reviews NON-FICTION

BUSH AS NERO

War Law: Understanding International THE SPICE OF CANDOUR Law and Armed Conflict by Michael Byers (D&M $35)

Stan Persky sprinkles his enthusiasms from A to C In the early 1940s, German soldiers shaved off the beards of Orthodox Jews. The Short Version: An ABC Book his memories and intellectual from him, his standard male More Walter Farley Black Stal- American soldiers have done the same by Stan Persky (New Star $24) discoveries with all the zeal of a pattern baldness. I fretted about lion stories, more Wizard of Oz to Islamic fundamentalists captured in record-collector putting on it, mainly worried, I suppose, books, more John R. Tunis sports Afghanistan. any reviewers of Stan tracks from his favourite albums. about its potential effects on my novels or Amazing Adventures. The sickening—and largely unpun- ished—physical abuse and sexual hu- Persky’s The Short Ver- Spalding Gray-like, Persky could sex life. For years, I fought a los- Ever since I began to write, I’ve miliation of detainees at Abu Ghraib sion: An ABC Book will easily perform excerpts from this ing battle by arranging my hair always wanted to end a book M Prison in Iraq is one of the subjects ad- begin by mentioning that book as a one-man play at the in a desperate ‘comb-over,’ at- with the magical promissory Persky’s new collection of mem- dressed by Michael Byers in his treatise Fringe Festival, and Balding Gray tempting to disguise the obvious. words: to be continued.” for the layman, War Law: Understand- oirs and opinion pieces is sup- would be a hit. What an extraordinary waste of It adds up to a smorgasbord, ing International Law and Armed Con- posed to be modeled on Czeslaw Persky’s flirtations with the time, of mirror gazing, of bril- not a five-star restaurant. You flict, recommended by Noam Milosz’s two-volume work Milosz’s mainstream are apparently over. liantine and gels occasionally, can go back and forth along the Chomsky. ABCs in which the late Polish He won’t be writing any popu- walking around the streets, line-up, dismissing some dishes, “The United States,” writes Byers, Nobel Prize winner, in his mid- list paperbacks about the when a breeze comes up and rif- finding delight in others. The “wields more power than any political eighties, provided a miscellany Gordon Campbell government, fles through my fringe, I forget spice of candour is Persky’s most entity since the Roman Empire.” Hold- ing a Canada Research Chair in Global of literary profiles, reflections as he did in the old days of Bill that I’m bald, and like people consistent quality, whether he is and recollections, in alphabeti- Politics and Interna- Bennett. That would take a lot who have lost an arm or a leg are hyping Chicago Cubs’ shortstop tional Law at UBC, cal order. of work. Instead The Short Version said to experience a phantom Ernie Banks or the influence of Some reviewers will also men- Byers traces inter- enables the now-venerable limb, I experience some imagi- French heavy-hitter Roland national humani- tion that many of Persky’s Capilano College professor and nary hair. Then I run my hand Barthes. (Discovering the latter’s tarian law from the ruminations and ramblings have habitué of Berlin to explore the over my crystal-ball-shaped posthumous, alphabetically-or- 1859 Battle of been initially posted on the self-satisfaction of his accumu- dome, and move on.” dered book entitled Roland Solferino to the ‘re- Dooney’s Café website managed lated riches. The Short Version: An C (at the end of the book) is Barthes, we learn, was “an indel- gime changes’ by his friend Brian Fawcett in ABC Book presents Persky the for Continued. “I remember ibly liberating experience” that George Bush, Jr. that entailed the Toronto. Or they’ll quote philosopher king, unplugged, how thrilling it was as a child to encouraged Persky to embrace ousting of Slobodan Milosevic and Saddam Persky’s own obtuse explanation unfettered, counting his chips, come to the conclusion of some- himself as a subject, leading him for his A-to-C litany. “An ABC Hussein in wars not sanctioned by the with the insouciance of a brainy thing I was reading, a story or a from his breakthrough homo- United Nations. book is perforce the short ver- Jabba the Hutt. book, and discover, at the end, sexual memoir Buddy’s, and now sion of another, conceptually Byers refers to the disturbing prec- A is for Art and Auschwitz. it wasn’t ‘The End,’ but that onto The Short Version.) edent of Guantanámo Bay where so- amorphous entity, just as life it- “Theodor Adorno sternly de- there might be more to come. You don’t have to be a previ- called ‘enemy combatants’ are being self is the short version of the clared in the wake of the Holo- ously committed Stan fan to ap- incarcerated indefinitely, in contraven- dream of immortality. That en- caust that lyric poetry is preciate someone who admits, tion of the Geneva Convention, but he tity is one that includes both a impossible after “My books, like late-medieval doesn’t consider whether or not the database—the sum of all my vo- Auschwitz. I think that chrestomathies, are a patch- U.S.-engineered torture of Canadian cabularies—and the events of my the best way to inter- work of books.” To empha- citizen Mahar Arar can be justified in accordance with the George Bush life; together, they provide a lo- pret that remark size his point, Persky doctrine of pre-emptive self-defence. cus in which I experience the is not that good proceeds to provide a 1-55365-151-0 world.” poetry can’t six-and-a-half page bib- All of which just gets in the be written liography of his fa- way. after vourite books and IN THE (DON’T) KNOW Whether Stan Persky is writ- Auschwitz, authors. He’s telling Left Hook: A Sideways Look at ing about Athens, Woody Allen Canadian Writing by George Bowering but that us everything he (Raincoast $22.95) or AIDS; describing sex-acts in a good wants us to know, Bangkok nightclub or providing writing and very little a paean to his former mentor/ George Bowering’s advertisements now re- otherwise. for his own literary agenda in Left Hook: lover Robin Blaser; or discussing quires 1-55420-016-4 A Sideways Look at Canadian Writing Canada or Chicago, his amalgam an un- are as illuminating and exasperating as of seemingly informal A-to-C derstand- ever. It’s surprising and good to learn chatter is mostly a lot of fun. ing of the his “main male Canadian poetry hero” Clearly Stan Persky is not Holo- was Raymond Souster, but he doesn’t writing a book to change the caust.” elaborate. “The most poetic person I’ve world, or even an insightful self- B is ever known is Phyllis Webb,” he states, but we don’t learn anything about his portrait. He’s amusing himself. for Bald. relationship to her. And the undeniable intelli- “My fa- gence of his amusement is in- He shrewdly praises novelist Ethel ther was Wilson’s feigned simplicity as “the most fectious. bald, complicated trick of all” but he limits his Reading The Short Version is and I in- celebration of Al Purdy to a lengthy dis- like being in the presence of a herited, sertation on the poet’s penchant for confident joke-teller. Even along with using the word though one suspects Persky’s much else purple. As much easy-going style is an illusion, we as we’re happy want to believe the rabbit really to learn that does come out of the hat, as if Bowering’s po- he’s just making up his prose as etry buddy Fred he goes along, effortlessly and Wah is a former high school trum- without artifice. George Bowering pet player who It’s a clever act to follow. The took the title for Short Version is a one-man show his 1981 collection Breathin’ my name in which Persky is free to be an with a sigh from a line in the song Deep enthusiast, indulging in Purple, Bowering naturally assumes the the comfort of reader knows who the heck Fred Wah is. There’s a fair-minded appreciation of Mourning Dove, who also hails from the B.C. Interior, but several chapters aren’t indexed and Bowering is overly prejudiced in favour of his acquaint- Wilde man Stan Persky lectured on ances. Oscar Wilde in October at the Vancouver Public Bowering drops his breadcrumbs of cleverness and wit as if writing is a me- Library. He will also appear at 3pm on November 27 andering game at which only he can win. It’s a willy-nilly compendium. as part of the 21st Jewish Book Festival. You gotta be in the know, folks. 1-55192-845-0

29 BOOKWORLD WINTER 2005 reviews NON-FICTION

Imagining Difference: Legend, Curse, Imagining Difference and Spectacle in a Canadian Mining could have been called The Town by Leslie A. Robertson (UBC Press $29.95) Curse of Fernie, or A Whole Bunch of Stuff about Fernie. argaret Mead went to Enemy aliens, graffiti, hate- Samoa. Louis Leakey mongers, video games, Buf- Mfound hominids in falo Bill’s circus visit in 1914, Kenya. skiing, tourism and Italian To make her name in an- superstitions are all stuffed thropology, Leslie A. Robertson together, connected by per- went prospecting for a myth in sonal asides, melding aca- the hard-luck town of Fernie. demic reference work with As the former mining centre the methods of so-called slowly morphed into a destina- creative non-fiction. tion ski resort, she hung out at One of Robertson’s in- the local hospital, at the ice rink, formants tell us, “Ukrainian in the Dairy Queen and at the women took control over Remembrance Day ceremony, of Fernie their lives. I mean, they etc., nudging closer to ordinary used the men in their folks. lives… Trained as an ethnologist, “For example, your hus- Robertson wanted to investigate band only works three days various interpretations of a curse a week, there isn’t much supposedly placed on the coming in, so she takes a former ‘Pittsburgh of the The Ktunaxa Curse (supposedly) placed on Fernie in the late 1800s is every bit as enduring boarder, okay? She takes in West’—nestled in the Crow’s as the legend of Ogopogo or sightings of ‘Caddy,’ the West Coast sea monster. a boarder, she creates a Nest Pass area, just west of Al- nice living space for this berta, in the east Kootenays—by boarder. Now you have two in- Ktunaxa Indians. comes coming in, right? The litany of Fernie’s misfor- “The first thing you know, tunes since then is impressive. there are two or three children who look slightly different and CALAMITY’S VEIN: THE CURSE OF A they go right into old age with • 1902–an explosion kills 130 two men and one woman in a men house and they’re all happy to- • 1904–fire gether. She’s the one who is con- • 1908–Fernie burns to the ground HARD-LUCK TOWN trolling the situation.” • 1911–heavy snowfall isolates ✫ town, starvation looms Leslie Robertson looks at Fernie with an anthropologist’s eyes. Much of the value or pleas- • 1917–explosion kills 35 miners ure to be derived from Imagin- • 1924–bankruptcy of Home Bank ing Difference arises from such of Canada ing a necklace of coal diamonds, Creek, rather than use the more sion to conduct her research— tangential excerpts. • 1897, 1902, 1916, 1923, 1948– or a necklace of coal. arduous route via Fernie. Hence but was rebuffed. It’s fun to learn, for instance, floods In order to gain the secret of the curse narrative could have Elders gave her a hearty that in 1909, Fernie police • 1897, 1902–typhoid the coal’s whereabouts, Fernie “fulfilled the practical purpose lunch—and a firm denial. “This made 188 charges of prostitu- • 1902–smallpox asked the chief if he could marry of warning people about the rig- has happened to our people be- tion, 166 charges of drunk and • 1918–scarlet fever, measles, this local Pocahontas. Upon re- ours of travel through the fore,” complained one elder. disorderly, 32 charges of va- chicken pox, influenza ceiving consent to do so, Fernie Fernie area.” “They take our knowledge and grancy, and 20 charges for as- was shown where he could find In 1964, at the behest of say it will just stay put and then sault. In the late 1990s, mainly rely- the coal. Fernie Mayor James White, they make a book! We give them “Amongst the fines that were ing on oldtimers, Robertson tape Then he jilted her. William members of the Kootenay our knowledge and then what levied,” she writes, “a Chinese recorded varying accounts of how Fernie generated the Crow’s (Ktunaxa) tribe were invited by do we have left? Nothing! They launderer was given a fine of five and why the town was disaster- Nest Coal and Mineral Company Rotarians and the Fernie city take it away! [A writer] asked me dollars or fifteen days for spray- prone. It was all William Fernie’s in 1898. The Indians resented council to officially lift the curse a long time ago to tell him about ing water from his mouth onto fault. Or so legend has it. the intrusion of the white men on the 60th anniversary of the things. I told him he should be an article of clothing.” After stints in Australia and (and later the Canadian Pacific town’s incorporation. “During speaking to my elders. He came In 1917 there were 30 South America, the Englishman Railway). The girl’s mother, or these years many misfortunes back and asked me to write charges of “abduction” because William Fernie arrived in B.C. the girl herself, cast a curse have befallen us,” said the mayor, down everything I knew and he local men were seizing women in 1860, looking for gold. Fail- upon the emerging community “and by many, it is believed that made a book. He used to come from their work in the whore- ing to find his fortune in the of Fernie, established in 1898 your curse brought these about.” to my house. I didn’t like him houses. Cariboo and the Boundary Dis- and incorporated in 1904. For- Chief Red Eagle passed a there—it gave me a bad feel- During WW I, 306 alleged trict, he helped construct the ever afterwards, white settlers peace pipe to Mayor White, but ing… A man a long time ago enemy aliens were arrested and Dewdney Trail and gravitated to would suffer “from fire, flood, it went out. Amid more incan- came to work on our language. interned in Fernie and nearby the Kootenays where he met strife and discord; all will finally tations and puffing, the curse He said he wouldn’t publish it; Morrissey. Michael Phillips, a Hudson’s Bay die from fire and water” (ac- was symbolically vanquished. A he would just sit on it. Now it’s a This sort of thing has precious employee who had established cording to one source). month later Mayor Jimmy White book.” little to do with the Curse, but a trading post at Tobacco Plains, In 1906, Fernie retired to dropped dead. Rebuffed by others, Robertson’s interviews with com- south of Elko, around 1865. Oak Bay on Vancouver Island ✫ Robertson later procured a let- mon folk, and her diggings in the Motivated by wanderlust, where he died in 1921. Over the ter containing some non-commit- files of the Fernie Free Press, dating Phillips’ urgings and the find- ensuing decades Fernie resi- The good citizens of Fernie tal phrasing that could be from 1898, provide balance to ings of George Mercer Dawson, dents have claimed they can see (pop. 5,000) could have construed as a glimmer of assent. her musings on the “politics of who had explored the Crow’s the shadow of a ‘ghostrider’ on shunned Robertson as a nosey It was hardly a vote of confidence, cursing.” Nest Past for the Geological Sur- Hosmer Mountain, depicting Parker, an outsider but she had but it allowed her to pursue First While purportedly seeking vey of Canada in 1883, the in- William Fernie galloping away family connections to smooth Nations informants under the new ideas, academics tend to be trepid William Fernie began from the princess and her fa- the way, as the fourth generation pretence of being politically cor- slavishly conventional with their scouting for huge seams of coal ther. Local hockey teams are in her mother’s line to live in the rect. The idea that she was di- writing, deferring to the work that were rumoured to exist in now nicknamed the town. There was only one key rectly connected to William of colleagues wherever possible. nearby Elk River Valley, an area Ghostriders. component of the far-from-ho- Fernie as an interloper, another With its 25-page bibliography, considered taboo by the local One logical explanation for mogenous town that resisted. white outsider seeking to enrich most of Imagining Difference won’t Indians. The Indians were tight- the origin of the Curse is sup- Having started her research in herself by extracting valuable pass for popular history, but this lipped to Fernie’s enquiries, but plied by an unnamed Ktunaxa May of 1997, Robertson visited material, is not deeply consid- work has an intriguing premise his passions were stirred when woman, born in 1955. When her the Ktunaxa-Kinbasket Tribal ered in Robertson’s otherwise and Robertson deserves credit he saw an Indian princess—it’s people travelled into Alberta Administration Office on St. wide-ranging study, Imagining Dif- for an original under- rare that an Indian commoner from B.C., they generally took Mary’s Reserve in August of ference: Legend, Curse, and Spectacle taking. appears in these stories—wear- the route via Corbin and Coal 1997 to gain permis- in a Canadian Mining Town. 0-7748-1093-9

30 BOOKWORLD WINTER 2005 reviews NON-FICTION

When asked about the merits of having two wives, Potts is reported to have answered “One wife fights her husband, but two fight each other.”

TWO CULTURES, FOUR Bear Child: The Life and Times of Jerry A Blackfoot family, in traditional Potts by Rodger Touchie (Heritage Hudson's Bay blankets, with their House $19.95) interpreter, Jerry Potts (centre) WIVES & THE BOTTLE and North-West Mounted Police n unparalleled tracker, commanding officer John Cotton scout and intrepreter, For understanding the western prairies in frontier days, and Inspector A. B. Perry, who A Jerry Potts participated would become the force's fifth in the crucial events of his tur- Jerry Potts serves as an ideal prism. commissioner in 1900. bulent times and he embodied the two cultures whose conflict Assiniboine and Sioux. way of life, refusing to join raids James Macleod. He proved so An obituary in the Macleod marked them. By his late teens Potts, alone for horses and other booty, and valuable as an advisor, a gatherer Gazette read: For years he stood Respected by chiefs of the again, sought out his mother’s decided to return to the White of information and as a go-be- between the police on one side, Blackfoot Confederacy, Potts led people and immersed himself world during his thirties. In do- tween in Macleod’s meetings and his natural friends, the In- the Mounties to the notorious in their way of life. He was ing so, he abandoned his Bear with local chiefs that any lapses dians, on the other, and his in- “whiskey fort,” Fort Whoop-Up, quickly accepted, given the Child persona and indirectly into irresponsibility caused by in- fluence has always made and was later buried with full name “Bear Child” and re- contributed to the decline of his ebriation were quickly forgiven. for peace. Had he been other military honours. spected for his skills. In spite of mother’s people. “When whiskey smugglers than he was… it is not too much Rodger Touchie begins his his unimposing stature—Potts In the aftermath of the Civil were arrested,” Touchie notes, to say that the history of the biography Bear Child: was stooped and War, unscrupulous settlers, whis- “Jerry had a great affinity for the North West would have been The Life and Times of bowlegged, his key peddlers and traders evidence.” vastly different to what it is…. Jerry Potts with Potts’ growth stunted by pe- flooded into the West. Potts Potts’ son and both of his ✫ father, Andrew Potts, riods of starvation and adapted to the situation by be- wives died in the late 1880s, so Rodger Touchie concludes a disaffected medical malnutrition—he was coming a horse-trader, a hunt- he married the daughter of a his account by commenting on student, who left Ed- a fierce fighter who ing guide, an interpreter and a Blood chief and returned with the regrettable circumstance that inburgh for Penn- never let any abuse go scout. When the North-West her to live among his mother’s someone who chose Canada as sylvania, then pro- unavenged. He was Mounted Police force was people on the Blood Reserve. his homeland and served it so ceeded to the western also a capable inter- formed in 1873, he signed on There he became a father for JOAN GIVNER well should remain largely unrec- territories of the preter and a good with the Canadians and became the last time and broadened his ognized. His only public memo- American Fur Company. marksman. His weakness was a an indispensable ally of Colonel spiritual life to include Catholi- rials to date are an informally At Fort McKenzie, in what is fondness for whiskey. cism along with his christened mountain along the now northern Montana, he took Potts had four wives dur- Rodger other beliefs. Great Divide, and a Calgary a “country wife,” Namo-Pisi, or ing his lifetime. The first Touchie Potts died at the school named in his honour. “Crooked Back,” from the was a Crow woman who bore age of 56, possibly of Rodger Touchie, who owns Blackfoot tribe, and she gave him a son, but who grew cancer or tuberculo- Heritage House press with his birth to Jeremiah Potts some- homesick for her own peo- sis. When he was wife Pat, became interested in time after the small-pox epi- ple. He allowed her to re- transferred to the hos- Potts as the subject for a biogra- demic of 1837-1838. turn with their son to the pital at Fort Macleod, phy from reading accounts of the Andrew Potts was shot to Crow lodges, and took two many of his Aborigi- western frontier in which Potts’ death two years later. sisters for his new wives— nal and Mountie name repeatedly recurred Jeremiah Potts was raised by Panther Woman and Spot- friends converged on among those of better-known fig- two very different step-fathers; ted Killer, daughters of a the hospital for a final ures such as Crowfoot, Red Crow Alexander Harvey, a reputedly South Piegan chief. When visit. and Sitting Bull, as well as villainous man with a deep ha- asked about the merits of After his funeral, Mounties such as Macleod, Sam tred of native people, and having two wives, Potts is six Mounties carried Steele and James Walsh. Andrew Dawson, a gentle, well- reported to have answered him from the Catho- The use of a lesser-known educated Scot. “One wife fights her hus- lic church at Fort character as a prism to view his- From Dawson, Jerry Potts ab- band, but two fight each Macleod to their own tory has been popular since 1978 sorbed knowledge of the fur other.” graveyard on the when Barbara W. Tuchmann pub- trade and learned English, Like many another per- banks of the Oldman lished A Distant Mirror: The Ca- though one source reported son who combines two cul- River. There his stone lamitous 14th Century. 1-894384-63-6 that “his English was weird.” In tures, Potts never bears the following in- his travels with Dawson he also completely belonged to scription: Spl/ Const. learned three Blackfoot dialects one or the other. He never Intpr-Guide Jerry Potts Biographer and novelist as well as Cree, Crow, fully accepted the Blackfoot 13th July 1896. Joan Givner lives in Mill Bay.

32 BOOKWORLD WINTER 2005 reviews POETRY DETOURS FROM EDEN, PARADISE & BLISS ALSO NOTED John Pass, Mona Fertig and Stephen Bett contemplate inevitable falls from grace

Stumbling in the Bloom by John Pass The believability of this po- out of reach. How far can the (Oolichan $17.95) et’s fulfillment is that he doesn’t notion of earthly Paradise be BETT NOIR second-guess it. Pass, stumbling shifted before it snaps? If all per- Note Bene Poems: A Journey an anyone these days live in in the bloom, is man besotted fection is flawed, where is the by Stephen Bett (Ekstasis $18.95) Cparadise without cynicism? with a particular place, a possi- point where flaws outweigh vi- Paradise is popularly con- ble Paradise. 0-88982-201-8 sion? A reader prone to philoso- t’s one of the oldest stories: Jen ceived as perfection and since phizing about environment and Iman and woman fall in love: Currin post-moderns consider perfec- BEAUTY SUPPORT civilization will find much to bliss. They fall out: agony. Amaz- tion to be either boring or dwell on in this long poem. ing the nerve of poets who try The Sleep of Four Cities unachievable, the Adam or Eve This is Paradise by Mona Fertig One is reminded of the in- to tell it one more time anew. by Jen Currin (Anvil $15) role is bound to be a charade. ((m)Other Tongue Press $25) scription from Ovid, quoted by Amazing that poetry is up to the John Pass, who lives and another Salt Spring Islander, task. Stephen Bett’s slangy, jivey Born in Portland, educated in Bos- writes in an Eden called the Sun- as Paradise ever pristine? Ronald Wright, in A Short History Note Bene Poems: A Journey is a suite ton, New York and Arizona, Jen shine Coast, achieves the deli- WIs perfection even desir- of Progress: “Clever human na- of 71 poems about an intense re- Currin teaches creative writing in cate manoeuvre of writing about able? Mention Salt Spring Island ture, victim of your inventions, lationship between the male Vancouver and online for the John Hopkins Center for Talented Youth. beauty and happiness and elicit Utopia. Mona disastrously creative.” narrator and “an as- Her inaugural collection The Sleep without irony or cer- Fertig has lived there for tonishing woman art- Only in the final of Four Cities uses the city as a meta- tainty in Stumbling in the fifteen years and in her stanza does Fertig offer ist” that has plenty of phor for the complexity of self. Bloom. self-published long a slim hope in the anguish and despair 1-895636-70-1 “My peace falls / into poem chapbook This is promise of Beauty, al- to share. Mandorla by Nancy Holmes place near perfection, is Paradise, she laments the ways returning in spite The serial poem (Ronsdale $15.95) nearly there. And I would island’s decline. of the destruction. identifies the couple be the poet / Of those places Each stanza is pre- “Beauty walks the MAIN-VAN in relation to the In her fourth collection, Mandorla, HANNAH Nancy Holmes explores the com- wholly. I would give them John Pass: lush & fixed, “This is paradise,” beach barefoot with DER KAMP myth of Orpheus plications of being a parent after her away / in restlessness, rest, immoderate lines followed by accounts of herons, cradles Hope.” and Eurydice. What’s 20 years as the mother of three chil- to have them certain. / its flaws and cracks. Graz- The old acreage is subdi- unique in this sequential narra- dren, one with a disability. Starting Certain? That one thing or the other? ing pastures become vineyards, tive is not the melodramatic vided. The activists are burned with poems about the Virgin Mary, No! / Subtlety, shading is the tang.” Americans buy up waterfront, out. Politics are hypocritical. heart’s spasms but the loose and she links motherhood to historical It’s not all sunshine in the the history of racism conveyed Fertig conveys a palpable be- humorous notes that Orph and mythological forces, drawing garden and wilderness. The by buried rice bowls, the First reavement. The dream was al- sends down to his Eury girl in on fairy tales and her Ukrainian herit- contentment is shadowed by at- Nations’ dead, the idealistic hip- ways flawed but now it’s Hades. The man is suffering but age. 1-55380-029-X rophied friendships, back in- pies, grown old, cut their grey- crumbling, maybe beyond re- can’t help being sassy at the Anarchive by Stephen Collis jury, virus infection, rot and ing hair, are felled by arthritis, pair. But there’s an irony. This same time. (New Star $18) decay, kids leaving home, kidney artists hustle tourists like hook- gorgeous-to-see-and-hold book, It’s a risky venture, love po- stones, depression and anxiety ers, the kids leave for the city. hand sewn luscious paper, etry. Bett pulls it off, just. The As an assistant English professor at SFU, Stephen Collis has published (the cure for which: chopping There are food banks and tipped in photographs with em- last suites suggest an edgy reso- Anarchive, an investigation into the firewood in the presence of an homelessness. lution to the lovers’ conflict. bossed cover, was made on Salt connection between anarchy and amiable dog.) A long poem What’s to be done? Fertig’s Spring by the private literary That, too, is part of the old story: poetry, and he has also edited about the Twin Towers (a Cana- elegiac descriptions are more press which Mona and her hus- maybe there will be a sequel? Companions & Horizons (West Coast dian perspective) is not out of shadow than light. The tone is band operate. Maybe that’s one 1-894800-65-6 Line $12), an anthology including the place here yet Pass tempts the resignation, a requiem. Paradise answer to entropy: support Hannah Main-van der Kamp’s work of 41 poets associated with the reader to believe that “a won- cannot be grasped; as soon as Beauty “clear as the future,” re- most recent collection of poetry is Ac- university, in conjunction with SFU’s drous life” is still possible. We are one tries to corner it in words growing with her, restoratively cording to Loon Bay (The St. 40th birthday. Anarchive 1-55420-018-0 invited into “The huge and in- or own it as real estate, it slips creative. 1-896949-38-X Thomas Poetry Series). tractable beauty… where it’s al- ways the first day of summer.” His lush, tumultuous and immoder- ate lines echo the piled-upon layers of the rainforest’s particu- larities. Beauty, “complete, com- plex, aloof and lightfooted” has been Pass’ theme in many books. After decades of gazing and recording, he’s still in an ec- static state of grace because paradise is not primarily a physi- cal place but the ability to remain in the paradoxical tension of happiness and uncertainty. The wisteria’s “off-hand fra- grant gesture,” “the duvet of No- vember fog those mornings / light seems to push from within / the downcast leaves, their brasses / and umbers gleaming”; these are not greeting card, bu- colic images because the copi- ous language is inventive, often quirky. He’s no minimalist. His more is more. Gulping life, “sun- stunned and song-prone,” Pass is over-the-top goofy at times but never predictable. Writing well about place depends not on con- veying its familiarity but on un- covering its unique angles, strangeness, namelessness. Some of these poems are incau- tious, even excessive; the reader is carried along on a stream so enticing that coming to the book’s end is a letdown. Mona Fertig on Salt Spring Island: palpable All BC BookWorld reviews are posted online at bereavement www.abcbookworld.com

34 BOOKWORLD WINTER 2005 reviews FICTION FINDING GOD IN A WITCH HUNT

Vancouver Voices by David Watmough (Ripple Effect Press $15.99)

avid Watmough, senior chronicler of the gay Dmale experience in Canada, has never been one to shy away from heavyweight sub- jects. In a career spanning five decades, in which he has writ- ten sixteen books, he has taken on religion and marriage, homophobia and bigotry, love and war, all perceived through a gay sensibility. His latest novel, Vancouver Voices, the first volume in a pro- jected trilogy, tackles what he calls “the witch-hunt,” the per- secution and punishment of a gay Anglican priest who is falsely PHOTO accused of sexual abuse. BRIEN '

Through a chance encoun- O . J ter, Beth, a recently widowed woman whose troubled relations with her family are giving her EDMOND grief, meets and befriends a In the aftermath of this ac- predicament is admirable and a treatise, yet I was aware of how for both contemporary and tra- much younger man, Daniel, a cusation, played out against the problematic. He is determined to in almost every scene and con- ditional values in presenting the landscape gardener who is gay. backdrop of the changing Van- be true to Christian values of self- versation it was the author’s voice complexities of the witch hunt. That same day, while working on couver skyline and the seasons lessness and forgiveness. But by I was hearing more than the More than fifty years ago, the grounds of St. of the Anglican liturgi- maintaining a Christ-like and pos- voices of his characters. A didac- David Watmough’s first book, A Botolph’s Anglican cal calendar, Jonathan, sibly dangerous detachment tic approach results in scenes that Church Renascent: A Study in Mod- Church, Daniel the young priest, un- throughout the proceedings are more thought out than ern French Catholicism, was pub- catches the eye of a dergoes an excruciat- against him, is he doing the right deeply felt, a gloss put on char- lished in London in 1951. That young assistant priest, ingly public humi- thing? Or is he being unfair to the acters who need to be more thor- same year, when Watmough was Jonathan, who is also liation and punish- ones who love him by allowing oughly explored, threads tied up 25 years old, he met his life-long gay. The two soon ment, and a media-fed himself to be victimized? Is a little too neatly at the end. partner Floyd St. Clair, aged 21, become lovers and hysteria infects the Jonathan possibly enjoying the It may be that the pages of at a Wednesday night social at Daniel begins attend- city’s population. The role of martyr just a little too this slender volume are just too St. George’s Anglican Church in ing services, to the SHEILA MUNRO fallout has far-reaching much? flimsy to bear the weight of its Paris. So it’s tempting to pro- consternation of consequences for This is rich territory for a nov- ideas, but this isn’t surprising re- nounce that with Vancouver some members of the congre- other characters, particularly elist to explore. If someone is ally, given the author’s passion- Voices, David Watmough has gation who are aware of their re- Beth, who is forced to recon- persecuted, are they obliged to ate engagement with moral come full circle; he has gone lationship, but it isn’t until a sider her judgements about her fight back? It’s more than a gay questions, specifically with how back to the church. homophobic and vindictive family, and move beyond bitter- issue; it’s a spiritual and moral to carry forward the Christian Perhaps, more accurately, he teenaged boy accuses Jonathan ness; and for the mother of the conundrum most people are message of love into the 21st has never left. 1-894735-09-9 of molesting him, and his accuser who realizes her son has forced to consider in their life- century. Vancouver Voices is in- mother goes to the Rector, that lied and why. times, to varying degrees. fused with an Anglican perspec- Sheila Munro lives in Comox all hell breaks loose. Jonathan’s own attitude to his In his preamble Watmough tive as Watmough tries to allow where she is writing a novel. states that this is a novel and not

All BC BookWorld reviews are posted online at MUMMERY’S THE WORD www.abcbookworld.com King Arthur confesses as to how he inspired his troops by pulling his famous sword Excalibur from the stone.

ast forward thousands of The Eagle by Jack Whyte (Viking $35) pulling a sword from a stone, he acquired Penguin Canada as his publisher pages to the conclusion of after sending his manuscript ‘over the transom’ (without an agent). Re-pub- Jack Whyte’s four-generation epic of Arthurian England and you’ll dis- lished and re-packaged in the United States, his series has consistently gained cover who gets the girl and the sword. starred reviews in Publisher’s Weekly. FIn The Eagle, the eighth and final volume of Jack Whyte’s expansive His next series will re-invent The Knights Templar, a medieval order of mili- Arthurian opus about the origins and exploits of the Brotherhood of Knights tary monks who, according to Whyte, became “the most powerful and influ- Companion to the Riothamus—aka the Knights of the Round Table—Arthur ential organization on earth” within fifty years of their formation by nine ob- Pendragon’s closest friend and admirer, the Frankish knight Lancelot du Lac— scure knights in the Holy Land in either 1118 or 1119. Also known as The Poor aka Sir Lancelot of the Lake, or Clothar—returns to Gaul and gets the last word. Fellow Soldiers of Jesus Christ, they were expunged less than 200 years later Lancelot, the “lover, adulterer, deceiver and when King Philip IV ordered the arrest of the senior very perfect, gentle knight,” reveals Merlyn’s fate JACK WHYTE BIBLIOGRAPHY: leaders of the Order in France and they were im- and hears King Arthur confess as to how he in- I. The Skystone (1992) prisoned on Friday, October 13, 1307, giving rise spired his troops by pulling his famous sword II. The Singing Sword (1993) to the superstition that Friday the 13th is an unlucky Excalibur from the stone. “There was nothing mi- III. The Eagles’ Brood (1994) date. raculous involved,” he says. “It was mere IV. The Saxon Shore (1995) According to Whyte’s website, “The novels mummery, designed by Merlyn for effect, no more V. The Sorceror (Vol. 1): The Fort at River’s Bend (1997) will look at the Templars as they were at three than that.” The Sorceror (Vol. 2): Metamorphosis. (1997) stages of their growth—the beginnings, from 1119 Fascinated with 5th century history ever since VI. Uther (2001) through 1129, when the nine founders were his school days in Scotland in the 1950s, Jack Whyte VII. Clothar the Frank (2004) searching for the treasure that would make them immigrated to Canada in 1967 and first imagined VIII. The Eagle (2005) famous; the peak, during the Third Crusade when a probable solution to the Sword in the Stone mys- the Templars were at their strongest as a fighting tery in 1978. force, campaigning with King Richard the Lionhearted against Saladin, the Entering the fictional field of Thomas Mallory and T.H. White, Whyte Sunni Moslem sultan of Syria; and the very end, with the arrest of the French was determined to also trace and imagine the formative years of Templars on Friday 13th and the flight and legendary destiny of the few who King Arthur. “Arthur is the quintessential hero who surrounds himself escaped the fate suffered by the others at the hands of the Holy Inquisition.” with other heroes of equal stature,” he said in 1992. “The story An avid golfer who sings in eight languages, Whyte is a genial and gra- of the Holy Grail contains in and of itself the nucleus of man’s cious performer who has never seen a stage he didn’t like. He wrote and search for the unachievable.” performed a one-man show about Robert Burns, created a Remembrance And so the Scottish-born high school teacher-turned- Day Special for TV with the Irish Rovers and narrated an award-winning docu- actor and advertising writer proceeded to re-write British mentary for Terry Jacks’ Environmental Watch organization. Having founded history ‘on spec.’ At age 52, in the literary equivalent of Burns Clubs in Calgary and Vancouver, he now lives in Kelowna. 0-670-86764-0

35 BOOKWORLD WINTER 2005 reviews KIDLIT ANNA BECOMES A FIRST BANANA

The Isabel Factor by Gayle Friesen (Kids Can $19.95) But her dreamboat swimming instruc- tor is as hard on Anna as ever, accusing her n inevitable loss, the loss of who we of pacing herself so she never comes in once were, is at the heart of The first. A Isabel Factor, Gayle Friesen’s fourth Isabel, the new, rainbow-haired girl at young adult novel. camp, doesn’t play by the rules. She kow- A pair of socks. Peanut butter and jelly. tows to no one and says what she’s think- Anna and Zoe. All inseparable. Best friends ing. It’s unsettling for Anna to meet since first grade, Zoe wasn’t afraid to live someone who always tells the truth. life and Anna wasn’t afraid “to take notes.” Anna remains a Together they were a pair. moving target, keep- Then the indomitable Zoe breaks her ing peace between arm. This year her accommodating sidekick Jennifer and plain- Anna must head off to Camp Stillwater spoken Isabel, and alone. Anna has always been comfortable convincing Karim playing second banana, but now she’ll have she’s up to being his to operate as a Camp Counselor in Train- assistant. As some- ing beyond her friend Zoe’s shadow. Her one whose name has LOUISE DONNELLY Book Club, Oprah Magazine-reading never appeared on mother insists, “Sometimes in life we just the list of the Top Five Girls You Hate, she have ourselves. Sometimes it has to be is determined, above all, to get along. enough.” Then her loyalties get confused when But Anna isn’t convinced. At the camp, suddenly her former best friend Zoe shows it seems everyone is lining up to take pot up at camp, plaster cast, hidden agenda shots at her. First, there’s the uber-competi- and all. tive Jennifer, with a 3.8 grade point aver- Delta-based Gayle Friesen grew up in the age and her future Chairman of the Board Fraser Valley reading Little Women and Peter aspirations. The high achieving Jennifer is Pan. determined they must trounce Arlene All three of her previous titles, Janey’s Breckner’s cabin in the big swim race. Girl, Men of Stone and Losing Forever, have Karim, the swimming coach Anna is Gayle Friesen been selected by the New York Public Li- paired with, has the “same toffee-coloured goes back to brary for its Books for the Teen Age list. skin, same black, silky hair that would brush summer camp. 1-55337-737-0 the top of his shirt collar, if he wore a shirt, which would be a shame.” Louise Donnelly writes from Vernon.

26 BOOKWORLD WINTER 2005 reviews KIDLIT GROTTY BOTTOM FOLLIES

Nannycatch Chronicles by James Heneghan and Bruce McBay tad different. More than a few of the charm- Uncle Possum remains as cantanker- (Tradewind $19.95) ing critters die. Or rather, they get killed. Some- ous as ever. A new highway is built times not entirely by accident, usually because by humans, making refugees hen children outgrow Piglet and Eeyore at the Uncle Possum is as careless as he is callous. of Possum’s friends. He House of Pooh Corner, now there’s a nearby The Nannycatch News carries the UP- tries to help everyone, he- Wplace to learn—gently—that everything in this SETTING news but it appears no- roically saving Old Wea- world doesn’t always turn out all right in the end. body can do much about such sel’s life. But fatal and It’s called Nannycatch Meadows. things. near-fatal accidents continue. And it’s in the Great Forest, Death, like a well-known Skunk is killed when Uncle Pos- across from Grotty Bottom, four-letter word, happens. sum hurls a book at him. Forced to which is located between Good-hearted Possum can’t fix his Un- try swimming, Swallow drowns. “Swallow Sheepshank Knott and cle Possum’s temper. “Uncle’s heart grows nas- swallowed a lot of water,” notes Woodpecker. Pokey Edge. You can’t miss tier and meaner every year,” he says. “He yells Nannycatch Meadows, like the real world, is a charm- it because James Heneghan at babies, he doesn’t believe in Christmas or ing but dangerous place. and Bruce McBay have put coloured crayons or bubblegum, and he never Illustrated by little tombstones, there’s a Publisher’s a map at the outset of plays any games. Uncle Possum doesn’t know Warning at the outset. “Everything dies: flowers, trees, Nannycatch Chronicles. The mar- the meaning of fun.” elephants, bees, hamsters, turtles, dolphins, dogs, cats… vellous place names of that map, As a radical measure, Possum arranges for Everything. Nothing lives forever. Everyone knows this. such as Boggle Hole, Biskey Fen his uncle to have a heart operation to get it Young readers, however, should guard against this book and Pussytoe Hollow, are de- fixed. “If the operation is a success,” falling into the hands of grown-ups, many of whom get rived from real villages that says Chipmunk, “perhaps quite upset whenever the subject of death is mentioned. Heneghan and his wife discov- your uncle Don’t ask us why.” ered in the north of England will be- 1-896580-56-4 during a recent walking tour. come a Having collaborated with vegetar- McBay on several books already, ian like Heneghan was happy to lend us.” his list of places to the process But no of creating an unusual chapter such luck. In book about an unassuming pos- Nannycatch, sum and his decidedly nasty un- whimsy is cle. seldom re- The drawings by Geraldo Valério are com- warded. fortingly familiar, teensy etchings of Chief Moose, The pro- a tea pot, Chipmunk, Robin and Bear. But the amus- cedure ing and concise storylines in Nannycatch Chronicles are a fails and




 
    
   


 '
 
     !( ')
" 4
 ")    ()3
"
 & ISBN --- ISBN --- .(
 ,4",& Fiction  pages Fiction ISBN --- Paper .  pages  ()3  pages Hardcover . . .

    
(
"
" $$  0

    4' .' "
& % & '(
(

ISBN --- ISBN --- ISBN --- Fiction  Pages Poetry Poetry/Prose .  pages  Pages . .


+
+ 
 
 
 ', (& ,    !" #
 .(  /(! ISBN --- ISBN --- ISBN --- Poetry Poetry Children  pages  pages Cherubim Books . . w/CD  pages .


 #    
#  

27 BOOKWORLD WINTER 2005 reviews KIDLIT PIRATES & MARY’S MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR PENANCE Prepare to Be Amazed by Mary Schendlinger (Annick $14.95) Red Sea by Diane Tullson (Orca $9.95) hen she’s not transforming words n Red Sea, Diane Tullson’s into seamless prose for others— teen thriller about surviving Wwho usually get all the credit—top- an attack by present-day pi- notch editor Mary Schendlinger always has I a few other tricks up her sleeve. rates, fourteen-year-old Libby is an unwilling participant in a As a member of a collective named Maria Von Couver, she co-wrote a book year-long sailing trip with her about parenting called Don’t Say No – Just mother and stepfather. “I’ve let Go (Arsenal, 1991). As Eve Corbel, she seen walk-in closets bigger than has also developed a reputation as a car- our boat,” she complains, “but toonist. it could be the Queen Mary and Schendlinger is one of the brains—and still not be big enough.” the workers—behind Geist magazine, plus Their sailboat is named she’s a member of a serious writers’ soror- Mistaya, meaning little bear. “I ity that meets on a regular basis to critique think it means big mistake,” one another’s work. Libby gripes. For five years Libby Along those lines, Colleen MacMillan of Annick Press suggested there ought to be a has resented the addition of a decent kids’ book about magic. stepfather, Duncan, and she “Like most mortals I love a good magic show,” says Schendlinger, “and another of my favourite things is to read up on peo- ple's lives.” Diane Tullson sailed with her family for most of a year on the Red Sea, the body of water that After a year of research and a 90-de- connects the Indian Ocean with the Mediterranean, via the Suez Canal in Egypt. gree learning curve, Schendlinger surprised herself by pulling a book out of a hat. Prepare to Be Amazed consists of 10 Red Sea was nominated for the • Taking Care of Mother Earth by • Mrs. Goodhearth and the stories of some of the most awesome ma- American Library Association’s Leanne Flett Kruger & Marie-Micheline Gargoyle by Lena Coakley Hamelin (Orca) 1-894778-30-8 & Wendy Bailey (Orca) gicians from the 1840s to the present. Quick for Reluctant Young • Crocodiles say...by Robert 1-55143-328-1 Sorry, but the man they call Reveen Adult Readers list. It joins three Heidbreder & Rae Mate (Tradewind) • Eat, Run, and Live Healthy doesn’t make the cut. Nor do Penn & Teller. PHOTO Orca Soundings titles nomi- 1-896580-13-0 by Karen Olson & Or New Westminster-born Mandrake, who • The Kids Book of Aboriginal Peoples Marie Micheline Hamelin TWIGG nated for the same list (Charmed honed his act at the PNE, performed as a by Carrie Mac, Dead-End Job by in Canada by Diane Silvey & John (Theytus) 1-894778-32-4 tuxedo-clad illusionist for 47 years, inspired Mantha (Kids Can) 1-55074-998-6 • Yellow Line by Sylvia Olsen Diane Tullson the comic strip Mandrake, and died in 1993. Vicki Grant and Something Girl by • Peek-a-Little Boo by Sheree Fitch & (Orca) 1-55143-462-8 Schendlinger begins her survey with the Beth Goobie. Laura Watson (Orca) 1-55143-342-7 • Living Safe, Playing Safe by pines for her 19-year-old boy- Tullson previously wrote Sav- • Ghost Wolf by Karleen Bradford Karen Olson & Leonard George man who took magic out of the carnivals and circuses and took it into the theatre, friend. Then her problems re- ing Jasey (Orca 2001), the story (Orca) 1-55143-341-9 Jr. (Orca) 1-894778-33-2 ally begin. Jean-Eugene Robert-Houdin, a pioneer of a 13-year-old boy’s search for trickster not to be confused with Having sailed from Djibouti acceptance and hope within a Harry Houdini, the showman at the southern end of the Red dysfunctional family and his con- who once visited Vancouver Sea, bound for the Suez Canal, current friendship with, and in and dangled from an office the threesome are attacked by fatuation for, Jasey, who worries building. murderous pirates. Libby’s step- that Huntington’s disease within Along the way we also father is shot and killed, the boat her family will prove hereditary. meet Chung Ling Soo, who died onstage while performing the is ransacked and Libby’s mother 1-55143-331-1 is seriously wounded. Brought daring Bullet Catch trick, and roughly on deck in her pyjamas, David Copperfield, known for his Libby is in danger of being gang state-of-the-art magic show with ALSO RECEIVED lasers and live video feeds. raped by the masked invaders Each magician’s story is ac- until a suddenly impending companied by a simple trick, in storm convinces the pirates to • Kendra Kandlestar and the Box of Whispers by Lee Edward Fodi the spirit of that performer, that hastily depart. They knock Libby (Brown Books) 1-933285-11-7 kids can learn. Included are: unconscious and disappear. • Healthy Choices, Healthy Lives by Jean-Eugene Robert-Houdin (1805–1871) The mainsail is in rags, pep- Karen Olson & Marie Micheline Adelaide Herrmann (1853–1932) pered by bullets. Left to man- Hamelin (Theytus) 1-894778-31-6 Chung Ling Soo (1861–1918) • Ben’s Big Day by Daniel Wakeman & Great Lafayette (1872–1911) age a crippled boat, Libby must Dirk van Stralen (Orca) 1-55143-384-2 Harry Houdini (1874–1926) Harry Blackstone (1885–1965) sail to safety and find help for • The Whistle by Valerie Rolfe Lupini P. C. Sorcar (1913-1971) PHOTO her wounded mother who (Red Deer) 0-88995-314-7 Siegfried and Roy (1939–, 1944–) • Second Watch by Karen Autio Doug Henning (1947–2000) doesn’t realize Duncan is dead. David Copperfield (1956– ) (Sono Nis) 1-55039-151-8 Written after Tullson spent 1-55037-926-7

• Adoptive Families are Families for MANDELBROT two years sailing around the Keeps by Lissa Cowan (Groundwood) Mary Schendlinger Mediterranean with her family, 0-9735444-5-7

25 BOOKWORLD WINTER 2005 COVER STORY

ries I put aside earlier because they were just too weird for words,” says Wickwire. “For instance, Harry tells a story about a meeting between Coyote and the King of England. I did not find anything like this in the published collections. “But after a detailed study, I have decided that Aboriginal folks a century ago were likely telling such far out stories—but the collectors weren’t recording them very often. They weren’t interested in them because they saw them as “tarnished” sto- ries. Franz Boas and his colleagues were look- ing for the authentic “traditional” stories. And of course they were busy defining authentic and tra- ditional in their terms, for their own purposes.” In his stories Robinson differentiated between stories that are chap-TEEK-whl and stories that are shmee-MA-ee. The former explain creation from a period when the Okanagan people were animal-people. The latter are stories from the world of human people, not animal people. He was always willing to incorporate modern influ- ences, including the Judeo-Christian God, within WendyWendy Wickwire’sWickwire’s third compilation of Harry Robinson’sRobinson’s tales his evolving world view. “A good example of Harry’s ability to incorpo- LIVING BY STORIES veers away from “traditional” First Nations’ rate current events in a meaningful way in his sto- LIVING BY STORIES veers away from “traditional” First Nations’ ries,” writes Wickwire, “is his interpretation of the landing on the moon of the American astronaut narrativesnarratives favouredfavoured byby FranzFranz BoasBoas andand otherother anthropologists.anthropologists. Neil Armstrong. When the news of this event reached Harry, it was not surprising to him at all because he knew that Coyote’s son had gone there years ago. The white people were naive, he con- cluded. “Armstrong was not the first to land on the moon. He had simply followed the path that Coyote’s son had learned about long ago, which is recorded in the old story “Coyote Plays a Dirty Trick.” In this story, Harry sees the earth orbit and the moon orbit of the Apollo mission as the two PHOTO ‘stopping points’ so critical to Coyote’s son’s return Wild about Harry to earth.” SEMENIUK Wild about Harry Eventually Harry Robinson needed full-time

ROBERT medical attention for a worsening leg ulcer. He went to live at Pine Acres senior citizens home near Other mentors included Mary Narcisse, Childless and burdened by a hip injury in ping out to find people to record. During this time man, I just knew deep in my heart that this was Kelowna, in Westbank. “It was very sterile,” longtime rancher and member reputed to be 116 when she died in 1944, John 1956, Harry Robinson sold his ranches in 1973, Harry kept telling me his stories.” really, really, really important stuff. I sent Harry’s Wickwire recalls. “He was used to driving his old Ashnola, who died during the 1918 flu epi- two years after Matilda died. On August 24, 1977, Now a member of the Department of History manuscript out—the first one—to almost every- pickup truck into town and getting his mail, and demic at age 98, as well as Alex Skeuce, old Robinson was living in retirement in a rented bun- and the School of Environmental Studies at the body and it was turned down flatly by almost all having lots of visitors come to his house.” Robinson of the Lower Similkameen In- Pierre and old Christine. galow in Hedley when he met a non-Aboriginal University of Victoria, Wickwire first broached the of them. Then all of a sudden, one person, Karl moved to a senior citizens’ home in Keremeos. “When I become to be six years old,” he said, graduate student from Nova Scotia, Wendy idea of putting Harry Robinson’s stories into book Siegler of Talonbooks, picks it up. I knew Har- Later his condition deteriorated when his artifi- “they begin to tell me and they keep on telling Wickwire, who was introduced by mutual form in 1984 and he approved. “I’m going to dis- ry’s work was important for British Columbia, for cial hip dislodged dian band, Harry Robinson was me every once in a while, seems to be right along friends. ✍ appear,” Robinson said, “and there’ll be no more Canada, for the Oral Traditions—so I have kept and caused serious until 1918. I got enough people to tell me. That’s telling stories.” flogging it. infection. He had why I know. The older I get, [it] seems to come On the evening before they all went to the For years Harry Robinson would wait for “Now Harry’s on the map.” 24-hour care at born in Oyama near Kelowna back on me.... Maybe God thought I should get Omak rodeo in Washington State, Harry Wickwire at the bus stop outside his home near The Wickwire/Robinson collaboration has pro- Mountain View back and remember so I could tell. Could be. I launched into a story after dinner and continued Hedley, waiting for her to climb into his old green duced three volumes of stories, Write It On Your Manor in Keremeos on October 8, 1900. He devoted much of don’t know. I like to tell anyone, white people or until almost midnight. That experience drew Ford pickup truck so he could tell more stories. Heart: The Epic World of an Okanagan Storyteller until he died on A Indian.” Wickwire back to the Similkameen Valley for the “We’d go out to dinner and he’d tell stories all (1989), a finalist for the Roderick Haig-Brown January 25, 1990. With the help of Margaret Holding, next ten years, with her Uher reel-to-reel tape re- night. The next day we’d drop around to all of the Regional Prize when Robinson was 89; Nature Living by Stories the later part of his life to telling and re-tell- Harry Robinson learned to read and write Eng- corder, transcribing and editing Robinson’s sto- various places in town, buying groceries at the gen- Power: In the Spirit of an Okanagan Storyteller 0-88922-522-2 lish in his early twenties. Weary of itinerant ranch- ries, narrated by him in English. eral store, or sightseeing or something, and I’d (1992), winner of the Roderick Haig-Brown Re- ing and farming jobs, Robinson bought his first For part of the 1970s, Wickwire lived in make him dinner, and then we’d spend another gional Prize in 1993; and the newly released Liv- Wendy ing Okanagan stories that he first heard from suit from a second-hand store in Oroville and Merritt and Lytton, immersing herself in Aborigi- night telling stories. I’d come back and go to a ing by Stories: A Journey of Landscape and Wickwire married Matilda, a widow about ten years older nal culture for a Ph.D. dissertation on Indian song. rodeo with him, or go on a car trip, or something, Memory (Talonbooks $24.95), containing than he, on December 9, 1924. By the 1950s “I went to Lytton, to Spences Bridge, to Spuzzum, and we’d always have a great time. Hanging out, Coyote stories and material about the new quasi- his partially blind grandmother Louise they had acquired four large ranches near and all over to get a bigger cross-section of songs. we kind of became like a father and daughter.” monsters, SHAmas (whites), who dispossess “Indi- PHOTO Chopaka and Ashnola where Matilda had grown Then I got to spend the whole year in the Nicola Interviewed in 1993, Wickwire said, “Harry ans” of their lands and rights.

Newhmkin on her Chopaka ranch. up as the daughter of John Shiweelkin. Valley, near Merritt, living in a cabin and trip- was such a tremendous artist and a tremendous “The third volume contains many of the sto- TWIGG

22 BOOKWORLD • LOOKOUT • WINTER • 2005 23 BOOKWORLD • LOOKOUT • WINTER • 2005 NEWBOOKS

America in relation to tall trees in the rest of the world in Giant Trees of West- ern America and the World (Harbour $26.95). He includes information and scale drawings of B.C.’s 400-foot Lynn Valley fir, the tallest authentically meas- ured Douglas fir ever felled, and Cali- fornia’s Eureka Tree, the tallest redwood. The greatest breast-high diameter of the bole of a red cedar ever recorded was 22.3 feet, that of the Ocasta Cedar felled near Grays Harbour, Washington, in 1906, and also a Sointula Cedar felled on Malcolm Island in 1923. Another western red cedar was so wide that eight men and women danced a quadrille on its stump in 1887. The tallest tree cur- rently standing in North America is the Stratosphere Giant, a California red- wood with a height of 369.8 feet. Carder previously published Forest Giants of the World, Past and Present. 1-55017-363-4 SIDEWINDERSSIDEWINDERS && SCANDIHOOVIANSSCANDIHOOVIANS

pon his arrival in Vancouver from Austria in May of 1951, Hans Knapp (abovet) applied for work with The Loggers Agency and soon entered a world Tales of tall of fires, poker games and rats. Having recovered from a near-fatal accident U s a child in the Fraser Valley, Al in the woods, he has now penned a lively, ribald memoir of post-war logging camps, ACarder stood in awe of the an- Illustration of a Loggers of the BC Coast (Hancock House $19.95) in which he concludes, “Log- cient forests, with Douglas fir trees that Douglas fir at 125 ging seems to be an impossible task in a land where nothing seems to be impossible.” commonly reached heights of more than metres, dwarfing 300 feet. Sixty years later, after retiring three humans. Knapp’s cast of supporting characters includes Axel the Scandihoovian, Rosie the Giant Trees of from a career in plant biology and hav- Western America and homosexual logger, Sidewinder Rowley, Springboard Jack, Ha Ha Harry, Whisper- ing received the Canada Centennial The World (Harbour) ing Swede, The Grouch, Skookum Joe, Flash Harry, Arne the Bull, Hank the Finn, Medal for his contributions to Canadian

Big Gustav, Gimpy, Screwy Louis and the Coffee Queen. 0-88839-588-4 agriculture, Carder has documented some of the largest trees in Western

10 BOOKWORLD WINTER 2005 NEWBOOKS From the Kootenays to Stalingrad to Hong Kong

ylvia Crooks was three years old when Hitler invaded Poland in 1939. Thereafter Sher hometown of Nelson, ‘Queen City of the Kootenays,’ with its population of 7,000, sup- ported the war effort full bore. Crooks’ Homefront & Battlefront: Nelson BC in World War II (Granville Island $24.95) celebrates the sacrifices of a community that raised eight million dollars for Victory Bonds, shipped 17,000 pounds of clothing and eight tons of jam overseas, and lost 70 lives from the 1,300 men and women who enlisted after 1939. Nelson also sent more men to the Boer War per capita than any other comparable Canadian town and its 54th Kootenay Infantry Battalion suffered heavy losses in WW I. 1-894694-38-4

Aperture cranked up to 10 urton Cummings once sang, “American Woman, get away from me”… but ex-North Vancouverite Bryan Adams has turned away from hard rock to soft focus pix of Brich, famous and distinguished women to raise money for breast cancer research. Hav- ing provided hardcover photo albums of Canadian women and British women, Adams has turned his non-Ansel eyes to the likes of Hillary Rodham Clinton (above right) and Lindsay Lohan (left) for American Women (Key Porter $60), a coffee table book in concert with de- signer Calvin Klein who is listed as co-author. Adams’ first book in the series, Made in Canada This letter was sent to comfort the family of John Balfour Gray. Born in Trail, he was the first (Key Porter, 1999), benefited the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation. 1-55263700-X resident of Nelson to be killed in World War II.

7 BOOKWORLD WINTER 2005 NEWBOOKS Fresh basil, clams & dogs “I get really excited by ordinary things,” says Victoria tattoo shop owner Sarah Kramer, returning for her third vegan cookbook, La Dolce Vegan! Vegan Livin’ Made Easy (Arsenal $24.95). Kramer doesn’t mean raindrops on roses, brown paper packages tied up with strings or snowflakes that fall on her nose and eyelashes. She means, “the scent of fresh basil. The crunch of an empty sun-bleached clamshell as my foot runs across it on the beach. The deep, soft sigh of my dog as he’s about to fall asleep. The smell of my kitchen when I’m baking bread....” Going vegan, for Kramer, is not just about food; it’s also a lifestyle and an attitude. Her ebullient approach to self- marketing has helped turn How It All Ve- gan! and The Garden of Vegan into bestsellers. “La Dolce Vegan! comes at a time when I find myself multi-tasking to the nth degree,” she writes. “I’m busy running a tattoo shop, maintain- Pam Freir ing the GoVegan.net website, test- ing and creating recipes, taking photos, and making sure my dog Banana slugs & death in the library and my husband get enough ex- food columnist for the Victoria Times Colonist since 1997, Galiano ercise... I don’t have a lot of free Islander Pam Freir mixes humour with humus in her first collection time to muck about in the of recipes and wit, Laughing With My Mouth Full (HarperCollins kitchen and I suspect A you don’t either.” $29.95). Raised in Nova Scotia, Freir has retired from her career as the 1-55152-187-3 creative director of an advertising agency to host a do-it-yourself Cornish Hen Stuffathon and concoct chapters with headings like Oh No! There’s But- ter on the Honey Knife! “I want to ride a scooter and swim the length of the lake through duckweed when there’s a child at my side. I become an instant Sarah expert on baseball stats, banana slugs and who killed whom with a lead pipe in Kramer the library. And I am touched in tender spots I’d forgotten I possessed when I’m presented with the Harry Potter book they know I’ve not yet read. But, all

things being equal, I’d rather eat with the grown-ups.” 0-00-200801-7

11 BOOKWORLD WINTER 2005 NEWBOOKS READY, SET, LIFT & WRITE Renee Rodin’s Ready for Freddy (Vancouver: WINGING IT Nomados Press $10) is a short but poignant memoir of moving ore WW II veterans die each back to Montreal to care for her 88-year-old father who is Mday than Allied combatants diagnosed with mesothelioma, a form of lung cancer caused by at the height of the Second World asbestos. When he declares he’s ready to die, he was promised he War, claims Wayne Ralph, who can die with dignity. The narrator and her sister Sandy monitor says more than 20 of the interview- his decline as he stops eating and starts hallucinating. The ees for his latest aviation book, aftermath of his death is at once surrealistic and all-too-real. Aces, Warriors and Wingmen: Three of the pallbearers are women. “When it’s time to lift the Firsthand Accounts of Canada’s Two of the 100 Canadian coffin, though the women struggle valiantly to keep their side Fighter Pilots in the Second World War police officers and army from dragging on the floor, it’s considerably lower than the (Wiley & personnel in Haiti, 2005. men’s.” Ready for Freddy is like a Norman Levine short story, Sons strangely uplifting for its reportage of commonplace details. Renee Rodin $34.95), 0-9735337-5-7 have died in Hate in Haiti the past two ancouver’s Anthony Fenton years. More travelled to Haiti to conduct in- than 40 life stories are Wayne Ralph terviews for Canada in Haiti: V Tu Amor Mato Mi Cancer told in detail Waging War on the Poor Majority to reveal the emotional lives of the (Fernwood $14.95), co-authored with n the aftermath of the coup by Augusto Pinochet Ugarte that fighter pilots from a variety of air- Yves Engler, a Montreal activist craft. Aces, Warriors and who once played for the Chilliwack caused the deaths of approximately 30,000 Chileans, including Wingmen is Ralph’s follow-up to Chiefs of the B.C. Junior Hockey the assassination of President Salvador Allende Gossens in 1973, Barker VC—The Life, Death and League. Legend of Canada’s Most Deco- Their book is described as “a cry Alejandro Raul Mujica-Olea came to Canada as a Chilean rated War Hero that resulted in two to the citizens of rich countries to un- TV documentaries. 0-470-83590-7 derstand what is being done in our political refugee after two years of prison and torture. ✍ name to the descendants of the world’s ictoria historian Having worked for the so- Five more cancers were Mark only successful slave rebellion.” has released his cialistI government of Allende, V Zuehlke Engler and Fenton claim interfer- found in his body in 1984. fifth book on World War II, Hold- Mujica-Olea was one of the ence in Haitian politics by Canada, the Three more cancers were discov- ing Juno (D&M $35), a continua- U.S. and France has led to thousands first 100 political prisoners ex- ered in 1985. From his readings tion of his previous Juno Beach, a of deaths and deeper impoverishment. changed for wheat in 1975. of books recommended by Dr. Hubert Evans Non-fiction Prize Yves Engler has traced his evolu- But when he became a Cana- Abram Hoffer and Dr. nominee in 2004. tion from a Concordia Student Union dian citizen in Alberta in 1980, Deanne M. Roberts, his troubles weren’t over. “Ed- Mujica-Olea became convinced Holding vice president and hockey player to Juno tells monton was a prison of snow,” political activist in Playing Left that John Robbins’ book the story of Wing: From Rink Rat to Student he says, “in relation to the cul- Alejandro Mujica-Olea Diet for a New America was cor- six days of Radical (Fernwood $19.95). ture, the language, work, food rect in stating, “beef, pork and battle “My father learned how to be a jour- and the terrible stress of not being respected poultry industries help to cause cancer” due fought by nalist through his involvement in anti- by the new society.” to chemicals and preservatives. Canadian Mark Zuehlke apartheid and other activism,” he As a sewage system worker in Alberta, Mujica-Olea stopped eating animal soldiers as recalls, “and my mother’s commitment he worked with heavy equipment such as products, but continued eating mussels and they struggled to hold onto Juno Beach after D-Day against the to community health arose from her concrete drills and jackhammers, and de- clams (for their high iodine content), veg- participation in Latin American soli- 12th SS (Hitlerjungund) Panzer Di- veloped a lymphatic tumour in his stomach etables, high-fibre cereals and whole grain vision. Their success enabled Al- darity struggles.” eight years later. His physician told him he bread, supplemented by vitamins (as di- lied troops to slowly advance The memoir is dedicated to his fa- had three months to live in June of 1983. rected by Dr. Linus Pauling). “Today, towards Germany—and victory. vourite Canuck, Trevor Linden, be- we walk together / along the path of 1-55365-102-2 cause he has always taken an active solitude, / my cancer, my poetry and role in the NHL Players’ Association. me,” he writes in Your Love Killed My HAITI: 1-55266-168-7; PLAYING LEFT WING: 155266-169-5 Cancer/Tu Amor Mato Mi Cancer (New Westminster: World Poetry Pub- lishing $20), a self-published, bilin- gual collection that includes his detailed dietary advice. Now living in New Westminster, Mujica-Olea founded The World Po- etry Reading Show on Co-op Radio, 102.7 FM in 2001, a weekly show fea- turing multilingual, multicultural po- Not-for-profit prophet Apes of the Planet ets in the Vancouver area that provides J.S. Woodsworth a forum for immigrant poets to be WORLD-RENOWNED AS A PROTECTOR OF ORANGUTANS, SFU ANTHROPOLOGIST heard in honour and respect. He and n conjunction with an SFU and Indonesian conservationist Biruté Galdikas has fol- Ariadne Sawyer also co-founded conference on J.S. , co-founder lowed her Orangutan Odyssey with Great Ape Odyssey (Harry and manage the World Poetry Read- Woodsworth of the CCF (forerunner to the N. Abrams $65), including 125 photographs of gorillas, chim- ing Series at Vancouver Public Library, I NDP), Glenn Woodsworth panzees, bonobos and orangutans by Karl Ammann. It hosting more than 250 poets of dif- and his wife Joy have published A fering ethnic backgrounds from more Prophet at Home, an Intimate was the SFU Book of the Month for October. 081095575X than 50 countries. Memoir of J.S. Woodsworth Mostly self-published, Mujica-Olea (Tricouni Press $10). A grandson has written about his experiences of of J.S. Woodsworth, Glenn Woodsworth was born in 1943, the torture in a Pinochet prison in From year after his grandfather died. He the Shadow of Death in Chile (2003) nonetheless knew J.S. and Pearls From the Soul of a Political Woodsworth’s wife Lucy, who lived Prisoner (2003), both published to to age 102, and he gleaned some mark the 30th anniversary of Allende’s of his grandfather’s political overthrow with CIA complicity. idealism from his own father Ralph. Biruté The former book is a diary derived The 54-page book features three Galdikas from scraps of paper filled with tiny of his grandfather’s previously unpublished letters and a writing that were smuggled out of reminiscence of J.S. Woodsworth prison by family members. For more by his son Charles, likely penned info, visit www.abcbookworld.com in the late 1940s. 0-9697601-6-7 0-9731479-3-8

17 BOOKWORLD WINTER 2005 ENDPAPERS PRINTINGSERVICES Ch-ch-ch-anges Established 60 years ago by Cindy Oxenbury has returned Binky Marks to Book Warehouse to become Chief and Reverend Operating Officer succeeding founding Alfred partner Sharman King, who will re- Stiernotte to PHOTO main as CEO. Carol Dale and help “the strug-

Louise Hager have closed Women TWIGG gle against fas- In Print bookstore but will remain in- Ray Viaud: cism,” People’s volved in the book trade with personal birthday bouyed Co-op Books un- Reaching new HEIGHTS in initiatives. Veteran bookseller Jim der the manage- ment of Ray Viaud marked its book printing EXCELLENCE! anniversary as Vancouver’s senior book- store with a party in October. Visit us on the web at www.houghtonboston.com to get an instant online book quote and be sure to PRIZED AUTHORS request our 100% Post Consumer Recycled stock! Lance Berelowitz has received the 709 43rd Street East, Saskatoon, Canada S7K 0V7 P: 306-664-3458 F: 306-665-1027 E: [email protected] $2,000 City of Vancouver Book Award for Dream City: Vancouver and the Global Imagination (Douglas & McIntyre). ✍ Shirley Naylor & Douglas Fraser The B.C.-related nominees for the Governor General’s Awards in literature this year are: and the cooperative owners of Allen FICTION: Granville Book Company also closed Charlotte Gill of Vancouver, for their doors this year. After many years at Ladykiller (Thomas Allen Publishers). the UVic Bookstore, Sarah Harvey Kathy Page of Salt Spring Island, for has taken a job as an editor for Orca Alphabet (McArthur & Co.). Books; her replacement is Jennifer POETRY: W.H. New of Vancouver, Cameron. After keeping Ladysmith’s for Underwood Log (Oolichan Books). FOR Fraser & Naylor Bookstore afloat for DRAMA: many years, Douglas Fraser and Daniel MacIvor of Toronto, for Cul- de-sac (Talonbooks). Shirley Naylor have given way to NON-FICTION: their employee of many years, FFrieda John Vaillant of Douglas, who has changed Vancouver, for The Golden the name to Salamander Books. Spruce: A True Story of COLOUR Following a send-off for found- Myth, Madness and Greed ing organizer Alma Lee and (Knopf). a climactic appearance by CHILDREN’S Alice Munro, the Vancou- LITERATURE (Text): ver International Writers Festival Barbara Nickel of will be steered by Hal Wake, Yarrow, for Hannah Waters BOOKS and the Daughter of Johann a veteran journalist and inter- Charlotte Gill viewer. An editor who worked Sebastian Bach (Penguin). of Sidney, with Jim Douglas during Pamela Porter for The Crazy Man the formative years of J.J. Doug- (Groundwood Books/ House las Ltd., and later at Douglas & of Anansi Press). McIntyre, Marilyn Sacks CHILDREN’S died on October 17. James LITERATURE Bryner has left the Literary (Illustration): Murray Press Group to work for Wiley Kimber of Nelson, for The & Sons. Edited by poets Rich- W.H. New Highwayman, text by Alfred ard Olafson and Trevor Noyes (Kids Can Press). Carolan, the new Pacific Rim Review TRANSLATION: of Books will (French to English): expand be- Wayne Grady of Athens ON, for Return from Africa (D&M). yond its initial Fred A. Reed of Montreal, for Truth your colour book printer emphasis on or Death: The Quest for Immortality in authors per- the Western Narrative Tradition taining to (Talonbooks). www.marquisbookprinting.com Ekstasis Edi- Fred A. Reed and David Homel tions for three of Montreal, for All that Glitters 1-877-770-2777 Richard Olafson issues per year. (Talonbooks). SEATTLE • VANCOUVER • CALGARY • OTTAWA • TORONTO • MONTRÉAL • BOSTON • NEW YORK

39 BOOKWORLD WINTER 2005 LETTERS W.P.’s p’s-and-q’s I love that you devoted half of the (BCBW Autumn) issue to fiction titles. I have only one complaint (and it’s a small one) and that is with W.P. Kinsella’s No Laughing Matters article in the Lookout section when he suggests that children’s literature is “picture books with pop-ups that one reads to pre-schoolers.” I know that the opinions of your con- tributors don’t necessarily reflect the opin- ions of the staff of BC BookWorld, but I sure hope someone set him straight on that one. Thankfully Susan Juby gave him a thoughtful response, though I don’t know if it was enough to have educated him on the vast spectrum that is children’s lit... Anyway, I’m finally going to do what I have meant to do for years—subscribe to BC BookWorld. Deep Cove doesn’t have any outlets (that I’ve discovered) that carry your newspaper. Please keep up the great work! I discover so many books through your publication. Shelley Hrdlitschka North Vancouver Scarlet malapropism I read with interest the interview with Noam Chomsky [BCBW Autumn]. Mr. Chomsky’s views are always challenging, and he can usually be trusted to look at issues with a brutally honest eye. One as- pect of this article left me somewhat baf- fled, and that was the title, in headline format, in large red letters, which read as follows: Dissembling Fear. To dissemble means “to conceal or disguise” or “to give a false impression.” In other words, putting the dictionary aside and relying on everyday English, I will use the syno- nym “pretend.” So there we have it; to dissemble is to pretend. The title of the Noam Chomsky article tells us that fear is being dissembled. Someone, for some rea- son, is pretending to be afraid. I perused the interview several times to see who it was that was pretending to be frightened. After all, the concept is counterintuitive-it is far more typical of human nature that one would pretend NOT to be afraid; there is little to be gained by pretending to be scared if we aren’t. Anyway, failing to find a single line in the text that conveyed the idea of fear- feigning, I came up with some theories. Perhaps your publication is one of those where the job of printing titles and headlines is relegated to one person who comes up with catchy hooks for every- body. That would, at least, exonerate the writer. Still, the question remains: what did the author of this huge scarlet mala- propism really mean say? Disseminating Fear? The multinationals and warmongers could be accused of that. Disassembling Fear? Mr. Chomsky could be credited with attempting that. Whatever the ex- planation, I think the BC BookWorld edi- tors overlooked a whopper-and I ain’t dissemblin’! Nick Sullivan Cumberland

Write to: BC BookWorld, 3516 W. 13th Ave., Vancouver, BC V6R 2S3 email: [email protected]

Letters may be edited for clarity & length.

20 BOOKWORLD WINTER 2005 LOOKOUT #22 • a forum for & about writers 3516 W. 13th Ave., Vancouver, BC V6R 2S3 • [email protected] LOOKOUTLOOKOUTLOOKOUT

"Coyote is to CanLit what k.d. lang is to country music."—OTTAWA X PRESS BORN AND RAISED IN While I filled up, she went in to Whitehorse, Ivan E. buy a snack. When I came in- (Elizabeth) Coyote is the side to pay, the gas jockey, whom daughter of a welder and a I have known for five years or government worker. "Although so, was draped across the coun- technically I fall into the ter explaining the intricacies of biologically female category," Keno to my lovely companion. she writes in the following story She was drinking a Slurpee. I had entitled 'If I Was a Girl', "I do lack to drag him away to pay for my most of the requirements for gas. membership in the feminine “That’ll be $22.50,” he tells realm." me, still distracted by the fasci- ast week, my cousin nating world of lottery odds. Dan’s girlfriend, Sarah, “I’ll get that too,” I added, Lmentioned to my girl- motioning toward her Slurpee. friend that they were hiring at “Don’t worry about that,” he the restaurant she worked at on said, waving his hand like a ma- the Drive. “You should come gician, “that’s on me.” in and apply. We would have Five years I buy gas from him too much fun, and the tips are and Slurpees never grew on trees good,” Sarah told her. until I bring the redhead in. But my girlfriend already We talked about it in the car, has a job. I, on the other hand, and the whole time we were buy-

PHOTO ing groceries: the pros and cons have been subsisting on a sto- ryteller’s wage since I abruptly of girlery versus boydom. She MUSHET lost my job in the film indus- gets free Slurpees, but deals with try, mostly due to my un- MARK harassment twenty-four seven. I apologetic and appalling lack get free anal searches at border of respect for authority, and crossings, but have to change my my visceral distaste for people own tires. who won’t stop talking about We are in Shopper’s Drug Los Angeles. Mart in the makeup section “Tips?” I perked up. “I can IF I WAS A GIRL BY IVAN E. COYOTE when another pro on the girl side wait tables. Did it all the way presents itself: sixty-seven names through high school.” for the colour red: heat wave red, Sarah shook her head. “No offence, Ive, I have never had the luxury. it. Maybe those two guys who jumped me firecracker red, code red, forward, blazing but my boss likes to hire, you know . . .” My grandmother explained it best the in the park in ’89 and punched me out for and nuance red, really winey red, vain stain, She held two imaginary melons up in front day I tried to “come out” to her. I was nine- being a fag would have left me alone, or maraschino, downtown, and plumage red, of her chest. “. . . girls.” teen. maybe they would have been after some- and my favourite, Vampire State Building Now, although it is true that I techni- “There’s something I need to tell you,” thing else. red. Not to mention prep’s cool peach or cally fall into the biologically female cat- I said. We were drinking Earl Grey tea and The sweetie and I went to Seattle a cou- country club coral. Who knew? egory, I do lack most of the requirements eating scones with raspberry jam. “I think I ple of weekends ago. Just before we arrived Could I masquerade as a real girl if I had for membership in the feminine realm. And might be gay,” I blurted out. at the American border, I did my usual ti- to? My mom used to think so. Me, I’m though I do not personally believe this “Finally,” she laughed and went to get dying up: turn off radio, take off cowboy not so sure. I think it somehow goes deeper would directly affect my ability to pour the photo album. “Look, here, there you hat, roll sleeves down to cover up tattoos, than just a brushcut and baggy pants. Look coffee, I knew exactly what she meant. are, queer as a three dollar bill on your first button up shirt, sit up straight, seat belt on. at my graduation photo: me in the aqua Mere days later, my girlfriend got a call day of school.” (I was wearing double hol- I looked over at her. She was slouched casu- blue number, looking about as comfortable from a buddy of hers.Rosamond It turned out Play- ster cap guns and a plaid shirt.) “And look, ally in the passenger seat, tattoos hanging as a dog with one of those cones on my boy magazine wasNorbury in town, holding audi- a little lesbian goes to hockey camp, and out, nipples a twitter in the light breeze, head so I won’t chew on my own strapless. tions for their Canadian Girls special issue, here, poor thing, the dyke in her grad dress. not a nervous bone in her body. Maybe I could grow my hair and the real and did she want to come backstage and I was wondering when you would figure it “Sit up, for chrissakes, and put a long- girls wouldn’t notice the intruder. help her in/out of her G-string and bath- out.” sleeved shirt on.” I was shocked by her ap- But that’s the real point here, is it not? robe? I thought this would make a good Just once, I would like to be in the closet, parent lack of border angst. “You wanna get Maybe then the real girls wouldn’t notice story, and wanted to tag along. “I’m not just for the novelty of it all. I wonder what us pulled over?” me. sure you would be . . . appropriate back- my life would have been like, if I had a girly I forgot that she looked like a girl, and stage,” I was informed. bone in my body. Would I have made it thus the rules were different for her. She Ivan E. Coyote (above) has released Now, my girlfriend does possess all the through trade school at all, or would it have had a better chance of crossing without in- three collections of humourous and usually prerequisite femme characteristics, but she been easier? Would my father have taught cident if she didn’t put on the long-sleeved autobiographical writing, Close to Spider Man is at least, if not more, perverted than I am, me how to weld? Would my Uncle John shirt. “Next time, let me drive,” she said (Arsenal, 2000), One Man’s Trash (Arsenal, and I really would be backstage just for the have given me a perfect mini-tool kit for calmly as we breezed through the border. 2002) and now Loose End (Arsenal $17.95). human interest angle of it all, as I don’t usu- my ninth birthday? “Sad, but true.” She recently moved to Squamish. Maybe I would have made more tips, One day, we stopped for gas at the ally go in for the Playboy Bunny type. But 1-55152-192-X she can go, you know, undercover, whereas and not dropped out of college. Think of Mohawk around the corner from my place.

21 BOOKWORLD • LOOKOUT • WINTER • 2005 CLASSICS This article is the third in a new series celebrating enduring B.C. books. Swiss family Blanchet A mother’s sailing memoir remains a coastal classic after 13 printings.

ublished in 1961 when its author was 70 years old, PM. Wylie Blanchet’s un- likely bestseller, The Curve of Time (Whitecap $18.95) recalls the au- thor’s 15 summers with her five home-schooled children aboard a 25-foot cedar launch, Caprice. The family’s June-to-October adven- tures are condensed into a series of sketches as if they constitute one voyage when her youngest child was three. Born in 1891 in Lachine, Quebec, Blanchet was a tomboy who upset her tutor by carrying mice in her pockets. Capi Blanchet (far right) with Her High Anglican father was often mys- her children Frances, Peter, teriously absent on world travels, disap- Betty, David and Joan. pearing for a year at a time. As Muriel Liffiton she competed for The indomitable ‘Capi’ (i.e. captain combat her emphysema and the damp academic honours with her two sisters of Caprice) was hard-pressed to make climate, she reportedly sat with her head FOR YOUR EYES ONLY until, at age 18, she married Geoffrey ends meet. Each year she rented her inside her oil stove for 20 minutes each Blanchet from Ottawa. Theirs was home and set off in Caprice with her day. his is just a note to say thank you to all not a marriage made in heaven. children for five months of exploration. The Curve of Time began as a series Tour readers, throughout the province Whereas her banker-husband was The family investigated Indian settle- of articles for Blackwoods Magazine in and across Canada, for making our 18th emotional, she could be intensely prag- ments, canneries, marine stores, floating London, England, before it became a year in print as worthwhile as our first. If it matic. After he fell ill in his early 40s and logging camps and traced the voyages book in 1961. Its unusual title was de- ain’t broke, we won’t fix it. retired, the couple drove west with four of Captain George Vancouver, rived from The Fourth Dimension by COMING NEXT ISSUE… children in a Willys-Knight touring car. keeping a copy of his diary aboard. Maurice Maeterlinck, who Long in the works and due in Janu- Upon reaching Vancouver Island in Blanchet rejected conventional no- viewed time as a curve. At its height, one ary, Eden Robinson’s second 1922, they serendipitously discovered a tions of fashion for women and wasn’t can simultaneously view the past, present novel, Blood Sports (M&S $34.99), long-vacant cottage designed by Samuel afraid to get her hands dirty. “Engines and future. is set in Vancouver’s Downtown Maclure at Curteis Point, near Sidney. were invented and reared by men,” she On September 30, 1961, Capi Eastside. It’s about extortion and other A year later they bought the one-year- once wrote. Blanchet was found dead at her type- forms of hu- old Caprice for $600. Its gas engine had “They are used to being sworn at, and writer, having suffered a heart attack at man manipu- to be overhauled because the boat had just take advantage of you; if you are age 70. lation, amid sunk during the winter. With constant polite to them—you get absolutely no- Blanchet’s neighbour and friend drugs and tinkering, the engine would remain in where.” Gray Campbell of Sidney released prostitution. use for 20 years until 1942. After World War II, Blanchet sold the first Canadian edition of The Curve We’ll have a One more child was born, then trag- Caprice for $700 to the owner of a Vic- of Time in 1968. It sold for $1.95. profile by

edy struck. Geoffrey Blanchet died, or else toria boatyard. It went up in flames dur- Edith Iglauer Daly has written PHOTO Vickie he disappeared, in 1927. After he em- ing repairs and never sailed again. about Blanchet in Raincoast Chronicles; Jensen in POWELL barked on Caprice and stopped at nearby Capi Blanchet continued to live at Rosemary Neering has provided

JAY the spring is- Knapp Island, he was never seen again. Curteis Point after her children grew up, a profile in Wild West Women. Eden Robinson sue. 0-7710-7604-5 The boat was found, but not his body. resisting her doctor’s advice to move. To 1552853519

Contributors: Mark Forsythe, Joan Givner, Sara Cassidy, Louise Donnelly, Carla Lucchetta, Heather Ramsay, INDEX to Advertisers Hannah Main-van der Kamp, Sheila Munro. BC Writing not otherwise credited is by staff. BOOKWORLD Proofreaders: Wendy Atkinson, Betty Twigg Deliveries: Ken Reid 32 Books...41 Friesens Printers...38 Mosaic Books...41 Stanton, Atkins & Dosil...11 Winter Issue Vol. 19, No. 4 Design: Get-to-the-Point Graphics Anvil Press...28 Galiano Island Books...41 Mostly Books...41 Talewind Books...41 Arbeiter Ring...37 Georgia Strait Alliance...33 Munro’s Books...41 Terasen...3 Publisher/ Writer: Alan Twigg We acknowledge the Arsenal Pulp Press...13 Givner, Joan...36 Murdoch’s Bookshoppe...41 Thomas Allen Publishers...31 assistance of Canada Council Editor/Production: David Lester and the Province Banyen Books...36 Granville Island Publishing...38 New Star Books...31 Thompson, Ann...18 of British Columbia, through the Ministry BC Book Prizes...25 Hedgerow...33 Northstone...33 Tingley Creek Rockers...37 Publication Mail Agreement #40010086 of Community, Aboriginal, BC Civil Liberties Assn...33 Harbour Publishing...44 Oolichan Books...16 Tradewind Books...26 Return undeliverable Canadian and Women’s Services. addresses to: BC BookWorld, BC Historical Federation...36 HarperCollins...7 Orca Books...24 Transcontinental Printing...38 3516 W. 13th Ave., Vancouver, Blackberry Books...41 Heritage House...9 People’s Co-op Books...36 Travel Bug...41 BC V6R 2S3 Bolen Books...42 Hignell Printing...38 Penguin Books...6 UBC Bookstore...41 Produced with the sponsorship of Book Masters...41 Houghton Boston...39 Phoenix on Bowen...41 UBC Press...20 Pacific BookWorld News Society. We acknowledge the Book Warehouse...42 Kos, David...37 Printorium...38 Vancouver Desktop...37 Publications Mail Registration No. 7800. financial support of the Government of Canada Buy Olympia...36 Laughing Oyster Books...41 Propp, Dan...37 Vancouver Maritime BC BookWorld ISSN: 1701-5405 through the Book Publishing Industry Caitlin Press...31 Leamcom Press...18 Ronsdale Press...5 Museum...41 Advertising & editorial: Development Program (BPIDP) for this project. Carson Books...41 Literary Press Group...28 Sandhill...19 Wingate Press...28 BC BookWorld, 3516 W. 13th Ave., Crown Publications...33 Vancouver, B.C., V6R 2S3 Little Sister’s...41 Save-On Foods...42 Yoka’s Coffee...33 Douglas & McIntyre...2 Lotus Books...41 SFU Bookstore...41 Zebra Publishing...18 Tel/Fax: 604-736-4011 Douglas College/EVENT...37 McArthur & Company...10 SFU Writing & Publishing...16 Email: available on request . Duthie Books...41 Annual subscription: $12.84 Macleod’s Books...41 Shuswap Lake Writers’ TO ADVERTISE Ekstasis Editions...27 Marco Polo Books...41 Festival...18 in 2006 CALL All BC BookWorld reviews are posted online at www.abcbookworld.com Ellis, David...36 Marquis Book Printing...39 Sidney Booktown...36 First Choice Books...39 Morriss Printing...38 Sono Nis Press...14 604-736-4011

4 BOOKWORLD WINTER 2005 NEWBOOKS

Carellin Brooks: every inch a woman

Nanaimo-born Kim Cattrall: what’s good for the goose Third Sexers & Intelligence in the City British Columbians first drove on the right side nd you thought all academic books were dull? From Sigmund Freud’s theories on penis envy to of the road January 1, 1922. the desires of “testosterone- taking third-sexers,” Carellin Brooks examines the prolifera- This Leonard Frank photo from Derek Hayes’ latest historical tion of “phallic feminine figures” in North American and European writing since the end of atlas shows the Pacific Highway the 19th century in Every Inch a Woman: Phal- going towards Blaine in 1920. Alic Possession, Femininity, and the Text (UBC Press $85). Her penetrating study of gender-bending penetration will be a far cry from Canadian actress Kim Cattrall’s at- All live and no take tempt to capitalize on her Sex in the City sexpot role with aving worked as Chief Collec- Sexual Intelligence (Greystone $34.95), an alluring tie-in to tor at the Vancouver Aquarium and as a fish culturalist with a television special. Inch 0-7748-1209-5; Intelligence 1-55365-105-7 H Fisheries and Oceans Canada for many years, Andy Lamb of Theytus Island has been a scuba diver for forty SLAM CHAMP years, including 28 years in the com- A former US national pany of underwater photographer What’s wrong with this picture? slam poetry champion, Vancouver spoken word Bernard P. Hanby. The pair has ith 370 maps charting the growth of Vancouver poet Shane Koyczan combined their knowledge from 4,000 Wand its environs, Derek Hayes’ sixth intensively has performed with such scuba dives to co-found the Marine Life notables as detailed historical atlas and his eighth book, Historical At- Maya Sanctuaries Society of British Colum- Angelou, Quincy bia, a non-governmental agency to en- las of Vancouver and the Lower Fraser Valley (D&M Troupe and Utah Phillips, and has been an opening act for $49.95), traces the region’s development from the days Ani DiFranco, Spearhead and Saul Williams. His first courage the establishment of a network when Vancouver’s predecessor, the village of Granville, with poetry collection Visiting Hours (Vancouver: Mother Press Media of ‘No-Take’ marine protected areas. As 30 buildings, was divided into lots in 1882 for a city to be $16.95), will be launched by a new press in November. 0973813105 well, with more than 1,700 colour pho- called Liverpool. 1-55365-107-3 tos of some 1,400 saltwater seaweeds and animals, Lamb and Hanby’s new Marine Life of the Pacific Northwest: A Photographic Encyclopedia of In- vertebrates, Seaweeds and Se- lected Fishes (Harbour $69.95) is touted as the most comprehensive and up-to-date collection of Pacific marine life photos ever produced. It follows Lamb’s Coastal Fishes of the Pacific

Northwest. 1-55017-361-8

Paul Goranson’s ‘BC Purse Seiners’ (1940) from Waterfront. BURRARD’S ROUTE CANAL James Delgado makes clear in Waterfront: The Illustrated Maritime Story of Greater Vancou- ver (Stanton, Atkins & Dosil $45), it was the Spanish explorer José Maria Narváez who made the first recorded European visit to English Bay in 1791; George Vancouver arrived the following year and made the first European entrance to what he called “Burrard’s Canal” after a former shipmate Sir Harry James Delgado covers the Burrard-Neale, passing the Squamish settlement of Wh’mullutsthun on June 13, 1792. Delgado cred- Bernard P. Hanby and Andy Lamb waterfront its Len McCann’s “sleuthing” and numerous others for his survey of the harbour’s history. 0-9732346-5-2

12 BOOKWORLD WINTER 2005 NEWBOOKS ToothTooth && malemale Photojournalist Bruce Kirkby has travelled 60 countries

n a brave new world of palm pilots and email, it’s getting harder and harder to pretend you’re Harrison Ford in Raiders of the Lost Ark. A new breed of travel writers nonetheless keeps trying, flying off in all directions with their Tilley hats and laptops, would-be Heyerdahls with VISA cards in their pockets.

Bruce Kirkby isn’t quite like that. At 22, Kirkby left his mind-numb- ing job at Ontario Hydro to take a solo bicycle trip along the newly opened KarakoramI Highway in northern Pakistan. A contributor to National Geo- graphic who tackled Everest in 1997, Kirkby wrote his first book, Sand Dance, as a member of the first expedition to cross the Empty Quarter of the Sahara since the 1930s, learning some Arabic beforehand. It was only one of his adventures. More philosophical than self-inflationary, The Dolphin’s Tooth: A Dec- ade in Search of Adventure (M&S $34.99) is Kirkby’s well-edited summary of globe-trotting to Ethiopia, Arabia, Nepal, Belize, Tatshenshini, Swiss Alps, Burma, Tibet and Nepal. About one-third of his memoirs describes travels within Canada, chiefly along the B.C. coast, in the Rockies and in the Arctic. Quoting Carl Jung and Albert Camus is all very well, but Kirkby “When you jump has wisely chosen The Dolphin’s Tooth for a title, thereby obliging reviewers to mention his encounter with a local man who gave him a dolphin’s tooth over the edge, you when he was kayaking in the Andaman Sea (off Phuket, Thailand). “Always are bound to land remember that the dolphin still dreams of freedom,” he was told. The Catch 22-like notion that freedom can pursued by concocting risky somewhere,” adventures is, of course, far from freeing, and the quest-driven Kirkby seems —D.H. LAWRENCE to fully understand his psychic predicament as an adrenaline junkie. Along the way, his camera equipment was stolen in Belize City (one of the least safe cities in the Americas) and he lost a Swedish girlfriend named Cecilia. “I never blamed guiding,” he writes, “because I never saw it as a choice between my lifestyle and our love. Feeling young and immortal, I was just too consumed with my search to imagine any other way.” A gifted photographer along the lines of veteran climber Patrick Mor- , Kirkby is not another ‘creative non-fiction’ writer who has taken a PHOTO row brief trip to an exotic place and produced a thick book; he is an outdoorsman Bruce Kirkby in an abandoned U.S. army vehicle along the 372-kilometre CANOL Heritage Trail, created in the who has taken a lot of excursions and produced a concise summary. When FERGUSON winter of 1943-1944 to transport oil from Norman Wells, NWT, to Whitehorse, Yukon, via the Macmillan Pass. he’s not travelling, he lives in Kimberley, B.C. 0-7710-9566-X CHRIS THE SECOND WAVE

“Women’s clothing was hanging from the palm trees, twenty feet in the air. “the privatizations and land grabs are People’s shoes were everywhere.” usually locked in before the local — LEN WALKER population knows what hit them... our weeks after the Boxing Day “Hundreds of thousands of people Ftsunami hit south-east Asia in 2004, are being forcibly relocated inland. The Len Walker of Deep Bay/Bowser (near coast is not being rebuilt as it was— Qualicum Beach on Vancouver Island) dotted with fishing villages and beaches flew into Sri Lanka, where, in cooperation strewn with handmade nets. Instead, the with Doctors Without Borders and Sri Lankan government, corporations and Canadian relief organizations, he foreign donors are teaming up to rebuild mobilized relief and rebuilding efforts on it as they would like it to be: the beaches the east coast of the island, in the town of as playgrounds for tourists, the oceans Kalmunai. In Sri Lanka alone, one million as watery mines for corporate fishing people were displaced by the catastrophe. As a practical idealist who “cut in radical social and economic fleets, both serviced by privatized airports “I’m not an author,” he says, “but I had through red tape” in order to provide engineering.” and highways built on borrowed money.” a story to tell.” Upon his return, the ex- direct assistance, Walker, 60, now fears Walker’s uplifting memoir takes a bad Tsunami Journey has also been child care worker and Industrial First Aid a second wave of reconstruction will be news detour. Just as the World Bank and published in a Tamil version. Walker is attendant has self-published Tsunami “much larger than the wave itself.” He the International Monetary Fund recently now raising money to build ten more Journey: Seventy Days in Sri Lanka reproduces a Naomi Klein article that forced Sierre Leone, the world’s second- community schools, at $4,000 per ($25), printed by First Choice Books in suggests corruption and incompetence poorest country, to privatize its school, and urging Canadians to become Victoria, partly to publicize how “the rich are masking a much deeper scandal: “the resources, including water, the directly involved in relief, avoiding VISA

have gotten richer and the population of rise of a predatory form of disaster reconstruction industry in Sri Lanka, with and Mastercard, if possible. 0-9738612-0-7 the poor greatly increased due to this capitalism that uses the desperation and the complicity of foreign aid, has been Len Walker can be reached at [email protected]. Published by Tsunami Haven Pre-Schools, Box 400, tragic historic event.” fear created by catastrophe to engage working so quickly that, in Klein’s words, Qualicum Beach, B.C. V9K 1S7]

15 BOOKWORLD WINTER 2005 PEOPLE THETHE ASTRALASTRAL TRAVELSTRAVELS OFOF Norval Morrisseau ✍ stranged from his family, Norval Morrisseau: Norval Morrisseau was a Return to the House of cocaine addict and an Invention (Key Porter E $45) is a revised version alcoholic for much of his life, living of a 1997 volume re-re- on the streets in Vancouver in the leased in conjunction late 1980s and early 1990s until he with the new Toronto exhibit of Morrisseau’s moved to Nanaimo under the care work. of Gabor Vadas, a former street kid Morrisseau has also who met Morrisseau in Vancouver provided illustrations for Windigo and Other Tales in 1987. The relationship of Vadas of the Ojibways (1969) and Morrisseau is featured in a 2005 but he has published few CBC Life & Times documentary, “A books largely due to dif- ficulties negotiating Separate Reality: The Life and Times business terms. Other ti- of Norval Morrisseau.” tles are Legends of My Peo- ple: The Great Ojibway Born March 14, 1932, on the Sand (1965) and Travels to the Point Ojibway Reserve, near Beardmore, House of Invention Ontario, Morrisseau received his name (1997). His former Ahneesheenahpay, meaning Copper manager Jack Pollock Thunderbird, after his mother took him co-edited The Art of to a medicine woman for treatment of a Norval Morrisseau (1979) with Lister fever. Seldom considered a British Columbian, Sinclair. Some elders argued he was not yet Norval Morrisseau of Nanaimo has been Morrisseau has had a profound in- worthy of such a powerful name, but he fluence on the work of other Canadian recovered and was introduced to called the “Picasso of the North” and the greatest Aboriginal artists, particularly Daphne Ojibway shamanism by his grandfather. painter Canada has ever produced. Odjig, Jackson Beardy and Raised mainly by his grandparents, Joshim Kakegamic. Morrisseau was sexually abused at a Ro- large mural for the Natives of Canada “Morrisseau was committed, from man Catholic boarding school and hos- Pavilion at Expo ’67 in Montreal. Almost the very start, to preserving the stories pitalized with tuberculosis in the 1950s. killed in a Vancouver hotel fire in 1972, and myths of his people,” says documen- While afflicted with TB, he began draw- he recovered from burns and adopted tary filmmaker Paul Carvalho. “He ing and painting his visions on birch Christian beliefs that were reflected in never wavered. As troubled as his life was, bark and paper bags. In the 1960s he his art. The Bau-Xi Gallery in Vancou- he also went through it with this incred- travelled to Aboriginal communities in ver had a solo exhibition of Morrisseau’s ible sense of mission.” Canada and northern Minnesota, gath- work in 1974. With the companionship of Gabor ering more knowledge from community A recipient of the Order of Canada Vadas and Vadas' wife, Morrisseau elders, and strengthening himself as an in 1978, Morrisseau was the only Ca- stopped drinking in 1991 (and got a new artist and a shaman. nadian painter invited to participate at set of teeth). He moved to a two-storey Founder of the so-called Woodland the French Revolution bicentennial ocean-front studio on the Semiahmoo Re- style of painting, also known as Legend “Magicians of the Earth” exhibition at serve near White Rock in 1992 and suf- Art or Medicine Art, Morrisseau is an Astral Beings (1991) by Norval Morrisseau the Pompideau Museum in Paris in fered a minor stroke in 1994. astral traveller who paints his visions, de- 1989. In 2000, Morrisseau was hon- He suffered another stroke in 1996, picting the stories and legends of the Jack Pollock met Morrisseau while oured at the En’owkin Centre in moved to Nanaimo in 1999 and has not Ojibways that were previously transmit- travelling through northern Ontario Penticton as “the bridge between tradi- painted since 2000. Afflicted with Par- ted orally. Morrisseau’s paintings are typi- and soon afterwards held Morrisseau’s tional art and modern western painting.” kinson’s disease, he moved into the home cally signed “Copper Thunderbird” first one-man show in Toronto. All his Morrisseau was inducted in abstentia of friends in Nanaimo in 2002, then using Cree syllabics taught to him by his paintings sold the first day. With Carl into Thunder Bay’s Walk of Fame in transferred to Nanaimo nursing home Cree wife. Ray, a Cree apprentice and friend from 2004 and his work will be the subject of in 2004, confined to a wheelchair. In 1962, Toronto gallery owner Sandy Lake, Morrisseau painted the a National Gallery retrospective in 2006. 1-55263-723-3

J. Gordon Mumford's African & Seafaring Shuswap Lake Memoirs International White Man's Drum ISBN 0-9736297-0-3 $24.95 Writers’ Drums of Rebellion Festival ISBN0-9736297-1-1 $24.95

The Black Pit ... and Beyond ISBN 1-894263-19-7 $19.95 The Sampan Girl !" #"$%"! " ISBN 1-894263-40-5 $24.95 NEXT EDITION P      June 23 - 26, 2006   Q zebra Tel: 604-520-1487 Keep an eye on our website O  PUBLISHING Fax: 604-520-1497 www.shuswapwritersfest.ca HOUSE [email protected] [email protected]
        # zebrapublishinghouse.com   !" !# $

18 BOOKWORLD WINTER 2005 NEWBOOKS

TheThe LairdLaird ofof SookeSooke B.C.’s first lumber baron John Muir locked horns with James Douglas of the Hudson’s Bay Company to ensure that token British government was introduced to Vancouver Island in 1850. by Joan Givner

n his fictionalized biography of one of British Columbia’s first body that put the interests of the settle- fair-minded enough to admit at last, “I ment before those of the HBC. The must confess he proved himself a man settlers from Europe, John Muir: West Coast Pioneer (Ronsdale bearer of the petition was a respected of vision over the long haul.” clergyman, Robert Staines, who While this account is dominated by $21.95), Daryl Ashby begins by having the 83-year-old Muir had witnessed Douglas’ lack of interest two men, there are numerous colourful recall his family’s six-month sea journey from Scotland to Van- in the needs of the independent settler. figures from the colonial period such Tragically, the ship on which Staines William Alexander Smith, bet- couver Island in 1849, when he and four sons had pledged to traveled, like many vessels loaded to ex- ter known by his adopted name of Amor serve as “consignee workers” for the Hudson’s Bay Company for three cess by greedy owners, sank as it entered de Cosmos, who became editor of the I the seas of the open Pacific. British Colonist. He targeted Douglas’ years in return for their fare and a 25-acre land grant. In a letter to the Secretary of State abuses and became the second premier for the Colonies, Douglas slandered of British Columbia, after John Upon his arrival at Fort Victoria, John ries. What gives Ashby’s story its dramatic Staines as “a violent party man, prudent McCreight. Muir, at age 50, selected one hundred tension is Muir’s antagonism for neither in his conduct nor associations.” Ashby also introduces Muir’s neigh- acres of land in Sooke. He chose the James Douglas, the Chief Factor Nevertheless, the fact that Douglas was bour, Captain Walter Colquhoun property because it reminded him of of the Hudson’s Bay Company and later, in conflict of interest must have been Grant, usually described as the first in- Loch Lomond in Scotland. The harbour Governor of British Columbia. Muir’s noted in Britain, for the severance of his dependent settler on Vancouver Island and its surrounding territory, inhabited narration makes Douglas the villain of connection with the HBC was soon and the first within the whole colonial for centuries by the native T’Sou-ke, was his piece, and the subjective account of made a condition of his becoming Gov- region. Grant arrived at Fort Victoria in only accessible from the main colony of his arch-enemy paints a picture that ernor of B.C. August of 1849—after Muir—and pro- Fort Victoria by canoe. serves as a counter-balance to the offi- The two antagonists eventually ceeded to join his eight labourers who While fulfilling his HBC obligations cial portraits—not so much warts-and- reached some accommodation. Gover- were clearing a farm about 40 km from as a coal miner at Fort Rupert on Van- all as warts-above-all. nor Douglas attended a wedding in the fort, at Sooke (having likely arrived couver Island, Muir organized the first Muir’s hostility for Douglas began Metchosin at the Blinkhorn homestead, on the ship that brought Muir). Grant’s labour strike in B.C. history in 1849 to when Douglas failed to personally wel- or Bilston Farm as it was known, in spite wish to turn the area into a Scottish set- object to working conditions and come those who had just traveled 12,000 of the presence of those who had tried tlement was so strong that he tried to inadaquate pay. After a brief imprison- miles in order to work for him. Douglas’ to depose him. To Muir’s credit he was teach the Aboriginals to speak Gaelic. ment, Muir homesteaded on his Sooke subsequent behaviour After a brief prospecting trip to the farm named Woodside, where he built confirmed Muir’s first Oregon territories, Grant liquidated his the island’s first steam-operated sawmill. impressions. Muir saw Sooke holdings and returned to Scot- While building a fleet of ships Muir Douglas as an autocratic, land in 1853. To the Victoria Open became the largest exporter of lumber overbearing man with a School he gave his beloved croquet set and raw materials in the northwest—in sporadic temper whose in the hopes that the students would effect, the founder of the B.C. lumber mandate to establish a play the sport in his absence—but his industry. From a lumberyard built in colony for the British second gift was a more dubious one. He Victoria in 1860, Muir & Co. developed government clearly took gave the Muir family three bushes of trade with South America, Asia and second place to his desire Scotch broom from the Sandwich Is- Australia, and supplied wood for sailing to see the HBC prosper. lands. These fast-spreading plants were ships and buildings around the world, Muir also found a gift to Grant from the British Consul including the rebuilding of San Fran- Douglas’ treatment of the in Honolulu, who in turn had bought cisco after its fires. Muir & Co. contin- Aboriginal population them in Tasmania. “That,” says Muir, ued its lumber operations until 1892. not only exploitive but “may explain why they proliferated in Muir doubled as a magistrate and an barbaric, although no the devilish way they did.” elected representative for the District of character in the book A Member of the First Legislative As- Metchosin and Sooke at Fort Victoria. can escape criticism on sembly on Vancouver Island, John Muir His son Andrew served as Vancouver Is- that score. died in Sooke on April 4, 1883. During land’s first Chief Sheriff. In 1854, Muir joined John Muir, as a ten years of research, Daryl Ashby of Vic- A first person point of view is tricky, other reformers to send coal miner, toria found the Muir’s original Fort especially for an historian, since the vir- a petition to the British organized the first Rupert homesite and the site of the first tue of immediacy is offset by the danger Government requesting labour strike in B.C. Muir sawmill in Sooke. 1-55380-027-3 of subjectivity and potential unreliability, a new form of govern- history in 1849. but Ashby has skillfully adopted Muir’s ment for the colony—a Joan Givner writes from Mill Bay voice based on his readings of Muir’s dia- democratically elected on Vancouver Island.

8 BOOKWORLD WINTER 2005 “Every city has its distinct history of rioting,” he says. “… I decided to pur- sue the subject after the APEC riots made it clear that the local political economy was ignored in favour of a ‘bad apple’ explanation, which only further obscured the causes and events leading up to the riot.” Barnholden, publisher of The Rain Review of Books, proposes an equivalent of the London Riot Re-enactment Soci- ety in order to stage re-enactments that will make historical events live again. His roster of riots includes the Anti-Asian riots of 1907, the B.C. Penitentiary ri- ots of 1934 and 1938, the Rolling Stones In the riot that followed the occupation of riot of 1972, the Guns ‘n’ Roses riot of the Vancouver Post Office by the 2002 and the Punk Rock riot of unemployed in 1935, Steve Brodie (left) 2004. 1-895636-67-1 was singled out by police officials. Self-Publish.ca Raising the bar ost book reviewing is biased, IN SEARCH OF SHADOWS or else bordering on self-ad- “The history of Poland since the six- vertisement. But not all. M teenth century, when its empire began Visit our website to find out all Linda Rogers’s nifty George to unravel,” writes Ryszard you need to know about Fetherling and his Work (Toronto: Tight- Dubanski, “is one of loss, longing and self-publishing rope $14.95) has gathered a variety of partitions under cruel dominations.” On articles and appreciations of Fetherling the eve of their honeymoon in 1940, for The Vancouver Desktop that reveal, among other things, how the example, his mother was rounded up by Publishing Centre country’s most prolific reviewer goes the Russians and his father was picked call for a free consultation up by the Germans. His father managed PATTY OSBORNE, manager to jump over a 200 – 341 Water Street fence and run Vancouver, B.C. v6b 1b8 away, joining Ph 604-681-9161 his bride. To- www.self-publish.ca gether they www.rockingchairs.ca helping self-publishers since 1986 were crammed into a boxcar for the 25-day trip to Siberia. “And they were Ryszard Dubanski lucky to get A Measure George Fetherling sent to a slave labour camp,” writes Dubanksi, who now teaches at Univer- of Undoing sity College of the Fraser Valley. Ironi- a novel of Viet Nam by David Kos about his craft. “I honestly try to be nicer cally, Dubanski’s parents and their to everybody else than they are to me,” friends managed to immigrate to the !"# Canadian prairies where they found “a %&# he once said. “Not out of altruism, out 'P shadowless land of Siberian dimen- of purely selfish motives of making my- sions.” Having been born to displaced )G+ self feel better. And some people, by 'P parents in a camp for WW II survivors their nastiness, make it much easier for near Sherwood Forest in England, )&")& G/)%'P me to be nicer to them than they are to Ryszard Dubanski grew up in Winnipeg me.” Fetherling fans in Rogers’ compi- from ages two to twenty-two. His linked 6&% lation include John Burns, short stories in Black Teeth (Signature :;<'<='>? George Elliott Clarke, W.H. Editions $18.95) recall his experiences New, Brian Busby and Rhonda in Winnipeg’s multicultural North End Batchelor (who recalls why her late and the struggles of his parents. He @;FG/H;?I;@?JF?K husband Charles sent Fetherling his gold lives in the Commercial Drive area of pan, “dented from long use and nicely Vancouver. 1-897109-02-4 oxidized,” before he died.) 0-9738645-1-6 $1,500 $10.95 • 112 pp.• 1-894037-20-0 Subscribe To receive the next 4 issues by mail, Creative Non-Fiction send a cheque for $12.84 new & established writers Contest Available at Three winners will each receive $500 plus payment for publication in Event 35/3. Other manuscripts may be published. Name ...... Munro’s Books (Victoria), Final Judge: Charles Montgomery, photojournalist and author of The Last Heathen, Encounters People’s Co-Op Books & with Ghosts and Ancestors in Melanesia which won the 2005 Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction. Magpie (Vancouver) ...... Writers are invited to submit manuscripts exploring the creative non-fiction form. Back issues of Event with previous winning entries and judges’ comments are available for $7.49 (inc. GST). Apt/Box #...... Note: Previously published material cannot be considered. Maximum entry length is 5000 words, typed, double-spaced. Include a separate cover sheet with the writer’s name, ad- Street...... dress, phone number/email, and the title(s) of the story (stories) enclosed. Include a SASE (Canadian Postage/IRCs only). Douglas College employees are not eligible to enter...... Entry fee: Each entry must include a $29.95 entry fee (includes GST and a one-year subscrip- “A package of hard numbers encased in tion). Those already subscribing will receive a one-year extension. American and overseas simple statements is all it takes in David Lester’s The Gruesome Acts of Capitalism City...... entries please pay in US dollars. to make a powerful agit-prop tool out of a Deadline for entries: Postmarked April 15, 2006. small book.”—New Internationalist (UK) The Douglas College Review Prov/Code...... P.O. Box 2503, New Westminster, BC V3L 5B2 Arbeiter Ring Publishing Phone: (604) 527-5293 Fax: (604) 527-5095 201E-121 Osborne St. Winnipeg, MB R3L 1Y4 Canada Reply to: 3516 West 13th Ave. e-mail: [email protected] [email protected] Visit our website at http://event.douglas.bc.ca www.arbeiterring.com Vancouver, B.C. V6R 2S3

37 BOOKWORLD WINTER 2005 NEWBOOKS I am the egg carton man Heavy metal Royal wedding orn in New Westminster and raised in White Rock, Barrie Sanford was entranced by the opening and Bclosing of the New Westminster train bridge as a child. The allure of that bridge has remained so strong that Sanford and his bride were recently married on a train nearby the bridge. Having long ago acquired his engineering degree, Sanford has yet to satisfy his childhood ambition to design a bridge, but he has published several successful books about railroads—including his newly released Royal Metal: The People, Times and Trains of New Westminster Bridge (Sandhill / National Railway Historical Society $39.95). 0973560207

Inventor Joseph Coyle in 1924.

ompiled with Greg Dickson of CBC Radio, paper, the Interior News (still publishing today), Coyle, Mark Forsythe’s BC Almanac Book of Great- a do-it-yourselfer, was a man who relished a challenge. After he designed his paper prototype of the modern est British Columbians (Harbour $39.95) includes C egg carton, he sold his newspaper in 1918 and moved entries for the likes of Emily Carr, Terry Fox and W.A.C. to New Westminster to mass-produce his product with Bennett, plus the man who gave the world the egg carton. the help of United Paper Products, eager to make a Joseph Leopold Coyle, who lived in tiny fortune. It was not to be. Coyle ran low on funds, sold Aldermere, a community close to Smithers, evidently his patent, and died in New Westminster, so un-sung invented the egg carton in 1911 after a local rancher that his name does not appear in the first edition of named Gabriel Lecroix was having difficulty shipping the Encyclopedia of B.C., but his archives are at the his eggs intact to the Aldermere Hotel near present- Bulkley Valley Museum. day Telkwa. Coyle’s little-known story emerged after Mark The rancher and the hotelier were forever squab- Forsythe requested his province-wide listeners to sub- bling about who was responsible for the broken eggs. mit nominations for the 100 Greatest British Coyle, who owned and ran the local newspaper, was Columbians. privy to this bickering and decided to fix the problem. Suggestions from the public were augmented by Having taught himself how to construct most of the invited submissions from provincial experts to com- machinery necessary to produce Smithers’ first news- plete Forsythe’s second book project. 1-55017-368 Invite a Penguin to your book club

Betrayal On Beauty Runaway Betrayal is the story of Eva, a Set on both sides of the Atlantic, Zadie Winner of the Giller prize, the dynamic, successful young mother Smith’s third novel is a brilliant look at rapturously acclaimed Runaway who is forced to reassess her marriage family life, marriage, the collision is a book of extraordinary stories when her husband’s apathy can no of the personal and political, and an about love and its infinite betrayals longer be ignored. Karin Alvtegen is a honest look at people’s self-deceptions. and surprises—stories as vivid and bestselling crime writer from Sweden. It is also, as you might expect, very fragile as our own lives. MYSTERY/THRILLER • $22.00 funny indeed. A Man Booker finalist. FICTION • $22.00 FICTION • $34.00

Penguin Group (Canada) • www.penguin.ca

6 BOOKWORLD WINTER 2005 NORTHWORDS The stork doesn’t bring them The long gestation period of a Prince George bookseller comes to a beginning. Soccer, Fall riends who are authors in the northern B.C. literary scene whose first book will be Home When it rain, all day and Moves You (Creekstone $20). Donna you on the soggy field told George Sipos the greatest excitement for any new Kane of Dawson Creek will be running on the wing author is having that first book arrive at your door, holding handmaking each of the 100 copies us- all arms and legs ing golden-coloured papyrus and indigo hair wet against temples it for the first time. He’s not so sure about that. tissue paper to echo Wigmore’s poems your eyes set among the lakes and rivers of north- on the play, always F Recently a ern B.C. elsewhere teen years, but with a business and a fam- box arrived at the ily, he had let that part of his life slide. ✍ you are sixteen Sipos home in His most productive period occurred in As one door closes, another opens. you are learning Prince George 2001 when he attended the Banff Writ- On December 31, 2004, Sipos to ignore the weather after dark, ers’ Studio, a retreat less like the prover- closed Mosquito Books after 19 years. It to feel in brought by a bial cabin in the woods and more like a was a hard thing to do, he says, but it your thin muscles dedicated deliv- stay at a five-star hotel. That removal of was a response to getting older and the HEATHER RAMSAY the tug of abstraction ery man who’d other responsibilities allowed Sipos to se- difficulties of selling books in Canada. what it means to yearn found no one at riously entertain the notion of He laments the recent closure of other at a distance, learning Sipos’ address during the day and had authordom. great independent bookstores, such as to move over the earth retraced his steps later that evening, with to be always thinking his wife and children in tow. “It was cer- of something else, George Sipos is tainly an auspicious moment,” says Sipos. to be ready “But it wasn’t an ecstatic, erotic now general manager of the epiphany.” Prince George and I, huddled That’s partly because George Sipos, a Symphony. in the notional shelter former bookseller who was no stranger of an umbrella to the feel of a new book, had worked do I long for the play closely with an editor and poet, Sue to come your way Sinclair, in the preceding months to water spraying from whip Anything but the Moon (Goose facets of leather as Lane $17.95) into shape. For Sipos, the the ball rolls toward wonderfully philosophical discussions on the brief moment the placement of a comma during the six when you months he and Sinclair had pored over become the centre of everything the manuscript—“a long, protracted, in- when you alone teresting, pleasure”—was more fulfilling. propel the world That editorial exercise culminated in your clean-hearted faith in getting it right a trip to Toronto where Sipos sat “eye- ball to eyeball” with Sinclair, a fellow I want to witness those poet he had met at the Banff Writing gestures of grace Studio. Months later Sipos got an email your feet more intricate from the publisher with suggestions for than fingers cover artwork. There was another pro- what they can do longed period until the proofs came in the way your body moves the mail, accompanied by some terse beyond grass and rain instructions to get them back promptly. Many of the poems in Anything but Vancouver’s Women in Print, Granville the way you lean “Getting published is great,” he the Moon are concerned with memory Books and Merlin Books in into thought laughs. “Don’t get me wrong.” But for and how this changes the past. All are Kamloops. Sipos getting there was more than half rooted in the landscapes and experiences “We were there, we were small, we but the cold, the dampness the fun. of the north. “By God, there’s a lot of were brilliant and now we are gone,” he in my bones ✍ weather in them,” he laughs. He de- says in his irreverent style. Sipos is mov- make me wish the ball away After moving to Prince George in scribes his own work as mostly lyrical, as ing on, but he’ll remain within the arts afraid not that you’ll stumble 1979, George Sipos and his wife Bridget opposed to post-modern “mucking community. not that the girl in blue soon realized they were bringing back about with language.” Anything but the Moon 0-86492-427-5; Home When it Moves You 0-9684043-7-5 will elbow you aside hundreds of dollars worth of books Currently Sipos is editing the work but that you’ll succeed beyond your whenever they went to Vancouver. Coles of a fellow poet, Gillian Wigmore, Heather Ramsay writes from Queen Charlotte City. hopes and Woodward’s had the only book out- a younger writer from Vanderhoof break away down the side lets in town so Sipos began selling books legs a blur, the ball from his home. spurting forward, and you In the late 1980s, he borrowed diminish toward $1,000 from a friend and opened a the dubious triumph storefront location named Mosquito of the distant net Books. The bookstore soon became a the goal major focus for literary activity in central B.C., hosting literary readings that in- I want to keep you cluded visits by renowned dissident Rus- like this sian poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko the awkward elegance and novelist Timothy Findlay. of waiting Sipos fondly remembers the caravan of the sound only fans led by booksellers David and of your boots as you Janet Walford from Mountain Ea- run by, and I gle Books in Smithers who trooped four in the rain with your wristwatch hours down Highway 16 with banners keeping it dry waving, “Timothy Findlay or Bust.” and ticking Meanwhile the poets he encountered —From Anything but the Moon over the years—such as Patrick by George Sipos Friesen, Don McKay and Jan Zwicky—encouraged him to take up his own pen. Sipos, a former English The late Timothy Findlay (centre) attracted a caravan of literary fans from teacher, had dabbled in writing since his Smithers for an event at Mosquito Books organized by George Sipos in 1993.

40 BOOKWORLD WINTER 2005 BANYEN BOOKS celebrates 35 years of offering the perennial beauty of the World’s Spiritual and Healing traditions QUICKPICKS sychology Metaphysics itual Traditions Depth P Spir Ecology Relationships tion The Healing Arts Barbarians inside the gates Inspira n Visionary Arts s Bodywork Nutritio Martial Art Shamanism Michael Barnholden on the history of riots in Vancouver New Science he first riot in Vancouver occurred in 1887 when a white mob isdom Earth W T wrecked a Chinese camp in False Creek, enraged because Chi- ily & Community Banyen Fam nese labourers willing to accept 75 cents per day, were undercutting Tapes & CDs books Yoga & white labourers’ attempts to establish $2 per day as the going rate. s Subsequent public demonstrations accompanied by property damage (real or im- 3608 West 4th at Dunbar in Vancouver Meditation Aid aginary) and police presence beyond the ordinary are the subject of Michael Books 604-732-7912 Music/Gifts/tkts 604-737-8858 ms Barnholden’s Reading the Riot Act: A Brief History of Riots in Vancouver (Anvil

Altar Ite Mon.-Fri. 10-9 Sat. 10-8 Sun. 11-7 nts $18). Barnholden’s sympathies are with the vanquished as he reveals how eyewitness
www.banyen.com
1-800-663-8442 Eve reports and testimonies are often at variance with media reports—whether it’s the Gastown Riot of 1971, the APEC demonstrations of 1997, the Stanley Cup riot of 1994, the Grey Cup riots of 1963 and 1966, or the renowned Post Office and Art FIRST NATIONS est.1945 Gallery occupations of 1935. BOOKS Weeding is next Rare and out-of-print to godliness titles on the Aboriginal peoples of e have to get ourselves back to the gar- Wden, Joni Mitchell said. And if you Western Canada bypass the church along the way, well, you’re in good company. Few Canadians attend church regularly, but most believe spirituality is a force within their lives. In The Spiritual- ity of Gardening (Northstone $40), Donna David Ellis, Bookseller Sinclair explores how gardening can be a Donna Sinclair deeply spiritual experience. “Gardening,” she [email protected] 1391 Commercial Drive says, “is kin to what some do in church, syna- Vancouver BC V5L 3X5 gogue, mosque, temple, or around a sacred Vancouver 604-222-8394 (604) 253-6442 fire: praying, singing, kneeling. It is holy ritual, the repeated effort to draw closer to the crea- tor whose joy and beauty suffuses the earth.” Spirituality of Gardening explores a sacred con- nection between people and the natural world, discussing the garden as a place for balance and harmony, memory and hope, healing and acceptance. Sinclair writes for the United Church Observer. 1-896836-74-7 Rebecca Godfrey Like mother, like daughter urder mystery novelist Ellen Godfrey won an Edgar Allan Poe Mystery MWriters of America special award for true crime after writing By Reason of Doubt (Clarke, Irwin, 1981), her coverage of the Swiss trial of a UBC professor named Cyril Belshaw, a renowned anthropologist, who was accused and acquitted of murder- ing his wife in Switzerland and leaving her body in a ravine. Fast forward 14 years and Rebecca Godfrey, her daughter, has followed a first novel, The Torn Skirt, with a true crime investigation of a brutal killing and its aftermath in which teenagers were accused of leaving their victim’s body under a bridge. Rebecca Godfrey, now a New York-based journalist, has profiled the characters involved in the beating death of 14- year-old Reena Virk of Victoria on November 14, 1997, for Under the Bridge: The True Story of the Murder of Reena Virk (HarperCollins $32.95). Godfrey at- tended the trials of Kelly Ellard and also interviewed Warren Glowatski, both convicted in the case. 0-002000679

rd 23 Annual Ellen is back, this Lieutenant JOAN GIVNER Governor’s time with literary Award ambitions in... for historical writing for non-fiction books Ellen Fremedon: published in 2005 JOURNALIST by authors of B.C. history by Joan Givner (reprints ineligible) T-shirt design by David Lester Entry deadline: ($15.95 Groundwood) December 31, 2005 To order: ISBN 0-88899-668-3 Contact: www.buyolympia.com A young adult novel. B.C. Historical Federation [email protected] or: www.davidlesterdesigns.blogspot.com or Tel/Fax 604-274-6449 www.groundwoodbooks.com

36 BOOKWORLD WINTER 2005