PEOPLE FIRST FAST RUNNER orld record holder Harry Jerome’s story is especially compelling because he over- came racial hurdles as the only black athlete in his North Vancouver high school. WDoctors predicted Jerome would never walk again after he suffered a severe injury at the Perth Commonwealth Games in 1962 but he set seven world records, becoming the first human to run 100 metres in ten seconds flat. Now film and television producer Fil Fraser has written the first full-length biography of one of Canada's greatest athletes, Running Uphill: The Short, Fast Life of Harry Jerome (Dragon Hill $18.95, distributed by Lone Pine). In the words of the World and Olympic champion sprinter Dono- van Bailey, “Harry Jerome is Canada’s Jessie Owens. He faced the same battles in his time as Jessie did. Frankly, Harry Jerome’s face should be on a dollar bill. He should be a national hero for what he went through.” Jerome won gold medals for Canada at the British Empire and Com- monwealth Games in 1966, and at the 1967 Pan American Games, but he “only” had one bronze medal to show for his appearances at three Olympic games, resulting in some unsympathetic press coverage. Homegrown heroes such as Just as Cassius Clay tossed his Olympic boxing medal off a bridge in disgust, Harry Jerome learned to distrust media and the whim- weightlifter Doug Hepburn, sical nature of public notoriety. swimmer Elaine Tanner, Upon his retirement from competition in 1969, Jerome accepted an invitation from Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau to work within skater Karen Magnusson Canada's new Ministry of Sport, but he resigned when a sponsorship deal he had helped to arrange with Kellogg’s to support amateur ath- and sprinter letics was kiboshed by the government. The grandson of John Armstrong Howard, a railway por- Harry Jerome ter who had competed for Canada in the 1912 and 1920 Olympics, —the first Canadian to officially Harry Jerome died of a brain tumour in 1982 and was buried in Mountainview Cemetery in North Vancouver. hold a world track record—all Prince Albert, Saskatchewan—where Jerome was born in 1940— named the Harry Jerome Track Complex in his honour and the Harry learned the hard way that Jerome Sports Centre opened in Burnaby in 1997. The Harry Jerome Awards annually recognize outstanding achieve- society only loves a winner. ments by members of Canada’s black community and there is a nine- foot-high bronze statue of Harry Jerome on the Stanley Park seawall. 1-896124-13-5

BC Summer Issue INDEX to Advertisers BOOKWORLD Vol. 21, No. 2 Anvil Press...30 Friesens Printers...42 Reckoning 07...5 Publisher/ Writer: Alan Twigg Editor/Production: David Lester Arsenal Pulp Press...30 Galiano Island Books...40 Ronsdale Press...18 Publication Mail Agreement #40010086 Banyen Books...40 Givner, Joan...41 Royal BC Museum...28 Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to: BC BookWorld, 3516 W. 13th Ave., Vancouver, BC V6R 2S3 BC Book Prizes...28 Granville Island Publishing...42 Sandhill...10 Produced with the sponsorship of Pacific BookWorld News BCLA...34 Harbour Publishing...44 Save-On Foods...39 Society. Publications Mail Registration No. 7800. BC BookWorld ISSN: 1701-5405 Belshaw, Cyril...34 HarperCollins...16, 32 Secondhandbooks...42 Advertising & editorial: BC BookWorld, 3516 W. 13th Ave., Bolen Books...39 Heritage House...12 SFU Pubworks...18 Vancouver, B.C., V6R 2S3. Tel/Fax: 604-736-4011 • Email: available on request. Annual subscription: $19.08 Book Warehouse...37 Hignell Printing...42 SFU Writing & Publishing...20 Contributors: Grant Shilling, Mark Forsythe, Sheila Munro, Sidney Booktown...34 Joan Givner, Louise Donnelly, Hannah Main-van der Kamp, Caitlin Press...34 Lammar Printing...43 Heather Ramsay, Cherie Thiessen, Shane McCune. Cormorant Books...25 New Star Books...32, 40, 41 Sono Nis Press...14 Writing not otherwise credited is by staff. Photographers: Barry Peterson, Laura Sawchuk. Crown Publications...39 Nightwood Editions...35 Temeron...32 Proofreaders: Wendy Atkinson, Betty Twigg. Design: Get-to-the-Point Graphics. Deliveries: Ken Reid Douglas & McIntyre...2 Oolichan Books...20 Thomson, Ann...34 We acknowledge the assistance of Canada Douglas College/EVENT...42 Orca Books...24 Triple AAA Photography...34 Council and the Province of British Columbia, through the Douglas College...26 Penguin Books...9 UBC Press...27 Ministry of Community, Aboriginal, and Women’s Ekstasis Editions...8 People’s Co-Op Books...34 Vancouver Desktop...42 Services. Ellis, David...27 Playwrights Canada Press...41 Woewoda, James...42 Federation of BC Writers...34 Positive Connections...41 Wood Lake Publishing...28 Fernie Writers Conference...19 Printorium...42 Yoka’s Coffee...39 Festival of the Written Arts...4 Random House...6 All BC BookWorld reviews are posted online at www.abcbookworld.com TO ADVERTISE CALL 604-736-4011

3 BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2007 SPORTS

SHORT LIST Kicking & dreaming In 1973, there were only HOCKEY = RELIGION? three girls’ soc- in A Ca- does include road cer clubs in ndrew Podnieks British Colum- hockey, backyard bia. By 1980, nadian Saturday Night rinks, hockey cards, Shania Twain there 317 the Sutter brothers, teams playing (Greystone $26.95) states, hosting the 2003 the Niedermayer under the BC “ItA is quintessentially Canadian that Juno Awards Girls Soccer brothers, the Hanson brothers Association. In the more successful our hockey play- from the Paul 2004, there Charmaine Hooper were more than movie ers are, the more humble they are Newman 347,000 Slapshot, the Lucky about their accomplishments.” women and girls playing nationally on reg- Loonie and the istered teams—42 percent of Canada’s Montreal riot at the 825,000 players. Highlighting Sidney Crosby as Forum in 1955 after With profiles of Canada’s top female an example, Podnieks suggests hockey Clarence players such as Charmaine Hooper greats invariably store their trophies Campbell suspended and Kara Lang, Goals and Dreams (Nightwood $14.95), by goalkeeping downstairs “on the basement wall or Rocket Richard. coach Shel Brodsgaard and journal- cheap metal shelving, far out of sight.” ✍ ✍ ist Bob Mackin, recalls and celebrates One can easily excuse Podnieks the evolution of Canadian women’s soc- Like Douglas Coupland’s books that for not including any Vancouver cer highlighting the Under-19 Women’s have collected iconic imagery pertain- Canucks, but no Trail Smoke Eaters? World Championships in Edmonton and ing to Terry Fox, Vancouver and B.C.’s most remarkable amateur team the Women’s World Cup, in which Canada, Podnieks’ A Canadian Satur- won the 1939 world championship by Canada beat Argentina, Japan and China day Night provides some surprising back- outscoring their opposition 42-1. They to clinch fourth place. 0-88971-205-0 ground information. also won the 1961 world championship, • The selection of three stars at the end beating Russia 5-1, winning Canada’s “Burnaby Ryan” of each Hockey Night In Canada broad- last international title for 35 years. Cliff Ronning and “Burnaby cast was generated as an adjunct to Im- As Silas White recalls in the Encyclo- Joe” Sakic aren’t the only successful perial Oil commercials (folks older than pedia of B.C., “The name came during hockey players from Burnaby. Drafted fifty will recall Murray Westgate the 1928-29 season when a fan in Van- second overall in 1978 by the Washing- and the Happy Motoring song—“always couver threw a pipe onto the ice to ton Capitals, a franchise that made him the youngest captain in NHL history, look to Imperial for the best”). Back in protest a referee’s call in favour of the Ryan Walter played nine seasons with the the 1950s, the main HNIC sponsor, Esso, visiting Trail Senior Hockey Club. Montreal Canadiens, winning a Stanley had a gasoline called “Three Stars” so the Trail playing coach Craig Cup in 1986, learning French and once tradition of picking the three outstand- Kendall picked it up and smoked being selected to play in the all-star game. ing players began as a marketing scheme. it on his way to the bench, and next During more than one thousand • Hockey cards were invented by the morning The Province newspaper games in the NHL, during which he was St. Lawrence Starch Company in order christened the team.” We await A elected vice-president of the NHL Play- ers’ Association, Ryan Walter played his to promote Bee Hive Corn Syrup. The Canadian Saturday Night II, surely last two years with the Vancouver company would mail one hockey card at in the works. 1-55365-201-0 Canucks, serving as an assistant cap- a time—for free—in exchange for tain. every three box tops from St. Law- Upon retirement from hockey in rence products that were sent to them. 1993, Walter, an ardent Christian, In the days before television, this was has morphed into a play-by-play the only way fans across Canada could sidekick for hockey broadcasts, cre- see what the 120 players in the NHL ated a hockey board game called Trade Deadline and appeared as the looked like. referee in the movie Miracle. His “The players back then always motivational book is Off the Bench looked much older than their age,” and into the Game: Eight Suc- writes Podnieks. “They had stern ex- cess Strategies from Profes- pressions, even when they were smil- sional Sport (Heritage $19.95). ing. They seemed suspicious of what 1-894974-23-9 they were being asked to do—pose— as if by doing so they revealed some- Sheepshanks’ thing about themselves that they didn’t want to, like tribesmen from discovery the Brazilian rain forest who feared A high school annual approach their souls would be stolen if they to history won’t gain much critical re- were photographed.” nown, but Craig H. Bowlsby’s ✍ self-published, illustrated, 381-page Looking for other iconic images reference work on ice hockey in Brit- ish Columbia, from 1895 to 1911, that capture the spirit of the game, certainly merits some recognition. Podnieks has included Shania The Knights of Winter ($90 Twain singing the national anthem includes shipping) unearths lists of dressed in a skimpy and sparkling all players, all teams, records of Habs uniform, the cover of Roch games, etc., that are about as be- Carrier’s children’s book The guiling as Egyptian hieroglyphics. Hockey Sweater, Stompin’ Tom What does it all add up to? No mat- ter. He got the excavation job done and the (good ‘ol) Hockey Song, the for others. pair of skate blades that are used as Bowlsby cites the diary of Rev- front door handles on Wayne erend John Sheepshanks in Gretzky’s swanky Toronto eatery and January of 1862 as the first recorded reference to hockey being played in —of course—Paul Henderson’s Sidney Crosby shows Tonight Show host Jay Leno goal against the Ruskies. British Columbia, at New Westmin- No sign of Punch Imlach’s how he practiced at home by firing pucks into his ster following a freeze-up of the Fraser River. 0-9691705-4-8 fedora, octopus on the ice in Detroit mother’s clothes dryer in the family’s basement. Further info: www.abcbookworld.com or Bobby Orr, but Podnieks

13 BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2007 PEOPLE

ONCE UPON A TIME, IN A PRE-WINDOWS ERA, back when people were starting to Genni discover email, Genni Gunn was asked to write an original libretto by composer John Oliver for the Vancouver Opera. Our get Gunn penned a high-tech opera about two young professionals, Alex and Valerie, who meet on-line, become fascinated with your each other, but remain safely faceless— Emily until they finally meet for real. “There was no internet dating,” Gunn n February, Edmonton-based recalls, “so it was a kind of sci-fi glance opera into the future.” The future had to wait. sculptor Barbara Paterson Funding dissipated and the project called unveiled a 60-pound brass Alternate Visions was detoured into development hell until Pauline maquette at Emily Carr House Vaillancourt, Creative Director of Chants Libres, fell in love with Idepicting Emily Carr with one of her Gunn and Oliver’s interdisciplinary opera about five years ago. dogs and her pet monkey Woo on her The opera Alternate Visions premiered in Montreal in May, coincidental with the release of Gunn’s new book Faceless shoulder. Paterson hopes she will be con- The Parks and (Signature Editions $14.95), a poetry collection that simultaneously tracted to produce a bronze statue ap- Recreation Foundation explores the growing dichotomy between intimacy and technology, proximately 1.5 times the original size of in Victoria has created a anonymity (facelessness) and contact (love). B.C.’s best-known artist. fund to generate the “I guess I’ve had a love/hate affair with technology for a long “I really think Victoria is missing the $200,000 necessary to time,” she writes. “Our wired connections provide a sense of complete Barbara intimacy—we can communicate with everyone globally; we can boat,” she told the Victoria News, “if they Paterson’s Emily Carr express ourselves daily in blogs and videos; our private lives can don’t [get it made]. You’ve got the big- statue project. Cheques now be lived publicly through gest icon in the world with Emily Carr— to the Parks and television reality shows, she’s world famous and a character. So Recreation Foundation through 24-hour views into our spaces in front of our I’m ready, but I can’t wait forever.” Emily Carr Fund can be computers. Meanwhile Ann-Lee Switzer delivered to Victoria’s “But we have has taken over the role played by Carr’s City Hall or sent to 633 become voyeurs, long-time friend and editor Ira Pandora Avenue, stationary creatures Victoria, BC V8W 1N8. Dilworth, preparing 61 of Carr’s short typing our emotions onto keyboards, looking stories for This and That: The Lost Sto- into the cool eyes of ries of Emily Carr (Touchwood $17.95), digital cameras. While all touted by publisher Gordon Switzer this appears to have us more as the first collection of unpublished Carr connected to everyone, in reality we are more stories to appear since 1953. faceless and more alone Profits from books sales will go to- than ever, our eyes wards the erection of Paterson’s statue to reflecting blue screens, be called “Our Emily”. 9781894898614 our selves flickering in darkened rooms.” 1-897-109-16-4 Genni Gunn

Celebrating 25 years publishing fine literature!

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8 BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2007 PEOPLE Pre-eminent PHOTOS

LESTER

PATPAT DAVID B.C. Book Prizes 2007 Carol Windley: Ethel Wilson Rob Sanders (Greystone): Fiction Prize winner Booksellers’ Choice Award few years back, much- nominated Patrick A Lane was down on his luck, always the bridesmaid, never the bride—until he won the first $25,000 BC Award for

Canadian Non-Fiction in 2005. PHOTOS

The former sawmill worker and LESTER drifter has now taken home the fourth DAVID annual Lieutenant Governor’s Award for Carla Funk: accepted Livesay Peter Such: presented the Literary Excellence amid a shower of Poetry Prize for Don McKay Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize PHOTO praise at the 23rd annual BC Book Prizes

gala at Government House. BRADLEY

As she praised Patrick Lane and his

partner Lorna Crozier for being, SHARON “British Columbia’s greatly admired and This year’s BC Book Prizes dinner was held at Government House in Victoria. pre-eminent literary couple,” Honour- able Iona Campagnolo told the au- dience that Lane’s words are “sharpened and ground and groomed to perfection.” The Lieutenant Governor also tel- ephoned poet P.K. Page who told her, “He has the greatest sensitivity to words of anyone writing today.” For good measure, jury member PHOTO

PHOTOS

Jack Hodgins noted, “It has been

said of his prose that it can be savoured BRADLEY

LESTER like the music of Mozart.” SHARON After a few sentences of acceptance, DAVID William Deverell: emcee; Katherine Gordon: winner of Roderick Haig-Brown Regional Prize; Attendees: Nancy Flight and Andrew Wooldridge Lane was overcome with emotion. Choking back tears, he was unable to finish his speech. B.C. Historical Federation The other members of the selection committee were Vancouver Public Li- Winners brary’s Paul Whitney and former di- rector of the Festival of the Written Arts, he B.C. Historical Federation also Gail Bull. Tannounced its winners in the 2006 ✍ Historical Writing Competition. The most eloquent remarks to the The winner of the Lieutenant capacity audience were made by pre- Governor’s Medal for Historical Writing senters Peter Such, Carla Funk and Ted is K. Jane Watt for High Water: Living Harrison, proving again that nervous, with the Fraser Floods (Dairy Historical prize-winning authors don’t necessarily Society of British Columbia). make ideal public speakers. Mary-Ellen Kelm took second The other winners were: prize for editing The Letters of Margaret Carol Windley, Home Schooling Butcher: Missionary-Imperialism on the (Cormorant Books), Ethel Wilson Fic- tion Prize Sponsored by Friesens, North Pacific Coast (University of PHOTO Webcom and Transcontinental Calgary Press). Kathryn Bridge LESTER • placed third for A Passion for Mountains:

Don McKay, Strike / Slip DAVID the Lives of Don and Phyllis Munday (McClelland & Stewart), Dorothy Lieutenant Governor Campagnolo and William Deverell watch Patrick Lane get a kiss. (Rocky Mountain Books). Livesay Poetry Prize Sponsored by the In addition honourable mention BC Teachers’ Federation. Sarah Ellis, Odd Man Out David Suzuki and Greystone citations went to Jan Hare and Jean • (Groundwood Books), Sheila A. Egoff Books, David Suzuki: The Autobiogra- Barman for Good Intentions Gone Heather Pringle, The Master Children’s Literature Prize sponsored by phy, BC Booksellers’ Choice Award in Awry: Emma Crosby and the Methodist Plan: Himmler’s Scholars and the Holo- the BC Library Association. Honour of Bill Duthie Sponsored by BC Mission on the Northwest Coast (UBC caust (Viking), Hubert Evans Non-fic- • Booksellers’ Assn. and Duthie Books. Press), Judith Williams for Clam tion Prize Sponsored by Abebooks. Maggie de Vries and Renné ✍ Gardens: Aboriginal Mariculture on • Benoit,Tale of a Great White Fish: A All awards for the event, emceed by Canada’s West Coast (New Star Books) Katherine Gordon, Made to Sturgeon Story (Greystone Books), Christie William Deverell, were presented Measure: A History of Land Surveying in Harris Illustrated Children’s Literature prior to the meal. The BC Book Prizes and Peter Grauer for Interred with British Columbia (Sono Nis Press), Prize Sponsored by Kate Walker and were established in 1985 to celebrate their Bones: Bill Miner in Canada 1903- Roderick Haig-Brown Regional Prize Company, Michael Reynolds and Asso- the achievements of B.C. writers and 1907 (Partners in Publishing). Sponsored by Sandhill Book Marketing ciates and Craig Siddall and Associates. publishers. For more details, visit www.bcbookprizes.ca

7 BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2007 PEOPLE

This article is the sixth in a series celebrating enduring B.C. books. In January, The New WILDERNESS REBOUND York Times declared 2007 to be The Year of RITTEN BY LONGHAND, THEN TRANSCRIBED ONTO A REMINGTON TYPE- writer, Eric Collier’s family memoir of “roughing it in the Wbush” and saving the beaver population, Three Against the Penguin. We agree. the Wilderness (1959), was condensed by Reader’s Digest and re-issued in at least seven translations around the world. Yet Collier’s Cariboo-based bestseller—one of the classics of B.C. literature—is rarely cited in major guides to Canadian literature.

Born in North- tests for the ampton, Eng- Conibear trap in- land in 1903, tall vented by Frank and lean Eric Col- Conibear and lier was the son of increasingly a successful iron turned his hand foundry owner. to writing for At age 14 he Northwest Digest joined the navy in Quesnel, the and served for Williams Lake two years as a sig- Tribune and Out- nalman prior to door Life in the being sent to U.S. In 1949 he Canada to work became the first as a “mud pup” non-American to on his uncle’s win that maga- property near zine’s Conserva- Clinton, B.C. in tion Award. 1920. That uncle In the 1950s was Harry the staff at Out- July Marriott, au- door Life encour- thor of Cariboo aged him to Cowboy. Collier consider writing a Original paperback cover also worked at book about his Riske Creek store experiences. for Fred Becher, at the Gang Ranch, Soft-spoken and usually unassuming, and at Cotton Ranch. He married Eric Collier moved his family to Riske Lillian Ross in 1928 at Riske Creek Creek in 1960. He sold his 38-mile and took up meadows at Madden Lake trapline to Orville Stowell and Val in 1929. Two years later, in spite of his Coulthard on March 26, 1964 for wife’s hip deformity due to a childhood $2,500. He died at Riske Creek on accident, the couple took a wagon, three March 15, 1966. horses and their 18-month-old son Veasy, ✍ along with a tent, some provisions and The Williams Lake Tribune’s obitu- $33, and reached the Stack Valley where ary stated, “To watch Eric Collier stride they lived in an abandoned cabin built through the woods was a joy to behold.... by trapper and carpenter Tom Gun crooked comfortably in his arm he Evans. In a few years they relocated moved along as easily as the city dweller to Meldrum Creek, ten miles away, would stroll down Granville Street.” where they lived in a tent and built their Collier’s wife and trapping partner own cabin. Collier and his wife Lillian Lily moved to Williams Lake and died had promised her 97-year-old grand- in 1992. Their son Veasy, schooled by August mother, LaLa, to bring the beavers back correspondence, served in the Korean to the area that she knew as a child be- War, married Judy Borkowski, fore the white man came. Collier im- and settled at Williams Lake. Erected in ported several pairs of beavers, and raised 1946, the Collier’s much-deteriorated, the area’s water table sufficiently to rein- second, four-room log home at state the beaver population. Meldrum Creek was slated for demoli- In 1939, Eric Collier sold his favour- tion in 1989, under the auspices of the ite saddle horse in order to purchase a Chilcotin Military Reserve north of radio and hear news of World War II. Riske Creek, but local protests in the In 1946, Collier became the first presi- Cariboo encouraged Captain Paul dent of the B.C. Registered Trappers As- Davies and the Canadian Army En- sociation, an organization he co-founded gineers to resurrect the remote dwelling with Ed Bobbs. With the second and its log barn with new roofing, guiding license to be issued shakes, doors and win- in the Chilcotin, Collier dows. A very rough road earned a meagre income to leads 40 kilometres off Penguin.ca supplement his trapping Highway 20 to the site— and hunting. He increas- one of the few literary his- ingly accepted speaking torical sites to be preserved engagements and some- in B.C. times took adversarial po- ✍ sitions in talks with the Three Against the Wil- B.C. Game Department. derness (Irwin Publishing, September To encourage more hu- 1959; Touchwood Edi- mane trapping methods, tions, 2007, $19.95). Eric Collier Collier undertook field 978-1-894898-54-6

9 BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2007 INTERNATIONAL PHOTO Greenpeace protesters approaching LAKE CFB Cold Lake gate are intercepted COLD by several RCMP officers. CFB AT NANOOSE & WHY THEY ARE STILL THERE NUKESDefence and Foreign Affairs Depart- began with a BCTV camera crew ac- est we forget, military historian John Clearwater, a former ments of Canada convinced Chrétien to companying an RCMP raid on his home. editor-in-chief of the Arms Control Reporter, has examined expropriate the Nanoose Bay waters for His political career was scuttled by alle- federal jurisdiction. In response, Clark gations that he had favoured a gambling the extent to which Canada has consistently failed—ever made international headlines by describ- casino bid in exchange for a beneficial ing the actions of the federal govern- construction rate for his back porch. since cruise missile testing was introduced to the high Arctic ment as treasonous. “We never say No to any testing,” Lin 1978—to fully disclose details of military operations within Cana- Having dared to confront the mili- Clearwater has concluded, “sometimes tary might of the world’s most powerful we try to hold it off for as long as we dian territory by United States personnel in Just Dummies: Cruise Mis- country, and embarrass Ottawa at the can. I think the trend here is, no matter same time, B.C.’s daredevil leader was what the U.S. asks for, eventually we say sile Testing in Canada (University of Calgary Press $34.95). submarined by a smear campaign that Yes.” 1-55238-211-7

Using recently de-classified docu- ments, Clearwater recalls 1970s testing of the U.S. artillery shell that was de- It’s the climate, stupid signed to carry the neutron bomb, as well as military exercises involving the B- n his self-published South of Sixty: Life on an Antarctic Base (Antarctic 2 stealth bomber. Of particular interest Memories $24.95), Michael Warr of Prince George recalls his return visit to to British Columbians, he examines the Antarctic in 2005 during which he learned husky dogs were no longer welcomed kowtowing of federal Liberals to Ameri- as an alien species. Since then tourism has increased to 32,000 humans per can interests in the wake of Premier year. Warr agrees with ex-Vice President Al Gore’s assertion that when it Glen Clark’s efforts to prevent U.S. comes to global warming, Antarctica is a proverbial canary in the coalmine. nuclear submarines from using the wa- Trouble is, you need to be a scientist to see the problem. “In a few places along the ters of Nanoose Bay, north of Nanaimo. AntarcticI Peninsula there is a bit more rock showing, but mostly one has to rely on Clark’s stance was in response to the scientific information,” he says. “For example, 87% of the Antarctic Peninsula glaciers Americans’ refusal to negotiate salmon are receding and the only two flowering Antarctic plants are spreading southwards. “Al fishing quotas at the time. The stakes Gore in An Inconvenient Truth showed Antarctic ice cores that indicated that the were high. If Clark succeeded in can- temperature and CO2 levels had risen most strongly in the last 200 years out of the last celling the U.S. Navy’s Nanoose Bay 600,000. More recent ice cores now can go back 900,000 years, and still the only lease, the Jean Chrétien govern- exceptional rise in temperature and CO2 is in the industrial age of the last 200 years.” A ment feared the White House would member of the British Antarctic Club, the American Polar Society and the New Zealand enact penalties on Canada similar to Antarctic Society, Warr first worked in the Antarctic for two years as a meteorologist in those that crippled New Zealand’s the early 1960s—for one year at Deception Island and one year at Adelaide Island. Having Michael Warr economy after New Zealand’s decision returned to Antarctica as a cruise ship historian in 2006, Warr is currently preparing a in the north

to prevent U.S. nuclear vessels from hav- touring slide show exhibit. 0-9738504-0-X Weddell Sea ing access to its harbours in the 1980s. Antarctic Memories Publishing, 2640 Ewert Crescent, Prince George, B.C. V2M 2S2 Clearwater recalls how and why the

17 BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2007 OUTDOORS Moondancing to bliss & frostbite

olitude can lead to madness or God. For mountain climber Paul Hawker, it was SGod. But others aren’t so blessed. Prolonged and enforced solitude for Forty climbers had died in that wind- José Padilla, the only American swept Tararua range. Hawker recalls citizen to be openly tried as an “enemy how he almost became fatality number combatant,” for instance, has resulted in forty-one. insanity. After he was arrested at Chica- On Day 35, with the snow-capped go’s O’Hare airport in 2002, Padilla was mountains stretching for dozens of kilo- kept in a tiny cell at a navy prison in metres in both directions, with only a Charleston, South Carolina, shackled rat named Rattles for a companion in for 1,307 consecutive days, without his mountain-top hut, Hawker felt his natural light or a clock or a calendar, inner voice beseeching him like a lover— wearing heavy goggles and headphones. so he sang. In the process of defending their cli- “A deluge of song lines tumbled out ent, who now has a personality “like a as I clumsily tried to express my total awe piece of furniture,” in a Miami court- and appreciation,” he writes, “… After room, Padilla’s attorneys are forcing dinner, I danced outside the hut, stamp- mainstream American media to consider ing my feet as I sang Moondance, Blue how and why the CIA has routinely ap- Moon and any other song with moon in proved sensory deprivation, sensory it, including Silent Night and other overload and isolation techniques in pris- snowy Christmas carols. I was intoxi- ons at Guantánamo Bay, Iraq and Af- cated. I was in love with life, God, the ghanistan to induce extreme anxiety, universe, everything.” hallucinations and “significant psycho- Hawker felt he was experiencing a logical distress.” perfect day with a perfect God in a per- ✍ fect place. Trouble was, Hawker re- The case of Sydney-based Paul mained outside too long. He could stick Hawker, a New Zealand-born television a needle into his big toes and feel noth- writer and producer, is radically differ- ing. Having made a film about two men ent. In his memoir Soul Quest: A Spir- who had their frostbitten feet amputated itual Odyssey through 40 Days and 40 just below the knee, the ecstatic seeker Nights of Mountain Solitude found himself derailed by frostbite, fear (Northstone $22.95), Hawker describes and panic. 37 days in the proverbial wilderness, as- So worried he couldn’t eat or sleep cending Mount Arete in New Zealand, for two days, Hawker used his emer- surviving frostbite after climbing closer gency radio to get some medical advice. to God. With winds gusting at 150 kilometres- “I welcomed my first night in the per-hour, he half-walked, half-slid down wilderness totally alone,” he writes. “I felt the rocky mountainside. On what would no apprehension and had no fears for have been the 40th night of his journey, my safety. Away from all other humans, New Zealand was deluged by its worst there was no one who could do me any storm of the year. harm.” “So, were my frostnipped toes Although Hawker began his adven- good luck or bad luck? Who ture unfit and overweight, struggling knows? We are sensible to to carry his 40-kilo pack, his self-in- leave such conclusions to duced isolation from society in the God… On the moun- centre of the Tararua range, near tain I found my true the country’s capital of Welling- home. It is with ton, ultimately allowed him to The Creator, The hear the voice of God, over- Source, who coming what is typically re- wants nothing ferred to as a mid-life more than to crisis. spoil me with blessings galore.” Hawker’s re- ward for survival was learning not to shut the Di- vine out of his life. Upon his return to his family, he was so full of love for everyone it was almost embarrassing for them. “It was as if a long-lost love but- ton deep within me was now on an exter- nal console ready to be triggered by any passing word, scene, or thought.” 978-1-55145-44-0 Paul Hawker: began his adventure unfit and overweight, struggling to carry his 40-kilo pack.

25 BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2007 INTERNATIONAL

Ishmael Beah, 27-year-old poster boy for United Nations efforts to eliminate boy soldierdom, has a pensive moment at Vancouver’s Best, a Kitsilano coffee shop. PHOTO

AAA

TRIPLE / SAWCHUK

LAURA LOST ‘N’ FOUND SHMAEL BEAH’S SOBERING ACCOUNT OF ’s memoir of his lage by a surprise attack by deadly rebels. Ihis terrified wanderings in Sierra SHMAEL BEAH Most readers won’t even be able to find Leone before he became a boy soldier, Sierra Leone on a map, and we’re not as well as his recovery from his two years horrendous experiences in Sierra sure about the politics of Sierra Leone— of killing others, can be likened to the in fact, the differences between govern- historic memoir of Olauda Leone have made him—bi- ment soldiers and the rebels remain Equiano, the ex-slave from Gambia vague—so the overall lack of orientation who provided one of the few extensive zarrely—the first author published provided, either from the narrator or the written accounts of what it was like to packaging, is perhaps a literary conceit, be taken from Africa to the Americas in from B.C. to appear on The Daily a way of encouraging us to appreciate the eighteenth century. the senselessness of the violence. Just as The Life of Olauda Equiano or Show with comedian Jon Stewart. Ishmael Beah and some of his young Gustavus Vassa the African. Written by I friends run into the bush where they Himself, published in 1789, can be criti- ally, we know we’re part of the same over- leaves, even though Beah has refrained nearly starve. Not every kid who grows cized for being overly-polished, even all system. Or, as Goethe stated, “I can from rendering a full confession. up in Africa knows how to live off the stilted, critics can easily suggest A Long think of no crime that I’m incapable of ✍ land. Ishmael’s main skill is memorizing Way Gone (D&M $26.95) is gap-rid- committing.” But most North Ameri- Initially A Long Way Gone seems like rap lyrics. A companion asks, “How den and suspiciously erudite, yet both cans live under a bubble of alternate re- a movie, a living nightmare transferred many more times do we have to come to accounts will remain fascinating and dis- ality, buffered from beastliness, protected to the screen of our imagination. We terms with death before we find safety?” turbingly admirable for centuries to by the thin veneer of civilization. collect information, scene by scene, but But is that what he really said? Or is this come. The testimonies of Equiano and Beah’s eye witness reportage, as an ex- the narrator isn’t particularly likeable or fabricated dialogue, imagined in retro- Beah, although separated by several cen- participant, is more powerful and even particularly engaging. He’s mainly spect? turies, represent the experiences of mil- memorable than any Anderson a 12-year-old kid who likes rap music. Some of Beah’s descriptions of the lions of others, both persecutors and Cooper segment on CNN. The world We learn precious little about his family jungle and his fear are impressively po- victims, whose lives and deaths can oth- of boy soldiers, wielding their AK47s, background. Even more problematic, etic, as if he has been taking creative erwise only be imagined or, worse, over- high on drugs, wearing bizarre cos- we are given little information to discern writing courses in New York (where he looked and gradually forgotten. tumes, being taught to rape, burn and whether or not Ishmael Beah developed now lives), but most of the sentences are Reading Ishmael Beah’s edited tale is pillage—that gawdawful world of un- a moral compass before he got lost, figu- starkly rendered. Can we really trust like staring at the stars and trying to im- mitigated barbarism that was previously ratively and literally. him as our guide? Is he telling us every- agine the rest of the universe. Ration- “out there”—enters your head and never Our hero gets separated from his vil- continued on next page

15 BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2007 INTERNATIONAL NOW IN PAPERBACK

The NATIONAL BESTSELLER and WINNER of the continued from page 15 join a camp of government forces where GOVERNOR GENERAL’S AWARD FOR NON-FICTION thing that happened to him? We are the main entertainment is watching being escorted through a nightmare by Rambo movies. At first Beah don’t need THE someone we still don’t really know. to fight, but his reprieve from butchery Villagers are deeply afraid of a wan- is short-lived. dering pack of young teens so Ishmael “Sometimes we were asked to leave and his friends must keep travelling aim- for war in the middle of a movie,” he lessly. Eventually they are frightened by writes. “We would come back hours a terribly strange roar in the distance— later after killing many people and con- only to discover they have reached the tinue the movie as if we had just returned GOLDEN Atlantic Ocean. from intermission. We were always ei- Our compassion kicks into gear about ther at the front lines, watching a war one-third of the way through Beah’s od- movie, or doing drugs.” yssey. The boys hide in the bushes and Beah avoids all descriptions of his own observe a band of young rebels who have acts in the killing fields except for a bi- just successfully zarre ceremonial SPRUCE burned and destroyed game in which their three villages. The commander asks five bravado of these boys to execute five guiltless monsters is helpless prisoners. deeply disturbing and This is a contest to see sickening to Beah, but who can get the job it is also chilling and done fastest with a poignant to the sharp knife. Our nar- “A powerful reader. We know he rator wins the throat PHOTO

has seen the future— cutting competition. AAA work that will and he just doesn’t The story then

know it yet. TRIPLE skips over the next two

change how / Eventually the years until Beah and many people boys recognize some- other boy soldiers are SAWCHUK one from their former removed from the

think about LAURA village, Gasemu, a government killing nature.” kindly bachelor who is gathering ba- squads by a UNICEF initative. —Sebastian Junger nanas. Beah learns he is only within a They drive for four hours, held at few miles of being reunited with his gunpoint by well-meaning guards—who mother. Excited to hurry ahead to the Beah despises and wants to kill—until village, the boys reluctantly accept in- they reach the capital. A long process of structions from Gasemu on how to rehabilitation begins. And that’s the sec- properly carry bananas on their shoul- ond half of the book. ✍ For 300 years, a mythical golden spruce on the ders, although they would much prefer to run straight to the village that is just Ishmael Beah moved to the U.S. when Queen Charlotte Islands was sacred to the Haida, across a river and over a hill. he was seventeen, graduated from respected by loggers, protected by environ- On the way to Beah’s hoped-for re- Oberlin College in 2004 and now serves mentalists, and loved by all who saw it. union with his mother, Gasemu urges as a member of the Human Rights Watch them to stop and rest. Gunshots are Children’s Rights Division Advisory Com- heard. Children wail. Women scream. mittee. He came to Vancouver earlier this Then one man deliberately felled it They hide in the bushes as the village year to talk about his experiences. and mysteriously disappeared. burns. That brief rest stop has saved Evidently the human capacity for cru- their lives. When silence finally comes, elty is boundless. The United Nations they examine the desolation. has estimated there are some 300,000 “My entire body went into shock,” he child soldiers currently roaming the writes. “… I fell to the ground, holding planet in more than fifty violent conflicts, JOHN VAILLANT my face. On the ground I felt as if my but nobody can verify the extent of the eyes were growing too big for the sock- atrocities, and nobody knows for certain ets. I could feel them expanding and the how much innocence has been lost. “[Like] Jon Krakauer and Sebastian Junger, pain released my body from the shock. With that one noteworthy exception, Vaillant deftly peels away the surface story to “I ran to the house. Without any fear Beah has avoided describing his own I went inside and looked around the capacity to kill so A Long Way Gone is a explore the psychology below ... an intense smoke-filled rooms. The floors were disturbing but somewhat puzzling work, mystery and a sweeping history ... a terrific read.” filled with heaps of ashes; no solid form presumably released to publicize a glo- —National Post of a body was inside. I screamed at the bal problem rather than expiate the de- top of my lungs and began to cry as mons that must still reside in Beah’s loudly as I could, punching and kicking mind. This is a very important book. But with all my might into the weak walls it doesn’t tell the truth, the whole truth, VINTAGE CANADA “Fascinating ... a gripping that continued to burn. and nothing but the truth. 1-55365-299-1 wilderness thriller ... “I had lost my sense of touch. My hands and feet punched and kicked the Hooray for Hollywood Essential reading.” burning walls, but I couldn’t feel a thing. —The Georgia Straight Gasemu and the rest of the other boys Ishmael Beah’s memoir is a bea- began pulling me away from the house. con of revelation from a heart once I kept kicking and punching as they filled with darkness. It has topped dragged me out.” the BC Bestseller List and vali- During their escape from a group of dated the thriller Blood Diamond, ten more rebels, Gasemu is shot and mor- starring Leonardo di Caprio. tally wounded. They carry his bleeding Anyone seeing that movie with- body with them until he dies in the for- out reading Beah’s book can be ex- A TRUE STORY OF MYTH, est. The respect and compassion that cused for presuming the “boy Beah feels for Gasemu, a man who al- soldier” segments of Blood Dia- most guided him out of the fear and mond are over-blown. They are all madness, is acutely felt. too real. MADNESS AND GREED On the next page the rag-tag contin- See the film. Buy the book. Ask gent of lost boys is gathered at gunpoint yourself why people buy diamonds. by army soldiers and they are forced to

16 BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2007 F ICTIONBC

Prince George eparating contestants according to gender works for fantasies American Idol, so, what the heck, we’re doing it here. This process reveals women have recently published Lynda Williams likes to claim heredity explains her imagination and S nearly twice as many new works of B.C. fiction than men, in- flair for drama. Williams’ father read her cluding Amanda Hale’s The Reddening Path and epic poetry be- fore she could Linda Rogers’ The Empress Letters [see pages 22 & 29]. read and her mother’s grandfa- ther was a Welsh bard who wrote a herself via a cal- Barkerville in The Reckoning of Bos- book of sermons. culated love af- ton Jim (Brindle & Glass $24.95), a first Her maternal fair. novel by Claire Mulligan who great-great-grandfa- Beyond the graduated from UBC and moved to ther was supposedly Blue incorpo- Pennsylvania. 1-897142-21-8; made a cuckold of a rates the suf- ✍ Claire Mulligan King of England (while fragette Dana Copithorne has provided he was attending a royal movement, the cover art and illustrations for The culture, Zen aesthetics, Czech literature, birth in his capacity as a Lynda an influ- Steam Magnate (Charleston, South and Japanese and Buddhist architectural physician). Williams enza epi- Carolina: Aio Publishing $22), her fan- traditions. 1933083085 By day, as a Prince demic and tasy novel “of the Broken Glass City.” ✍ George librarian, Williams historical The protagonist Eson, who has “inher- Fiction Factoid: After her is an “educational technolo- events ited the steam-power legacy of his fam- first novel, The Sad Truth About Hap- gist.” such as the Tay ily lineage,” recovers from a disastrous piness (HarperCollins), was shortlisted By night she explores Bridge disaster and the Easter relationship with a woman of his own for the Books in Canada First Novel gender roles and rules in a futuristic fan- Uprising. MacPherson’s grandmother kind, only to become embroiled in an Award, lawyer Anne Giardini has tasy fiction world that is dependent on grew up in Dundee across the street intriguing romance with a young woman been promoted to vice-president and bio-engineering. from the Bowbridge Works jute mill, who is not who she claims to be. general counsel for Canada for In her novel The Courtesan Prince where MacPherson’s great-grandmother Copithorne has studied Weyerhaeuser Company. (2005), the first instalment of her worked. 0-679-31422-9 Shamanic religions in continued on page 32 planned ten-novel Okal Rel ✍ Siberia, Japanese Universe series, Williams in- The long list of vented two ideologically op- B.C. authors who posed planetary societies, both have worked in colonizing space by cloning. bookstores includes Connections to planet mystery writer earth have long been severed Laurence Gough, and 200 years have passed who worked at since the Killing Reach War. Duthies, as did High-tech and egalitarian Mark Vonnegut, Reetions remain averse to the son of Kurt. On the neo-feudal and barbaric other side of the Gelacks. Andrea MacPherson Strait, Robert In her follow-up, Right- Wiersema eous Anger (Calgary: Edge $22.95), works at Bolen’s, and Sheila Williams continues to explore the two Munro worked at Munro’s warring cultures. Books, as did Valerie Stet- The Reetions are socially transparent son who received the Bronwen and regulated by the computer, the Wallace Award for the first story Gelacks are genetically enhanced, highly she ever completed, “The Year I religious and regulated by the Okal Rel Got Impatient” in 2001. Sword law. Stetson’s debut story has be- In particular, Righteous Anger focuses come the title piece for her first on the fortunes, awkward fate and fight- fiction collection, The Year I Got ing skills of Horth Nersal, a half-breed Impatient (Oolichan $18.95). who was conceived as the result of a Stetson lived in Victoria for treaty marriage to bring peace between thirteen years prior to mov- two disparate factions. 1-894063-38-4 ing to Kelowna in 1999. ✍ Having written humour In Andrea MacPherson’s sec- and television columns ond novel, Beyond the Blue (Random for the Times Colonist, House $29.95), four women in the Scot- she’s now turning her tish mill town of Dundee struggle to sur- story entitled “Graham vive in 1918. Getty’s Last Swim” into a Set during a period when many men novel. 0-88982-238-7 are absent due to World War One, the ✍ story chiefly concerns Morag, who works Touched by the kind- in the jute mill, her two daughters, Caro ness of a Cowichan Val- and Wallis, as well as Morag’s orphaned ley settler named Dora niece Imogen. Hume in the 1860s, lone- While Wallis works with her mother some trapper Boston Jim at the mill and painstakingly saves her decides to search for her money in order to escape from Dundee, capricious husband in the Valerie Stetson her beautiful sister Caro hopes to free gold rush town of

31 BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2007 FICTION National Bestseller

“A tour de force.” continued from page 31 Having received a Master’s degree in Adult Education from UBC, Paré has BILL GASTON Shaena Lambert’s first novel since pursued her Bachelor’s degree in Radiance (Random House $32.95) con- Fine Arts from University of Victoria. “[A] poetic rendition of the prairie landscape cerns the relationship between an 18- 0-920897-87-8 that will resonate with readers.” year-old survivor of the Hiroshima All’s not well that WINNIPEG FREE PRESS atomic bomb blast, Keiko Kitigawa, who is brought to the United States in 1952 ends Raphael “A powerful exploration of the deep for charitable reconstructive surgery, and Having received her M.A. from UBC her suburban hostess, Daisy Lawrence, in 1998, Gina Buonaguro has co- undercurrents in a rural community.” who has been assigned the task to pry written The Sidewalk Artist (St. Mar- EDMONTON JOURNAL the girl’s traumatic story from her to serve tin’s Press $27.95), about a New York the propaganda needs of the committee writer named Tulia Rose who overcomes that has sponsored her visit. writer’s block after she accidentally meets With McCarthyism on the rise and a sidewalk artist on a Paris street who experiments to develop the hydrogen draws angels like those drawn by bomb underway in the United States, Raphael. the complex intimacy that arises between Tulia falls in love with the artist and the “Hiroshima maiden” and her host she begins to write a novel about mother has its own frisson born of whis- Raphael. They travel to Italy where her pered confessions and wrenching be- abilities to distinguish between past and trayals. 978-0-769-31150-8 present, reality and fiction, start to fal- ✍ ter, until she begins to believe her meet- Having attended UBC’s Booming ing with the sidewalk artist was not Ground Summer Writing Program, food accidental. 0312358032 writer and poet Jen Sookfong Lee has pub- lished her debut novel, The End of East (Knopf $29.95), an- other family saga about three genera- tions of Chinese Ca- nadians within A Phyllis Bruce Book Vancouver’s AVAILABLE WHEREVER BOOKS ARE SOLD Chinatown. In this New Face of Fiction title, Sammy Chan returns to Vancouver to care for her aging mother Smoke From the Branding Fire by H.G.Pallister Jen due to her sister’s Sookfong This book tells the stories of Alberta’s brands and upcoming marriage. While Lee of the folks who made them, registered them, and managing a dangerous love af- used them. The anecdotes cover our most famous fair and coping with her difficult brands and the cowboys who used them. mother, she begins to record ISBN: 978-1-55059-336-5, $25.95, pb family stories dating back to the Canadian arrival of her grand- father, Seid Quan, at age 18 in Wolves In Russia 1913. by Will N. Graves History repeats itself as per- Wolves in Russia compiles over 50 years of research sonal ambitions are sacrificed in on the history of Russian wolves to challenge favour of family goals. Jennifer North American notions about the nature of Lee was born and raised on Van- these controversial animals. couver’s East side, where she lives ISBN: 978-1-55059-332-7, $26.95, pb with her husband. 978-0-676-97838-4 Available at your local bookstore or contact: Temeron Books Inc. tel: 403.283.0900 fax: 403.283.6947 ✍ [email protected] www.temerondetselig.com As a manager of a large corporation becomes more oppressed by the bureaucratic nature of Haig-Brown Regional Prize Finalist • Honourable Mention, her work, Frances, the pro- BC Historical Federation Writing Competition tagonist in Arleen Paré’s first novel Paper Trail (NeWest TRANSMONTANUS 15 $18.95), regularly has conversa- Clam Gardens tions with the ghost of Franz Aboriginal Mariculture on Kafka, from whom she learns that she appears as a character in Canada’s West Coast a manuscript he is writing. She also inexplicably hears Leider mu- by Judith Williams sic and starts to lose small body parts. Find it here Born and raised in Montreal, People’s Co-op Bookstore Salt Spring Books Paré received sociology, history and social work degrees from Magpie Magazine Gallery Crown Publications McGill University, then PHOTO Duthie Books Abraxas Books moved to Vancouver KOOP Blackberry Books Marnie’s Books where she worked in bureaucratic office SHERRI Published by New Star Books situations for two decades.

32 BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2007 FICTION

Contra/Diction: New Queer Male Fiction said, “Work is the law” but clearly and co-edited Carnal Nation: Brave New Leonardo didn’t know what he was talk- All aboard the Commodore Sex Fictions with Carellin Brooks. ing about. 1-55152-212-8 As a grimly humourous raconteur, lthough the first col- ✍ Krukoff’s hero recounts how honesty is lection of stories by Bill Gaston’s Rab- not the best policy and avoidance is next Burnaby-based folk/ elaisian collection of sto- to godliness. 1-897235-19-4 A ✍ blues artist Fred Booker re- ries, Gargoyles (Anansi calls growing up black in $29.95), employs gar- After the apathy of a St. Petersburg Canada, Adventures in Debt goyles as signposts to rep- secret policeman is dispelled by the mur- Collection (Commodore $16) resent various extremes of der of a child prostitute in 1913, he un- mainly recounts Booker’s day- human emotions. “The covers a plot to overthrow the tsar and job escapades as a repo man con- stories all share some- install a puppet ruler in Field of Mars fronting debtors and thing I would call (Penguin $10.99), the third novel by repossessing vehicles with tow- ‘gargoylishness’,” he says. Vancouver actor Stephen Miller, truck hook-ups. “My protagonists tend to who recently portrayed Inspector Zack Booker’s short fiction has ap- be larger-than-life, gentle McNab in the TV series DaVinci’s City peared in various literary maga- grotesques.” In each story, Hall. 0-14-301772-1 zines and Bluesprint: Black Gaston has described peo- ✍ British Columbian Literature ple trying to transcend For CBC Radio’s Ideas, Paul A. and Orature, a landmark an- their own psychological Green generated “Witches, Warlocks thology edited by Wayde ugliness, fears or weak- and Magi,” “The Future of Divination” Compton, one of the found- nesses. 0-88784-749-8 and “Space Gods and Secret Chiefs.” A ers of Commodore Books. ✍ graduate of UBC Creative Writing, he Touted as the first and only An Ojibway from the published poetry and prose in various black literary press in Western Wabasseemoong First Na- anthologies and magazines prior to the Canada, Commodore Press de- tion in Northwestern On- release of his si-fi novel The Qliphoth rives its name from the paddle tario, Richard Wag- (Surrey: Libros Libertad $24.95). For steamer Commodore which amese’s third novel more info, see abcbookworld.com transported thirty-five black mi- Dream Wheels (Double- 978-0-9781865-0-0 [See abcbookworld.com] grants from San Francisco to day $34.95) is about the Victoria 147 years ago. healing relationships be- That same steamer is also the Repo man Fred Booker isn’t singing the blues in Adventures in Debt Collection tween a former world ALSO RECEIVED source for the title story of F. B . champion Ojibway-Sioux André’s second fiction collection, of Cities (Arsenal $19.95), a complex rodeo cowboy who is What Belongs (Ronsdale $21.95), con- coming-of-age story about a male li- crippled by cerning cross-racial and cross-cultural brarian from a small town in the a bull, a relationships. 1950s who goes to the big city in black single PHOTO

André, a former cafe owner in Vic- 1959. mother and

NORBURY her 14-year- toria, depicts a contemporary researcher His accidental discovery of a gay interviewing a descendant of one of the subculture is framed by a contem- old son Aiden.

boatload of African-Americans brought porary analysis by a modern edi- ROSAMUND Wagamese to Fort Victoria in 1858 by half-black tor named A.X. Palios. lives near Kam- Governor James Douglas. This experimental novel in- loops. His other Douglas volves the discovery of a manu- books are Kee- wanted an in- script inside a hollowed-out per’n Me, A Brett Grubisic flux of pro-Brit- home economics textbook. “I Quality of Light ish immigrants was skeptical about historical and the autobio- to counter-act fiction and its usual posture of rep- graphical For Jo- the encroach- resenting historical actuality in good shua. He has also ments of too faith,” Grubisic has won a National Newspaper Award for Boundary Country many white, commented. Column Writing. 0-385-66199-1 pro-American Hence he has ✍ by Tom Wayman miners during “destabilized” Born in British Columbia to (Thistledown Press $18.95) the Cariboo that aspect of French-Canadian and America 1-897235-25-9 F.B. André gold rush. the narration. parents, D.Y. Béchard of Mon- Murder, Eh? By Lou Allin Born in San An English treal has published Vandal Love (Rendezvous $14.95) 1-894917-27-8 Fernando, Trinidad, in 1955, F.B. professor at (Doubleday $29.95) about a Delible by Anne Stone André immigrated to Canada in 1971. UBC, Grubisic French-Canadian family that is di- (Insomniac Press $21.95) 1-897178-36-0 Adventures 0-9683182-1-6; Belongs 1-55380-044-3 has also edited vided by a genetic curse that makes Josh & The Magic Vial by Craig Spence ✍ the Hervé children either runts or (Thistledown $17.95) 978-1-897235-10-2 New Star Books editor giants. 0-385-66051-0 Adam’s Peak by Heather Burt Carellin Brooks en- ✍ (Dundurn $21.99) 1-55002-646-1 couraged Brett Born and raised in Regina, Josef Grubisic Devin Krukoff of Victoria won The Raid by Ken Merkley (Trafford $28.95) 141209309-0 to write his debut the 2005 McClelland & novel, The Age Brendan McLeod has won the Stewart Journey Prize The Pale Surface of Things by Janey 29th annual International 3-Day Novel for his story “The Bennet (Hopeace $25) 978-0-9734007-2-4 Contest with a humourous coming-of-age Last Spark.” His Shadows on a Cave Wall story, The Convictions of Leonard McKinley debut novel by Ernest Hekkanen (New Orphic $20) (3-Day Books $14.95), about high school Compensation 978-1-894842-11-2 and family pressures in a prairie town. (Thistledown The Coward Files by Ryan Arnold McLeod, a musician and spoken word artist, was one $18.95) is a (Conundrum $15.00) 1-894994-20-5 of 535 writers who participated in the 72-hour writing deathbed Border Town by Hillel Wright competition on the 2006 Labour Day weekend. Some 389 memoir by a (Printed Matter $15.00) 1-933606-08-8 entrants managed to complete and submit a short novel for dedicated ma- Dark Resurrection by Ron Chudley the competition. It was the first time in eight years that the lingerer, Rich- (TouchWood $12.95) 1-894898-48-6 winner and the runner-up were from Vancouver, birthplace ard Parks, who Paper Trail by Arleen Paré and home of the contest. has spent a life- (NeWest $19.95) 1-897126-13-1 Having earned his MA in philosophy at the University of time assidu- Waterloo, Brendan McLeod has toured with The Fugitives, ously avoiding Conceit by Mary Novik (Doubleday $29.95) 0-385-66205-X a spoken word and music collective. 1-55152-222-5 work. Leonard da Vinci once

33 BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2007 BC exciting WHO’SWHO summer tem is approximately one millennium askew. is for Antliff “Up to 500-600 years in the past,” says Diacu, “the dates we have are fine. releases As a follow-up to Only A Beginning, There is enough evidence to trust that An Anarchist Anthology, Alan they are correct. Everything beyond that Antliff’s new collection of essays, An- becomes more uncertain the more we May 22 archy and Art: From the Paris Commune distance ourselves from the present.” to the Fall of the Berlin Wall (Arsenal Far East A Thousand Splendid Suns $24.95) is about how art has been used chronologies Khaled Hosseini to promulgate and augment political cannot clarify change and awareness during the past the issue par- 140 years. Antliff is currently the Canada tly because a June 12 Research Chair in Modern Art at the Uni- Chinese em- peror in the versity of Victoria. 1-55152-207-1 Can You Hear the Nightbird Call? 2nd century BC destroyed (In paperback) most Chinese Anita Rau Badami is for Burnett Florin Diacu documents that provided any links with the past. The Before she died, Dorothy reliability of radiocarbon dating is also July 6 Burnett, the first independent craft discussed. binder to set up shop in Vancouver, A former Director of the Pacific In- The World Without Us passed along examples of her book bind- stitute for the Mathematical Sciences at Alan Wiseman ings to Anne Yandle at UBC Spe- the University of Victoria, Diacu is also cial Collections. And just before Yandle the author of Celestial Encounters, a his- died late last year, the Alcuin Society was tory of ideas in the field of chaos theory. able to show her an advance version of 0-676-97657-3 their 80-page book, Dorothy Burnett Bookbinder, designed and printed by we’ve moved! Robert R. Reid, with text by Nor- is for Eve kitsilano we’ve moved! man Amor. If you are interested in 3066 W. Broadway the history of limited edition publishing It’s common knowledge that Canuck in B.C. contact Jim Rainer at Place in Shaughnessy was previously a broadway mansion that served as the headquarters [email protected] for details on this book 632 W. Broadway made in fond memory of Anne Yandle. for a Vancouver chapter of the Ku Klux Klan, but there are many other addresses in the Lower Mainland with skeletons west tenth 4444 W. 10th in their closets. Australian-born journal- is for Coyote ist and freelance writer Eve Lazarus of North Vancouver has examined the lonsdale 1524 Lonsdale For the second consecutive year, social histories of heritage houses in Ivan E. Coyote has been short-listed Greater Vancouver for At Home with for the Ferro-Grumley Award in the cat- History: The Untold Secrets of Herit- yaletown 1068 Homer egory of Women’s Fiction, this time for age Homes (Anvil $20). 1-895636-80-2 her acclaimed novel Bow Grip (Arsenal continued on next page 2006). The award is part of the Trian- seymour 552 Seymour gle Awards presented by the Publish- ing Triangle. Coyote was featured on the cover of BC davie BookWorld’s Winter issue. 1051 Davie

is for Diacu

Isaac Newton once theorized that Greek chronology was about 300 years out of whack. In The Lost Millennium: Histo- ry’s Timetables Under Siege (Knopf $35), Florin Diacu incorpo- rates the research of Russian mathematician and chronological re- visionist Anatoli Fomenko who believes www.bookwarehouse.ca our dating sys- Eve Lazarus every book bargain priced every day

37 BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2007 WHO’SWHO

Wine-ing about the game

continued from previous page Hip-to-sip wine buffs Jade Bell is for Hodgson James Nevison and is for Falls Kenji Hodgson (above right), known collectively as ‘Halfaglass,’ first endured In a similar vein, from a different era, John Harris’ creative non-fiction tasting copious amounts of wine to create Have a Glass work Above the Falls (Touchwood (Whitecap $19.95), a guide for the young-at-palate. $18.95) recalls the life and times of “The Steering clear of complicated terminology, the duo ex- Flying Trapper,” George Dalziel, and the unsolved RCMP case arising from the plored wine history and helped young connoisseurs disappearance of two trappers employed choose the perfect vintage, sample the latest trend by Dalziel near a remote Nahanni River and order with confidence in a restaurant. Success with trapline in 1936. When authorities found the trappers’ cabin burned to the that book has led to a follow-up, Had a Glass: Top 100 ground, they suspected Dalziel of foul Wines for 2007 Under $20 (Whitecap $19.95). 1552858073 play. 978-1-894898-55-3

a guide and an outfitter. Cathy Hobson, daughter of author Rich is for Gerson is for Irvine [Nothing Too Good for a Cowboy] Hobson contributed the foreword. Coordinating more than 100 Raised mainly in Vanderhoof, 978-1-894974-27-1 contributors in two lan- June Wood, daughter of a guages over a six-year pe- trapper, has fashioned a bio- riod, SFU English professor graphical tribute to wilder- is for Jade is for Kanada Carole Gerson has co- ness homesteader Bert edited The History of the Irvine in Nechako Coun- At 23, in 1997, handsome and ath- Born in Germany in 1953, Book in Canada, Volume try: In the Footsteps of Bert letic Jade Bell was rushed to the hos- Wolfgang Winteroff first came III (U of T Press/les Presses Irvine (Heritage $17.95). pital after drunkenly mixing a to Canada in 1983, visited the Bowron de l’Universite de Montreal Having moved his family from concoction of cocaine and heroin and Lakes in 1986 and canoed the entire $85) with the University of Barrhead in northwestern shooting it into his arm. Blinded and chain of Bowron Lakes with two friends Sherbrooke’s Jacques Alberta to Vanderhoof unable to speak, afflicted by an acute in 1992. He first completed the 75-km- Michon. It covers writings in the early muscle disorder throughout his body, long West Coast Trail hike in 1994. He from 1918 to 1980. The 1930s, Irvine Bell had to gradually regain control of has since organized tours from Germany overall three-volume worked his body and accept the help of for Europeans interested in exploring project was made pos- for dec- caregivers. Wheelchair-bound, he has the wilderness of B.C. and the Yukon. sible with a $2.3-million ades as since toured schools to give educational Winteroff’s German books Kanada: grant from talks about the dangers of drug abuse. Bowron Lakes and Kanada: West Coast the Social Dedicated to his father who died af- Trail have been translated and re-re- Sciences and ter a prolonged bout of cancer, Jade Bell’s leased as pocket-sized guidebooks, Humanities poetry collection Strength of the Hu- Bowron Lakes (Positive Connections Research man Spirit (Granville Island $16.95) $18.95) and West Coast Trail (Positive Council of contains supportive notes and letters Connections $14.95). Canada Carole Gerson from his father encouraging his son to See abcbookworld.com for more (SSHRCC). spiritually rise above the tragedy of his info. Bowron 0-9734091-1-8; Trail 0-9734091-2-6 0802090478 own self-induced handicaps. 1-894694-47-3 continued on page 40

38 BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2007 WHO’SWHO New from the legendary Modernette and author of Guilty of Everything continued from page 38 Wells called the Toni Onley School. A chronicle of the working life Artists will be invited to the school to WAGES is for Leggo “live and work in the remote hamlet of historic Wells” to create a body of work by John Armstrong Having grown up in Newfoundland, for exhibition. UBC Language and Literacy professor Onley wrote an autobiography, co- Find it here Carl Leggo has repeatedly returned authored a book based on his travels in to The Rock in his imagination since he India with George Woodcock, Duthie Books, West 4th Av. Miners Bay Books, Mayne I. moved to British Columbia about seven and published a coffee table book. People’s Co-op Bookstore Abraxas Books years ago. His third collection of remi- Magpie Book & Mag Gallery Spartacus Books, W. Hastings niscences and Newfie lyrical longing is Blackberry Books, Granville I. Pulpfiction, Main St. Come-By-Chance (Breakwater Books is for Poet Laureate 32 Books, North Vancouver Chapters • Indigo $14.95), a volume of poetry. 1-55081-082-0 When George McWhirter re- Published by New Star Books tired from the University of British Co- is for Munro lumbia’s Creative Writing department in 2004, he was feted by former students K. Douglas Munro, Victoria- and colleagues at a large reception that based editor of Fur Trade Letters of included the launching of a limited edi- Pick up our Spring- Offering the Willie Traill 1864-1893 (University of tion book of appreciative essays in his into-Summer 2007 Perrenial Beauty Alberta Press $34.95), is the great- honour dubbed The BOG (The Book of Branches of Light,! grandson of William Edward George). Three years later he has been issue #30 of the World’s Traill, the son of Catharine Parr named the City of Vancouver’s inaugu- SPIRITUAL Traill, author of The Backwoods of ral poet laureate. Victoria already has a & HEALING Canada (1836) and nephew of poet laureate, Carla Funk. Susanna Moodie, author of Rough- TRADITIONS ing it in the Bush (1853). since 1970 As an employee of the Hudson’s Bay Company, Willie Traill worked as a fur is for Questionable trader in the Canadian West for thirty Banyen BOoks years, marrying Harriet McKay, Josh Wapp's earnest comic strip 3608 West 4th Avenue eldest daughter of Chief Factor book account of his struggles to over- at Dunbar, one block east of Alma in Kitsilano, Vancouver William McKay, and fathering come the conventional medical system Books 604-732-7912 Music/Gifts/Tkts 604-737-8858 twelve children. He ended his career as when coping with schizophrenia, Jump- Out-of-town orders 1-800-663-8442 Chief Trader at Fort St. James in charge ing the Fence: A True Story of Break- Open Mon-Fri 10-9, Sat 10-8, Sun 11-7 of the New Caledonia district. ing Free From the Psychiatric Industry www.banyen.com for reviews, author events & our entire inventory Traill’s letters home between 1864 (Self-published, unpriced, 2006) ques- and 1893 were gathered and organized tions the validity of psychotropic medi- by his grandson, T.R. (Pat) cations. "It's important to remember McCloy, who encouraged Munro to that there's nothing 'wrong' with peo- prepare them for publication. 0-88864-460-4 ple like me," he writes. "In fact, statistics show that schizophrenics comprise 1% of the population in Canada. Sometimes e are I think I should wear a t-shirt that says W is for Nanaimo 'Paranoid Schizophrenic' in public elebrating places. Some people might realize that ourC Formerly a reporter for the Alberni I'm a regular person." Wapp studied th Valley Times and a winner of a Jack visual arts at the Emily Carr Institute and 10 Wasserman Award for investigative jour- lives in Nelson, B.C. [[email protected]] nniversary nalism on social and environmental af- A fairs, Jan Peterson has written six GALIANO Open year-round with over 25,000 titles books about Van- ISLA ND plus a great selection of Canadian authors, couver Island, in- is for Rimmer art supplies and gifts. cluding her latest Join us for readings and book launches. release, Harbour Variously described as “the master of City: Nanaimo in all things letterpress” and “one of Cana- 76 Madrona Drive Galiano Island BC V0N 1P0 Transition, 1886- da’s most remarkable typographic fig- 250 539-3340 [email protected] 1920 (Heritage ures,” Jim Rimmer started working $19.95). It com- as an apprentice typesetter at his grand- pletes her trilogy father’s Vancouver print shop, J W Boyd Jan Peterson that began with Printers & Publishers, in the 1950s, Black Diamond City: Nanaimo-The Vic- earning $15 per week, becoming type torian Era and Hub City: Nanaimo. director at the Lanston Monotype Cor- The defi nitive guide to the Kluane and Tatshenshini, revised and updated Peterson received Certificates of Hon- poration in the 1970s. our from the B.C. Historical Federation As a creator of 190 digital and seven The Kluane National Park in 1997 and 1999. 1-894974-20-4 metal typefaces, he is revered by the West Coast letterpress community. Or- Hiking Guide, 3rd ed. ganized by Eric Swanick of SFU’s Special Collections, “Rimmerfest” was by Vivien Lougheed is for Onley held at Simon Fraser University’s down- town campus in November to mark Find it here The good denizens of Wells, B.C., Rimmer’s achievements as a typogra- near Barkerville have honoured Tony pher, illustrator, designer, printer, pub- Duthie Books, West 4th Av. Crown Publications, Victoria Onley’s penchant for drawing inspira- lisher and mentor. People’s Co-op Bookstore Wanderlust, West 4th Av. tion from remote areas and his savvy for The gathering also marked the pub- 32 Books, North Vancouver Books & Co., Prince George the business side of being an artist by lication of Rimmer’s third title from his Max’s Fireweed Books Bolen Books, Victoria renaming their Wells Artists’ Project af- New Westminster-based Pie Tree Press Chapters • Indigo Tanners Books, Sidney ter the artist who died in a crash of his & Type Foundry imprint, Leaves from the own plane in 2004. Pie Tree. Rimmer’s press is named after The renaming is the first step in a “an ancient snagly old tree in our Published by New Star Books long-term vision to develop an eight- backyard, from which a couple of lovely month artist development program in continued on next page

40 BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2007 Banana Boys: The Play Leon Aureus A smart, contemporary and wickedly funny play about five young Asian-Canadian men wrestling with issues of race, continued from previous page Eileen Van der Flier-Keller has identity and the death of a friend. Adapted from the novel by old sister ladies who used to live next used 80 photos to identify 28 different Terry Woo, Banana Boys is a call to anyone who has felt out door to us would bake apple pies. They types of rocks and minerals for A Field of place in the world. Toronto Star always referred to it as the Pie Tree.” Guide to the Identification of Pebbles “This banana definitely has appeal.” — Rimmer’s private papers and his Pie (Harbour $7.95). Her laminated, ISBN 978-0-88754-516-0 $17.95 Tree Press collection have been donated accordian-folded guide for young rock to SFU Special Collections. hounds was preceded by her South Van- The Bombay Plays Anosh Irani couver Island Earth Science Fun Guide. The Matka King: A powerful eunuch, Top Rani, operates an illicit lottery through his brothel, and when a gambler who is 978-1-55017-395-6 deeply in debt makes an unexpected wager, the stakes become is for Sanguin Dollie & Annie Watts life and death. “Excellent characterization and humour.” —Vancouver Sun Bombay Black: Charts the seduction of Apsara by Kamal, and With a passion for reconciling science Padma’s violent enmity toward the blind man and his secrets. and religion, United Church minister Winner of 4 Dora Mavor Moore Awards. Bruce Sanguin suggests knowledge ISBN 978-0-88754-560-3 $19.95 of an evolving or evolutionary universe Playwrights Canada Press www.playwrightscanada.com requires a new cosmology that “simply cannot be contained by old models and images of God, or by old ways of being the church.” Sanguin urges readers to rediscover awe by examining the 14-billion-year his- tory of the cosmos in Darwin, Divinity, and the Dance of the Cosmos (Wood is for Watts Lake $24.95). His preceding book was Summoning the Whirlwind:: Unconven- Dollie Watts, Liliget Feast House tional Sermons for a Relevant Christian manager isn’t smiling because she won Faith. Sanguin is a minister at the Cana- an Iron Chef episode on the Food Net- dian Memorial Church and Centre for work—which she did, in 2004. She and Peace in Vancouver. 1-551455-457 her daughter Annie Watts of the Git’ksan First Nations are happy because they have just produced one of the first Karen Moe & cookbooks of West Coast First Nations is for Turner Catherine Owen cuisine, Where People Feast: An Indig- The intense competition between the enous People’s Cookbook (Arsenal CPR, Great Northern and Kettle River $24.95). 1-55152-221-7 Valley Railways in BC’s southern moun- tains during the copper mining boom of the late 1890s and early 1900s is is for Xiaoping the focus for Steam Along the As an independent researcher in the TRANSMONTANUS 14 Boundary (Sono Department of Sociology and Women’s Nis $49.95) by Studies at Okanagan College, Robert Xiaoping Li has examined Asian Ca- Basking Sharks Turner and the nadian political and cultural activism in Robert Turner late David the late 20th century in her interdisci- by Scott Wallace & Brian Gisborne Wilkie. It’s Turner’s 15th book. Mines plinary inquiry, Voices Rising: Asian Find it here and smelters at Grand Forks, Green- Canadian Cultural Activism (UBC wood, Phoenix, Castlegar, Keremeos, Press $29.95). 9780774812221 Duthie Books Hedley and Republic were connected People’s Co-op Bookstore by a network of railways that extended Blackberry Books into Washingston State to Spokane. Crown Publications, Victoria 1-55039-158-5 is for Yeadon-Jones Sorensen Books, Victoria Having sailed together across the At- Book Bonanza, Quadra Island is for UNESCO lantic Ocean from Southampton, Eng- Mermaid Tales, Tofi no land in 1985, Anne and Laurence Miners Bay Books, Mayne Island Much-honoured for conceiving the Yeadon-Jones have produced a Vancouver Writers Festival with summer cruising chronicle in the mode Published by New Star Books Lorenz von Fersen back in 1987, of Curve of Time called Voyage of the Alma Lee, who left her job as festival Dreamspeaker as well as five coastal cruis- head honcho in 2005, is now spearhead- ing guides, most recently The ing her own initiative to have Vancou- Broughtons; Vancouver Island, Kelsey ver accorded a UNESCO World City Bay to Port Hardy (Harbour $44.95). Ellen is back, this of Literature designation. Other cities in 1-55017-406-1 JOAN GIVNER the running include Alexandria, Krakow time with literary and Amsterdam. Lee has been informed is for Zentrepreneurism that Vancouver has a favourable position ambitions in... as a progressive “New World City.” The only other city to have gained this dis- Allan Holender is a self-de- tinction from UNESCO is Edinburgh. scribed serial entrepreneur who had a Ellen Fremedon: Lee was also one of many BC literati lengthy career with the Big Brothers or- JOURNALIST who participated in the Writers Union ganization. He has self-published advice by Joan Givner of Canada Annual General Meeting at on how to meld ethical personal stand- UBC, May 31-June 3. ards and Buddhism with the demands of business, Zentrepreneurism: A ($15.95 Groundwood) Twenty-First Century Guide to the ISBN 0-88899-668-3 New World of Business (Vancouver: is for Van der Flier-Keller A young adult novel. Write Action $34.95), crediting his life Passionate about rocks and beaches mentor, Jon-Lee Kootnekoff, Jacqueline Windh and the stories to be told about them, former SFU basketball coach, and Zen www.groundwoodbooks.com earth sciences professor and geologist mentor Bruce Stewart. 0-9780837-0-9

41 BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2007 INTERNATIONAL

HEN CANADIAN POET dent Carter insisted on ap- Dorothy pointing some non-Jews to the WLivesay re- Holocaust Council, Albright turned from the Soviet Union suggested the elder Drabek. in 1981 and proclaimed its vir- Drabek first welcomed tues in a Vancouver Sun article, Albright to Prague when she it was too much for Jan was US Ambassador to the Drabek, a novelist who had United Nations. He expresses fled Czechoslovakia in 1948, surprise at Albright’s claim lived in Germany, France, and that she knew nothing of her the United States, then settled family’s Jewish background, in Vancouver in 1965. since everyone else did. Drabek wrote a rejoinder You can go home again— According to Drabek, that appeared under the head- Hillary Clinton prevailed ing: “Poet’s Article Shows Her but only for a visit— upon her husband to appoint To Be Dupe of Moscow.” Madeleine Albright as the first Livesay replied scathingly, according to female Secretary of State after complaining to the Writers’ the two women befriended Union of Canada that its B.C. novelist-turned-diplomat one another during their visit representative had maligned to the Czech Republic under Jan Drabek, her. Livesay also mounted a incoming Jan Drabek. his auspices. campaign that unsuccessfully ✍ President of the opposed Drabek’s election as Federation of His Doubtful Excellency president of the Federation of B.C. Writers, greets culminates in a disastrous epi- BC Writers—a position that Hillary Clinton in the sode that led to Drabek’s es- he recently resumed. Czech Republic. trangement from the Czech At External Affairs, Drabek regime. With his novelist’s eye campaigned tirelessly for hu- for human foibles and a fine man rights in Eastern Europe, ironic style, Drabek describes and militated against official his hair-raising departure from visits by writers to Communist Albania—at his own ex- countries, on the grounds that pense—when he was forced to such visits legitimized the re- air-lift his critically ill wife with- gimes. He also took on OUR MAN IN PRAGUE out adequate support from the Farley Mowat who, in his Czech government. After Sibir: My Discovery of Siberia (1970), John Paul II, Queen Elizabeth, her famous annus horribilis, so her en- Joan Drabek nearly died from peri- had praised the wonderful lives that So- Canada’s Governor General Romeo tourage was eager for crowd scenes that tonitis, a perforated ulcer and appendi- viet writers enjoyed under Communism. LeBlanc, the King and Queen of exuded “the wild adulation of undulat- citis, the Drabeks returned to Canada. So the author of His Doubtful Ex- Spain, Hillary Clinton, and former ing mobs.” Jan Drabek went to Prague in the cellency: A Canadian Novelist’s Adven- British Prime Minister’s John Major Drabek says the tensions of the wake of the 1989 euphoria because he tures As President Havel’s Ambassador and Margaret Thatcher. Queen’s visit to the Czech Republic were wanted to be on hand as the Czech Re- in Prague (Ekstasis Editions $21.95) ✍ relieved somewhat by the public thrived, but after seven years he cannot be dismissed as naïve—which As the Chief of Protocol, cheerful irreverence of her con- felt he had witnessed only moral and makes the contents of Drabek’s story that Drabek was puzzled by the sort, Prince Philip. economic decline. much more surprising. vague unresponsive smiles of “I know, I know,” Prince According to Drabek, half a century ✍ Margaret Thatcher until an- Philip told him, when they were of Communist rule is not easily shed, His Doubtful Excellency describes other diplomat explained to shaking hands for the fifth time. nor can the Czechs face their past hon- Drabek’s return to Prague at the end of him that she was deaf. Her “Never have so few shaken the estly—that would expose too much sor- the Communist era, full of optimism for flamboyant hairdo concealed a JOAN GIVNER hand of so few so many times to didness, and too many moral failures. his native land. He planned to be reu- hearing aid that worked well in whom they owe nothing. But in He concludes that although “the demo- nited with his extended family and to a quiet room, but not in a noisy envi- this business you have to expect it.” cratic machinery is pretty much all in teach English, but the respect President ronment. Drabek had a special interest in place in the Czech Republic, there is just Vaclav Havel had for Drabek’s fa- With the visit of Governor General Madeleine Albright because they this woeful dearth of trained, experi- ther, decorated posthumously as a war Romeo LeBlanc, Drabek soon realized had Washington, D.C. connections enced mechanics.” hero, soon catapulted Jan Drabek into that most Czechs couldn’t understand through their fathers. Drabek’s father Drabek remains convinced that de- the ranks of officialdom as Czech am- the Canadian concept of having a head had been active in the Czech under- mocracy is an acquired trait that takes bassador to Kenya and Albania. of state who was neither royal, military ground and was one of the few non-Jews a long time to develop into a workable Drabek also served as Chief of the nor presidential. sent to Auschwitz with “Return Un- form. 1-894800-87-7 Czech Diplomatic Protocol Depart- The papal tour went off smoothly, wanted” stamped on his papers. He was ment, during which time he played host thanks to the Vatican’s well-tuned op- a longtime friend of Joseph Joan Givner reviews biographies and to foreign dignitaries such as Pope eration, but the Queen arrived during Korbel, Albright’s father. When Presi- autobiographies on a regular basis.

fernie writers conference

Monday, July 23 through Sunday, July 29, 2007 Lead Sponsor Gathering writers of all abilities to work with noted authors in intensive one week and three day workshops. Special guests—editors, publishers, and writers—will meet with participants. Readings. Panel discussions. Scholarships available. Hosted by Griz Inn at Fernie Alpine Resort.

John Keeble Angie Abdou Brenda Schmidt Jeff Wallach TBA 2nd Tier Sponsors Novel Workshop Short Story Workshop Poetry Workshop Golf/Travel Workshop Fishing Workshop July 23 thru July 29 July 27 thru July 29 July 27 - July 29 July 27 - July 29 July 27 - July 29

for more information visit: www.ferniewriters.org For registration: 1-888-423-6855

19 BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2007 OUTDOORS

He gets high with a little help from his friends

aving summited more than 450 peaks in the Rockies, of- Hten by difficult new routes, artist and photographer Glen Boles pays tribute to his closely-knit group of friends known as the “Grizzly Group” in My Mountain Album: Art & Pho- tography of the Canadian Rockies and Columbia Mountains (Rocky Mountain Books $64.95). The Grizzly Group didn’t derive its name from our defunct basketball fran- chise; it arose from an incident in 1973 when four tired and hungry climbers arrived in Lyell meadows in the Rockies.

Glen Boles

“Look at that big pile of dung, it’s still steaming,” said Mike Simpson. As everyone else dropped their packs and knelt to swill some cold creek water, Don Forest proceeded towards a small spruce tree a short distance up the meadow, located in a level spot, as he looked for a good place to camp. “We were very surprised to hear Don making a sound like a dog barking. ‘Woof! Woof!’ as he slowly started com- ing back towards us,” recalls Glen Boles. “Then we noticed the grizzly.” Still saying, ‘Woof! Woof!’ to warn the group, Don Forest had to carefully go back towards the bear to retrieve his pack. By this time the bear was stand- ing, swaying. “Spellbound, we watched as the bear looked us over,” writes Boles, “then took off up the hill, stopping once more to have another look at these strange beings.” 1-894765-78-8 Two route canals aving moved from Vancouver to Hong Kong in 1987, Not- Htinghamshire-raised sailor Adrian Sparham rejected an air- line industry promotion for a posting in New Zealand and chose instead to sail to Europe from Hong Kong via the Suez Canal with his Dutch-born wife, Lot, and their dog, Fluke, in a 37-foot steel ketch, Moonshiner. You can go anywhere from here After a three-year stopover in Hol- land, they sailed back to Vancouver, via the Panama Canal. Their odyssey is re- called in Slow Boat From China (NY: Sheridan House, 2006). 1-57409-217-0 $29.95

26 BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2007 NEIGHBOURS Who are the people in your neighbourhood?

ately there has been a spate of in- depth, well-illustrated local histo- ries, including K. Jane Watt’s High Water: Living with the Fraser Floods (Dairy Industry Historical Society of BC)L which recently won the Lieutenant Gov- ernor’s Medal for historical writing. Mr. Rogers would undoubtedly approve. This summer’s line-up of localized literary lore includes the heartening and somewhat homespun Lantzville: The First Hundred Years (Lantzville Historical Society, unpriced), spearheaded by Lynn Reeve, as well as four impressive works on North Vancouver, Desolation Sound, Mission and the Vancouver suburb of Dunbar. ✍ For outsiders, the most accessible general history is Students at Queen Mary school during a simulated gas attack in 1941. From The Amibitious City. Heather Harbord’s well-researched Desolation Sound: A History (Harbour $24.95), a project that emerged from Harbord’s earlier profiles of Sliammon chief Joe Mitchell and Sliammon elders Elsie Paul and Sue Pielle: “Soon I realized that Powell River, where I live, was full of people who had spent their childhoods on one of the many homesteads dotted around the Sound.” Located 150 kilometres from Van- couver, Desolation Sound was named by George Vancouver. Harbord’s character-driven history provides a map of 34 homesteads in the area that has become one of the most popular cruising destinations on the West Coast. ✍ To mark this year’s Centennial of the City of North Vancouver, geographer and cultural planning consult- ant Warren Sommer has compiled a wide-ranging social history of the North Shore that has evolved from Moodyville to accommodate more than 125,000 people today, The Ambitious City (Harbour $44.95). The City of North Vancouver has 45,000 residents but Sommer’s survey includes the District of North Van, as well. ✍ Cooperatively produced and edited by the late Peggy Schofield, a community activist, The Story of Dunbar (Ronsdale $39.95) is a 441-page volume that arose from interviews with more than 300 local residents.

Celebrating people rather than Chamber of Commerce PHOTO accomplishments, this feel-good summary of “voices of SPARROW

a Vancouver neighbourhood” contains many photos not previously published. Both playful and respectful, it owes DEBRA its origins to teamwork from contributing writers that Bill Finch with his dog Virginia Wolf and the cougar Ed Sparrow with his granddaughter Debra include Pam Chambers, Vivien Clarke, Shelagh Lindsey, they killed. From Desolation Sound. Sparrow from The Story of Dunbar. Beryl March, Angus McIntyre, Larry Moore, Margaret Moore, Helen Spiegelman and Joan Tyldesley. ✍ Last but not least, Graham Dowden’s exemplary photo tribute Around Mission (Gyre & Gimble $39.95) offers a superb collection of original, contemporary pho- tos from within a 20-mile radius of the Fraser Valley community where he has lived for 32 years. Dowden has few illusions about possibly becoming the flavour of the week. “I do realize that the distance from Vancouver to Mission,” he says, “is approximately three times the distance from Mission to Vancouver.” He began taking photos in the 1950s with a Kodak Baby Brownie and two pieces of advice from his father: al- ways put people in the shot, and get as close to the sub- ject as you can. After retiring from teaching at the University College of the Fraser Valley, he has mostly ignored his father’s words of wisdom with an abundance of winter scenes, including abandoned items, rural mailboxes and Stave Lake. For more info, visit abcbookworld.com. Lantzville 1-55383-135-7; Desolation 1-55017-407-0-X; Ambitious City 1-55017-411-8; Dunbar 1-55380-040-0; Mission 978-0-9782328-0-1 Hatzic Prairie Community Hall from Graham Dowden’s book Around Mission.

11 BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2007 interview KIDLIT PHOTO

EASTON WHO’SWHO’S BAAAAD?BAAAAD? Tiffany Stone can’t stop making nonsense CARMAN

iffany Stone’s collection of “silly” poems about ani- taken a big chance and pub- a poem about it. “Our Club” is lished my first book, Floyd the Fla- an example of this. And then mals, Floyd the Flamingo and His Flock of Friends mingo and His Flock of Friends. there’s the fact that animals and ALSO RECEIVED And then people actually went kids (okay, kids are technically (Tradewind 2004), illustrated by Kathryn Shoemaker, Ben Franklin’s War by Stephen Eaton out and bought the book, prov- animals) have a lot in common. T Hume (Dundurn $10.99) 1-55002-638-0 has been followed by Baaaad Animals (Tradewind $9.95), illus- ing what I’d always known: kids Sharing a small basement suite Jeremy and the Golden Fleece by (and many adults) love non- with three kids, uncountable Becky Citra & Jessica Milne (Illustrator), trated by Christina Leist. Born in St-Jean, Quebec, Stone sense verse, especially when it’s cats and a pet rat gives me lots (Orca $6.95) 1-55143-657-4 illustrated by great artists like of inspiration! graduated with a BFA from UBC’s Creative Writing Program in Theodora Bear by Carolyn Jones & Kathryn Shoemaker and Sometimes poems arrive all Barbara Spurll (Illustrator), 1991 and has worked at Tradewind Books. She writes for the child Christina Leist. wrapped up in shiny paper and (Orca $6.95) 1-55143-496-2 BCBW: Were some of the po- tied with a bow. These poems Shadows on the Train by Melanie within herself—and for her children Emory, Jewell and Kaslo. ems written for your own kids? are usually short. Most of the Jackson (Orca $8.95) 1-55143-660-4 STONE: “I guess all my poems time, I have to work on them A South Side Sports: First and Ten by BC BOOKWORLD: Have you BCBW: Have you always written are written for my kids. They LOT. Since my poems are meant Jeff Rud (Orca $8.95) 1-55143-690-6 always enjoyed “nonsense” it? have to pass the Emory Test be- to be read aloud, I read them Panther by Roderick Haig-Brown verse? STONE: I have written poetry fore anyone sees them. Now that aloud as I’m working on them. (Harbour $14.95) 978-1-55017-341-3 TIFFANY STONE: Yes. My mum basically since I could write but my daughter Jewell is almost In fact, by the time my poems Mirror Image by K.L. Denman was British (and a teacher) so most of my early stuff was de- four, my poems will have to meet are ready for publication, Emory (Orca $9.95) 1-55143-665-5 she read me the original Mother scriptive and unrhymed, not a her approval soon, too—and has heard most of them so many Lucky’s Mountain by Diana Maycock Goose poems. Dennis Lee’s Alli- bad way to begin since it got me she’s a tough critic! Luckily, I still times, he knows them by heart. (Orca $7.95) 1-55143-682-5 gator Pie came out when I was in looking at ordinary things in a have a few years before Kaslo, 1-896580-36-X Odd Man Out by Sarah Ellis elementary school and I abso- different, often slightly twisted, age one, will be throw- (Groundwood $9.95) 0-88899-703-5 lutely loved it. When my teacher way. And rhyme can be limiting ing in his two cents Something Suspicious in Saskatchewan asked the class to make up our when you’re just discovering by Dayle Campbell Gaetz worth—although if he (Orca $8.95) 1-55143-565-9 own verses to the title poem, I poetry (and later on, too). I gets hold of a pen, he’s was in heaven! studied writing at UBC, working Safe House by James Heneghan already more than (Orca $8.95) 1-55143-640-X in several genres, and happy to ‘edit’ my manu- I must say that my best Behind the Sorcerer’s Cloak: The scripts. Summer of Magic Quartet by Andrea Rules work was always hu- BCBW: Do you pick an Spalding (Orca $9.95) 1-55143-627-2 morous in one way or Do not tie knots animal and go from Over the Rainbow with Googol and in unsuspecting snakes. another. After I gradu- there? Or do the poems Googolplex by Nelly Kazenbroot Do not hop on hippos’ heads ated, I spent a lot of come to you unbidden? (Orca $6.95) 1-55143-469-5 to get across the lake. time and effort trying STONE: Sometimes The Truth About Rats (and Dogs) to be a ‘serious’ writer by Jacqueline Pearce Do not cheat when playing chess they just show up in my (Orca $8.95) 1-55143-473-3 with cheetahs late at night. and have only fairly re- life. We’ve always had a cently come full circle Josh and the Magic Vial by Craig It may not be illegal lot of cats around so I Retribution (Puffin $25) by Carrie Spence (Thistledown $17.95) but that doesn’t make it right. and rediscovered the have to do at least one Mac continues the saga of the joy of writing silly po- Only a Cow by Arlene Hamilton & Do not connect a leopard’s spots cat poem. And several Maddox siblings in their struggle Dean Griffiths (Illustrator), (Fitzhenry & or toot a rhino’s horn. ems. It was a risky proc- of the poems for against the Keyland Guard. Whiteside $19.95) 1-55041-871-8 ess since children’s Laugh at a hyena Baaaad Animals were 0-670-06601-X Goodnight Sweet Pig by Linda Bailey and you’ll wish that you weren’t born. publishers are gener- written during a very (Kids Can $18.95) 1-55337-844-X ally reluctant to pub- Do not subtract with adders. long drive to the Yukon When the Spirits Dance by Do not pinch a chimpanzee. lish collections of in our ancient RV so Larry Loyie with Constance Brissenden Do not, do not, do not, do NOT rhyming verse by un- that explains the mos- (Theytus $19.95) 1-894778-40-5 times ninety-nine known poets. I don’t quitoes and moose and The Airplane Ride by Howard White know what I would & Greta Guzek (Illustrator), (Nightwood times three. grizzly bear. Other times Editions $16.95) 0-88971-224-7 — Tiffany Stone, Baaaad Animals (Tradewind $9.95) have done if Mike Katz I pick an animal and at Tradewind hadn’t challenge myself to write

36 BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2007 reviews KIDLIT MAD MORE THAN A LITTLE ABOUT TEAPOT MISS MAUD FOR AGES 2 OR YOUNGER What’ll I Do With The Baby-o? FOR AGES 4-8 Nursery Rhymes, Songs and Stories The Summer of the Marco Polo for Babies by Jane Cobb by Lynn Manuel (Orca $19.95) (Black Sheep $39.95)

aving majored in his- children’s librarian, tory at university, Lynn A Jane Cobb has been HManuel has twice incor- presenting kids with story porated author Lucy Maud time in public libraries for Montgomery into her books. many years. She has also The Summer of the Marco Polo is taught children’s services partially based on juvenile jour- in the Library Technician nal entries made by Lucy Maud Program at Langara Col- Montgomery that recall lege in Vancouver. Cavendish, Prince Edward Is- Her first book, I’m a Lit- land. tle Teapot! (Black Sheep Specifically, the story recalls Press, 1997), a collection of the summer when a famous clip- nursery rhymes, songs and per ship ran aground in 1883. games for teachers, parents Manuel recalls how Lucy’s and librarians, has been fol- strait-laced grandparents re- lowed by a combination au- sponded when the captain of dio cassette and book, the Marco Polo stayed at their What’ll I Do With The Baby- home following the maritime Art by Kasia Charko, from The Summer of the Marco Polo o? Nursery Rhymes, Songs and Sto- mishap. ries for Babies, an attempt to The girl who would grow up Jay, who falls in love with the than walk out of the wilderness stupid before you can pass along create a “storytime bible” for to write Anne of Green Gables was leader of a rival band from a dif- for several days on a forestry your genes. Our species is bet- daycares and parents concerned living in her grandparents’ ferent school. Her second Orca road, Tej convinces Liam to try ter for it.” with pre-literacy development. house at the time. Currents novel Mirror Image is a taking an overland shortcut. When they know they are Illustrated by Kathryn Shoe- Launched from Saint John in character-driven story about two Without any food except being tracked by a grizzly, their maker, Cobb’s materials are de- 1851, the Marco Polo was once outwardly different teenage granola bars, Tej, the brash high friendship unravels. Liam breaks signed for children two years old the fastest sailing ship in the girls, Sable and Lacey, who are achiever, jokingly tells Liam af- his leg as they desperately es- or younger and include 36 world. It sprang a leak on its way forced to work together on a ter nightfall, “Looks like you’re cape from the bear, forcing Tej songs and ten stories that are to England with a cargo of tim- project by a sadistic grade nine going to win the Darwin to go for help on his own. easy to tell. ber. art teacher, Mr. Ripley. Award—you’re dying young and 1-55143-676-0 0-9698666-1-5 At the end of the captain’s Lacey looks like a brainless stay, Captain Bull says, “You have ditz in pink, whereas Sable is left your thumbprint on my super-serious and has decided BC Book Prizes heart, Miss Maud.” to dress only in black since age Sarah Ellis’ Odd Man Out Asked to supply some infor- thirteen. At first Sable is dismiss- (Groundwood Books) won the mation about herself, author ive of Lacey, believing she treats Sheila A. Egoff Children’s Literature Lynn Manuel of White Rock has her boyfriend as some kind of Prize at this year’s BC Book Prizes replied, “I am a grandmother. fashion accessory, but Sable, who while Maggie de Vries and Renné And I’ve seen Paris.” 1-55143-330-3 doesn’t wear make-up, gradu- Benoit’s Tale of a Great White Fish: ally learns it can be foolish to A Sturgeon Story (Greystone Books) won the Christie Harris Illustrated judge people by their outward Children’s Literature Prize. appearances. 1-55143-665-4 BRAINLESS ✍ FOR TEENS 12+ The Darwin Expedition by Diane Tullson IN PINK (Orca $9.95) FOR AGES 10-14 Mirror Image by K.L. Denman s a follow-up to Red Sea, (Orca $16.95) Diane Tullson has pub- A lished another harrow- ancouver writer K.L. ing tale, this time set in the Denman’s first work of mountains beyond Whistler.

teen fiction for reluc- Friends since the first grade, PHOTOS V tant readers, Battle of the Bands twelfth graders Tej and Liam are LESTER (Orca 2006), concerned an am- avid snowboarders who have an Sarah Ellis Maggie de Vries

bitious high school rock band accident with their truck on a DAVID named The Lunar Ticks, led by remote logging road. Rather

35 BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2007 reviewsPOETRY THE DESERT OF MIDDLE AGE BY HANNAH MAIN-VAN DER KAMP There is a chronic low-grade chill in the

The Aviary by Miranda Pearson (Oolichan $17.95) inner atmosphere but a truly depressed poet would not have sparks enough to write as well as Pearson does about depression; iranda Pearson’s The Aviary is a col- it’s an exhilarating paradox. The writing is lection of sadnesses; not the fierce not disappointing, it’s skilled. Then there grief of injustice or bereavement M is the promise of homeopathic poetics; a but an endless grey coastal winter. little more of what ails you will cure you. “…everyone pretends, more or less Perhaps a reader touches life with gloves on.” who can read All the love and/or lust affairs end badly, Aviary deeply romance is a decoy, and longing cannot be enough will be repaired. flipped out DON’T MISS THESE RECENT BESTSELLERS “Desire. into sunlight. It’s always the same. 0-88982-230-1 Its folly. Hannah Main- Its stubborn inability to Van Der Kamp live in contentment.” writes from Any hope out there, a reprieve from Victoria. wariness and weariness? Not much, not even in the series of six poems entitled “Yoga Retreat” written at St Peter’s Abbey. Toward the conclusion of this volume, one poem hints at a tentative happiness: a walk with a friend, yellow tulips. A dismayed middle-aged poet tries to make sense of it all. Irritable and nostalgic, the regrets would be disabling if it weren’t

for their poignancy, “nothing is how I planned it.” Readers who have traveled in the desert of middle age will rec- ognize the territory. For those who have not, these poems about per- vasive disappointment may entice a detour. As if. Miranda “Somebody told me Pearson It’s possible to mend the past through imagination, to breathe into it a different life.” The Federation of BC Writers

The 19th Annual Literary Writes Competition

Literary Writes 2007 Maher Arar & This year’s category, Monia Mazigh Foreign Affairs: awarded the 2007 Reg Robson Travel Stories with a Twist! Civil Liberties Award Deadline: July 1, 2007 The award is given annually by the First Prize: $500 and BC Civil Liberties Association to those who have publication in WordWorks demonstrated a substantial and log-lasting cintribution to civil liberties in B.C. and Canada. Submission guidelines at More info: www.bccla.org www.bcwriters.com

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34 BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2007 featureview FICTION

ther? What is happening in those mysterious tunnels under SHIP OF GHOULS Casanora? Who is Soong Chou? The plot of Linda Rogers’ The Empress Letters has as many Will Poppy find Precious in China? And who is Precious’s fa- twists and turns as the tunnels beneath her heroine’s mansion. ther? Is it Alec or the inscruta- ble Soong Chou? BY CHERIE THIESSEN The plot of The Empress Letters has as many twists and turns as the tunnels The Empress Letters by Linda Rogers (Cormorant $22.95) beneath the heroine’s mansion. Almost as fasci- he process of writing fic- nating is how much of the tion in the form of let- interesting details are Tters was crafted to es- non-fiction: cape the censor’s harsh judg- “Casanora is an actual ments in the late 17th century. place on Beach Drive,” As this oldest form of the novel, says Rogers. “My great- the “epistolary novel” seems to grandmother, an amaz- be making a comeback of sorts. ing gardener, inspired It has been utilized recently by Nora. Her beautiful land- the likes of Stephen King—and scaping is still evident. now Linda Rogers. There is a tunnel from Utilizing some of her own the house to the sea. As a family history for The Empress Let- child, I wondered about ters, the first installment of a pro- it.” posed trilogy, Rogers has revisited Rogers is now at work some of the clandestine shenani- completing a family saga gans of the upper class on south- trilogy, based upon Victo- ern Vancouver Island. Many of us ria, that spans the 20th would not normally associate Vic- century. The second, The toria’s opulent waterfront prop- Third Day Book, will take erties with opium smuggling, place in 1960, chronicled murder, and intrigue, but such by Precious in letters to things happened in Victoria’s be given to her own posh neighbourhoods. daughter, Lily. The third “Victoria had a very thin skin installment, The Cheddar of propriety,” says Linda Rogers. Letter, will be Lily’s story. “There were lots of tunnels dur- “The third book ends ing the era of opium smuggling with a revelation and prohibition. The more I re- that bonds the genera- searched the early days, the tions,” says Rogers. more excited I got.” Having spent most of Rogers puts her research to her life in Victoria, Rogers good use in The Empress Letters, comes by her subject mat- an epistolary novel that bristles ter honestly, but it’s not with intrigue. fact masquerading as fic- Poppy, Rogers’s fictional tion. heroine, is in her late twenties “The details in this when she begins typing her let- novel are as true as I ters to her daughter whilst on could make them,” she board the Empress of Asia. It’s says, “but the story is fan- May, 1927, and the distraught tasy. Any “real” characters young mother, en route to find are based on family anec- her daughter, Precious, is writ- dote. ing to distract herself from guilty “Emily Carr taught premonitions. painting to my aunt Her daughter, Precious, has Elspeth (Rogers) Cher- gone missing in Peking, and it’s niavsky. My mother’s fam- not exactly the best of times for ily and the Dunsmuirs PHOTO an exotic, privileged young for- were friends. My grand- eign girl to be without her mother was friends with KRUGEL mother in China. Chiang Kai the Prince of Wales. My VAN Shek and his Kuomintang are mother has a decanter battling Mao Zedong’s Commu- RICK with his crest on it. nist revolutionaries, and the “I know this world as Japanese are wreaking havoc. became clear, has since left his share all with her daughter, even an insider/outsider, having Consumed with grief at hav- “Emily Carr taught London home to temporarily though her letters may never grown up at the end of it, hav- ing succumbed to her daugh- painting to my aunt settle in Poppy’s mansion, reach their target. ing observed this world of privi- ter’s entreaties to be allowed to Elspeth (Rogers) Casanora, in order to shore up The spectres of Poppy’s dead lege.” accompany the enigmatic ‘serv- the teetering household after father, rumored to have been Rogers believes that good ant’ Soong Chou on his family Cherniavsky. My mother’s the drug-related murder of her shot, and of her recently mur- families make for a good world. visit to Hong Kong with the family and the Dunsmuirs mother, Nora, and the subse- dered mother, surround her as “That is the goal. There is re- bones of his niece, Boulie, were friends. My quent loss of family income. she writes. Her first love, Alec, demption in working for peace Poppy has boarded the first ship Poppy and Olivier have contin- killed while still a teenager in in the family, in the community available in an effort to find her. grandmother was friends ued to be the best of friends, and W.W.1, is also not far away, and and in the world. It’s a sad fact, But Poppy is an unlikely rescuer. with the Prince of Wales. Poppy’s affections extend to the the spirits of both her beloved however, that ‘good’ characters Considerably weakened by My mother has a decanter ebullient Tony. childhood friend, Boulie, and of are seldom the stuff of riveting two bouts of rheumatic fever, with his crest on it. I know Poppy’s story continues to her nanny, Duffie—both of fiction. The reader can rest as- she may not even survive this voy- unfold through letters typed whom died in the same fire from sured that Rogers’ characters in age. Fortunately she’s accompa- this world as an insider/ over the ten days in her first class which Boulie managed to rescue The Empress Letters fall far shy of nied by a close friend, Tony, her outsider, having grown up stateroom, while the ship calls at Precious—continue to hover. goodness. In fact, they’re outra- husband’s lover. Yes, you read at the end of it, having Honolulu, Yokohama, and So much death. And so geously naughty. that right. observed this world of Shanghai, where Poppy’s much need for rescue. We await the mini-series. Olivier, whom she married a hoped-for reunion may take Cliffhangers abound in this 1896951805 few years previously and then privilege.” — LINDA ROGERS place. Surrounded by the ghosts rakish tale. Did Nora murder Cherie Thiessen writes from the left when his sexual proclivities of her past, she endeavours to her first husband, Poppy’s fa- Pender Islands (plural).

29 BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2007 LOOKOUT #28 3516 W. 13th Ave., Vancouver, BC a forum for & about writers: V6R 2S3 • [email protected] LOOKOUT “I didn’t think I’d live to see thirty” PHOTO

ROBSON . A

PETER

are even aware of it, let alone think it’s important. So I got Hard Times by Charles Dickens and I’m re-reading it. Dispatches from Tahsis I am really struck by how NOW it is!! He had much to say about how entire Our unofficial foreign correspondent Anne Cameron, who lives far beyond populations were being forced into cit- ies by industrialization. the urban shenanigans of the Lower Mainland, sends us her first report. But not to worry, Gorderator has met with the Governator and they’ll fix it all ain. Such a novelty. Pussy wil- because the dwindling number of read- brake power, little cunningly placed up just fine ‘n’ dandy. lows, crocus and primroses are ers are voting neo-con for no reason pieces of metal to howl and wail when ✍ R starting, columbine is begin- other than the Left has lain down like you get down so far... Thank God for my long-time ac- ning to re-grow... and the Tahsis Legion fat poodles gone mute or are the voters This time Agatha, my daughter-in- quaintances at the Powell River Credit is fully occupied with planting oriental giving the nod of approval to Harpo law, drove the bitch of a little red hen Union. When I win the 6/49 I’m let- poppies around the cenotaph. because the publishers fear “political” or out to Campbell River to see the GM ting them handle it for me after they Most poppy seeds don’t produce “radical” the way the citizens once feared people at their big shiny garage. Totally come back from a holiday in the Baha- plants so I have patriotically offered to the plague, rats and fleas? Or am I just hooped. Going to be sixteen hundred mas. “Wendy” phoned to say, ‘Listen, contribute my own poppy plant blowing smoke out of a particular ori- for parts and at least four hundred for Cam, you’ll be 69 in August, and you babies. In spite of Harpoon and his fice and writing absolute shite these days? labour, take a full day, they said. F---. HAVE to do something about your vast warbirds in Snottawa, one does feel the I continue to plug away at what I Last month it was the computer. Double fortoon, it has to go from RRSP to....’ odd twinge of rah rah. Anyway I’m tired think is important and hey, you never F---. Have I, at some point in some previ- And I said HUH and she said, ‘Don’t of having to weed grass out of the know, I might win the 6/49. When that ous life, accumulated sour karma with re- worry, I’ll mail you the forms, all you’ll damned containers. happens, don’t even bother packing, gard to things with moving parts? Did I have to do is sign, I’ll do the rest for you.’ ✍ we’ll buy new stuff when we get there. chop down a gibbet or take a sledge ham- So they came, I signed and sent ’em back I would LOVE to come to Reckon- ✍ mer to a guillotine? I repent! If, in an- and then sat in the bathtub and thought, ing 07, that publishing conference in Meanwhile I am declaring war on other incarnation, I was wont to saw hey, my mom was pregnant for nine September, and talk about B.C. books. General Motors. DO NOT BUY A through wooden spokes on the wheels of months so by the time I was three Be interesting to get a discussion going BLAZER!!! You will wind up in the poor wagons heading westward, I apologize. months old I was really a year old so a on the huge split between what is ac- house because of buying new Speaking of C.R., one entire area of birthday means you’re finishing the year cepted by the illiterati in the rarefied cir- brakes. Three times in the past year-and- C.R. is now mainly First Nations people. not starting it so... I’m almost seventy!! cles and what is actually read by the a-half I had to buy brakes. We have hills, So many of my daughter-in-law’s reserve I didn’t think I’d live to see thirty. unwashed who use the libraries and used we have gravel roads going up or down members have moved away, they now bookstores. mountainsides, so, yes, by all means, let’s hold band meetings in Campbell River Anne Cameron is a novelist and Are publishers turning into tremu- have brakes. where they live marginalized lives in truly humourist who lives in a trailer home on lous old farts, tip-toeing their way So the damned things started to crappy apartment buildings. Sociologi- the West Coast of Vancouver Island at through manuscripts like a banker en screech again, which I’m told is how cally, I think that is hugely significant but Tahsis. For more info, visit pointe through columns of percentages “they” warn you you’re running out of I betcha none of the academic-y types www.abcbookworld.com

21 BOOKWORLD • LOOKOUT • SUMMER • 2007 LOOKOUT FEATURE wounded and sick, yet [she] his lieutenant Alvarado and only 140 men, set- turing and hanging Cuauhtemoc along the way, never allowed us to see any sign ting off to surprise the Spaniards with only 260 having become obsessed with the notion that of fear in her, only a courage pass- men of his own, taking Malinche with him to serve somehow Cuauhtemoc was planning a revolt. ing that of a woman.” as his translator. This entrada of about 140 soldiers and several The Tlaxcalans marched with The surprise attack worked. Cortéz co-opted thousand Indians had to traverse high mountains THE CONQUEROR Cortéz into the magnificent Aztec much of the Spanish forces and hastened back to and dense jungles. While slashing his way through capital of Tenochtitlán (‘the place Tenochtitlán where the Aztecs had rebelled against uncharted territory, Hernan Cortéz would have where men become gods’) on No- Alvarado. Back at Tenochtitlán, Cortéz asked passed through the southwest corner of Belize, vember 8, 1519. They crossed Montezuma II to quell growing unrest among the making them the first Europeans to set eyes on Lake Texcoco on a “broad cause- Aztecs. As in The Man Who Would Be King, Cortéz Belize from the east. Order was easily restored in way running straight and level.” never understood that a tribal council of Aztec Honduras in 1525. (Cortéz once said it was more the Concubine priests actually held sway, guided by oracles. When difficult contending with his own countrymen & Taking Tenochtitlán Cortéz ordered Montezuma II to appear in pub- than fighting against the Aztecs.) Cortéz and his men were over- lic, the crowd hurled stones. One rock hit the em- Several attempts by Cortéz to return to Mexico How the most influential woman in North whelmed by the size and richness peror. Montezuma died three days later. by sea ended in shipwrecks. Becoming despond- of the Aztec capital with its 250- The Aztecs drove the Spanish out of the city ent, Cortéz began dressing in the black robes of a American history translated her way to the top foot Pyramid of the Sun. on June 30, 1520. Aztecs attacked from canoes Dominican monk, issuing morose premonitions Tenochtitlán had been developed on both sides of the causeway as the Spanish fled. of his own death. He returned by sea to Mexico, The Spanish conquest of the New World casts Puertocarrero, but when it soon became ap- over centuries by various peoples Cortéz was almost captured in the confusion. At via Cuba, thereby encircling Belize. In 1526 he shadows on the lives of all the contemporary charac- parent Marina could be extremely useful for his from approximately 150 B.C. to the ensuing Battle of Otumba, he lost 860 men. was relieved of his command in Mexico City by ters in Amanda Hale’s The Reddening Path expedition—and she was beautiful in the bar- 750 A.D. Some five hundred He lost 72 more men at Tustepec while retreating Ponce de León, who died of fever after only (Thistledown, $18.95), the story of a Guatemalan gain—Cortéz conveniently sent Puertocarrero to years after its builders had disap- to his allied city of Tlaxcala. Once again he was twenty days in office. His successor died after two adoptee, raised in Toronto, who returns to Guate- deliver an update on his success to King peared from the site, the Aztecs fortunate. An outbreak of smallpox, brought by months. Once more, sudden deaths did little to mala to search for her Mayan birth mother. Carlos V in Spain, thereby making it easy for arrived to possess it. By 250 A.D. his men, decimated the Aztec population. Cortéz enhance Cortéz’s reputation. In particular, Hale has re-imagined the love af- him to keep Marina for his own purposes. it had spread to include nine reorganized that summer, incorporating equip- While remaining in control of Mexico from fair between the Spanish conqueror Hernan Also in Cortéz’s entourage was a previously square miles; by 450 A.D. it was ment and reinforcements from Vera Cruz, and laid 1530 to 1541, he argued with Don Antonio Cortéz and his indigenous translator and concu- shipwrecked Spanish priest named Aguilar who possibly the largest city in the siege to the Aztec capital once more. de Mendoza, the first viceroy of New Spain, bine, Malinche. Although she has been working could translate between Spanish and the local dia- world. It has been estimated the On August 13, 1521, the new emperor named about who had the right to explore and annex on her novel for years, Hale was beaten to the lect. city had a population of 300,000 Cuauhtemoc was captured. Entering the city California. Cortéz consolidated and expanded his punch—in Spanish—with the release of a novel With the help of the Spanish priest, Marina’s in 60,000 dwellings amid float- Cortéz found it in ruins “like some huge church- domain by exploring Guatemala, Honduras, Baja called Malinche by Laura Esquivel, the Mexi- background became clear. She was the daughter ing gardens. yard with the corpses disinterred, and the tomb- California and the Pacific Coast, but like can author of Like Water for Chocolate. of a Nahuatal nobleman or cacique, Presents were exchanged but stones scattered about.” Famine and smallpox had Columbus he would ultimately feel inadequately The resourceful Malinche learned meaning chieftain. She had been sold tensions grew after two Spanish been more lethal than guns. Cortéz began build- rewarded. Spanish, became Cortéz’s mistress, ena- into slavery by her mother after her fa- envoys were killed. Surrounded ing the Aztec capital that would become the world’s Cortéz was given the royal run-around for bled him to overcome Montezuma and ther’s death. Marina’s mother had wanted by thousands of Aztecs, Cortéz fa- most populated city. This marked the onset of Mexi- three years when he was debt-ridden and needed bore him a son named Martin. To this to ensure her son from a second marriage mously seized Montezuma II as co’s 300-year colonial history, ending in 1821. to make a claim on the royal treasury. His author- day, the derogatory word malinchista is would gain ascendancy. his hostage. It was an impasse ity gradually eroded and his reputation especially used by Mexicans to describe someone A foot soldier with Cortéz, Bernal worthy of a Hollywood thriller. One too many Martins waned after his participation in the unsuccessful who unduly apes the language and cus- Díaz, described Marina as “good look- Montezuma II offered bribes to In 1522, Cortéz’s his first wife arrived unbid- 1541 Spanish expedition against Algiers. He be- toms of another country. ing and intelligent and without embar- Marina if she would forfeit her den from Cuba. She died almost overnight, inex- came known as a chronic complainant. Accused Laura Esquivel Simultaneously Isabel Allende rassment.” allegiance to Cortéz. Marina plicably. This didn’t help Cortéz’s already notorious of murdering his first wife (he strangled her but has released a similar novel, Inés of My She was “a cacica with towns and vas- wasn’t dissuaded. Montezuma II reputation. Velázquez was conspiring against the the Spanish government opted not to declare him Soul, to appreciatively recall the life of a sals” and she learned Spanish quickly. was ninth in a succession of pow- disobedient and ungrateful Cortéz in court, charg- innocent or guilty), Cortéz was also long suspected Spanish seamstress who became the lover Doña Marina soon became indispensa- erful Aztec caciques; he had been ing Cortéz with failure to remit the quito, one- of murdering a Spanish envoy in 1526. of conquistador Pedro de ble to Cortéz as his translator and con- in power for 18 years—longer fifth of the booty required for the king. Cortéz While attempting to return to Mexico, Cortéz Valdivia. After helping him slaughter stant companion. Without her, a than Marina had been alive—but returned to face these charges in Madrid and was was stricken with dysentery in Seville and died the indigenous tribes of Chile and Peru, contingent of 1,300 Spaniards and In- Marina somehow managed the exonerated. Cortéz was named governor, captain- there on December 2, 1547. His remains were she founded the city of Santiago, built hos- dians could never have defeated the Az- negotiations between the two general and chief justice of New Spain by King brought back to Mexico City and interred within pitals and fed the poor. tec empire. powerful men. Carlos V in 1523. the walls of a chapel behind the Hospital de Jesús, There’s got to be a Penelope To her own people, Marina would for- The Aztecs numbered 20,000 During the conquest, Marina bore Cortéz a son one of the many hospitals he founded. Isabel Allende Cruz movie in here somewhere… ever be known as La Malinche, meaning but by seizing their leader, Cortéz named Martín. After Cortéz’s second Spanish As for Marina, the translator, she traveled with betrayer. his mural by José Clemente Orozco dealt them a psychological blow. wife also bore him a son named Martín, the Mes- Cortéz on his trek into Honduras, via Belize, to Cortéz’s distant relation, Fran- tizo (mixed blood) Martín became like a servant Trujillo, during which she re-united with her o appreciate the life story of depicts conquistador Cortéz with The Man Who Would Be Quetzalcoatl T cisco Pizarro, would adopt for his fully Spanish half-brother. When they were mother and half-brother, supposedly forgiving Malinche, it’s necessary to revisit Continuing further west, Cortéz established a Malinche as the Mexican Eve. Painted in 1926, the same manoeuvre when he both arrested for plotting against the Spanish them. It’s possible Marina was originally from the settlement called Vera Cruz, not far from present- it hangs over the staircase in the National treacherously took the Inca leader crown, the younger Martín was spared; the Mes- Belize/Honduras area, a Mayan descendent, but the year 1511 when Diego Atahualpa hostage in 1532, de- tizo Martín was tortured. most researchers suggest she was from Paynala, day Veracruz, where he learned of an enormous Preparatory School in Mexico City. T inland city, Tenochtitlán, on the site of present- feating thousands of Incas with In 1524, having conquered Mexico, Hernan the Gulf region of Coatzacoalcos, near the Velázquez was sent from Hispaniola to con- only 168 Spaniards. Cortéz learned had pro- day Mexico City. The pair are featured in the 16th century sub- Cristobal de Olid Tehuantepec isthmus, in which case her native quer and explore Cuba. He brought along At Vera Cruz, Cortéz also first learned about Back in Cuba, Velázquez was claimed the independence of Spanish Honduras. tongue was Popoluca. the Aztec emperor, Montezuma II, who was plot of Amanda Hale’s novel The Reddening determined to bring Cortéz to To remove this upstart official, Cortéz began a gru- Having married Spanish soldier Juan an ambitious young secretary, Hernan represented by Teudilli of Quintaluor. When Path. Without Malinche, a contingent of 1,300 trial. When Cortéz learned that elling, fantastical overland trek towards Spanish Jaramillo, she settled in the province of the explorer learned about Montezuma’s magnifi- Velázquez was sending an 18-ship Honduras that ranks with Hannibal’s journey over Nogales. Cortéz gave the couple an estate 50 miles Cortéz, who became the first mayor of Cu- Spaniards and Indians could never have expedition with 900 soldiers un- the Alps. Departing from Vera Cruz on the Mexi- north of Mexico City, and also gave her land on cent inland city of Tenochtitlán (Cortéz called it COURTESY OF INSTITUTO DE defeated the Aztec empire. INVESTIGACIONES ESTETICAS, der Panfilo de Narvaez to can coast, he marched in a straight line towards the Gulf, in her homeland, so that she might re- ba’s second largest city, Santiago de Cuba, Temixtitlan—now it’s Mexico City), he burned UNAM, MEXICO some of his own ships to prevent his men from capture him, he decided to leave Trujillo on the east coast of Central America, tor- turn there to die. Although Cortéz has long been on the eastern end of the island. turning back and informing Cuba’s Governor Mexico, Aztec rulers had taken the name of alry, the Spaniards overwhelmed and formed an vilified by Latin historians and artists, it’s clear he Charming and well-educated, Cortéz was also Velázquez of his plans. Quetzalcoatl. The god had deserted the people alliance with the fearsome Tlaxcalan Indians near Ron Howard, Star Trek & Malinche... was not merely a brutal character. untrustworthy. At age 34, having jilted a Spanish The Aztecs were a nomadic civilization that had and became known as Kukulcan among the Maya. the coast, enemies of the Aztecs. Marina had at least one other child, noblewoman and upset Governor Velázquez, he migrated from western Mexico to the valley of When the emissaries for Montezuma asked if While on the coast, Marina infiltrated the lo- ften vilified, Malinche was portrayed by Fernando Gómez de Orosco y hurriedly sailed from eastern Cuba for the Mexi- Mexico during the 14th century, supplanting the this strange, helmeted man with the floating cal people and learned from an elderly woman Virginia Zuri in the 1933 Mexican Figueroa, born in Tlzapan, who died nine can mainland in 1519, eager for riches. With 508 Toltecs. As luck had it for Cortéz, the Aztecs were houses could be Quetzalcoatl, Hernan Cortéz— that the Aztecs were planning a surprise attack. motion picture La Llorona (at right). In his years later. In Amanda Hale’s novel, Marina gives soldiers, plus about 100 sailors, Cortéz easily over- anticipating the return of their ancient Feath- much like Sean Connery in the movie The woman’s husband was a Tlaxcalan captain who work that examines Mexican culture birth to a daughter. It is believed Marina died at O a relatively young age, around 1530, but where came some coastal Indians at Tabasco. They had ered Serpent god, Quetzalcoatl, from The Man Who Would Be King—wasn’t had received gifts from Montezuma II to encour- originating from rape and violation, The Labyrinth never seen horses before and initially thought a the east. Bringing gifts of gold to Vera about to disappoint. With the help of age the ambush. Cortéz was able to launch a pre- of Solitude, Octavio Paz views La Malinche as and when remains unknown. man on a horse was a single beast. Cruz, the Aztec delegations wanted to Marina, he did little to disabuse them of emptive attack in Cholula, close to present day the mother of Mexican culture. Amanda Hale has In his letters to King Carlos V, Cortéz men- A truce was arranged on March 27, 1519. De- know if the strange and powerful visi- this notion. To this end, Cortéz encour- Puebla, killing 3,000 Cholulans and sending the based her interpretation of Malinche mainly on Ana tions Marina only twice, he refers to her as “my feated chiefs in the Tabasco area brought Cortéz tors were gods or mortals. aged Indian suspicions that his men Aztecs fleeing back to Montezuma. Lanyon’s non-fiction study, Malinche’s Conquest. interpreter, who is an Indian woman” in the sec- gold, food and 20 female slaves. Among these With essential assistance from Ma- were immortal by burying his dead The foot soldier Díaz praised Marina for help- Several other novels have variously interpreted her ond and mentions her name in the fifth. ‘cooks’ was a 16-year-old woman who spoke the rina, Cortéz was able to take advantage quickly. He also pretended to talk to ing to spare them from the Axtec priests who were character, including H.R. Haggard’s ✍ local dialect, as well as the Nahuatl language of of the situation and pretend to represent his horse, as if his horses were rational known to cut open captives’ chests, sawing Montezuma’s Daughter, Colin Falconer’s In The Reddening Path, Hale has sympatheti- the much-despised Aztecs who occupied the in- their prodigal god. Quetzalcoatl was from creatures, like men. through the breastbone with an obsidian knife, Feathered Serpent: A Novel of the Mexican Conquest cally re-examined Malinche’s life as a distant mir- terior of Mexico. Evidently high-born by virtue the city of Tula, north of Tenochtitlán, for- Whereas the Aztecs had then ripping out still-beating hearts. and Gary Jenning’s Aztec. Optioned by film ror for the complex bi-cultural path that her of her intelligence and bearing, she was christened merly the seat of power for the Toltecs only seen Chihuahuas, the According to Díaz, Marina “possessed such director Ron Howard, a screenplay about La heroine Pamela is required to walk. In the proc- Doña Marina. who had dominated Mesoamerica Spanish had ferocious attack manly valour that, although she had heard every Malinche called The Serpent and the Eagle is ess, she recasts Malinche as easily one of most re- It wouldn’t do to have sex with an infidel. from 850 A.D. to 1200 A.D. dogs. Armed with crossbows day how the Indians were going to kill us and eat currently under development at Paramount Pictures. markable and influential women in the course of Cortéz initially gave this unusual woman to his When the Aztecs, or Mexicas, re- and arquebuses (Spanish mus- our flesh with chilli, and had seen us surrounded Triva buffs take note: A Star Trek episode included North American history. close friend, Alonzo Hernández placed the Toltecs in the Valley of Amanda Hale kets), escorted by a dozen cav- in the late battles, and knew that all of us were a Federation starship named S.S. Malinche. 1897235267

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