BOOK REVIEWS

Making the News: Colonist articles. These historic articles A Times Colonist Look at 150 are the book’s greatest strength. They facilitate an encounter with the writing Years of History style and diction of yesteryear, and Dave Obee they allow readers to engage with the people and events that exemplified the Victoria: Times Colonist, 2008. 174 past one hundred and fifty years. Obee pp. $31.50 paper. is to be commended for the amount of Kenton Storey labour that has gone into Making the News as the articles chosen represent Dunedin, New Zealand only a fraction of the material that may be drawn upon. In addition, Making av e O b e e s t a t e s i n t h e the News is particularly enhanced by Dintroduction to this book that its collection of historic photographs, his purpose is to “give you glimpses of which are displayed to good result by the people and events that shaped our its large coffee-table format. community and our province” (1). In I anticipate, then, that Making the this goal, Obee succeeds admirably. News will appeal not only to readers Through well-chosen historic articles with a particular interest in British and photographs, Making the News Columbia but also to history instructors demonstrates how the Times Colonist across Canada. Making the News is interpreted local and international a perfect supplementary text to the events from its inception in 1858 until University of Victoria’s online edition almost the present day. Making the News of the Times Colonist and could be is organized chronologically into sixteen utilized as an introductory text to sections. Each section is prefaced by a focus students’ exploration of the Times short essay and a profile of a historic Colonist database. However, I stress figure. Obee utilizes these introductory the book’s supplementary quality. remarks to contextualize the key It does not offer an in-depth analysis persons and events that epitomize of either the Times Colonist’s particular each decade in question. Following role within Victoria’s press or how that Obee’s signposting, each section then newspaper made rather than simply features a series of historic Times reported the news over time. While it is bc studies, no. 67, Autumn 10 135 136 bc studies important to recognize that Making the century is more detailed than are News was not written primarily for an those of other editors and owners academic audience, it is useful to reflect of the Times Colonist. De Cosmos’s on some of the assumptions implicit idiosyncratic character, important within it and its position within the political career, and role in facilitating historiography of British Columbia’s British Columbia’s federation with press. Canada have encouraged historians Obee’s choice of historic Times to analyze his use of the press as a Colonist articles implicitly stresses a political tool. This interest is reflected progressive vision of Victoria’s civic in the historiography, with analyses of development. While tragedy and De Cosmos and the press appearing in hardship are chronicled in Making works by Margaret Ross, Roland Wild, the News, their purpose is to illustrate and George Woodcock. No doubt other citizens’ triumphs over adversity. editors and owners used the Times Considering just one historical silence Colonist for similar purposes, but their within this book, Obee’s choice of preoccupations and aspirations have historic “highlights” appears to excise not been subjected to critical scrutiny. British Columbia’s experience of Notwithstanding my comments colonialism from the Times Colonist. regarding what Making the News is Hence, the book studiously avoids not, I recommend it for what it is. Obee articles that would illustrate the Times has crafted a valuable contribution to Colonist’s own role in marginalizing local Victoria’s historic memory, which will Aboriginal peoples or in articulating be a useful supplementary text to the the racial biases of a particular era. Times Colonist’s online edition. Best I imagine that Obee must have struggled of all, Making the News will inspire its with the question of what historic topics readers to explore further the Times to include in Making the News. What is Colonist itself. missing from it are examples of historic articles that display attitudes and ideas antithetical to contemporary values. The Man Game Yet they, too, are part of the Times Colonist’s legacy. Lee Henderson Certainly Obee’s conclusion is Toronto: Penguin, 2009. 528 pp. correct: that “contemporary newspapers $18.00 paper. give us history on the fly. They are essential to our understanding of the past, and are used by professional researchers and amateur historians The Chief Factor’s Daughter – and everyone in between – to flesh Vanessa Winn out the skeletons of history” (1). Yet, despite the importance of newspapers Surrey: TouchWood Editions, 2009. to historians, they have been under- 288 pp. $19.95 paper. examined as topics of analysis. Making the News implicitly reflects this lack of Mark Diotte critical scholarship on the BC press. It is University of British Columbia no coincidence that Obee’s description of Amor De Cosmos’s editorial t first glance, Lee Henderson’s manifesto in the mid-nineteenth AThe Man Game and Vanessa Book Reviews 137

Winn’s The Chief Factor’s Daughter by historical figures such as Joe Fortes could not be more different. While and R.H. Alexander, it is the race Henderson’s novel revolves around conflicts of 1887 and 1907 as well as the predominantly violent and obscene rampant, unwavering racism of the loggers in 1886 Vancouver, Winn’s characters and general society that novel, at just over half the length of create the most significant impact. Henderson’s, revolves around the five By confronting the linguistic, violent, “still-at-home” daughters of Chief racist, and even entertaining realities Factor John Work and their attempts to of a particular period of Vancouver’s find marriage and happiness in1858 Fort history, Henderson registers a Victoria. Each of these novels, however, frustration with Canadian historical makes an important contribution to the fiction and effectively challenges how understanding of BC history on the one history is told, interpreted, and written. hand and to the writing of historical I recently had the pleasure of meeting fiction on the other. and listening to Lee Henderson at the Winner of the 2009 Ethel Wilson University of British Columbia when Fiction Prize, The Man Game he spoke about his novel as a part of demonstrates a dialogue that has an the Robson Reading Series. What I uncanny dramatic, or stage, quality to appreciated most about the event was it, while the omniscient description, the passion and excitement Henderson especially that of landscape, has a so clearly expressed for his work – a poetic, alliterative quality. The novel passion and excitement that fills his is split into two intertwined narratives. novel. The dominant narrative is that of In the Spring 2010 edition of BC 1886, the story of feuding loggers and BookWorld, Joan Givner in “Shades of Samuel and Molly Erwagen. It is of Jane” compares The Chief Factor’s Molly who drives the narrative by Daughter to Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. developing the Man Game, a form of In terms of tone and style, I agree entertainment that is, in the words of completely. The novel is populated by Henderson, a “hybridization of sport, historical figures such as Lieutenant theatre and Mixed Martial Arts” as well Charles William Wilson, Governor as ballroom dance. The contemporary James Douglas, and the Work family narrative follows the encounter of Kat itself. Told through Margaret Work, and his unrequited love interest Minna a “spinster of nearly 24” (4), Winn’s with Silas and Ken, devotees of the novel focuses on the daughters of the Man Game, the latter of whom is a English gentry and their dependence descendant of the Erwagens. The Kat on marriage to attain social position and Minna plot consumes little space and privilege – except, in contrast to in the novel, and, at times, I wished Austen’s narratives, the English gentry that these characters had been given has been replaced by the Irishman John the strength and development of those Work, who has married “the daughter in the historical narrative. of a [First Nations] chief” à la façon du The strength and success of the pays, and London has been replaced by novel, in my opinion, comes from Fort Victoria. the incorporation of Chinook Jargon What impresses me most about – a trade language of the period – Winn’s novel is how she uses the and an unflinching vision of 1886 characters of Margaret Work and her Vancouver. While the book is populated sisters to unobtrusively foreground the 138 bc studies injustices they faced in terms of race, Native Peoples and Water class, and gender. The family favourite, Rights: Irrigation, Dams, and Lieutenant Wilson, is overheard to remark upon “les belles sauvages” (32). the Law in Western Canada Margaret’s reaction to the meeting Kenichi Matsui between Mr. Jackson, her future husband, and her mother is that she Montreal and Kingston: McGill- “dreaded that he might respond to her Queen’s University Press, 2009. warmth with cold civility, or perhaps 243 pp. Illus. $29.95 paper. worse, that he might fawn over her,” Jenny Clayton considering those who had “ridiculously romanticized her Indian Blood” in University of Victoria the past. The established “gentry” is bifurcated into a class system in which aking the jump from studies naval officers are often favoured over Mof static property such as land the sons of fur traders and in which to the fluid resource of water, Kenichi the Work daughters are in close and Matsui’s Native Peoples and Water Rights constant competition with the “Douglas explores new territory by examining the girls.” Their father, representative of intersection of Aboriginal rights and the patriarchal society to which they control over water in western Canada. belong, “banishes” them from Fort Situating his study within North Victoria due to the influx of miners, American histories of land, water, and and, as early as the first page, we are told Aboriginal rights, Matsui demonstrates that “even riding about the surrounding how water rights evolved in different country now required a male escort” (1). ways in British Columbia and Alberta; Thus, on the one hand, Winn’s novel is how American precedents influenced one of manners and marriage in which Canadian legislation, such as the a subtle glance across a ballroom floor North-West Irrigation Act, 1894; and can convey everything from social how shifting weather patterns affected ostracism to marital intentions, while, the success, failure, and relevance of on the other, it is just as unflinching irrigation projects on reserves. Matsui as Henderson’s novel. In fact, it is in argues that Aboriginal peoples, settlers, Winn’s examination of the intersections irrigation and hydroelectric companies, of race, class, and gender, and in the and different levels of government unstated bravery of her characters, that formed unexpected alliances to achieve I find her work to be most superb. their competing goals. In this way, he connects his work to the philosophies of colonial theorists, such as Edward Said and Nicholas Thomas, by showing how “intertwined relationships” affected water conflicts at the local level (7-8). These configurations were shaped by a provincial desire for control over resources and the federal goal of creating successful yeoman farmers on and off reserves. Although these arrangements could result in the marginalization of Aboriginal voices Book Reviews 139 and interests, their persistent claims are connected with a broader environmental central to this study. history literature. For instance, Matsui The first three chapters deal states that “farming was not part with the evolution of water rights in of the precontact economies of the North America and the jurisdictional Secwepemc people” of Kamloops conflict between federal and provincial and Chase (67). Yet he notes that the governments over control of water in Secwepemc harvested native potatoes British Columbia. Chapters 4 and 5 and grew and sold introduced potatoes explore specific case studies in British to the Hudson’s Bay Company fort Columbia and Alberta, beginning in the in the early 1840s (67, 175n6). Future 1880s: agriculture and irrigation projects work may explore the continuities and by the Kamloops and Neskonlith bands adaptations of Aboriginal cultivation in British Columbia, and by the Tsuu in the Interior Plateau with reference T’ina and Siksika peoples in Alberta. to studies of traditional ecological The rise of hydropower and its role knowledge such as Sandra Peacock and in western urbanization is central to Nancy Turner’s “Just Like a Garden” Chapter 6, which examines negotiations (in Biodiversity and Native America among the Stoney Nakoda, the [2000]). Furthermore, scholars may federal government, and hydroelectric link the chapter on hydroelectric developers in Calgary over dams within dams in the Stoney Nakoda Reserve a reserve on the Bow River (1903-38). on the Bow River with Canada’s Extensive research into court cases early twentieth-century conservation and statutes passed by various levels movement. Information on the Alpine of colonial, Canadian, and American Club of Canada’s opposition to the governments allows Matsui to provide Calgary Power Company’s proposals to a clear and detailed explanation of dam Minnewanka and the Spray Lakes the legal complexities of water rights is presented in Pearlann Reichwein’s history. He also makes excellent use article in the Journal of the Canadian of files created by the Department of Historical Association (1995). Indian Affairs (RG 10). For a more This book will be valuable for thorough explanation of local events and scholars of Aboriginal rights and decisions in British Columbia, Matsui resource history in British Columbia could have complemented his skilful because it contextualizes the struggle use of national records with a deeper to control water within the larger investigation into provincial records framework of North American water available at the British Columbia law and shows how resource conflicts Archives. For example, GR 1991, in this province had different outcomes British Columbia – Parks and Outdoor from those in Alberta, which did not Recreation Division, “Neskonlith Lake control its land or resources until 1930. Recreation Area, Sept 1953 – Dec. 1974” Throughout, Matsui does an admirable may have explained how an estate that job of disentangling provincial, federal, the Department of Indian Affairs settler, industry, and Aboriginal planned to purchase became instead a interests. Overall, he succeeds in provincial campground (85). creating an impressive “account of the This study of water – and who had intertwined stories that both Natives the right to use it for agriculture and and newcomers created,” thus taking electricity – suggests ways in which the study of Aboriginal water rights water law history may be fruitfully history in new directions. 140 bc studies

Wicihitowin: Aboriginal Social as all-encompassing, definitive or Work in Canada authoritative is to make the modernist mistake of assuming there is only one Raven Sinclair (Otiske- answer, that there is only one way to wapiwskew), Michael Anthony look and to walk” (17). Hart (Kaskitemahikan) and Twelve chapters are divided Gord Bruyere (Amawaa- into three sections (historical and jibitang), editors theoretical aspects, practice, and traditional knowledge) that reveal Halifax: Fernwood Publishing, sometimes very personal stories about 2009. 263 pp. $29.95 paper. how the contributors, their families, communities, and diverse nations Shelly Johnson were/are involuntarily forced by the Thompson Rivers University Canadian colonial state to receive cross-cultural services (adoption, foster care, counselling) from the primarily “ icihitowin” is a Cree word Eurocentric social work profession. Wthat describes the collective As Indigenous academics, the processes involved in helping/sharing contributors are critical and assertive in with one another, and that is what the the legitimate need for the social work eleven First Nations, Métis, and Inuit profession to acknowledge, recognize, social work educators across Canada and reconcile Indigenous-centred social have done with this groundbreaking work processes at all research, practice, Aboriginal social work offering. policy, and theoretical levels – and in The Aboriginal authors contend both communities and the academy. that this book is an anti-colonial The three sections are introduced by project, a critical step in the long-term Bruyere as “thoughts make dreaming, decolonization process for Aboriginal dreaming makes action and the spirit peoples living on the northern territories of dreaming,” which reflects the holistic of Turtle Island (North America) Indigenous spiritual worldview infusing and the “first of its kind focusing our all aspects of Indigenous life and present understandings of social work differentiating it from the Eurocentric in an Indigenist and/or Indigenous- worldview, which encompasses centred way” (236). Written from the distinct concepts of theory, action, and authors’ unique Aboriginal worldviews, knowledge. The first section introduces, Wicihitowin begins with a thought- reviews, and defines the historical provoking foreword by distinguished and theoretical aspects of Aboriginal Secwepemc social work academic social work from the perspectives of Richard Vedan, who cautions that Cree/Assiniboine/Saulteaux academic “their teachings are recommended not Raven Sinclair, Cree academic Michael as ‘recipes or formulae’ for work with Hart and Labrador Inuit academic Indigenous individuals, families and Gail Baikie. Care is taken by the communities but as a reference upon contributors to clearly define such which each individual can develop an terms as “Aboriginal social work,” understanding and appreciation of what “colonialism,” “colonization,” “anti- their role can and should be” (16). This colonialism,” “Indigenism,” and position is reinforced by Gord Bruyere, “Aboriginal approach to helping.” Baikie who states: “to consider the chapters asserts that the theoretical framework Book Reviews 141 for Aboriginal-centred social work is everyday Aboriginal life. It also helps “enabled by an anti-colonial stance” the reader begin to contemplate the (47) and offers responses to the question significant ramifications for Aboriginal “what is Indigenous or Indigenous- identity development, health, and well- centred social work?” being when the oolichan are absent The next five chapters describe from seasonal fishing. Aboriginal social work practices through Hart and Sinclair conclude with the experiential examples. This section story of a river journey taken by four includes chapters by Nlha’kapmx friends in two canoes, which at times Nation member Rona Sterling-Collins, are voluntarily joined by two paddles who advocates for holistic approaches and at times are not. “I … realize that to support children with special needs as a paddle I am initially based in one and, specifically, living with autism; canoe or the other. I know where I am by Raven Sinclair, who discusses critical based and what role I am to play for racial issues in Aboriginal transracial Indigenous peoples. In reality, I would adoption; Métis educators Cathy have minimal difficulties being dropped Richardson and Dana Lynn Seaborn by academia or the mainstream social who discuss unique Métis historical and work profession, but if I am dropped contemporary needs as well as future by my nation for not fulfilling my Métis service provision for children and commitment to our people, I am truly families; by Mi’kmaw/Irish academic without a base. After all, the social Cyndy Baskin who discusses holistic work profession does not significantly Aboriginal healing approaches with influence all aspects of who I have been, Aboriginal adults; and by Michael Hart who I am and who I will be, but my who discusses the movement towards an Creeness certainly does” (238). This Aboriginal research paradigm. statement reveals the crux of the issue The final section contains three of indigeneity in continuing to shape chapters that deal with unique the Canadian social work profession traditional knowledge that is relevant to and lays bare the Aboriginal struggle Aboriginal-centred social work. Kathy to reclaim our ways of helping, our Absolon’s Anishinaabe stories about pedagogy, and our practice of social her healing and self-care practices, work in our Aboriginal communities connections, and relationships with and in the academy. elders, land, and community enable Wicihitowin is a momentous social readers to gain an understanding of work achievement for Aboriginal what is meant by traditional knowledge, peoples in Canada as well as for our as do Michelle Reid’s reflections on her allies and collaborators. There is no child welfare practice in the community other book with which to compare it. and the leadership lessons learned from In order to build the understanding her Heiltsuk father and her Swedish and change needed in Eurocentric mother’s belief in, and valuing of, professions, every one of them in which traditional Heiltsuk laws. Jacquie Aboriginal peoples receive, develop, Green’s Haisla identity-strengthening gain access to, or deliver services or and best-practices awareness, gathered policy requires such a book. For the from traditional Haisla oolichan- first time, the collective voices of fishing processes, informs readers how Aboriginal social work educators have Aboriginal-centred social work needs come together to redefine, re-story, and to be an extension of central tenets of reclaim their places at the forefront of 142 bc studies healing, practice, theory, and research. the second is based on the attempted This book must be included in every creation of Bedaux’s Empire Ranch by social work program in Canada and Bob Beattie and Carl Davidson. acknowledged for what it represents – a Bob White – packer, wrangler, and seismic transformation, new life, hope, company hunter – begins by chronicling and understanding for the social work the difficult and extensive preparations profession. needed to undertake the expedition. Having been hired from a pool of “over 3500 applications,” White and his Bannock and Beans: trading partner Bob Godberson formed part of the six-man, fifty-seven-horse A Cowboy’s Account of the freight group led by former British Bedaux Expedition military officer Edward (Nick) Geake. Bob White Preparation included selecting and sometimes breaking over fifty head of Victoria: Royal British Columbia horses and making up the packs – some Museum, 2009. of which included items such as folding 176 pp. $18.95 paper. beds and twenty awkward, ten-gallon gasoline containers. Mark Diotte Despite the difficulty of the University of British Columbia expedition, White narrates disaster and delight in the same calm, practical wo thousand and nine marked tone. Faced with a flood, White’s Tthe seventy-fifth anniversary of the perseverance and good humour are Bedaux expedition, the failed attempt of evident from the understatement, Charles Bedaux to cross the wilderness “we were very concerned about the of northern British Columbia in five horses for it appeared that the meadow half-track Citroën vehicles supported would be flooded” (72). At other times, by a host of cowboys and over one humour prevails. Wry remarks on hundred packhorses. Yet, White’s various blunders or the latest “cooling account of this expedition is less about off” someone received from falling into Bedaux than about vividly describing a river are both effective and enjoyable. and encountering a wilderness, a Often it is Floyd Crosby, Bedaux’s landscape, and a cowboy lifestyle more filmmaker, who is the source of the commonly associated with the United comedy. Staged scenes such as “the States than with British Columbia. shooting of the gray horse in Goat Indeed, in terms of the cowboy, White’s Gulch” (98) or a sun-filled, daytime narrative is imbued with an ethos of “night herding” scene are frequent hard work, perseverance, and humour. in the narrative, and White seems to The figure of the cowboy comes alive enjoy Crosby’s propensity for staking in White’s personable, comforting, out the most difficult parts of the trail matter-of-fact tone, which is similar to in the hopes of encountering action and that of Eric Collier in Three against the comedy. Wilderness or M. Wylie Blanchett in The “Empire Ranch” section of the The Curve of Time. Interspersed with book is less eventful than is the first, historical photographs, the narrative and it details multiple trips to “the is written in two sections. The first is location” of the proposed ranch along based on the 1934 Bedaux expedition; the Sustut River. The highlight of this Book Reviews 143 section is White’s experiences with the book lives up to it, providing a unique wilderness and the winter landscape. interpretation of the dying art of the Remarks such as “we had a difficult family farm, which has been a common time getting the toboggan up through institution in British Columbia for a the canyon” (154) or “the weather had century and a half. Brett’s “long day of turned much colder” (157) understate storytelling,” a blend of philosophical the thirty-five- to fifty-five-below commentary and amusing anecdotes – zero temperatures, the arduous terrain, “theory and worms” – is a unique tale and the enormous endurance it takes of the rural/urban fringe. to pack supplies over the “800 miles” Trauma Farm is a real place with White and his companions travelled a real name – Willowpond Farm – from 26 February to 3 May 1936 (143). located on Saltspring Island at the White’s attitude towards the wilderness vanguard, as Brian Brett puts it, of is best summed up by his remark in living, eating, and acting locally. “If a snow-camp in thirty-five-below anything,” Brett states, “the small, weather: “George turned out some good mixed farm is a hymn to the lush bannock, and with the rice and caribou achievement of our complex work and meat … we had a pretty good meal, not to ecological entropy – the natural to mention good old tea” (157). process that creates diversity” (1). In “A Tribute to Trapper Bob,” Here, surrounded by primaeval cedar White’s niece Edie Dean remarks that forest, Brett, his wife Sharon, and their White “was most at home under the younger son and friends moved into a open sky, whether astride a horse, large house eighteen years before he rounding up a herd of cattle, stalking big conceived of this quirky natural history game along a rocky hillside, or piloting of their farm. The book is written as a a raft down a swift northern river” (232). walk around the farm on the longest I find White’s narrative compelling not day of the year – an eighteen-year-long only for its description of the cowboy life day that “includes both the past and the but also for how he sees and encounters future of living on the land, tracing the the BC landscape and how he makes his path that led hunter-gatherers to the readers a part of it. factory farm and globalization” (3). The book thus goes beyond the parochial to the universal. Brett, disrobing himself in the warm summer night, sheds thoughts on every imaginable subject. Trauma Farm: The book has twenty-four chapters, really vignettes, that cover a wide A Rebel History of Rural Life variety of topics, from sleeping in a Brian Brett teepee to raising poultry, watching sheep and deer, making breakfast, Vancouver: Greystone Books, 2009. walking, gardening, chopping wood, 352 pp. $35.00 cloth. discussing The Origin of Species, and Kenneth Favrholdt critiquing the perils of factory farming: “It’s clear that factory farming is Kamloops dangerous, but it has fed many people economically. We have to learn how to rian Brett’s book certainly has harness it and reduce our addiction to Ba catchy title. Even better, the its defiled products” (365). 144 bc studies

Better known as a poet and fiction Seaweed on the Rocks writer, Brett writes in a style that is Stanley Evans both postmodernist and 1960s beat. A constant theme is his rant against Victoria: TouchWood Editions, globalization: he predicts a return to the 2008. 240 pp. $12.95 paper. hunter-gatherer state – more Trauma Farms where people can return to a place where ecology can be understood: “Our minds can’t encompass the Seaweed in the Soup multiplying intersections of a farm’s Stanley Evans diverse interactions; it’s a mystic star map whose interconnections are larger Victoria: TouchWood Editions, than human imagination and certainly 2009. 232 pp. $12.95 paper. beyond the reductionist mind trap of the logic that led to the thrills of globalization” (211). Brett offers West End Murders wonderful perceptions of and humorous Roy Innes angles on the world around us. He intertwines many different Edmonton: NeWest Press, 2008. stories and sources that shed light on 366 pp. $12.95 paper. his personal world. Some of the notable authors he lists – including Americans Chad Reimer Edward Abbey, Wendell Berry, Rachel Chilliwack Carson, Annie Dillard, Aldo Leopold, Barry Lopez, E.F. Schumacher, and, urder mysteries – books, TV of course, Henry David Thoreau – are Mshows, movies – have always essential reading for people like Brett been a not-so-guilty pleasure of mine. and for the people Brett hopes we will I remember my early days as a novel become. reader, inhabiting the English country Trauma Farm is an eccentric society of Agatha Christie. Today, but important contribution to BC pretty much the only reading I do for bookshelves. The beauty of the book is pleasure is focused on mysteries. I’ve that there are people like Brett living even tried my hand at writing bits and in the province and making a living on pieces, awkward chapter drafts that sit the edge, yet finding their centre in the collecting electronic dust on my hard mundane. For the reader who wants a drive. It was, then, somewhat daunting historical portrait of the small farm, to be faced with the task of reviewing this book will not fill the bill; however, the works of writers who actually know for those open to the ramblings and what they’re doing. The only approach I ruminations of the eccentric farmer knew how to take was a subjective one on British Columbia’s economic and – to say how the three books reviewed social fringe, Trauma Farm captures the here struck me. meaning and message of West Coast So, in a wholly subjective and existence. arbitrary manner, I’ll start with the book I enjoyed the most. Stanley Evans’s Seaweed on the Rocks opens with an act of reckless, and selfless, humanity. Silas Seaweed – Victoria Book Reviews 145

Police detective, member of the Warrior and tome-like wine lists. This is Reserve – is called to an abandoned the world of Vancouver City Police house, where he finds a Native woman detective Mark Coswell, who, with clinging to life. The woman is an old rcmp corporal Paul Blake, works to friend of Seaweed’s, from his own unravel an intricate plot that involves people, and he knows of her crack a secretive group of homophobic addiction and work as a prostitute. murderers. He starts mouth-to-mouth resuscitation What makes West End Murders on her while waiting for the ambulance, stand out from other mystery novels is heedless of the open sores in her mouth. the quality of Innes’s writing. In most After a lecture on his own stupidity mysteries, the writing is functional, from the paramedic, Seaweed drags in service of the plot. But Innes’s himself to a local clinic for an hiv and prose is a step above. His characters Hep C test. and scenes come to life and stick in This was my introduction to Evans’s the reader’s mind. His plotting is Seaweed: engaging and sympathetic, tight and largely uncontrived. If there a character who never surrenders is one major fault, it is that Innes’s to the detached cynicism that is an description of Vancouver’s West End occupational hazard. Nor does he see – and particularly its gay community himself as some kind of heroic saviour. – is too precious. These gays are to a He is a Native Everyman – navigating fault witty, educated, successful, and the gritty streets of Victoria, attuned so darn nice. There has to be a jerk or to the suffering around him, and two among them: it’s only human. connected to the Coast Salish traditions Overall, these three books give us that root him in place. some idea why mystery novels have Overall, the plotting, characters, become extraordinarily popular over and resolution of Seaweed on the the past decade or more. They satisfy Rocks is unforced, flowing naturally. a need that, I believe, the interior, By comparison, Evans’s sequel, Seaweed psychological world of “literary fiction” in the Soup, was something of a letdown. does not – the yearning for stories with Seaweed is less engaging in this book. plot and narrative, and with characters He and the other characters seem oddly inhabiting an outside world. And, of detached from the events they witness. course, the desire to read just for good Even the half a dozen or so murders – fun. horrific, grisly killings – don’t touch the detective, or the reader. Also, shifts in the plot are jarring at times, the dialogue more awkward than in Seaweed on the Rocks. I still enjoyed my time with Seaweed, but I hankered for his earlier incarnation. Turning to Roy Innes’s West End Murders, the reader moves from the dankness of Victoria’s underworld to the rarefied air of Vancouver’s West End. Greasy bacon and eggs, black coffee, and mouldy lasagne is replaced by croissants, cappuccinos, fine dining, 146 bc studies

The Box to understand the narrator. Later, Eiko George Bowering uses the word “prease” and explains to the questioning narrator, in perfect Vancouver: New Star Books, 2009. English, that “people like to hold onto 169 $19 00 their illusions of the exotic East.” pp. . paper. Bowering continues to play with Mark Diotte assumptions and language in “Belief.” University of British Columbia The narrator’s incessant questioning and interrogation of the words and ollowing the reissue of George phrases he chooses for his story suggest FBowering’s Burning Water in 2007 the difficulty (or impossibility) in and Shoot! in 2008, New Star continues bridging the gap between intention its dedication to local authors with the on the one hand and understanding publication of Bowering’s The Box in and interpretation on the other. 2009. Promoted as a “series of ten stories” Foregrounding the construction that break “with the conventional short of meaning, Bowering’s narrator story” to weave “together biography, demonstrates how the assumptions autobiography, parable, and drama” of the reader are equally, if not more, (back cover), The Box works to place the important in the telling of a story than reader into various “boxes” while often the craft of the author. To this end, simultaneously breaking them down. Bowering ultimately leaves his readers The ubiquitous Bowering narrator is to finish telling the story on their own. constantly setting-up, manipulating, Told in the guise of a social and pushing against the assumptions, experiment to determine what happens prejudices, and perceptions of his to “the youth who moves from the reader, all the while interjecting the iniquitous city to a bucolic setting” – narratives with wit, humour, and namely, from Vancouver to the south sarcasm. Okanagan Valley – the playfully “A Night Downtown” centres around titled “An Experimental Story” is the narrator’s encounter, years earlier, broken down into sections headed by with a Japanese woman named Eiko. scientific categories such as “materials,” Highlighting the assumptions that are “procedure,” and “results.” In this built into language and communication “coming-of-age” narrative that revolves are Eiko’s first words to the narrator. around the character of fourteen- In response to her “I am sorry if I year-old Drew, Bowering seems to work disturb you,” said in the stereotypical harder to seduce his male readers than clipped-English expected by a native he does to come to any firm conclusions. English-speaking, white Canadian, The idealized, fruit-laden countryside the narrator states: “Not a disturb is coupled with the romance of learning … no, you don’t … don’t sorry, it’s the rhythms, cadences, and knowledges perfectly.” This exchange indicates the of labour in the fruit orchards. The narrator’s struggle to communicate with narrator, observer of the experiment, Eiko but, more importantly, works to cannot help but notice Drew’s attention parody or satire the false and belittling being drawn to the rustically beautiful assumption that, by mimicking orchardist Mrs. Van Hoorn as “a bead Eiko’s words, by “dumbing down” the of perspiration descend[s] between her language, she will be in a better position tanned breasts.” Inaccurate though it may be, Bowering ultimately succeeds Book Reviews 147 in enveloping his reader in an eroticized Okanagan landscape and the magical time of growing up. In “Don’t Make Him Mad,” a story told in the format of a three-character play, an angel and a lawyer take turns trying to entrap, or “box in,” the other while the lawyer defends his life from the charge of “Wrath.” Of similar format is the final story of the collection, “The Home for Heroes: A Parable.” Here, Bowering creates one last box for his readers. A junior executive for a confectionary organization, Mr. Aligari is both figuratively and literally locked in a box. Trapped by his desk job, and labelled a “flop” and a “daydreamer” by his wife, Mr. Aligari awakes in confusion to find himself in a small room, bare of windows and furniture. Through the visitation of heroes such as “The Man of Steel,” “The Sultan of Swat,” and “Papa,” Mr. Aligari comes to represent the struggle and heroism of the average individual. At the same time, this story advocates the breaking down of the self-limitations, authority structures, and social conventions – in other words the “boxes” – that can blind us and hamper our dreams. Ranging from a baseball narrative to a detective story, the various stories in The Box have been published elsewhere in various forms; yet, when put together, they make a fascinating and successful study of what it means to inhabit different boxes, what it means to operate under illusion, and what it means to escape into another place – if just for a short while.