He went still, rigid. She heard receive the recognition she de- evant. It’s sexual politics that hold sway on every page. the silent plea. And surrendered. “Not serves in Canada due to the genre Our heroine Petra has spent years in a convent prior no,” she whispered in helpless, trem- Jo Beverley’s A Lady’s Secret debuted of her work. Her web page is on the New York Times fiction to the death of her widowed mother. She relucantly ac- bling surrender. “Yes, yes, please. Yes. www.jobev.com. 978-0-451-22419-4 bestseller list at #14 in April.

33 BC BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2008 reviews POETRY THAT’S ENTERTAINMENT The funny/serious poetry of genre-bender George McWhirter Diane Tucker The Incorrection by George McWhirter No sermonizing here and (Oolichan $17.95) no abstractions. McWhirter is a master of grounded lan- “He likens the three Abrahamic guage: cleats, drumlin, pod- religions to the Three Stooges.” ding, whin, mangle, spud, AT PEACE WITH filcher; are they Irishisms? mong some literary poets What matters is that the lin- THE INNER POET there appears to be an gua N. Ire-Landica is perfect Bright Scarves of Hours by Diane Tucker A unwritten rule that for- for this earthling poet’s pur- (Palimpsest Press $18) bids poetry from being enter- pose. taining. Nobody told George Why no index? This affec- iane Tucker knows how a small detail becomes extraordinary. In McWhirter. Storyteller, holy fool, tation appears to be coming The Sky Train she notes “a chapel genre-bender, McWhirter is the into vogue these days. A note D of sunlight, slanted buttresses…through funniest/serious poet on the to editors: how is the reader the windows where it stains a shoulder current New Titles list. to relocate a bare and edged with gold along its At 186 pages, di- poem, especially biceps’ black tattoo.” The poem turns vided into four sec- if the poet some- out to be, among other things, about tions, The Incorrection times chooses to Sunday worship. opens with Fluid Places, leave off titles? Bright Scarves of Hours has an unu- a series of “slender son- McWhirter leaves sual index that lays the thoughtful struc- nets,” each followed by the reader con- ture of the book. In addition to its Pro- logue and Epilogue, the sections are a commentary. Slender fused with his oc- MAIN-VAN points on a clock. These are associated HANNAH DER KAMP is the right word. The casional stubborn with domestic tasks appointed to those average number of refusal to title; hours, indicating the chronological words per 14-line poem, total, one doesn’t know if the page progress of a life. is about forty; sonnets with all the is a new poem or a continua- Starting with childhood memories, fluff blown out. An unskilled tion of the poem that came courtship, marriage, through her chil- poet taking unearned liberties? just before. Provide an alpha- dren’s lives and ending in sleep, Tucker No, he’s perfectly capable of the betical index of first lines at wrests songs from the repetitive notes conventional sonnet form as he the least! of domestic life. Dragonflies are seen: demonstrates in a later section. Small quibbles. He uses “jewel shards…the breath of amethysts…shot-silk arrows and perfect These sonnets are overtly European names for B.C. narrow machinery.” birds (tomtit?). At least he interlinked along with innu- A surprising August aurora strikes her merable covert links. Belfast, admits he’s embarrassed he “staring, standless as if lifted, dandled Jericho Park, coffee, Mexico, cannot put the right name to

PHOTO in a moonbright hand.” Tucker re-im- pigs, tuna fishing, hats and swim- the bird. If you are writing agines Creation in a small wood fire TWIGG ming pools. That’s just a taste of about Vancouver, not Belfast, and ends with “the first heat, unalloyed, the rich cross-references in the get a local bird field guide! that filled the skies but did not burn first pages. Entertaining does not de- JEREMY George God’s hand.” In Po-essays, the second sec- note trivial. There is somber McWhirter: There are some pieces in which the tion, McWhirter mines The New material here on war, addic- Catholic to the intensity of language could be hitched up a bit. Tucker is too casual about York Times, The Economist and tion and faith. Sport as reli- core, but no lover of Rome some details of the natural world; National Geographic, among gion, water wastage, the salmon bones are not quills, not even other publications and hauls out destruction of the Amazon with a poet’s license. Pen nibs, maybe, good ore. These poems are forest, McWhirter can turn Besides being the first Poet tive, these are the most entertain- but not feathers. poignant social commentaries every conceivable topic into a Laureate of Vancouver, ing poems to come along in a In this, her second collection, and indictments but the fresh poem. McWhirter also qualifies as the long time, seriously. 987-0-88982-234-4 Tucker struggles to live at peace do- mestically with the dragon of the inner charmed hook is humour. He The love poems to Angela, Poet Laureate of Asthmatics, The Anachronicles by George McWhirter likens the three Abrahamic re- his wife of more than four dec- “the constant cranking of my res- (Ronsdale $15.95) poet. “… every pebble, every leaf, is ligions to the Three Stooges. ades, are teasing appreciations. piration, somewhat antique.” a dragon sent to eat my juicy heart.” Speaking of religion, there His wisecracking about her Sans self-pity, the state of the The place itself is La 987-0-9733952-7-3 are numerous mentions of God, cooking, gardening and table poet’s lungs is just one more al- Audiencia Beach in Mexico. In- (including fishing for God’s bite manners is a tattered camou- lusion in his encyclopedic ac- stead of portraying history only on a lonely line). “Catholic to the flage through which tenderness counts. from the present looking back- core, but no lover of Rome,” is revealed. (Apologies from the “Orange peels as dropped wards, McWhirter also has the McWhirter spars with God, “the reviewer but without an index, bloomers of the sun!” past looking forward to foresee maker of disasters,” but avoids it’s hard to relocate these poems McWhirter is a silly, (read and comment on what is to hap- sarcasm or irony. in order to quote from them.) blessed) idiot! Eclectic and inven- pen as a result of the early ex- ploration. Here, Hernán Cortés and his Lieutenant-Conqueror of Colima, Sandoval, appraise ALSO NOTED the antics of Bo Derek and other Rob Budde, Finding Ft. George (Caitlin Press $15.95) 8978-1-894759-27-4 stars as they make the movie 10 ------— on the same beach where Robert G. Anstey, Bella Italia (West Coast Paradise $12.95) four hundred years earlier their 978-1-897031-07-0 ------crews built three brigantines to Andy Quan, Bowling Pin Fire (Signature Editions $14.95) 1-897109-22-9 explore what is now called the ------Sea of Cortez. The verse-logs Peter Culley Diane Guichon, Birch Split Bark (Nightwood Editions $16.95) 0-88971-215-8 then follow explorer Don ------Caamaño and his successors up The Age of Briggs and Stratton by Peter Culley (New Star $18) John Skapski, Tides at the Edge of the Senses (Libros Libertad $16.95) the Pacific Coast to where John 978-0-9781865-6-2 McKay (aka Sean McKoy), an ------Peter Culley has lived in South Welling- Tim Lilburn, Orphic Politics (M&S $17.99) 978-0-7710-4636-0 Irishman, was left to recuperate ton, near Nanaimo, since the age of ------from a sickness among the 14. The Age of Briggs and Stratton, the Daphne Marlatt, The Given (M&S $17.99) 978-0-7710-5458-7 Nootka/Nuu-chah-nulth on second book in his hometown ------Vancouver Island. ‘Hammertown’ series, takes its title from Maxine Gadd, Subway Under Byzantium (New Star $20) 978-1-55420-035-1 George McWhirter presently the noise pollution from two-stroke en------serves as Vancouver’s inaugural gine-powered lawnmowers and leaf Justin Lukyn, Henry Pepper (New Star $19) 978-1-55420-034-4 blowers that contribute to the decline Poet Laureate. 1-55380-54-0 ------of Nanaimo wrought by development Sandy Shreve, Suddenly, So Much Ian Rudkin, The Roots of Affection (Brio $5) 978-0-9782963-3-9 Hannah Main-Van Der Kamp and gentrification. 978-1-55420-039-9 (Exile Editions $17.95) 1-55096-652-9 writes from Victoria.

34 BC BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2008 poetry INVISIBILITY THE RAPTURE OF WHIPPLE EXHIBITIONIST Kites by George Whipple use. He might consider being (Ekstasis Editions $18.95) more accurate about natural de- xploring community in the tails. Salmon do not spawn un- emotional wake of the ome slight poetry is lite; der lily pads. E“missing women” from the other slight poems, too Who would have thought Downtown Eastside of Vancou- Seasily dismissed at a first that contemporary mystic verse ver, poet and editor Sachiko glance, deserve re-reading. could be so accessible? An octo- Murakame, born in 1980, George Whipple’s fall into the genarian Blake-ian child, has published The Invisibility latter category. It is Whipple rewards Exhibit (Talonbooks $15.95). not necessary for a the seasoned reader poem to be long in as well as those who 978-0-88922-579-4 order to qualify for do not read poetry Portrait of Sonnet as a second reading. because they do not Neither should “get” it. In these Missing Woman rhymed poetry be pieces there is no Rebecca & Wendy & Yvonne & dismissed as dated guile; what you read Sherry & Lillian & Linda & drivel. Kites is decep- is what you get: on Sheryl & Laura & Elaine & tively simple in con- the second reading Joe Rosenblatt: tent and form but if not the first. Mary & Nancy & Taressa & these snippets, or As his publisher Elsie & Ingrid & Catherine & THE SOUND OF MUSE “feather words,” are George Whipple Richard Olafson Elaine & Sherry & Gloria & essentially mystic ut- puts it, “There is Teresa & Catherine & Kathleen & oetry, according to Joe Rosenblatt in The Lunatic Muse terances. Not the via negativa great erudition behind his sim- Leigh & Angela Dorothy (Exile Editions $22.95), provides an environment for people to mysticism as in Tim Lilburn but ple verses. He was Margart “share their feral fantasies, although very rarely do wild phan- the rapture of a St Francis. Avison’s favourite poet. He has & Stephanie & Jacqueline & Dawn tasms morph into poems.” In this new collection of essays about The poet’s own whimsical also never gotten his due even & Marie & Frances & Ruby Pfellow poets and the craft of writing, the Qualicum Beach veteran of the drawings illustrate each section. though he is up there with the & Olivia & Cindy & Sharon Canadian poetry world amuses while he muses: “Poetry is a way of going The humour, not the ha ha best of them, a true poet mys- & Richard & Sheila & Julie out on a blind date to meet your soul, and you’ve promised to meet your kind, is shy. In Silverfish, the glue tic/seer. But he lives alone, an & Marcella & Michelle & Tania true essence at a trendy nightclub in some dark alley of the inner city. You and rot-eating pests are com- elderly man in a high rise in arrive there, sit down at an empty table, without realizing your date is pared to the wildflowers in the Burnaby. He has never gone to & Tiffany & Sharon & Yvonne sitting right next to you. It sees that you are invisible to each other. And sayings of Jesus, “They toil not literary parties, never shows his finally this cadaverously lean waiter appears out of the shadows and says: neither do they reap.” face at readings, never gives You want to order something from the bar? Sure, you reply, what’s on Whipple could strengthen readings of his own work, just his pieces by crossing out some working on his poems and draw- tap? The waiter reads out the brand names of some local brews: ‘We have Eternal Life, a fuzzy dark cumulous of an ale, we have Deep Space, of the many abstractions such as, ings in seclusion, with a kind of Sachiko “life, love, death, hope, joy, quiet integrity. He is a poet I am Murakame a sparkly bitter beer, somewhat heavy, like a burnt-out lodestone – an faith.” Not because the Age of proud to have published (four acquired taste….’ Suddenly you see your waiter fading away, and then it Faith is over, it is, but because books by him) and I am proud occurs to you that your date is never going to show up , and further, that these words have lost their im- to be his friend.” 987-1-897430-09-5 you are in the wrong bar, the wrong cul de sac and even worse, you are pact through mis-use and over- —Hannah Main-Van Der Kamp talking to a complete stranger, your navel. That’s poetry!” 978-1-55096-098-3

36 BC BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2008 reviews KIDLIT GOOD GOLLY CHOKE ON THE WATER Polly Horvath MS POLLY received her Robin Stevenson explores maritime courage second Egoff AGES 12+ Prize at the BC The Corps of the Bare-Boned Plane by AGES 10-14 to get here, lurches to the rail Book Prizes gala Polly Horvath (Groundwood $12.95) Dead in the Water by Robin Stevenson to puke and wonders what hosted by Fanny (Orca Sports $9.95) lready a National Book made him think a sailing course Kiefer in April. Award winner for The imon Drake, “five-foot-six was a good idea. Canning Season and win- and 120 pounds soaking Robin Stevenson’s Dead in the A ner of a Boston Globe-Horn Water pits teenage angst against Swet,” is at the helm, Book Award for The Tolls, Victo- drenched with rain and icy salt foul-weather sailing and throws ria’s Polly Horvath has become in a good measure of environ- spray, when someone shouts, a rare, two-time winner of the mental concern—in this case lu- “Man overboard!” Sheila A. Egoff Children’s Lit- With a brain “that sort of crative abalone poaching—for a erature Award with The Corps smart, fast-paced read. freezes up under pressure,” it’s of the Bare-Boned Plane. A few years ago, Stevenson a long moment until the rescue It’s a young adult novel about procedure kicks in. fixed up a thirty-foot sailboat two cousins sent to live with an and left Lake Ontario Simon cranks the aloof, scholarly uncle and his ec- for the Bahamas. Al- wheel and the boat centric house staff following the slowly turns sideways though she knew very death of their parents. Written little about sailing, she to the wind. There’s from four different characters’ made it to the islands no sign of Joey in the perspectives, it has been de- storm-soaked sea but and spent a year living scribed as “a moving meditation aboard her boat be- Olivia’s already thrown on loss and finding family in the fore returning and in the buoyant man- most unlikely places.” overboard pole with its settling in Victoria. LOUISE DONNELLY Four years ago, Horvath won bright orange flag. Orca has also re- PHOTO

her first Egoff Prize for Every- leased Stevenson’s Big Guy for Simon can only pray Joey’s thing on a Waffle, a blend of life able to swim to the pole and their Sounding series. It’s about TWIGG and food, with accompanying an overweight kid who murdered their teacher. hang on. Jeopardy, with its huge store,” she grew recipes. whose on-line lies catch Today, that would probably have turning circle, takes forever to up reading LM Eleven-year-old Primrose come around. Now it’s all up to up with him. As well, got us suspended or at least re- Montgomery’s Squarp has hair the colour of she’s recently pub- ferred for counseling, but this Simon. He’s coming in fast, too Emily books and carrots in an apricot glaze and lished Impossible Things, was in the early 1980s so the fast. And too close! The flag dis- has always made the recipe to prove it. Although appears under the boat! a novel on the all-too- teacher just gave us an A- and up stories. In the Primrose never doubts the re- real pains of grade suggested we brush up on our “Lucky it was a drill,” the in- eighth grade, she turn of her lost-at-sea parents, seven life. knowledge of police proce- structor yells. recalls, “a friend she often seeks refuge with Miss A drill? An incessant read- dures.” Dead: 978-1-55143-962-4; and I co-wrote a Bowzer, dispenser of common Simon, who’d worked two er “incapable of walk- mystery story Guy: 9781551439105; Impossible: 9781551437361 Robin Stevenson sense and good advice. ing past a used book- Louise Donnelly writes from Vernon. 0-88899-851-1 “crap” jobs and saved his “ass off” about two girls

Scalawags: Rogues, Roustabouts, Wags & Scamps by Jim Christy

In these pages you will encounter gamblers and adventurers, conmen and conwomen, rodomontades and ragamuffins, outright fools and outrageous liars. Scalawags, the lot of them. The wild, amazing—almost unbelievable— lives of those who dared to really live.

TRANSMONTANUS 17 Stranger Wycott’s Place Stories from the Cariboo–Chilcotin by John Schreiber

Find it here: Blackberry Books, Granville Island • Crown Publications • Duthie Books, West 4th Av. • People’s Co-op Bookstore • Sorensen’s Books, Victoria • People’s Co-op Bookstore • 32 Books, North Vancouver • Cadboro Bay Book Company, Victoria • Overwaitea • Save-On Foods • Amazon.ca

www.NewStarBooks.com

38 BC BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2008 INDIES

In Provence, je t’aime During the trip, the two (Granville Island $19.95), re- men were soon at odds. Haney tired Vancouver lawyer did all the driving and grunt Gordon Bitney humor- work as Wilby’s “chauffeur” ously describes buying and while the journalist was basi- renovating a villa in the village cally along for the ride to reap of Nyons, Provence. When the glory at the expense of the they acquired their home- Reo Car Company. away-from-home, he couldn’t The pair’s specially-made be away from his office more Reo Special Touring Car, with than three or four weeks at a a 15-gallon gas tank, made it time, so his wife Marie- through the Rockies with the Hélène led the way. It’s an- help of an additional mechanic, other presentation of the idyllic Jack Wise, from Winnipeg. qualities of life to be found in Just outside of Yahk, B.C. the the French countryside amid car was transported by train for olive orchards, vineyards and part of its journey and again by fields of lavender. 978-1-894694-65-0 train from Cranbrook to Nel- ✍ son. In a similar vein, having re- WHAT’S UP DOCK Wilby published a book leased his Poems from Tuscany THE BELFAST WATERFRONT OF WILL MORRISON about the adventure in which (West Coast Paradise $14.95) his driver was never mentioned in 2005, Robert G. Anstey has by name. Haney returned to St. ill Morrison of Burnaby began working in the Belfast shipyards idealized rural Italy with a new poetry Catharines to operat a garage. He died in 1947 at the age of 14. Recalling his five-year apprenticeship narrative about the loving relationship W in 1935. Wilby wrote for the Christian between a father and daughter in a lit- in the shipyard, he has published a collection of autobiographical Science Monitor prior to returning to tle house named Rustica in Bella Italia short stories set in working-class Belfast from 1939-1951, Between the England. More details can be found in (West Coast Paradise $12.95). They take Mountains and the Gantries (Belfast: Appletree $27). Arlene Pervin’s self-published idyllic field trips to Sorrento, to Florence Morrison later gained entrance to university with the help of an 80- Kootenay Tales: Historical Glimpses of and Siena where her life-long apprecia- the Past (Trafford $17.95). 978-1425146412 year-old tutor. “The Latin tag he pounded into my head was Festina ✍ tion of art is kindled and nourished. lente—make haste slowly—and it fairly well sums up the trajectory of Tuscany 1-897031-23-8; Italia 978-1-897031-07-0 my life,” he says. After serving as a United Church minister upon his Steve Locke grew up in St. Vi- ✍ tal, a suburb of Winnipeg, and began arrival in Canada, Morrison taught philosophy and literature for 22 On the other hand, Luanne writing to cope with teen angst while a years at College of the Rockies, Cranbrook. 0862818516 Armstrong’s Blue Valley: An Eco- student at Dakota Collegiate. He later logical Memoir (Maa Press $23) de- took some creative writing courses from scribes her lifelong relationship with a in Canada’s Federal Elections (Signature/ ✍ Miriam Toews, John Weier heritage farm on the east shore of Trafford $14.95), he writes, “We are sur- Thomas W. Wilby, a middle- and Catherine Hunter. Kootenay Lake, recalling the history of rounded by electronic fortresses that aged British journalist, and Jack His self-published first novel, Tw o the land, the disintegration of a commu- shoot millions of media arrows which pre- Haney, a 23-year-old mechanic from Mile Road ($20), is a coming-of-age story nity and the sadness of a shattered fam- vent us getting inside to obtain truly sci- St. Catharines, completed the first Trans that lacks cohesion and story development ily. “I stayed in Vancouver for seven entific and accurate data.” Or, more Canada car trip in 1912, leaving Hali- as a novel, but shows promise as an hon- years,” she writes, “living in a landscape succinctly, as the slogan for that recent fax on August 27 and ceremoniously est rendering of post-pubescent longings of cars and buildings and noise and ex- George Clooney movie puts it, “the mixing Atlantic sea water with Pacific sea and frustrations. Two Mile Road was com- haust fumes. When I left, it seemed odd truth can be adjusted.” 978-1-4251355-4-6 water at Port Alberni on October 17. pleted after he injured his back in a farm to me that I had lived some- accident and could not travel, where for so long and still work, or attend classes for two- couldn’t find anything about it and-a-half years. Locke later be- to love.” 978-0-9685302-4-5 PIANISSIMO came a student at UBC in the ✍ creative writing program. With the U.S. economy ac- The offstage career 978-0-9782882-0-4 cumulating record debt into ✍ the trillions, the subject of pri- of Carol Wootton As a primary care physician vate debt will also become in- specializing in obstetrics and creasingly significant in paediatrics, Dr. Darryl Canada and the U.S. Retired Ableman has delivered from B.C.’s Attorney General’s more than 2,500 babies in 20 Ministry, where he was Direc- years. He shares his knowledge tor of Debtor Assistance, with pregnant women in a no- PHOTO Douglas P. Welbanks frills primer, Circle of Preg- VALK has delved deeply into the nancy (Elba/Sandhill $19.95), DE ramifications of financial hard- covering everything from leg

ship, bankruptcy and insol- MARTIN cramps and fetal movement to vency with his self-published feeding difficulties, sleeping Julius Seizure: The Secret disorders, stretch marks and World of Bankruptcy, Debt post-partum depression. Cop- Collection and Student Loans ies have been sent to every pri- (Chateau Lane / Sandhill mary care physician in B.C. $19.95). Previously Welbanks 978-0-978493-0-8 wrote an equally cheerless ot long after a piano teacher told her, “You’d be better off cooking supper ✍ guide, Finances After Separa- and spanking the baby,” Carol Wootton won the silver medallion as Vernon veterinarian and tion (Chateau Lane / Sandhill, NVictoria’s best pianist in 1954. She studied music for two years in London historian Dr. John Price 2006). 978-0-9784240-4-6 but her hopes for a stage career were dashed in her twenties when she first has written a history of the B.C. ✍ faced “the reality of learning that I would be minus my right leg below the knee interior, Where The Grass Is Passionate about the rights for the rest of my life.” For her fourth book, Wootton has self-published memoirs Always Browner On The of citizenship within democ- and critiques pertaining to her musical evolution, Preening Clefs (Towner $17.95), Other Side Of The Fence racy, Terry Julian has de- available from Ivy’s Books in Victoria, where she lives with her sister. 0-978324-00-1 (Kettle Valley Publishing, voted his ninth independent 2008), launched at the Lone title to examining the validity Pine Ranch in May. It is subti- of polls within modern media. tled A History of The In The Seduction of Surveys Okanagan Commonage.

40 BC BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2008