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Ira Wells: Trump, free speech and the age of offence PAGE 6 $6.50 Vol. 25, No. 3 April 2017 Adam Sternbergh The Great American Metaphor The lure—and the perils—of writing about a magical game ALSO IN THIS ISSUE Sarah Milroy The all-new Lawren Harris Pankaj Mishra & Monobina Gupta The era of global rage Zoe Whittall on Barbara Gowdy Publications Mail Agreement #40032362 Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to LRC, Circulation Dept. PO Box 8, Station K Toronto, ON M4P 2G1 PLUS Russell Smith on an East-becomes-West dystopia + Ken Coates chases the Franklin myth + Diana Fitzgerald Bryden on virgin-mania + Doug Gibson on a literary time machine + Amy Shaw on the great mystery of Vimy + Adam Dodek on the fall of a legal giant + Amanda Jernigan on Molly Peacock New in Paperback What Is Government Good At? A Canadian Answer Easy Prey Investors Donald J. Savoie Why Broken Safety Nets Threaten Canada before Television Winner of the Donner Prize for Your Wealth Excellence and Innovation in Public Al Rosen and Mark Rosen Radio, Taste, and the Struggle Policy Writing, 2016 for Cultural Democracy “No one in Canada is better qualified to Len Kuffert “… Savoie’s book is one that Canadians, write this long-overdue book than these both inside and outside of government, two outstanding forensic accountants.” “In a good-hearted and sympathetic should read with a sense of urgency.” R.T. Naylor, McGill University way, [Kuffert] charts the impact of Donner Prize Jury radio when it was young.” The National Post Making a Difference Canada and the United Nations Legacies, Limits, Prospects Edited by Colin McCullough and Robert Teigrob Foreword by Lloyd Axworthy “A must-read for those with interests Mobilizing Mercy This Colossal Project in Canadian foreign relations or the A History of the Canadian Red Cross Building the Welland Ship Canal, international history of the twentieth Sarah Glassford 1913–1932 and twenty-first centuries.” Roberta M. Styran and Robert R. Taylor Robin S. Gendron, Nipissing University An engaging history that follows Canada’s leading humanitarian organization through The story of the construction of a decades of war, peace, and social change. technological monument that remains a cornerstone of the North American economy. McGI L L - Q U E E N’S U N I V E R S I TY PR E S S m q u p . c a Follow us on Facebook.com/McGillQueens and Twitter @Scholarmqup Literary Review of Canada 170 Bloor Street West, Suite 706 Toronto ON M5S 1T9 email: [email protected] reviewcanada.ca T: 416-531-1483 • F: 416-944-8915 Charitable number: 848431490RR0001 To donate, visit reviewcanada.ca/support Vol. 25, No. 3 • April 2017 EDITOR IN CHIEF Sarmishta Subramanian [email protected] MANAGING EDITOR 3 Rage and the Modern Machine 20 Very Magnetic North Michael Stevens Monobina Gupta in conversation with Uncovering an epic failed expedition, and its ASSISTANT EDITOR Pankaj Mishra hold on the Canadian psyche Bardia Sinaee Ken Coates 6 The Age of Offence ASSOCIATE EDITOR Trump, the politics of outrage and free speech 21 Her Father Is Weeping in the Beth Haddon on campus Kitchen POETRY EDITOR Moira MacDougall Ira Wells A poem COPY EDITOR Wendy Donawa 9 Tango Lesson Madeline Koch Lisa Richter 23 The Woman Inside CONTRIBUTING EDITORS 11 Outside Baseball In Barbara Gowdy’s new novel, an unusual Mohamed Huque, Molly Peacock, haunting sparks a deep reflection on Robin Roger, Judy Stoffman, Looking for capital-M Meaning in a magical Anthony Westell motherhood, family, identity game ONLINE EDITORS Zoe Whittall Adam Sternbergh Diana Kuprel, Jack Mitchell, Donald Rickerd, C.M. 12 Sophocles’ Jalopy 25 Empire in Collapse PROOFREADERS A poem Finally, a global turning-of-the-tables dystopian novel that transcends clichés about Islam and Heather Schultz, Robert Simone, Claire Kelly Patricia Treble the West RESEARCH 14 Battle Wary Russell Smith Rob Tilley Why is a fight on another continent, 50 years after Confederation, our nation’s founding 27 Couched in Verse DESIGN James Harbeck myth? In Molly Peacock’s latest collection, poetic form, ADVERTISING/SALES Amy Shaw like psychoanalysis, offers safe passage through perilous waters Michael Wile [email protected] 16 A Man of Our Time Amanda Jernigan Lawren Harris is once again jolted out of his DIRECTOR, OPERATIONS casket, in reappraisals that paint him as a 29 Pure Madness Michael Booth resolute modernist and urbanite Unsnarling the irrational, contradictory, still- DEVELOPMENT OFFICER Erica May Sarah Milroy thriving obsession with virginity Diana Fitzgerald Bryden ADMINISTRATOR 18 Playing against Type Christian Sharpe Sometimes getting to the future means travelling 31 All in the Family PUBLISHER in the other direction Can lawyers really run law firms? Helen Walsh Doug Gibson Adam Dodek [email protected] BOARD OF DIRECTORS 19 Watching the Weather George Bass, Q.C., Tom Kierans, O.C., A poem Don McCutchan, Trina McQueen, O.C., Michael Lithgow Jack Mintz, C.M., Jaime Watt ADVISORY COUNCIL Michael Adams, Ronald G. Atkey, P.C., Q.C., Alan Broadbent, C.M., Chris Ellis, Carol Hansell, Donald Macdonald, P.C., C.C., Grant Reuber, O.C., Don Rickerd, In memoriam C.M., Rana Sarkar, Mark Sarner, Bernard Richard Wagamese Schiff, Reed Scowen POETRY SUBMISSIONS 1955–2017 For guidelines, please see reviewcanada.ca. The LRC is saddened by the loss of one of its contributors, who will be missed. LRC design concept by Jackie Young/INK Founded in 1991 by P.A. Dutil The LRC is published 10 times a year by the Literary Cover art and pictures throughout the issue, unless otherwise indicated, by Justine Wong. Review of Canada Charitable Organization. ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION RATES Justine Wong is a freelance illustrator based in Tokyo, originally from Toronto. She is also the creator of the project Individuals in Canada $56/year plus GST/HST. “21 Days in Japan,” and is starting a new initiative “Ladies Draw Tokyo” to build a support system for female (Libraries and institutions in Canada $68/year plus GST/HST.) Outside Canada, please pay $86/year for creatives living in and travelling through Tokyo. individuals, or $98 for libraries and institutions. SUBSCRIPTIONS AND CIRCULATION From time to time, the LRC may allow carefully selected organizations to send mail to subscribers, offering products or services that may be of interest. Literary Review of Canada If you do not wish to receive such correspondence, please contact our Subscriber Service department at [email protected], P.O. Box 8, Station K, Toronto ON M4P 2G1 or call 416-932-5081, or mail P.O. Box 8, Station K, Toronto ON M4P 2G1. [email protected] 416-932-5081 • reviewcanada.ca Funding Acknowledgements ©2017 The Literary Review of Canada. All rights, We acknowledge the assistance including translation into other languages, are reserved of the OMDC Magazine Fund, by the publisher in Canada, the United States, Great an initiative of Ontario Media Britain and all other countries participating in the Development Corporation. Universal Copyright Convention, the International Copyright Convention and the Pan-American Copyright We acknowledge the Convention. Nothing in this publication may be repro- financial support of the duced without the written permission of the publisher. Government of Canada. ISSN 1188-7494 The Literary Review of Canada is indexed in the Canadian Literary Periodicals Index and the Canadian Index and is distributed by Disticor and Magazines an Ontario government agency un organisme du gouvernement de l’Ontario Canada. April 2017 reviewcanada.ca a national festival of politics, art and ideas TORONTO Are the real risks we face—as Canadians and as global citizens—the ones we worry about, or do we look too narrowly, through our own preconceptions? In the face of the Quebec City tragedy, and during a time of troubling geopolitical tensions around the world, Spur asks: What we are willing to risk in order to build a more equitable society? And what are the ideas, people and examples that will inspire us to build the kind of society of which we can be proud? Geopolitics • Economy • Environment • Culture • Health • Science Join us for Spur’s unique blend of keynotes, debates, conversations, book launches, fi lm screenings, walking tours and artistic events. We need intelligent, multi-partisan public debate about our country’s future. For further information and for tickets and passes, visit spurfestival.ca (LRC subscribers receive a 25% discount. Use the promo code LRCSUB.) B. DENHAM JOLLY MASHA GESSEN LYNNE OLSON DANIEL DALE SUSAN COLE TOM NICHOLS See spurfestival.ca for more featured events NATIONAL PARTNERS AND SUPPORTERS MEDIA SPONSOR an Ontario government agency un organisme du gouvernement de l’Ontario www.spurfestival.ca facebook.com/spurfestival @spurfest #spur17 Interested in travelling to Toronto for Spur? Please contact Christian Sharpe, [email protected], 416-944-1101, ext 277, for information on the weekend packages to Spur that include hotel, restaurant and Spur pass discounts. Join the conversation, and make your voice count! 2 reviewcanada.ca Literary Review of Canada Rage and the Modern Machine Monobina Gupta in conversation with Pankaj Mishra new Pankaj Mishra book is always a publishing event. In critically acclaimed, Abest-selling works—most recently Temp ta tions of the West: How to Be Modern in India, Pakistan and Beyond; An End to Suffering: The Buddha in the World; and From the Ruins of Empire: The Intellectuals Who Remade Asia—the Indian essayist, author and public intellectual has offered thoughtful explorations of a globalizing India, contemporary spirituality and western impe- rialism’s history in Asia. Mishra’s latest book, The Age of Anger: A History of the Present, though, has struck a particular chord at a time when populism and fanaticism are taking hold in many parts of the world.