MAY Nis Gmadian Forum Imegee of Our Time
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8 Con9 and Prow. Roger Cemn has Irenrlorrned himself fmm a violenl criminal into e novelist. By John Goddard 12 Adulce and fNeeenl. Whal’s right - or wmng - with CanLit? Comments Imm our readers on Ihe Nate of the an. 15 Yesterday’s New. F.R. Swtt’s ‘socialism’ wee es misleading es the version portrayed by conservatives today. By Leo Penitch 10 Charter el Wrongs. As George Grant shows. deceplive language shmuds our notfan of fights and freedoms. By Barry Cooper 20 Brief Geelowe. Short notices on recent fiction, non-liction. end poetry EVIEWS 16 Tho Indigo Orers and Other Slories. by Aona Murray 19 Tmnto?r Tree. by H.R. Percy 26 Inroectlne the Vouile. bu Eric McCarmack Ill Maw& by Pbilif : Journey by George Gall IlllonE& I 31 Speaking ior Myeelf: Ceinsdlan Wrlten in Interulew. by Andrew Germd 32 The SoIltory Outlow, by B.W. Pave 32 The BolldIngs el Samuel Maelure: In Seemh ol Appmprlote Form, by Martin Segger; Robson Square, by Ann Rosenberg; Tomnto Observed: Ne Arehlteclore. Patrons. end Hletory. by William Oendy and William Kilbourn; Vlclorion Arehlteeture In London and Southweotern Onterfo: Symbol9 01 Aeplretlon. by Nancy 2. Tausky and Lynne D. GiStefano 34 Ted Trindoll, AMtIe Wltneee to the Norih. by Jean M&set and FtnseMarie Pelletier: The Immlgnnt Yearn: From Eumps lo Caned& lYS-lg57. by Barry Bmadloot 36 Lev(l Unknown. by A.N. Wllsan EPAFaBMEWTS 3 Flold Ndas 40 Recommended Engllrh. Our Engllrh. by Bob Blackbum 40 Neeelead Flref Novels, by Janice Kulyk Keefer 41 CanWIt No. 120 .lntenrlew _.._- with Brian Fewcett. by James Dennis Carcoran 42 Canllt Acmstlc No. 6. by Mary 0. Trainer Besketchewee short-story writer Edna Allord’s latest book is J& Gam’en 01 Eloise Loon (Oolichan). Margaret Avison’s4!Iinfer SunlThe Dumb- tom: Pawns fWM966 WBS published in 1983 by McClelland & Stewart. Jack BaNen’s Crag &a fhe Ace (Macmillan) wes reviewed In our April issue. Mallhew Behrens is a staff writer at Now magezine. Bob Blackburn is our resident English-unge specitiirt. laurel Boone Is e freelance writer and cdtlc in Fredericton. N.B. Poet Barbara Carey’s latest book is Undrasfng fhe LJarh (Ouarry). Nova Scotia writer LoSley Choyce’s Nre Dream Au&r (Indivisible Baoks) wil be reviewed in e forthcoming issue. Mary Frances Coedy wiles for Celhofic New Times. Bany CuDperteaches political science at the University 01 Gelgary. James Dennte Corcoren Is a Tomnto freelance writer. Bert Cevmn has reviewed for CBC-ftedio and Scene Chenges magezine. Joeophine Cmbtree Is a folksinger end psychotherapist. Anne ltenoon is a Tomnto freefew writer. Poet Mary dl Mlchele’s latest book is Immune fo Wavr?y (McClelland &Stewart). Gary Oreper is e research librarian et the Lfnivenity of Waterloo. Gory Fogan is a freelance writer in London, Ont. Gldeon Forman coordinates e weekly radio show, Peaxfi&. on CIUT-FM (Toronto). Freelance writer Shelagh Garland edits psychoanalytic literature. John Goddard’s Books in Canada profile of Edith Iglauer won e National Magtine Award In 1985. Grog Gonnlck Is et work on a history of the roll pessenger Service in Canada. Gloria tllldebnndt Is a Tomnte freelance writer. Novelist Douglas HUI is mtuming to Newfoundland this ~urnmer for e two.year stay. Rick Jacobson’s paintings and drawings appear frequently in these paga. Jsnlce Kolyk Ksofer won first prize for lictfon in the CBC Literary Competitions cd 1985 and 1985. Robin Kobryn wee recently in Ottewe to photograph the visit of Ronald Reagan. Barbara MeeKoy is a freelvlce writer and specialf9t in women’s rtudles. NovelNt and politfcat scientist Jack MacLeod teaches et the Univenity of Tomnto. Oougla Malcolm is a Tomnto freelance writer. Albsrto Manguel’s Dicfimwy oflm9gfnary places. written wlth Gienni Guedelupi. was recently republished in en expended editfon (Lester & Orpen Dennys). Toronto artist Steve McCabe’s d&ngs appear thmqhout the issue. Mlehsle Melady stud& Canadian laerature et Carleton Un’bwity. I.M. Owen is e frequent contributor to thls megtine. Leo Panitch’s most recent publication is Workfng Mass AI//&S In Crfsfs (Versa). Lary phft is deputy llbrarian et the Art Gallery of Onterio. Non Phllllp is e Vancouver freelance writer. Ruperf Schieder review Brftfsh and Commonwealth literature in this magdne. Mary 0. Tnfner is a lreelance writer and puntbmaker in Port Caquftfam. B.C. Alan Mgg’s Vender Wrx From /mm&ant to Remiw and Vancower and Ik Wnh-S were recently pubiished by Harbour Publlrhing. EDITOR 0 Michael Smith MANAGING EDITOR 0 Doris Cowan GENERAL MANAGER 0 Susan Traer CIRCULATION MANAGER 0 Susan Aihoshi ADVERTISING SALES MANAGER a Beth Cruder EDITORIAL ASSISTANT 0 Marc Cota CONSULTANTS 0 Robert Farrelly 0 Jack Jensen 0 Mary Lu Toms CONTRIBUTING EDITORS 0 Eleanor Wachtel (West Coast) 0 K.G. Probert Prairies) 0 Shirley Knight Morris 0 Paul Wilson 0 Ray Filip (Quebec) 0 Terry Goldie ( ;ast Coast) As an art form the novel nd longer stands at the centre of our culture, but is Its primary purpose to provide fodder for film? m MAY nis Gmadian Forum Imegee of our time. Just 85 narrative Yatbefksttbinganovellosesioits published B cartoon strip by ~atr~wasedi~sedin the18thcentow translation from minted word to bnane cafherine O’Neill called “The on the screen is ii voice. Perhaps th& Book club,” in which B gmup of intbezOth.He&?ateSl:&ulbmerparty women and men are soberly with friends try to fmd five novels book can make B terrific fti (The God- discussblg Latin American tiaion, publishedblthelastfewyeantbatauof falher) while a tine novel cam turn out s specitIcaUy Manuel Puig’s novel, you have reed. How about three? One? dud in the tbeatre (?7ze Wars). A nowlist I&s of the Spider Woman. Wben Now h-y five films and see the difference. most be very trod or very ruthless to join somebody mentions William Not that fh isn’t a great art, not that silently tbe conspirapl that tells us that I-Iurt’s pafo- inthefdmver- fti and literahwe don’t by now have a seein8 a movie version is equivalent to slon, grouptbe corn= andalive the certain shared history. Every fti student reading the book, that one is a replace- disinteeratesdiscussion into a knows how D.W. Griffith learned to cut ment for the other. Nor can it be in the shouting match of happy voices: “i scenes fium reading Dickens, while nove8st’s best inter& to oarticioate in the thought Jane Fonda was crummy in novelists have been borrowing fmm fh assumption that 1 noid isn’t worth Agnes of God,” and “when are they technique for decades. But that does not ready@ unless it has been made into a gonna make another Monty Python negate the autonomy of each form as its fh, in which case reading isn’t even movie?” The cartoon is not only Punny, own bc+. of the novel as novel and necessary. but d&ly accurate; novels may be notbbudse.Awriterspe.n&yearsona Henry James had a premonition of this serious, even important stuff. but what novel. often lating the ideas tloat in sad uroblem in 1908 when he wrote his people really like to talk aboiat are ixeface to 7% Golden Bowl. James. con- IllOVieS. before getting down to work:What the sidering the praaice of prindng illostm- O’Neill’s cartoon came to mind when novelist is usually lookiru for ia the voice. tions in B novel, wrote. “Anyddng tba I read recently of tbc sale of the fti In II recent kw Y& i’fmes Book relieves responsible prose of the duty of rights to Margaret Atwood’s The Hand- Review. for exmnple. Mavis GaJbmt ex- being. while placed before us, good maid% Talc - not to some patched- plainshowtheodywayshecolddtdltbe enough, interesting enough. and, if the together quilt of Canadian producers and story of her novel-in-progress is in a mde question be of picture, piaorid enough, businessmen but to a New York modw v&e; it waw’t the s~oryrhe had trouble above a8 in irsell, does it the worst of sex- tton company that has hired no less than findingbottbewyofte8iogit.AsIiemy vices. and may well tipire in the lover the British playwright Harold Pinta to Jamesiirsttokios.awrite.rhsssninfinite of literature certain lively questions BP to write the screenplay. This sort of the future of that institution.” James understood the power of the B flutter of excitemeni and B new belief visual image, even if not as red or pro- in the value of Canadian litemhue. AtIer found or complex, to posh aside the all,iftheAmericanswanttomakeaf~ out of it, the book mwr be good. But I i&d~mbination with the &d&s mind. wonder if we should be so pleased, and And in this lazier age a prepackaged if novelists are redly doing themselves s image is easier for our minds to grasp service by do& tqdrworks to be than one that we ourselves must aid in made into films. creating. A fti, eveo a mediocre one, l% Amrendcshir, ofDuddvKravitz can replace in the public’s imagination the Who ?&&en lhe l&f, The iun Fk& imsge that might have been pot there by Daminn in the Dark - the list of Cana- the novel. Is that what the novelist really dian n&s that have been turned into wants? fhs is by now fairly long. The tempta- Curious to lomow what ldnd of approach tions for the novelist are obvious: besides HomId Pintu’s screenplay might take to the money, a f&n version (or so the argu- Mannet Atwood’s novel. I honed to his ment goes) can brb# a novelist B whole m&recent fti adapt&, i%tleDia~.