with the American Lutherans whose known for its rigour and the overall pride was in their colleges and uni- distinction of its Honours English versities." Dr. Roy became a "loyal- course. When in 1973 the university ist," both by conviction and, later, in became Wilfrid Laurier University, the knowledge that she would not be its student enrolment was 2,299; its welcome as a Faculty member of the reputation was secure. new university. The controversy en- Flora Roy is unique among Cana- gulfed Waterloo College. What was dian academics. She shepherded her at stake was not only financing, but department through perilous times also the conviction that once a part without compromising her stand- ofthe University, Waterloo Lutheran ards or adjusting them to meet the would speedily become simply a serv- noisy demands offad or faction. The ice resource for the Arts courses that successes and devotion of her stu- would be essential for the overwhelm- dents are her continuing testimony. ingly important mathematics and faculties in the new in- Ckzra Thomas was one of the twoJirst stitution. Finances were, of course, women to be hired by . crucial for the loyalists and the final She has been with Yorksince 1961, the outcome somethingofa miracle. The year Glendon opened. She is now a whole conflict was complicated by retired Professor Emeritus. This year the fact that Dr. Hagey, President of York did her the honour of naming the strike a much more personal note. Waterloo College, moved over to libraries 'Archives and Special Collec- The scholarly material, therefore, is become President of the University tions the Ckzra McCandless Thomas effectively framed by the biography of Waterloo, with every expectation Archives andspecial Collections, York and the reflections and reminiscences. of taking the College with him. University. The articles in the first section, The fate of Waterloo College in "Reading in Barbara Pym's Novels", relation to the new university was explore the subject ofreading in Pym's only a part of the unrest among "ALL THIS work from a range of perspectives. Universities at the time. The READING": Three of the essays take an autobio- Association of Colleges and Univer- THE LITERARY graphical approach: Anthony sities of , headed by Dr. WORLD OF Kaufman proceeds from a reading of Gibson of Queen's, was also work- Pym's early journals to argue that in BARBARA PYM ing- against- the founding- of any new the novels she "was able to transform university in Ontario and the entire her feelings of rejection, anger, and picture was complicated by its activi- Frauke Elisabeth Lenckos and Ellen depression into brilliant social com- ties. However, out of the struggle, J. Miller, Eds. edy" (89); Orphia Jane Allen finds and thanks to the negotiating skills London: Associated University Press, the later novels to be both metaphor of Dr. Overgaard, a highly influen- 2003 andvehicle for Pym's de~elopin~self- tial Loyalist Lutheran, Dr. Delton identity, and particularly her gradual Glebe, chairman of the Lutheran REVIEWED BY HEATHER acceptance of illness, aging, and im- Board and the advice of their lawyer, CAMPBELL pending death; and Ella Wymard Malcolm Robb, the loyalists won discerns in the novels Pym's own their case. Waterloo's affiliationwith In her "Foreword", Hilary Pym disappointment in the degree of com- Western was severed and Waterloo Walton describes '211 This Read- fort and solace offered by formal reli- Lutheran University was chartered. ing? The Literary World of Barbara gion to those who suffer in private. Of course they lost faculty to the Pym as a "loving collection" (9) and She observes that for Pym "writing is UniversityofWaterloo, but they also indeed there is a current of real affec- itself a ceremonial act" (1 16) and the found candidates happy to apply for tion that unites these essays. The novelist has aclearer and more imme- positions at Waterloo Lutheran. arrangement of the collection sup- diate understanding of the reality of Money was forthcoming, both fed- ports the sense of personal and pro- everyday human existence than does eral and provincial, and the Ontario fessional tribute: it begins with a the dhurch. BarbaraEverett reads Pym expansion of universities began in short introduction and a brief biog- in the context ofthe Modernist move- earnest: York in 1959 and shortly raphy, and closes with a chronology. ment, and considers the claim of the after, Trent, Brock, Laurentian, The body of the work is divided into various novels to be defined as "mi- Windsor. In the years that followed, two sections: eight critical articles nor" or "major." Frauke Elisabeth Waterloo Lutheran became well are followed by nine short essays that Lenckos finds that the novels them-

VOLUME 24, NUMBER 4 181 selves explore the position of the Murdoch through her descent into effective ways than legal challenges female reader, and ask the question Alzheimer's disease. and policy critiques. And it can be "Is reading good for women?" Helen Taken together these essays are a entertaining as well as subversive. Clare Taylor and Katherine Anne felicitous union of the scholarly and This collection of "spealung out" Ackley would both respond in the the personal. The wide range of ma- and "talking back stories, written affirmative: Taylor finds libraries to terials and approaches ensures that by Canadian women of Italian ori- be instrumental in the development the collection will be of interest to gin, reflects a form of resistance and of the intellectual and emotional in- both scholars and lay readers, and defiance that is not commonly viewed dependence of Pym's women char- the standard of writing and scholar- as the private face of families of first acters, while Ackley observes that ship is uniformly high. The affection and second generation Canadians. Pym's characters depend on reading ,apparent in the writing in no way Like many other cultural groups as a source of strength, comfort, and detracts from the scholarly rigour of within the Canadian mosaic, Italian humour. Anne Pilgrim explores the the articles, and the tribute never Canadian families are assumed to be demands made upon the reader by descends into sentimentality. Mrs. shaped by macho and patriarchal the allusivenessofPym's writing: she Walton closes her foreword with a men who control the lives ofsubmis- admires Pym's courage in risking confident speculation on "how much sive and tradition-bound women. misunderstanding even as she offers they would have pleased her." I'm These families are seen as places where deeply textured layers of meaning, sure she is right. It is an excellent the males learn to be dominant men and especially irony, to the reader collection. marryingvirgins from their own cul- who has command of the literary ture, and where the females are kept canon. Heather Campbell is Associate Profes- pure and obedient, so they will get The nine essays in the second sec- sor ofEnglish and Women ? Studies at husbands and produce sons. tion, "Literary Encounters", chart a York University. She is currently re- Not so-according to these sto- wide range of ways in which Pym's searchingautobiographical writings by ries collected by Maria Coletta novels both derive from and pro- women in the seventeenth century. McLean. These writers were born in vided a variety of literary connec- Italy or in Canada, are from their tions. Barbara Dunlap suggests the twenties to their seventies, and live work of Charlotte M. Yonge as a in small towns and large cities from useful pre-text to Pym's fiction; Dale Vancouver to Halifax. They feel both Salwak reflects on the growth of MAMMA MIA! privileged and constrained by their Pym's literary reputation; and Janice GOOD ITALIAN Italian heritage. They reflect the ex- Rossen posits Philip Larkin as Pym's GIRLS TALK BACK periences of many Canadians with most effective reader, based on the roots somewhere else in the world, growth and importance of their identifying with the "old world of Maria Coletta McLean, Ed. friendship. Jan Fergus remembers their parents and grandparents, and : ECW Press, 2004 affectionately a college class in which yet yearning to be just like everybody Pym surprised and delighted an ec- else, like the mangiacakes,- who seem REVIEWED BY MARION lectic group of students, and Jane to live uncomplicated lives. Although Nardin takes her own introduction LYNN particular in their own ways, a to Pym's fiction as a starting point number of themes run through the for some gently ironic observations stories: intergenerational relation- on the literary critic both in and out Talking back! Being sassy! Strutting ships; the centrality offood; physical of the novels. Paul de Angelis con- your stuff! appearance as difference; curses tributes thoughts and correspond- These methods have always ex- passed on from mother to daughter ence from his time as Pym's pub- isted as ways of resistance for women. or through the evil eye; and religion lisher, while Ronald Blythe offers the Women have been speaking out as the final arbiter ofwhat it is to be reflections on the Oxfordshire sea- against the status quo in poetry, a "good girl". sons that Pym contributed to his drama, songs and stories through- "I grew up in the warm centre of a anthology places, commissioned by out . This "speaking out" can ravioli universe." Although unable Oxfam, during the last months of be found in music from the nine- to speak much Italian, this woman her life. And on the most personal teen-twenties, dance from the nine- states that she "knew the names ofall level, Hazel Holt remembers her years teen-fifties, and movies and plays the pastas and the pastries." How- as Pym's close friend and reader, throughout the decades. Defiant be- ever, loving the smell, texture, taste, while John Bayley writes movingly haviour-at the individual, cultural spices and ritual in preparing Italian of the comfort he derived from read- and social levels-brings about food, is counter-balanced with the ing Pym's novels while nursing Iris change for women in perhaps more desire to be the same as other kids in

182 CANADIAN WOMAN STUDIESILES CAHIERS DE LA FEMME