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TheThe harshharsh realityreality ofof BC bullying bullying

Holly Dobbie tackles BOOKWORLD the misery in her new YA novel.

VOL. 32 • NO. 4 • Winter 2018-19 PAGE 35

ESIESI EDUGYANEDUGYAN ofof VictoriaVictoria hashas rocketedrocketed intointo

MargaretMargaret AtwoodAtwood andand AliceAlice MunroMunro PHOTO

territoryterritory withwith justjust herher thirdthird novel.novel. STAMINA POPPITT

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Discover great books by BC authors on board at Passages. Orca Book Publishers strives to produce books that illuminate the experiences of all people. Our goal is to provide reading material that represents the diversity of human experience to readers of all ages. We aim to help young readers see themselves refl ected in the books they read. We are mindful of this in our selection of books and the authors that we work with.

Providing young people with exposure to diversity through reading creates a more compassionate world.

The World Around Us series 9781459820913 • $19.95 HC 9781459816176 • $19.95 HC 9781459820944 • $19.95 HC 9781459817845 • $19.95 HC

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2 BC BOOKWORLD WINTER 2018-2019 AROUNDBC TOPSELLERS*

BCHelen Wilkes The Aging of Aquarius: Igniting Passion and Purpose as an Elder (New Society $17.99) Christine Stewart Treaty 6 Deixis (Talonbooks $18.95) Joshua Whitehead Jonny Appleseed (Arsenal Pulp $17.95)

Neev Tapiero Neev Tapiero CannaBiz: Big Business Opportunities in the New Multibillion-Dollar Marijuana Industry (Self-Counsel Press $22.95) Norma Charles Tree Musketeers (Ronsdale Press $11.95) Terry Milos Shelley Adams ATLIN Whitewater Cooks: More Beautiful Food (Sandhill Book Marketing $34.95) ERRY MILOS’S MEMOIR, NORTH OF FAMILIAR: Jane Reid Pender Harbour Freshly Picked: A Locavore’s A Woman’s Story of Homesteading and OLIN LEVINGS ENCYCLOPEDIC TREATMENT Love Affair with BC’s Bounty ’ (Caitlin Press $26) Adventure in the Canadian Wilderness of how sea-going salmon, trout Cand char make their transition Sandeep Pai & (Caitlin $24.95) recounts her back-to-the- from fresh to salt water (and the other Savannah Carr-Wilson land adventures begun as a young woman way) at the river mouth, Ecology of Total Transition: The Human Side of Salmonids in Estuaries Around the the Renewable Energy Revolution in 1974. After a few months of eking out a living in the World: Adaptations, Habitats and (Rocky Mountain Books $22) T harsh north, she reluctantly returned to the south to earn Conservation (UBC Press $75) provides Jackie case histories dealing with B.C. estuaries Bateman an education degree whereupon she accepted a teaching and species while incorporating conser- vation issues. There is also an on-line job in the northern town of Atlin. For nineteen years, she appendix that provides a primer on raised a family by teaching in a number of remote Cana- salmonids and estuaries for the citizen scientist. Levings is the author of about dian communities, living in Carcross, Carmacks, Dawson 200 scientific papers and he increasingly spends time at Pender Harbour teaching City and Old Crow, etc. 978-1-987915-45-7 his five grandsons to fish. 978-0-7748-3173-4 Nelson Jackie Bateman Straight Circles Nelson during the 1940s serves as the backdrop for Iona (Anvil Press $20) Whishaw’s five Lane Winslow mysteries featuring a former Charles Ulrich spy-turned-detective, Lane Winslow, a police inspector The Big Note: A Guide to the Recordings of Frank Zappa named Darling, as well as characters named Agatha and (New Star $45) Watson. “There is a lot of stuff going on that you’d never Marian Jago find in the land of Holmes or Poirot,” says reviewer Shel- Live at the Cellar: The Ormsby Review Vancouver’s Iconic Jazz Club and don Goldfarb in . “Romance between the Canadian Co-operative Jazz the detectives, for instance.” Baker Street in Nelson has Scene in the 1950s and ‘60s (UBC $29.95) most recently given rise to It Begins in Betrayal (Touch- wood $16.95) and A Sorrowful Sanctuary (Touchwood Monique Gray Smith & Danielle Daniel Baker Street without Holmes. Nelson in the 1940s. $16.95). Betrayal: 9781771512619 / Sanctuary 9781771512893 You Hold Me Up (Orca Books $19.95) Publication Mail Agreement Contributing Editors: John Moore, #40010086 Joan Givner, Mark Forsythe, Rick James Return undeliverable Canadian Cherie Thiessen, Caroline Woodward. Don’t Never Tell Nobody Nothin’ BC addresses to: BC BookWorld, Writing not otherwise credited is by staff. We gratefully acknowledge the unobtrusive 926 West 15th Ave., No How: The Real Story of assistance of Canada Council, a continuous partner since BOOKWORLD Vancouver, BC Canada V5Z 1R9 West Coast Rum Running Design: Get-to-the-Point Graphics 1988, and creativeBC, a provincial partner since 2014. (Harbour $32.95) Winter 2018 Produced with the sponsorship of Consultants: Pacific BookWorld News Society. Christine Rondeau, Sharon Jackson, Volume 32 • Number 4 Publications Mail Darrel J. McLeod Kenneth Li Registration No. 7800. Photographers: Mamaskatch: A Cree Coming of Age Publisher/Writer: BC BookWorld ISSN: 1701-5405 In-Kind Supporters: Simon Fraser University Library; Barry Peterson, Laura Sawchuk (D&M $29.95) Alan Twigg Vancouver Public Library; UBC Library. Advertising & editorial: Proofreader: Associate Publisher: BC BookWorld, 926 West 15th Ave., Wendy Atkinson Beverly Cramp Vancouver, BC Canada V5Z 1R9 Deliveries: Ken Reid, Acculogix * The current topselling titles from major Tel: 604-736-4011 BC publishing companies, in no particular order. Editor/Production: [email protected] All BC BookWorld reviews are posted at We acknowledge the financial support of the Government David Lester Annual subscription: $25 www.abcbookworld.com of Canada through the Department of Canadian Heritage

3 BC BOOKWORLD WINTER 2018-2019 

4 BC BOOKWORLD WINTER 2018-2019 AROUNDBC

The Kettle Valley Steam Railway’s finely preserved ex-CPR locomotive approaching the railway’s Prairie Valley station (from Iron Road West).

Derek Hayes

Salmon Arm KETTLE VALLEY Fernie

IGOROUS, INDEPENDENT, STUBBORN OU KNOW A MOVIE OR BOOK HAS GOT N EXCHANGE FOR THE PROMISE OF A TRANSCONTINENTAL AND sometimes difficult to get you hooked when you start feel- Valong with, 28-year-old Roza- line to the West Coast, British Columbia was Ying relieved when bad things lind of Salmon Arm has Multiple Scle- don’t happen to the characters, when rosis. Through endless appointments, brought into the Canadian Confederation in it’s looking like they will. Bill Sten- she desperately searches for a cure 1871. When the Canadian Pacific Railway ar- son’s fully-realized novel set in Fernie, while trying to make sense of her new Ordinary Strangers (Mother Tongue condition. Out of options, she moves rived in 1886, it bolstered economic develop- $28.95), works that way throughout. home, but her mother is unexpectedly ment in the province, created the city of Vancouver In 2013, Stenson was a finalist for faced with a serious illness of her own. I the 2nd Great BC Novel Contest. Last As Roz becomes more despondent and and spurred others to build competing lines. In his year it was announced he had won the isolated, her faithful dog, Deputy, is 4th Great BC Novel Contest judged her main companion. Her world view prolifically illustrated Iron Road West: An Illustrated by Audrey Thomas. His Ordinary begins to change as Roz builds an inner History of British Columbia’s Railways (Harbour Strangers is about the upbringing of a life with a growing awareness of God. daughter who wonders why there are That’s the gist of Mona Houle’s $44.95) Derek Hayes charts the development of the no baby pictures of her in the family far from dreary fictionalized mem- province through its competitive railway lines and he album. It opens with a couple driving oir, Hope from Stone: A Walk with to Fernie in the early 1960s. Stopping Multiple Sclerosis (Mo’s Art Media explores the emergence of the modern freight railway at Hope, where they lose their dog, they $17.99), written after Houle took in British Columbia, including fully automated and discover instead a crying toddler in the two mentorship programs with Gail woods. Unable to have children of their Anderson-Dargatz. The feisty quality computerized trains. 978-1-550178388 own, they proceed to raise the girl they of the protagonist’s personality keeps name Stacey, giving her a birthdate and the reader engaged as Roz moves from remaining secretive about her lost-‘n’- being a somewhat cynical, fault-finding found origins. It is a sophisticated novel victim to becoming a calm, secure, Smithers about unsophisticated people over two empowered woman of age. MITHERS AROSE FROM A SWAMP BENEATH A decades. There are countless hurdles Clearly based on personal experi- mountain. Initially the non-Indigenous and close calls, two calamities, oddball ence, Hope from Stone is a very worth- Sresidents largely excluded the surrounding neighbours and an adopted dog. Real while book for anyone who wants to Witsuwit’en population. As a third-generation life. Audrey Thomas describes this understand MS. 978-1-77536-80-0 native of Smithers, academic Tyler McCreary story about the road to forgiveness has orchestrated interviews with as funny, horrific and more than fifty Witsuwit’en and sad. “The story,” she non-Indigenous families for Shared says, “will make you

Histories: Witsuwit’en—Set- think hard about PHOTO

tler Relations in Smithers BC what it means to be 1913—1973 (Creekstone $24.95). a family. HEMMINGS

To celebrate this publication, the 978-1896949703 community of Witset (formerly JOHN Moricetown) and the Liksilyu clan Ut’akhgit Henry Alfred organized a 34 km. Walk to Witset and a feast hosting more than 400 guests (over 50% non-Indigenous). Ut’akhgit Henry Alfred, the last living Witsuwit’en plaintiff in the Delgamuukw—Gisdaywa court case (the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that Aboriginal title was an ancestral right protected by the Bill Stenson Constitution) hosted the feast, attending in spite of illness, and Cover art of Hope From Stone died soon after. 978-1-928195-04-7

5 BC BOOKWORLD WINTER 2018-2019 Worry Stones Joanna Lilley

Set in the Canadian Arctic and Scottish Highlands, Lilley’s captivating debut novel portrays art historian Jenny in her struggle to rescue her mother from a religious cult and keep her fanatical father at bay. All the while, Jenny tries to move beyond her need for the comfort of “worry stones” and to foster her own talents as a sculptor, working alongside Inuit artists.

978-1-55380-541-0 (PRINT) 978-1-55380-542-7 (EBOOK) 286 pp $18.95

Gold in British Columbia Claiming the Land Marie Elliott British Columbia and the Elliott takes readers through the gold Making of a New El Dorado rushes of B.C. from 1858 to B.C.’s entry Daniel Marshall into Confederation, explaining their Marshall focuses on the 1858 Fraser River gold rush central importance to Canada’s history. and its battles between the California miners and the With 50 photos & maps. First Nations peoples. With 30 photos & maps. 978-1-55380-517-5 (PRINT) 978-1-55380-502-1 (PRINT) 978-1-55380-518-2 (EBOOK) 350 pp $24.95 978-1-55380-503-8 (EBOOK) 406 pp $24.95

Skylight Out All Day Antony Di Nardo John Donlan Poetry exploring the interplay between a These poems evoke our sense of loss as we live disintegrating natural world and the human through the sixth extinction of the natural world. observer. Partly feral, partly tamed, these poems Yet always they reveal the comfort and courage record what we miss inside and outside our provided by close and loving observations of the windows. processes of life. 978-1-55380-544-1 (PRINT) 978-1-55380-547-2 (PRINT) 978-1-55380-545-8 (EBOOK) 112 pp $15.95 978-1-55380-548-9 (EBOOK) 84 pp $15.95

Beautiful Communions Provoked by Gilgamesh Des Kennedy Gilmour Walker A poignant novel invoking the confessions This humorous mashup of the ancient Epic of and “beautiful communions” within a turbulent Gilgamesh sees a modern man attempting to family — all observed by border collie Shep with follow Gilgamesh’s search for eternal life — with bemused detachment. an eccentric editor offering mocking footnotes. 978-1-55380-532-8 (PRINT) 978-1-55380-520-5 (PRINT) 978-1-55380-533-5 (EBOOK) 978-1-55380-521-2 (EBOOK) 76 pp $18.95 312 pp $18.95

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e FOR YOUNG READERS

Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y pi et Y You ses Livrvre 2 bonbons Railroad of Courage HHistoHi toioireirere pappar PPhilihiliplipp RRoy Dan Rubenstein & Nancy Dyson IIllusIllustratratrationonss paparp AAndndreadrea ToT rrerreyey BBalsalsaara Twelve-year-old Rebecca makes a daring escape from slavery on the Underground Railroad to Canada, led by the famous Harriet Tubman, aided along the way by compassionate abolitionists. 978-1-55380-514-4 (PRINT) 978-1-55380-515-1 (EBOOK) Tree Musketeers The King’s Shilling 164 pp $11.95 Norma Charles David Starr Jeanie Leclare discovers that a giant Duncan Scott is forced to take the “King’s Youpi et ses bonbons cedar tree next to her school is going Shilling” and serve in epic battles against Philip Roy & Andrea Torrey Balsara to be bulldozed by her uncle. How can Napoleon’s fleet as a gunner. The deadly Wonderfully touching full-colour illustrations tell how she become a tree musketeer and save sea battles finally convince him he must Youpi, the pocket mouse, is bored when he goes with his the tree? give up fighting for “empire.” friend Jean to a laundromat — until he joyfully succeeds 978-1-55380-550-2 (PRINT) 978-1-55380-526-7 (PRINT) in outwitting the jellybean machine. 978-1-55380-551-9 (EBOOK) 978-1-55380-527-4 (EBOOK) 978-1-55380-540-3 (HARDCOVER) 130 pp $11.95 224 pp $11.95 32 pp $12.95 FRENCH LANGUAGE

Available from your favourite bookstore or order from PGC/Raincoast Ronsdale Press Visit our website: www.ronsdalepress.com

6 BC BOOKWORLD WINTER 2018-2019 AROUNDBC Victoria Medical trailblazer Book n her second book, City in Colour: Rediscovered Stories of Victoria’s Multicultural Past (Touchwood 2018), Prizes IMay Q. Wong offers succinct accounts of lives and families regarding people of colour and other racial minorities such as Canada’s onique Gray first Jewish judge, Samuel Davies Schultz, Smith was and Canada’s first Chinese female doctor, Vic- awarded the Bo- toria Mea Chung. Chung’s father Sing Noon len Books Chil- Chung, who worked as a labourer on the Ca- dren’s Book Prize nadian Pacific Railway until it was completed in PHOTOS

Mfor Speaking Our Truth: A Journey 1885, was one of the first eleven Chinese people of Reconciliation (Orca Books) and to be converted to Christianity in Victoria by NAKAGAWA Bill Gaston received his second City missionary John E. Gardiner. Chung paid the

of Victoria Butler Book Prize, this SHARI $50 head tax for his wife to join him. At age five, Monique Gray Smith (centre) with Orca Books’ Andrew Wooldridge their daughter Victoria was placed at the Rescue time for A Mariner’s Guide to Self- at the 15th annual Victoria Book Prizes Gala. Sabotage (Douglas & McIntyre), at Home for Chinese Girls. Because Chinese were the 15th Victoria Book Prize Gala. Mayor Gray Smith presents Canada’s collective banned from practicing medicine and other professions in B.C., Victoria Mea Chung later Lisa Helps and co-sponsor Brian Butler history, present and future, for young read- took a scholarship to attend medical school at presented the $5,000 Butler/Victoria prize; ers who might encounter the concept and the University of Toronto in 1917, a year after Samantha Holmes from Bolen Books pre- practice of reconciliation for the first time. Norman Bethune first sented the $5,000 children’s book prize. Her book introduces the lives of residential attended. For 43 years Gaston’s collection of ten cautionary tales school survivors and how the findings of she worked as a medical was praised for moving seamlessly from the the Truth and Reconciliation Commission missionary in China. The funny to the poignant to the surprising and resulted in action for social change. She is a City of Victoria declared the absurd. “Gaston has a gift for making mixed-heritage woman of Cree, Lakota and Victoria Chung Day on ordinary moments feel transcendent,” judges Scottish ancestry who resides on Lekwungen October 8, 2012. Bill Gaston concluded. Gaston’s earlier book Gargoyles territory. Her first novel, Tilly: A Story of Hope May Q. Wong’s A Cowherd in Paradise (House of Anansi) won the same prize in 2007. Gas- and Resilience, won the 2014 Burt Award for First Na- ton has been a finalist for the Giller Prize with Mount tions, Metis and Inuit Literature. (Brindle & Glass, 2012) chronicles the lives of Appetite (Raincoast, 2002), and he was the inaugural The gala was again held at the Union Club of Brit- her parents, Wong recipient of the Timothy Findley Prize, awarded by the ish Columbia and was hosted by CBC Radio’s Gregor Victoria Chung Guey Dang (1902- Writer’s Trust of Canada. Craigie. Victoria’s poet laureate Yvonne Blomer opened 1983) and Jiang Tew In Speaking Our Truth: A Journey of Reconciliation, the evening with a reading from her recent works. Ad- Thloo (1911-2002). Married for over half a ditional sponsors included the Greater Victoria Public century, the couple was forced to live apart Library, Island Blue Print, Chateau Victoria, Magnolia for twenty-five years because of Canada’s ex- Hotel and Spa, Inn at Laurel Point, Friesens Corpora- clusionary immigration laws. Dang overcame tion and CBC Radio. discrimination to become a successful Montreal More info: www.victoriabookprizes.ca restaurateur. 978-1-77151-285-5 PHOTO

WISDOM

DAVID

Warren Beatty and Julie Christie in McCabe & Mrs. Miller (above). House on the mudflats.

McCabe, Mrs Miller & misfits thrived as a mecca for those who were willing to live without basic amenities in exchange for communal freedom. any people know that the famous alcoholic Mal- Mudflat Dreaming: Waterfront Battles and the Squat- colm Lowry wrote most of his legendary novel ters Who Fought Them in 1970s Vancouver by Jean Under the Volcano on the shoreline of North Walton (New Star/Transmontanus $24) tells the story of those MVancouver at Dollarton, near Cates Park. two utopian experiments on Vancouver’s waterfront fringes. Few realize his squatter’s shack was the forerunner to a She also includes links between the Bridgeview and Maplewood counter-cultural enclave of float houses and shacks on stilts communes and the making of Robert Altman’s breakthrough that sprouted on the estuarial Maplewood Mudflats, much feature film, McCabe and Mrs. Miller (1971), shot on Hollyburn nearer to the Ironworkers Memorial Bridge, in the early 1970s. Mountain, starring Warren Beatty and Julie Christie, with As well, on the southern banks of the Fraser River, above a soundtrack by Leonard Cohen. The movie provided work New Westminster, the Bridgeview neighbourhood briefly for some of the Maplewood residents. 9781554201495

7 BC BOOKWORLD WINTER 2018-2019 review FICTION

Fat Cats: Book 4—Dyed In The the indigenous blacktail deer land, George Mercer worked Green Series by George Mercer population be revived? Is for 35 years as a park warden, (George Mercer $19.99) Parks and hunting the way forward? starting in 1979 at Newfound- Or will a cougar do the deed land’s Terra Nova National BY RON DART now that a cougar has swum Park and ending in 2012 as predators across from nearby Vancouver monitoring ecologist at the SPATE OF BOOKS Island? Gulf Islands National Park Re- has lamented John Haffcut emerges as serve. In between, he worked the deterioration “Conservation is as much a sort of environmental Sher- at Cape Breton Island, Fundy, of our national lock Holmes, trying to solve Wood Buffalo, and Jasper na- and provincial an act of faith as an the mystery of how to bring tional parks. Aparks, from Switchbacks by calm to the island. Questions “I’ve worked on everything Sid Marty (1999) to Dale Port- intellectual exercise.” arising from the death of an from reintroducing American man’s The Green Horse (2017). RODERICK HAIG- BROWN affluent landowner mount in marten to Terra Nova Park, to They are part of a much longer intensity and the main actors peregrine falcons in Fundy, to tradition of overtly conser- on the stage collide and co- woodland caribou in Jasper,” vationist writing in Canada, That title, Fat Cats, is a operate for different reasons. Mercer told the Victoria News. from Roderick Haig-Brown’s teaser, as Mercer once more “Who is hunting whom?” “I look at small places like the The Living Land (1961) to the presents the dilemmas con- ✫ Gulf Islands as a beachhead work of Farley Mowat. fronted by park wardens when FAT CATS PROBES, IN INTRICATE DETAIL, for conservation. It provides Now comes George Mer- conservation versus develop- layered motivations, tempera- a land base and marine area cer’s Fat Cats, the fourth nov- ment issues arise. A cougar— ments and ambiguous exter- where you can get the message el within his largely unnoticed the fat cat—has made its way nal challenges. The reader is out about the importance of conservationist series. His to Sidney Island and is killing drawn, page by page, to the conservation and living on the previous three park warden families of deer. Meanwhile nail-biting end of the novel as planet with a gentler hand.” mysteries—Dyed in the Green there are also human fat cats John Haffcut’s principled yet 9780987975461 (2015), Wood Buffalo (2016), afoot who are keen to place conflicted journey culminates and Jasper Wild (2017)—were real estate values ahead of in an unexpected ending Ron Dart has taught in the set in Cape Breton Highlands, the natural environment. I’ve been lucky enough to Department of Political Science, Wood Buffalo and Jasper na- Park warden John Haffcut, have read the first three books Philosophy, and Religious tional parks. fresh from clashes in Jasper George Mercer in this series and I join other Studies at University of the This time Mercer uses the National Park, must decide expectant readers in anticipat- Fraser Valley since 1990. He beauty and natural bounty which predator is most worthy bureaucrats, an ex-military ing future volumes. Rare are was on staff with Amnesty In- of little-known Sidney Island of protection. man and a widowed beauty of the writers who weave together ternational in the 1980s. Dart within the Gulf Islands Na- The other main characters the human variety. an obvious concern for the has published more than 35 tional Park Reserve as the site include a cougar mercenary Fallow deer are taking over parks and conservation in a books, his most recent being and metaphor for dilemmas versus a cougar tracker, a Sidney Island and wreaking national and grand manner. Erasmus: Wild Bird (Create that arise when one mixes park superintendent, Indig- havoc with plants and private George Mercer deserves to be Space, 2017) and The North parks, environment, wild ani- enous leaders, politicians, gardens. How should these recognized as one of them. American High Tory Tradition mals and human habitation. wealthy landowners, park deer be culled? And how can Born in Gander, Newfound- (American Anglican, 2016).

A story of perseverance, Ken Foster paints downtown Vancouver personal fortitude with grit and ecstasy. . . . and hope, through Sean Nosek sought out Ken in his unfathomable childhood single room occupancy hotel on Skid Row, horrors, relocation, and uncovered the story of Foster, a man disability and marital driven to paint. breakdown, while defying Terrific paintings, compelling story. well-defined female roles. — Robert Amos, author of 978-1-926991-98-6 (pb) 978-1-926991-91-7 (pb) E. J. Hughes Paints Vancouver Island 978-1-926991-99-3 (e-book) 978-1-989239-00-1 (e-book)

Two young Mexican Vancouver’s favourite critters lovers are polarized by a have their courage tested proposed nuclear plant. on a fantastic, sea-swept He is an activist, she a journey across the Pacific to conservative reporter. Can Japan. the environment and a Sammy Squirrel and way of life be saved in face Rodney Raccoon: A Stanley of the insatiable need for Park Tale is on BCTF’s 100 978-1-926991-92-4 (pb) power? 978-1-894694-54-4 (pb) 978-1-894694-98-8 (pb) Best Books (Elementary) list. 978-1-926991-93-1 (e-book) 978-1-894694-89-6 (e-book) 978-1-926991-23-8 (e-book)

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8 BC BOOKWORLD WINTER 2018-2019 review PRIZES

N THE FAITH PLANTATION IN Barbados, at the outset of Esi Edugyan’s nov- el Washington Black, slaves are routinely Owhipped to shreds, hanged above the fields, or shot. Suicide is a tempt- The ing way out, especially for those who believe the dead are reborn in their homelands to walk free again. Big Kit plans to return to her native Dahomey [now the Republic of Benin] by killing herself and the boy she cares slave for, eleven-year-old George Washington Black. “What it like, Kit? [to be] Free?” he asks. Erasmus Wilde, their brutal mas- ter, curtails their plan. When another slave commits suicide, he decapitates and the corpse, declaring, “No man can be reborn without his head.” That same day, “Wash” is loaned out to Titch, the master’s brother, because his size makes him ideal ballast for Titch’s aerial balloon, the cloud-cutter. Wash learns to read and sketch the botanical specimens, developing skills that Titch exclaims, “You are a prodigy, truly!” And so his ascendancy begins; and this story moves from the Carib- bean, to the east coast of Canada, and onto London, England. octopus ✫ IN HER TWO PREVIOUS NOVELS, Esi Edugyan has described black men “I’m fascinated by of exceptional talent struggling against historical science: the annihilating forces of racism in the discoveries, inven- 20th century. Once again, she writes tions, the dismissal from the point of view of a man (one of of one theory in relatively few female authors to do so favour of a better one. consistently) using his narrative voice. There’s something in Washington Black’s speech evolves that which resembles, from that of an enslaved child to that I think, the way of a young man capable of astute ob- we go through the world, the stages of a servations and poetic eloquence. But life.”—Esi Edugyan this time her episodic story is wide in scope, full of action and panoramic in its geographical range. It is a mark of Edugyan’s versatil- Most closely entwined with Wash’s such as John Willard who rails against creation of Ocean House in London, a ity that her latest novel is a complete destiny is the Wilde family. Besides the steam engine and extols a “natural gallery of aquatic life. departure in form from The Second Life the savage Erasmus and the aboli- order” that justifies one race dominat- As the story unfolds, Wash will of Samuel Tyne (Knopf, 2004), about a tionist Titch, it includes the patriarch ing all others. As Titch once explained witness the gruesome death of John man from Ghana who raises his family James, an arctic explorer unwilling to Wash, “Freedom... is a word with Willard and embark on a quest to dis- in Alberta; and Half-Blood Blues (Thom- to communicate with his fellow men; different meanings to different people.” cover if Titch is still alive, but his major as Allen, 2011), about black jazz musi- his eccentric wife back at the family Gradually, we participate in the emer- contribution to Ocean House will not be cians in Berlin during the late 1930s. estate in England and a gence of Wash’s under- acknowledged, his name will be erased Washington Black Setting Washington Black in the 1800s, cousin, Philip, who visits by Esi Edugyan standing that abolition from the record. With much dexterity, she adapts the sprawling, capacious the Faith plantation. It is (Patrick Crean Editions $33.99) has not resulted in lib- Edugyan describes how her protagonist 19th century novel to her purpose. Philip who seals Wash’s eration: makes sense of injustices and cruelties. That century is notable for its great fate in Barbados. ...there could be no While the storyline is engaging, it is her scientists and explorers. In Washington It is giving too much away to de- belonging for a creature such as myself, imagining of his inner self that makes Black she emphasizes throughout, the scribe how and why an F is branded anywhere: a disfigured black boy with this story redolent with sophistication contradiction between their increased onto our protagonist’s chest, or why a scientific turn of mind and a talent on and empathy. knowledge of the natural world and there is a huge reward for his capture. canvas, running, always running, from An octopus provides the most their blindness to the suffering of most Or how Titch engineers his escape. the dimmest of shadows. resonant image for this novel. As Wash of its human population. Or why Wash rejects his chance for On the shores of Labrador, after a descends underwater he sees “a flaring In the story, fictional men of science freedom in Upper Canada and instead fortuitous meeting with a distinguished orange creature radiating like a cloth (vaguely reminiscent of Darwin, Frank- accompanies Titch to Hudson’s Bay. marine biologist and his daughter, set afire, its arms boiling all around lin and Gosse) react incredulously to Eventually our hero reaches Nova Sco- Wash becomes a deep sea diver, bring- it, the suckers very white... an animal Washington Black’s achievements. tia in 1834 where slaves are technically ing to the surface rare sea creatures, that can change itself to match its sur- Wash says of one of them, “I felt as if free. The Slavery Abolition Act applies and even designing the glass tanks in roundings, just by contracting its skin.” he were watching some insensible crea- to British Colonies. which they can be displayed alive. The This meeting is poignant. He imag- ture perform an unnatural act, as if a The evil of racism persists in men crowning achievement of his life is the ines this sentient female creature hot house plant had learned to speak.” scorning “the sad rigidity of a boy, Edugyan’s large cast of idiosyncratic the uselessness of his hard inflexible characters includes Wash’s nemesis, It is hard to keep up with Esi Edugyan’s bones.” But the octopus inks him play- John Willard, a soft-spoken villain successes. Washington Black, her third fully, and looking at him with her small whose impeccable manners belie his gelatinous eyes, she swims directly into ruthlessness as a bounty hunter; iden- novel—about a slave in Barbados who his hands. He tends to her lovingly; he tical twins Benedikt and Theo Kinast, brings her to England so that others the captain and the surgeon of the Ave escapes to Nova Scotia, Labrador and might appreciate her beauty. Maria with a crew of rescued orphans; Outside her natural medium, she Edgar Farrow, the sexton of St. John’s London—was immediately shortlisted for cannot thrive. Watching her saddening parish in Norfolk, Virginia, who stud- the Man Booker Prize, the Rogers Writers’ decline, he sees “not the miraculous ies rotting human flesh, and smuggles animal, but my own slow, relentless runaway slaves to safety; and Peter Trust Fiction Prize and the Giller Prize. extinction.” This is a story that goes Haas, a Dutch mute who speaks with to great depths; it’s deserving of the his hands. attention it is receiving. 9781443423380

9 BC BOOKWORLD WINTER 2018-2019 review FICTION

The Burning Stone what if Appius Endo is not re- * by Jack Whyte Post-Roman Britain must have been ally the ultimate enemy? (Penguin Random House $36) Near the outset of The Burn- a chaotic and harsh time—perfect ing Stone, Roman aristocrat for a Jack Whyte novel. Titanius Varrus, grandfather BY CHERIE THIESSEN to our hero Quintus, has described the day he and his T AGE 52, JACK clare his love to the beautiful along with his rebel- productivity. cohorts narrowly missed being Whyte of Kelow- Lydia and manage to convince lious youngest son, Quintus, who re- killed by a screaming ball of na burst onto her father and brothers that Shamus. Our young mains within dis- fire that decimated the land- the writing stage his intentions are honorable. lovers get to know tance of regular vis- A scape and annihilated some with The Sky- An ambush is barely each other from a its from Lydia and 1,000 soldiers in a Roman stone (1992), the first of his thwarted, bringing the young distance. family, carries with legion. projected quartet of Arthurian Roman into friendship with A serious acci- him a labarum (an The burning stone shows novels in a series to be called his rescuer, a hardened for- dent has threatened official seal) that is up again at the conclusion of A Dream of Eagles, followed mer military policeman known to undermine Liam’s CHERIE known as ‘the Em- this epic tale of intrigue, be- by his Templar and Guardian as Rufus Cato, who has his production of special peror’s license.’ It THIESSEN trayal and passion, as Whyte trilogies. own score to settle with the armour, ring mail denotes its bearer is tidies up a complex plot in He has continued to look powerful man behind the at- tunics he needs to supply to an imperial envoy, giving him which two different sets of back. With more than twenty tack. Quintus is introduced the army by a certain date. or her considerable power and characters finally mesh. But titles, in twenty languages, he to the secrets of an ancient The Mcuil family hopes that importance. It’s possible that part of what we learn is that all is easily one of Canada’s most brotherhood that is trying to this ‘banished’ hero, who Quintus is being hunted for is not quite revealed. So, does widely-read historical novel- halt the rot that is destroying seems to know something this document. He still doesn’t this mean a prequel? ists, although he is seldom their beloved Empire. about the trade, will help with know. Whyte has recently fore- given his due in CanLit circles. Lydia’s father of- While the plotline involving warned on CBC radio that Now Whyte, at 78, has fers to set up the Quintus and his forged iden- he might not have another finally produced a prequel to young Roman as tity is the major one, near the book in him. Meanwhile he The Skystone, going back to a smith (un- outset readers will also follow has again masterfully melded fourth-century London. der an Irish Rufus Cato (called Rufus be- legend, fact and fiction in his ✫ alias) to as- cause of his red hair) and his usual style in order to flesh FLEEING THE MASSACRE OF HIS EN- sist Mcuil’s team of dedicated members out a shadowy time of which tire family save a single uncle, brother, of the Mithraic Brotherhood. we know very little. a young Roman aristocrat Liam, at This was a mystic and an- 978-0-670-07000-8 named Quintus Varrus arrives his forge, in cient religion that involved in Britain not knowing who is the town of initiation levels and bonds Cherie Thiessen reviews fiction to blame for the murders of his Colchester, of brotherhood to oppose from Pender Island. family and their servants, nor military corruption, stem- whom he can trust. ming the number of raids * [The Western Roman empire Quintus Varrus never re- on the shipments of iron is generally believed to have ally liked his military grand- ore ingots to battalions. existed until 476, a date popu- father much. He didn’t have Corruption has been larized by the British historian much to do with his father worming its way into the Edward Gibbon. In that year either. But both men were highest echelons. A mon- the Roman Army in the West obviously involved in much ster called Appius Endo, was defeated at the Battle of more than young Quintus ever nicknamed The Basilisk, Ravenna by Odoacer who be- fathomed. who had already escaped came the first King of Italy. The After unknown assassins from them once, is believed previous Western emperor Ju- have inexplicably burned to be the chief culprit. Ulti- lius Nepos was assassinated down the family estate with mately, fate will bring Rufus in 480, so 476 is considered a deadly fireball, Quintus, in and the Basilisk together. But a transition point between disguise, wants to keep a low antiquity and the Middle Ages.] profile in Londinium (London). There he meets the love of his life, a young Irish wom- an named Lydia Mcuil. Quintus will de-

LONG BEFORE King Arthur

10 BC BOOKWORLD WINTER 2018-2019 review FICTION

loading up ziplocks with deli EXASPERATING meats while the mourners mourn. She drags her boy- friend along, reasoning that FRIENDS “he was made for funerals, so quiet, solemn, respectful. A real suckhole.” Can we root They chafe, they subvert for her? Should we? Bingo-loving sisters Shirley Don’t Tell Me What to Do greenery as, you know, women and Mary Beth’s admirable by Dina Del Bucchia do, but in the opening story friendship after years of child (Arsenal Pulp Press $17.95) Val—whose grown son sends raising and marriage suggest her gardening magazines and that bonds forged in resent- BY CLAIRE MULLIGAN whose long-divorced husband ment and betrayal are just

was outsmarted by the lawn PHOTO as powerful at those forged

OMEN HAMMER voles—has different ideas. in love. The title “Under the I”

Dina Del Bucchia WILSON against the A woman from the Neigh- refers to selfishness as well as

plastic ceil- bourhood Enhancement Com- SHAY to women under the neon sign Wing of their mittee hounds Val for the unresolved past. ture, a thoughtfulness that is for the bingo hall “who hold ordinary sorry state of her yard, but Val There are several disturb- impossible to reciprocate. their Craven A’s like daggers.” lives in Dina Del Bucchia’s decides lawns were originally ing tales of excess. In “Miss Like the mother Linda in In the final story, “The collection of fifteen stories, for rich people. “They had ser- Supreme” we meet Sashay, “Miss Supreme,” Pamela risks Gospel of Kittany,” beautiful Don’t Tell Me What to Do. vants to fluff up their shrubs.” the five-year-old, small-town debt and ruination in the drive young Kittany becomes an They chafe, they subvert and So she wages a one-woman beauty queen whose desper- for perfection. I belong in a internet sensation through they channel their resentment war against the hypocrisy ate-for-perfection mother Lin- bigger story, she might be say- The Light, a sinister devotional in peculiar and often destruc- of lawn care, a war that has da is bizarre at best, exploitive ing. But here I am, and I will cult dedicated to beauty and tive ways. deeper, more personal roots. at worst, using vacation money make your lives hell instead. superficiality. The exploited These characters are like The same subversion is at to buy “a set of perfect teeth to In “Nest,” a pet-home archi- Kittany exploits herself, then exasperating friends. You work in the titular story “Don’t fit over missing baby teeth and tect gets a commission from exploits her followers in turn. want to give them advice, Tell Me What to Do,” told in new grown-up ones.” a strange, wealthy woman to Exploitation is a circle, not a knock it into them. Some- the first person by a woman In “That Beautiful Feeling,” make a nest for a wild bird. one-way street. times you question why you’re named Alex, who criticizes Pamela’s over-gifting leads Meanwhile, the architect’s wife Del Bucchia’s language is friends with them at all, given her lover Robert: “He knows to escalating consequences, desperately wants a baby of wry, precise and fierce. These that many of the characters I hate… being treated like a all in a desperate attempt to their own. As the architect be- are complex, compelling and are not that likeable. child, being told what I should make her dull office a better comes obsessed with creating masterful stories. 9781551527017 These women and situa- do.” We sympathize; but then place, and to be liked, be- something truly extraordinary, tions ring familiar, then hit again, Alex, if you don’t want cause, let’s face it, she is not she becomes less and less Claire Mulligan is a creative you with subversive notes. to be treated like a child, don’t that likeable. You sympathize interested in filling her own writing teacher at the Univer- Another writer would have her be with men old enough to be with her cohorts. They’re just ordinary nest. sity of Victoria and Camosun female character striving to your Dad. Black and white plugging away at their ordi- A young woman, Nat, College. Her novels are The create a beautiful green space boundaries are blurred by nary lives, and here comes crashes funeral services in Reckoning of Boston Jim and in a concrete jungle, nurturing booze, entitlement and an Pamela with the grand ges- Del Bucchia’s “In Cold Cuts,” The Dark.

11 BC BOOKWORLD WINTER 2018-2019 review FICTION OUT WITH THE OLD

with an earnest bit of text trig- gers second thoughts. So, he Oldness; or, the censors his own personality. Last-Ditch Efforts of Marcus O by Brett Josef Grubisic We learn so much about (Now or Never $19.95) Marcus O in these struck pas- “Years earlier, when sages—vulnerable, idiosyn- incandescent bulbs had cratic things; sensible, wise DUSTIN COLE suddenly become as iffy things. But nobody he is trying BY a proposition as race-, to meet will see as we do. GING IS A CRISIS, religion-, gender-, size-, This is, I think, the conflict if you live that ethnicity-, disability-, or of the book. Mediated thought. long. I am thirty- sexuality-based zingers at He struggles to renew forms Aseven. When I the office, he’d adjusted to of unmediated thought and think about be- the change automatically, ACVQ 9 actions which may follow. The ing sixty-five years old, differ- even while disdaining the How often in the last notion of mediated thought can ent things come to mind. blue surgical light that month have you felt mis- be extended beyond the novel’s There is hope for artistic represented an environ- understood? wide spectrum of technologies fulfillment and recognition. mental good. I’d expect to find a and applied to other, often hy- There are fears of hearing loss, “The air plant in the question of this sort on a pothetical people, as well as to renal scans, colon removal. spherical mini-terrarium psych eval given to mili- institutions, even to our most There is sombre resignation of distributed to every office tary and police recruits. hallowed—the university. the inevitable five-mile jog in as regulation greenery, Anything above an ac- In the world according to the afternoon as debit against he’d accepted too. He’s got a dermal moni- ceptably low number is an Marcus O, the physical config- the sixpack to be had that “Acceptance. He’d in- tor, too, or CMT. It’s short for instant red flag meaning uration and exterior surfaces evening. stantly pictured an Ed- compact medical technology. Should Not Have Access of the university say as much Brett Josef Grubisic’s wardian curmudgeon “…it’s an implant that to Firearms. about it as its course offerings Oldness; or, the Last-Ditch railing against light bulb transmits his body func- I’ve been misunder- and global rank: Efforts of Marcus O is a comic filaments and mourning tion signals to a sentient stood several times. As “Pluralistic utopian novel that explores the subject candlelight’s passing in cloud network. If he wants for “felt misunderstood,” crystalline forms, exotic of ageing. It is both flippant rhyming couplets. No one he can pull out his tablet that belongs to the script geometry that evoked and learned, exhaustively hangs out with that guy, and watch real time statis- of an adolescent, along promise of unfettered current, cutting edge even, he understood. Out with tics on the bus at a traffic with “it’s so unfair” and potential, fantastical el- yet still with a whiff of eczema the old, etc., etc.” light, “observe the release “No one even tries to get ements of engineering salve. Beneath the hilarity there and catch of hormones, or me,” and that hormonal whimsy along with the Add to that the wafting is profound sadness. He is the steady production of sense of being a peg in a earthen and subterranean vapour of a low-sodium cream consigned to the waste bin. healthy cells.” world overrun with round that promoted a peren- of tomato soup serving for one, Because he’s out of touch? No, Marcus subscribes to the holes. After that, feeling nial reverent organic one- slightly scorched. because he’s old. online dating site Venerati. A misunderstood belongs ness with the biosphere. Now in his fifties, Grubisic While Grubisic’s subject is fair chunk of his spare time to narcissists, the woe- A mindful city of mind at noticed an age spot on his oldness, his theme is some- is spent pondering Venerati’s fully immature, the clini- the edge of a coastal city hand which put him in mind thing we can all relate to: ACVQ, the AccuCoreValu cally paranoid, and that of spired glass. What mag- of a specular threshold. Two the mediation of thought by Questionnaire™, “designed population segment for nificence. Luminous with demographics bordering each technology. Under this “sur- and perfected by a commis- whom life plateaued too plenitude and potential, other on different planets. One gical” light, the book is more sioned brain trust of leading soon and at too low a secular cathedrals where day, the vital apex of middle contemporary hyper-realism field experts.” The question- level; they’re resentful of nearly every last mystery age, the next, poof, senior than geriatric sci-fi. naire depicts a process of that fact and need some had been explained.” citizenry. Marcus frequently consults self-revision. These short in- external force on which to Often when reading con- He started thinking. What Syb, a voice-activated piece of terstitial chapters are the pin the blame. temporary, research-heavy might it be like for me ten encyclopedic hardware in the novel’s formal innovation. In my field, being mis- fiction, I can’t help seeing the years on as a sexagenarian? shape of a “tubby aluminum Here he quips, he deletes, understood is inevitable, highfalutin’ author knuckling “Mottled, a geezer, just like cylinder,” voice set to British quips, deletes, says something an ordinary part of the job down at the archive or haunt- that.” Behold the character of (Female). It has trouble with he means but it’s too heavy description. As for feeling ing the rare books room. At no Marcus O. In all his myriad diphthongs and triphthongs, for a dating site, so he forfeits misunderstood, that’s not time did I get the sense this facets, we come to know Mar- but accesses the annals on his honest and distinctive at all common for me on book was a compendium of cus, human, all too human. command, from the chim- opinions for something truth- any month. mulish research, an achieve- Reading this novel, we en- panzee-human divergence to ful, minus affect, and ends up Because he and Syb have ment unto itself. counter wry cynicism, belea- a brief history of calisthenics, sounding like a jellyfish with done so much research on Cerebral as hell, Oldness is guered sarcasm, acid snide- prattling on until Marcus says leather elbow patches. For the topic of online dating, any a portrait of a hapless brainiac ness, dismissive witticisms stop. example: attempt to represent himself rendered with stylish derring (galore), petty vengeance, do. 978-1-988098-63-0 prideful obstinance, involute paragraphs—paratactic, par- Brett Grubisic confronts the indignities of Dustin Cole of Slave Lake, enthetical, grotesque. And all technology and aging when he’s halfway to Alberta, is writing a novel, of it had me chortling page Notice, set in Vancouver about after page. a hundred. “His theme is something we can a student being evicted by his Here we encounter Marcus shady landlords, his subse- O’s dynamic temperament, at all relate to,” says reviewer Dustin Cole, quent insolvency, and his re- once lucid, drab and despair- alization that Vancouver is far ing: “the mediation of thought by technology.” from a “Super Natural” idyll.

12 BC BOOKWORLD WINTER 2018-2019 Out of the Woods Woodworkers along the Salish Sea SEASON’S Pirjo Raits; photographs by Dale Roth and Michele Ramberg A breathtaking profile of 26 woodcarvers whose art—from finely crafted furniture to abstract sculpture to Indigenous masterworks—draws inspiration from the natural beauty READINGS of the Salish Sea. “The carvers on these pages [show] amazing versatility that goes miles beyond craftsmanship.” —Robert Bateman Heritage House | $34.95 pb

On the Rocks with Jack Knox A Not-So-Savage Land The Flora and Fauna of Coastal BC Miles to Go Islanders I Will Never Forget The Art and Times of Frederick Whymper, and the Pacific Northwest Beryl Young Jack Knox 1838–1901 Collin Varner A poignant story of friendship, loss, and Peter Johnson Times Colonist columnist Jack Knox shows Over 800 common plant and animal loyalty in 1940s Saskatchewan by the his more serious side in this humane A fascinating look at the early colonial species are represented in this concise and critically acclaimed author of Follow and heart-expanding collection of true Northwest through the eyes of an apprentice beautifully illustrated field guide by UBC the Elephant, winner of the Chocolate stories about the extraordinary lives of engraver from London who became the horticulturist Collin Varner. Lily Award. Heritage House / Wandering Fox | $12.95 pb | $9.99 ebook ordinary people. official artist for survey expeditions to BC, Heritage House | $39.95 pb Heritage House | $19.95 pb | $15.99 ebook Alaska, and Siberia. Heritage House | $29.95 pb

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Quenching the Dragon The Hard Work of Hope North America in the Anthropocene The Columbia River Treaty The Canada–China Water Crisis Climate Change in the Age of Trump Robert William Sandford A Primer Robert William Sandford Robert William Sandford An invitation to citizens and activists to Robert William Sandford Canadian freshwater expert Robert A rallying cry for citizens around the separate the hype from the hope with respect A vital work that explains the nature of this Sandford takes readers to China and shares world to develop effective solutions to the to the outcomes of the 2015 Paris climate complex water agreement between Canada what it is like to deal with some of the growing urgency for global action on climate conference and in relation to humanity’s and the United States and how its update will most intractable freshwater problems in change as it relates to water, food, energy dangerous new era—the Anthropocene. impact communities, landscapes, industry and the world. and biodiversity. RMB | $16 hc | $7.99 ebook water supplies in British Columbia. RMB | $16 hc | $7.99 ebook RMB | $16 hc | $7.99 ebook RMB | $16 hc | $7.99 ebook

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13 BC BOOKWORLD WINTER 2018-2019 TALONBOOKS FALL TITLES

Almost Islands beholdenbeholden Flow Phyllis Webb and the Pursuit of FREDFRED WAH & RITA WONG Poems Collected and New the Unwritten Comprised of two lines of poetic text ROY MIKI STEPHEN COLLIS flowinflowingg alongalong a 114-foot-long114-foot-long map of the edited by Michael Barnholden CColumbial bi RRiver,i thisthi powerfulf l image-i Almost Islands is a powerfully introspective The Eyelash and the Monochrome asks: poem by acclaimed poets Fred Wah and memoir of the author’s friendship with What happens when material becomes Rita Wong presents language yearning legendary Canadian poet Phyllis Webb – thought and thought becomes object? At to understand the consequences of our now in her nineties and long enveloped in once a book of poetry and an artist’s book, hydroelectric manipulation of one of North silence – and his regular trips to see her. It is it gathers together poems, performance America’s largest river systems. an extended meditation on literary ambition scripts, and parallel texts, illustrating the and failure, poetry and politics, choice and 978-1-77201-211-8 • $24.95 • Poetry hybrid nature of these texts and trespassing chance, location, colonization, and climate Now Available upon the boundaries of genres. change – the struggle that is writing, and the 978-1-77201-210-1 (HC); 978-1-77201-217-0 (SC) end of writing. $19.95 • Poetry • Available December 7 978-177201-207-1 • $24.95 • Non-fiction Now Availablelable

He Speaks VolumesVoolumes WaysideWayside SSangang White A Biography of George Bowering CECILY NICHOLSON DENI ELLIS BÉCHARD REBECCA WIGOD We are pleased to announce that Cecily Assigned to write an exposé on Nicholson’s complex, sensitive book Wayside Richmond Hew, the conservation world’s This biography of George Bowering, first Sang has won the 2018 Governor General’s most elusive and corrupt humanitarian Canadian Parliamentary Poet Laureate, Literary Award for English-Language Poetry! worker, an intrepid journalist finds reveals the intimate, intellectual, and artistic himself on a plane to the Democratic life of one of Canada’s most prolific authors, “In this hypnotic suite of long poems, Republic of the Congo – a country he offering an inside look at the people and Cecily Nicholson makes room, offering thinks he understands. But when he events at the centre of the country’s literary glimpses and echoes of the Canadian meets Sola, a woman searching for a and artistic avant-garde from the 1960s to landscape as she explores ideas of rootless white orphan, he slowly uncovers the present. borders, identity, industry and travel. a tapestry of corruption and racial tensions She offers a catalogue of impressions, a 978-1-77201-206-4 • $24.95 • Non-fiction generations in the making. Available December 1 collage of the ephemeral, held together by image and the pulsing phrase that stays 978-1-77201-196-8 • $19.95 • Fiction with you long after the journey’s over.” Now Available –2018 Governor General’s Award Jury 978-1-77201-182-1 • $16.95 • Poetry Now Available Talonbooks

14 BC BOOKWORLD WINTER 2018-2019 review FICTION

Crow Jazz: short stories by Linda Rogers (Mother Tongue $23.95)

BY JOHN MOORE

T’S OFFICIAL, MARIJUANA IS legal in Canada, but as Kevin Costner starred long as Linda Rogers is with Amy Madigan and Field of writing, who needs it? Gaby Hoffman in Dreams, a fi lm based on You can stop burn- Shoeless Joe, a 1982 novel Iing money in the bong. Her by W.P. Kinsella. new collection of stories, Crow Jazz, is a one-time purchase that will always be fresh and Write it & available on your shelf. Rogers lets us re-experi- ence and face our anxious they will... dreams and nightmares vi- Going the Distance: cariously, from the terrified The Life and Works of safety of the bleachers, and W.P. Kinsella by William Steele feel braver as we leave the (D&M $34.95) circus tent into the familiar, yet somehow changed, world outside. ✫ W.P. Kinsella often quoted Hilaire Bel- PREVIOUSLY, AS A POET, LINDA ROG- loc who wrote, “When I am ers has worked the high wire; dead, I hope it may be said: tumbling weightlessly through ‘His sins were scarlet, but the surreal spot-lit popcorn- his books were read.” scented air of the mind’s Big It’s possible, even likely, Top. that Kinsella’s baseball fic- Like the girl on the Flying tion and his Hobbema sto- Trapeze, just when she’s done ries will still be widely read so many imagistic flips and fifty years from now; more verbal mid-air summersaults so than any other B.C. fic- and you’re sure she’s about tion writers with the excep- to plunge into the sawdust tion of Douglas Coupland, and elephant shit below, with William Gibson and Alice an acrobat’s timing she arcs Munro (whose work Kin- back onto the tiny platform, sella greatly admired). posing with a cocked hip and Linda’s lucid Meanwhile, contem- one hand raised, spangled porary issues of cultural tights flashing, making it look appropriation have lately PHOTO so easy.

HAY tended to tarnish his repu- Anyone who seriously tation. Kinsella himself has writes poetry knows It ain’t hallucinations sometimes been viewed easy—as the late Long John KATHLEEN as curmudgeonly, awk- Baldry used to sing—and ward, stubborn, cranky, when a poet turns to prose, it “American,” commercial gets harder. “Linda Rogers’ Crow Jazz affirms that the and decidedly unsexy. His These days, as far as I can liminal space/time dislocation experience is not work has been increasingly tell, prose narrative implies disregarded—and therefore a continuity that encour- necessarily a psychological state peculiar to disrespected—largely be- ages formulaic writing to the cause he himself was often point that it became the gold people who give personal names to their bongs.” not congenial, polite, or standard of journalism until collegial. the illiterati of social media Unlike most contemporary place in what are sometimes Crow Jazz affirms that this The first biographer of blogged traditional reportage short stories, in Crow Jazz a called “liminal spaces,” though liminal space/time disloca- Kinsella, William Steele, into the Retirement Village lot happens in a brief time... the term is a misnomer that tion experience is not neces- has done the world a favour lockdown. Luckily, writers While digging in her gar- actually refers to a moment in sarily a psychological state by providing an unbiased like Joyce, Celine, Cendrars, den, an old lady passes on time when an individual unex- peculiar to people who give framework for examining Kerouac and Burroughs were seeds of wisdom to a young pectedly experiences personal names to his life, allowing the reader well ahead of the game, so girl, then lies down in the a mundane familiar their bongs. to make up his or her own Linda Rogers’ strange dream- grave she’s been digging. place in an intensely With or without mind about Kinsella without like stories in Crow Jazz A gaggle of half-wild girls, new way, as a set- psychoactive chemi- infusing his own views, with don’t catch us completely raised by parents who didn’t ting configured for cal assistance, we Going the Distance: The off-balance. get haircuts and become some unpredictable all experience these Life and Works of W.P. To be clear, Crow Jazz is stock-brokers when the Six- drama. It’s like when random revela- Kinsella. 9781771621946 not a collection of prose poems. ties ended in 1979, takes you walk into Costco tory moments and The Prose Poem was a misbe- hilarious revenge on sluggish, and feel that you’ve JOHN fraught social en- gotten mutant that combined thuggish neighbourhood boys. just entered a huge MOORE counters, which we SUBSCRIBE to the worst traits of poetry and A man’s living room win- alien spacecraft full usually discount BC BookWorld prose. Occasional sightings dow, in which he may or may of signs and signals that are and dismiss because they To receive the next are still published, but it’s a not have been displaying his familiar but invested with to- threaten to disrupt our pre- 4 issues by mail, send welcome candidate for the list body, is mysteriously shat- tally new significance. ferred state of comfortably a cheque for $25 to: of Recent Extinctions. tered, possibly but not defi- Liminal moments are inevi- numb entitled boredom. BC BookWorld, Instead Crow Jazz is a col- nitely by a bullet, which leads tably accompanied by a touch 978-1896949659 926 West 15th Ave., lection of stories written by to scenes with the police that of paranoia resulting from Vancouver, BC V5Z 1R9 a poet, with a poet’s sense of could’ve been written by Har- novel perceptions and un- John Moore of Garibaldi High- or pay via PayPal economy, condensation and old Pinter. certainty about how to react, lands has turned his back on www.bcbookworld.com the multiple implications and And so it goes. which Rogers delineates with fruitless literary spadework in possibilities of language. Stories in Crow Jazz take a poet’s eye for telling detail. favour of gardening legal crops.

15 BC BOOKWORLD WINTER 2018-2019 Naturally Great Books greystonebooks.com

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іћћђџDZȱ •˜‹Š•ȱŽŠȱ•˜žȱ‘˜’ŒŽȱŘŖŗŞ Ȉ —ȱŗşŚŘȱŠ—Œ˜žŸŽ›ǰȱ›’’œ‘ȱ˜•ž–‹’Šǰȱ ‘’›ŽŽ—Ȭ¢ŽŠ›Ȭ˜•ȱŽ—ȱŠ—ȱ Ȋ Šȱ›’Ž—œ‘’™ȱœŠ›œȱ˜ȱŠ••ȱŠ™Š›ȱ“žœȱŠœȱ ‘Ž›ȱŠ–’•¢ȱ‘ŠŸŽȱœž›Ÿ’ŸŽȱ‘Žȱ іћюљіѠѡDZȱ‘ŽȱŘŖŗŞȱȱ˜˜”ȱ›’£Žœȱ Ȋ ‘Š›ŽȱŠ—ȱœžœ™’Œ’˜—ȱŠ›Žȱ’—Œ›ŽŠœ’—ȱ ›ŠŸŠŽœȱ˜ȱ‘Žȱ’Ž—Š–ȱŠ›ȱ —ȱ–Ž›’ŒŠ—ȱ —’Š—œȱ’—ȱ‘’•›Ž—Ȃœȱ’Ž›Šž›Žȱȱ ŠŠ’—œȱ Š™Š—ŽœŽȬŠ—Š’Š—œȱǯȱǯȱǯȱ Š—ȱ‘ŽȱŽ—œž’—ȱŠ–’—ŽȱŠ—ȱ Žœȱ˜˜”ȱ˜ȱ‘ŽȱŽŠ› ȂœȱŠȱ•˜ŸŽ•¢ǰȱ˜•ȬŠœ‘’˜—ŽȮŽŽ•’—ȱ ™Ž›œŽŒž’˜—ǯȱŽ›ȱŠȱ̘˜ȱ œ˜›¢ǰȱ˜ŒžœŽȱœšžŠ›Ž•¢ȱ˜—ȱ‘Žȱ’›•œȂȱ Žœ›˜¢œȱ‘Ž’›ȱŸ’••ŠŽǰȱ‘Ž›ȱ ›’Ž—œ‘’™ǰȱ‘ŠȱŠŒ”—˜ •ŽŽœȱŠ—Ž›ȱ Š–’•¢ȱŽŒ’Žœȱ˜ȱŠ”Žȱ‘Žȱ Ȉ‘Žȱ’œ’—ŒȱŠ—ȱž—‹›ŽŠ”Š‹•Žȱ›Žœ’•’Ž—Œ¢ȱ Š—ȱ’—“žœ’ŒŽǯȈȯKirkus Reviews ž•’–ŠŽȱ›’œ”ȱ˜—ȱ‘Žȱ‘’‘ȱœŽŠœȱ ˜ȱ —’Ž—˜žœȱ™Ž˜™•Žȱ’œȱŠĜ›–Žȱ’—ȱ‘’œȱ ˜›ȱŠȱŒ‘Š—ŒŽȱŠȱŠȱ‹ŽĴŽ›ȱ•’Žǯ •˜Ÿ’—ȱ™˜››Š’ȱ˜ȱŽ—Ž›Š’˜—Š•ȱŒ˜ž›ŠŽȱ ȃŠ›’”˜ȱ—˜ȂœȱŽŸ˜ŒŠ’ŸŽȱ‹•ŠŒ”ȬŠ—Ȭ Š—ȱ˜›’žŽǯȈ—Quill & Quire ‘’Žȱ’••žœ›Š’˜—œȱŠȱ˜ȱ‘ŽȱŒ‘Š›–ȱ˜ȱ ‘’œȱœ ŽŽȱŠ—ȱ‘Šž—’—ȱœ˜›¢ǯȄȱ —Quill & Quire

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Governor General’s Award winner Cecily Nicholson giving a TEDx talk at Emily Carr University of Art + Design in 2017. The Basil Stuart-Stubbs Prize for Outstanding Scholarly Book on B.C.

Diversity honoured Call for Submissions

The $2,500 annual prize recognizes an There is no entry fee. outstanding scholarly book published on a Publishers simply submit three Six of this year’s thirty Governor British Columbian subject in 2018 by a Ca- copies of each eligible title by General’s Award nominees in English nadian author. The author or editor need December 15. not be formally affiliated with a university SEND ENTRIES TO: have B.C. connections. or college. But the work must exhibit high Basil Stuart-Stubbs Book Prize standards of research, diligence and origi- c/o UBC University nality. A shortlist of three titles is selected Librarian’s Office WO B . C . AUTHORS HAVE a social worker and prisoners’ rights Irving K. Barber Learning Centre won Governor General’s activist, and a coming to terms with prior to the presentation of the prize at a reception hosted by UBC Library in 2019. 202A - 1961 East Mall, Awards for literature this her abusive and often drunken father Vancouver BC V6T 1Z1 Canada year. Darrel J. McLeod of who was murdered under mysterious Sooke has won the G.G. circumstances. Sponsors are UBC Library, Yosef Wosk www.bcbookawards.ca TAward for non-fiction for Mamaskatch: Heart Berries is also a finalist for and Pacific BookWorld News Society. [email protected] A Cree Coming of Age published by the 2018 Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Douglas & McIntyre of Madeira Park. Prize for Nonfiction. 9780385691147 Judges Ted Bishop, Leslie Shimo- ✫ takahara and Merrily Weisbord REVIEWED IN BC BOOKWORLD BY JOAN GIVNER, concluded Mamaskatch “dares to im- Carys Cragg’s memoir Dead Reckon- event magazine presents merse readers in provocative ing: How I Came to Meet LET DOWN YOUR HAIR contemporary issues includ- the Man Who Murdered My a speculative writing* contest ing gender fluidity, familial Father (Arsenal $19.95) was violence, and transcultural also nominated for a GG in $1000 Deadline: 01/20/2019 hybridity. A fast-moving, the non-fiction category. More One poem or story up to 1800 words intimate memoir of dreams than twenty years after her GRAND Contest Judge: Emily Pohl-Weary and nightmares—lyrical and father was murdered, Cragg PRIZE EVENTMAGAZINE.CA gritty, raw and vulnerable, decided to meet and confront told without pity, but with his convicted killer in prison. *including but not humans with robot phoenix-like strength.” Anosh Irani After exchanging many letters limited to: emotions, Cecily Nicholson of with the convict, she travels time travel, talking dogs, Burnaby has received the to Alberta for a day-long, alchemy, super talking G.G. Award for poetry for face-to-face meeting in the powers, ghosts, dolls, dystopian mutants, Wayside Song published by minimum security prison at societies, cruel Talonbooks of Vancouver. Drumheller. 9781551526973 teleport- wizards, Judges Garry Gottfriedson, ✫ ation, very old Sachiko Murakami and PUBLISHED ON SEPTEMBER 25, 2018, robots men with Patrick Warner concluded, Anosh Irani’s play The Men with human enormous emotions, wings... “In this hypnotic suite of in White (Anansi $19.95), long poems, Cecily Nichol- was one of five plays that were son makes room, offering announced as GG finalists Terese Marie Mailhot glimpses and echoes of the for drama on October 3rd. Canadian landscape as she Directly influenced by Irani’s explores ideas of borders, own cricket club experiences The George Ryga Award for identity, industry and travel. in Vancouver and his visit to She offers a catalogue of a chicken slaughterhouse in Social Awareness in Literature impressions, a collage of the Bombay (not Mumbai), this ephemeral, held together by story about two brothers ex- Call for Entries image and the pulsing phrase plores the modern immigrant that stays with you long after experience and Islamophobia. The $2,000 George Ryga Award is an George Ryga Award the journey’s over.” The Men in White pre- annual literary prize for a B.C. writer c/o BC BookWorld Wayside Sang: 9781772011821 Mamaskatch: 978-1-77162-200-4 miered at the Arts Club The- who has achieved an outstanding de- 926 West 15th Avenue, ✫ atre where Irani was first af- gree of social awareness in a new book Vancouver, B.C. V5Z 1R9 forded a foothold by Arts Club published in 2018. RAISED A MEMBER OF THE SEABIRD Darrel J. McLeod Island Band in B.C., Terese mentor Bill Millerd. It was A B.C. writer is someone who has A public presentation ceremony Marie Mailhot has earned a GG nomi- nominated for three Jessie Richardson lived in British Columbia for three of the at the Vancouver Public Library last five years. Ebooks are ineligible. nation for non-fiction for her coming of Awards including Outstanding Original is held in conjunction with the THERE ARE NO ENTRY FEES. Ap- age memoir Heart Berries (Doubleday Script. His work has been translated annual George Woodcock Life- plicants can simply send three copies time Achievement Award. $25)—written in Indiana—after over- into eleven languages. 9781487004736 of the book for the judges prior to coming a dysfunctional family. Hos- ✫ December 15. More info: bcbookwawards.ca pitalized and facing a dual diagnosis POET JOSHUA WHITEHEAD’S JONNY APPLESEED of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and (Arsenal Pulp Press $17.95) has been This award is sponsored by B.C. BookWorld in association with Bipolar II, she writes her way out of nominated for a GG in fiction. See de- Pacific BookWorld News Society, Yosef Wosk, and Vancouver Public Library. trauma. It’s a memorial for her mother, tails on page 38.

17 BC BOOKWORLD WINTER 2018-2019 MEET MARCUS. review A MAN FEELING OLDER BUT HISTORY NOT MUCHMUCH WISERWISER. ISBN: 978-1-988098-63-0

“Grubisic’s great talent is the comedic scene and his novel

overflows with them.” Barry Gough’s duo biography examines two titans of the British Admiral- —Vancouver Sun ty, Winston Churchill and John Fisher, whose exceptional strengths were based on the same characteristics that led to their greatest weaknesses.

NOW OR NEVER PUBLISHING NONPUBLISHING.COM A DAEMONIC DUO New from the Royal BC Museum Winston Churchill and John Fisher

Churchill and Fisher: As Barry Gough investigates how The Titans at the Admiralty who fought the two friends clashed over World War the First World War by Barry Gough (James Lorimer $39.95) One strategies, he delves deeply into the collisions of their temperaments. When Churchill became First Lord ARRY GOUGH OF VICTORIA of the Admiralty, the Navy’s political has continued his high- chief, Fisher was its First Sea Lord, quality output with the its professional chief. The book chiefly publication of his char- arose from access to Jacky Fisher’s acter study, Churchill papers. and Fisher: The Ti- In June 2018, Churchill and Fisher Btans at the Admiralty who Fought was co-winner of the Keith Matthews the First World War, a 656-page dual Award of the Canadian Nautical Re- biography of the political head of the search Society for best book published Royal Navy, Winston Churchill, and in 2017. The other 2018 Matthews the professional master of the navy, Award winner was Michael and Anita John Arbuthnot Fisher. Hadley’s Spindrift: A Canadian Book Writing in the Times Literary Supple- of the Sea (D&M) that was reviewed ment, Jan Morris has declared Gough’s by Theo Dombrowski in The Ormsby dual biography about the early 20th Review (#196, November 6, 2017). century relationship between Churchill Churchill and Fisher: 9781459411364 and Fisher as “enthralling” and “a work of profound scholarship and interpre- [For a complete review of Churchill and tation.” Fisher, visit The Ormsby Review.] KOOTENAY LIVES Available Now The Collectors For more than 130 years, the Royal British In Growing Home: The Legacy A History of the Royal British Columbia Museum Columbia Museum and Archives has preserved of Kootenay Elders (Grow- and Archives and presented the province. From the glass cases of 1886 to the always-on digital archives ing Home Elders Press $26.95), by Patricia E. Roy of the present day, The Collectors tells the Lee Reid profiles seventeen ISBN 978-0-7726-7200-1 story of the museum and archives, a story of men and women, born between continuity and change, of quirks and curiosities, $39.95 and of the fascinating characters and enduring the 1920s and 1950s, who have Purchase your copy online, at the Royal themes that have shaped one of British made their lives in the West PHOTO Museum Shop or at your local bookstore. Columbia’s most distinguished institutions. Kootenay—among them author Tom Wayman, Doukhobors For more information visit Ellie Lazareff, Pete and Shirley MOUNTAINEER rbcm.ca/publications Relkoff. Many of those profiled overcame trauma by finding Lee Reid at home in Nelson.

solace in the land. 9780995816404 REVELSTOKE

18 BC BOOKWORLD WINTER 2018-2019 review HISTORY

Claiming the Land: B.C., but was overruled by the British Columbia and the Making of a New Eldorado colonial secretary who wasn’t by Daniel Marshall eager to hazard another war (Ronsdale $ $24.95) with the U.S. Douglas did his best to as- sert British authority on the BY MARK FORSYTHE mainland. The Nlaka’pamux were accustomed to trading HERE’S GOLD DUST furs, fish and gold with the in Daniel Mar- HBC, not being forced off the shall’s genes. A river and out of the picture. At fifth generation one point they completely shut British Colum- down the gold rush on the Fra- Tbian, his ancestors journeyed ser River. Miners retreated to from Cornwall, via the Cali- Yale, others returned for good fornia gold rush, to the next to California. bonanza on the Fraser River “This ultimately caused in 1858. miner militias to be formed,” As a child, Marshall visited says Marshall. “Thousands the Fraser Canyon with his were called together to elect engineer father to soak up their military officers to go up stories of great-great-great the canyon.” Uncle William, a roadway Captain Henry Snyder foreman who worked on the Bar in a frontier B.C. mining camp. Painting by William Hind. McCord Museum image. of San Francisco attempted legendary Cariboo Wagon peace treaties with Indigenous Road. He heard other tales of groups and got as far as Spuz- paddlewheelers, instant tent zum where he discovered the towns, saloons and gambling Whatcom Guards were intent dens. Everyone was chasing, on killing every Indigenous “the golden butterfly.” man, woman and child. Mys- Later, Marshall became teriously, the Guard’s two a scholar of gold rush his- leaders were killed in the tory and came to realize the WAR in night, effectively end- received wisdom and stories ing this extermina- mostly ignored this unsettling tionist campaign. fact: during the chaotic sum- Snyder was mer of 1858, American miners later successful formed militias and went to in negotiating a war with Indigenous people in peace with Chief the Fraser Canyon. the FraserDavid Spintlum In Claiming The Land, (Cexpe’nthlEm, 1812-1887, Marshall writes, “There is no now regarded as the greatest doubt that in the first crucial chief of the Thompson First year of the gold rush, the Nations Peoples in recent Fraser River was an extension times), who understood the of Californian mining society bigger picture: violence to the and fell clearly into the orb Canyon south was wiping out Indig- of the tumultuous American parallel, by sea and overland; enous people. Marshall thinks West and its Indian Wars.” In some argue it was actually After more than eighty books a larger war would have ended other words, “A good Indian is thousands more because there badly. a dead Indian.” was no colonial authority on “160 years ago, if James The gold rush is regarded the mainland at the time. about gold pertaining to B.C., Douglas wasn’t there and In- as the founding event for Brit- However, the Hudson’s Bay digenous people hadn’t fought ish Columbia, spurred on by Company (HBC) was on the Claiming the Land brings a back, this could very well early newspaper headlines in scene, conducting a fur and have become part of the USA. Oregon and California in the salmon trade with First Na- hidden perspective to the fore: American troops would have spring of 1858: THE FRAZER tions partners. Indeed, HBC come into the Fraser Canyon RIVER GOLD MINES—GREAT had previously bought gold how First Nations fought with Howitzers.” EXCITEMENT. from Indigenous people. They Claiming the Land further Marshall writes, “The press had discovered the gold, and explores the three main ele- reports went on to say that were the first miners. against invaders. ments of 1858—the doomed Indigenous women were pan- The California 49ers were fur trade, Californian and ning out $10 to $12 of gold a coming from—and through British. Marshall makes an day. To the patriarchal world —a region aflame with what tion,” he writes, “but I started argument that the gold rush, of white California, news of were known as Indian wars. to accumulate the kind of evi- with its north/south flow, Native women accruing such The U.S. Military was clearing dence that was never featured precipitated the need for an wealth encouraged the notion a corridor in a campaign of ex- in the colonial correspondence east/west Canada to the Pa- that gold on the Fraser River termination. At first there was for the Colony of Vancouver cific that came to be in 1871. was easily obtainable.” an “unspoken detente” north Island or British Columbia. “Manifest Destiny” wasn’t far Word spread throughout of the 49th between Indig- Where did those miners send behind. He also reminds us the US, eastern Canada, Eu- enous people and the miners, their letters, and samples of how everything changed for rope and beyond. but as the rush moved higher Fraser River gold? Where did Indigenous peoples in 1858— The Fraser River gold rush into the Thompson region, their diaries end up? All south something we continue to was the third great mass conflict erupted. of the border. It’s in those col- grapple with today. migration of gold seekers Headless bodies of miners lections that you find greater Marshall is an adjunct as- that the world had seen, fol- floated in the Fraser River. At and greater evidence for this sistant professor at UVic who lowing rushes in Australia least five native villages were Fraser Canyon War in 1858.” takes his students into the and California. A glance at torched by militias. In one Unlike conditions for the Fraser Canyon to experience a Fraser Canyon map from engagement 36 Indigenous California rush, the Hud- the landscape and its stories 1858 illustrates just who was people were killed, 5 chiefs son’s Bay Company provided firsthand. In 2015, he was doing most of the panning at among them. During an inter- something of a buffer between chief curator of the Royal B.C. Ohio Bar, Sacramento Bar, view Daniel Marshall recounts This monument in Lytton the miners and Indigenous Museum exhibit: Gold Rush: Washington Bar, American digging deep into U.S. archives pays tribute to Chief David peoples. Chief Factor James El Dorado in B.C. Bar, New York bar, Fifty-four in the Pacific Slope region to Spintlum (Cexpe’nthlEm) Douglas wore two hats, as the 978-1-55380-502-1 Forty Bar, Boston Bar, Texas uncover more about this little- who is credited with help- head of HBC and as the gov- ing to eliminate extermina- Bar, and others. known war. tionist campaigns against ernor of Vancouver Island. At Mark Forsythe co-authored The At least 30,000 Americans “Quite a number of my pro- Indigenous people during first, Douglas wanted to stop Trail of 1858 (Harbour, 2007) swept north across the 49th fessors pooh-poohed this no- the gold rush era. Americans from coming into with Greg Dixon.

19 BC BOOKWORLD WINTER 2018-2019 returnsr with the epic prequel to the bestselling novel THE SKYSTONE

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20 BC BOOKWORLD WINTER 2018-2019 review Join the Cannabis Revolution! RECONCILIATION WALK IN THEIR SHOES

A conversation via letters leads to understanding and the possibility for reconciliation.

Kuei, My Friend: by English-Canadian stereotypes of A Conversation on Race and Québécois inferiority. Reconciliation by Deni Ellis Béchard and Natasha Kanapé Fontaine, Fontaine, in turn, writes honestly translated by Deni Ellis Béchard and about Innus’ struggle to heal from the Howard Scott (Talonbooks $19.95) “wound of Colonization.” The “vile, genocidal, alienating intention” behind Canada’s reservations and Indian resi- BY DYLAN BURROWS dential school system, she writes, lin- gers like a poison in Indigenous minds OT ALL BOOKS ARE INTENTIONAL. and bodies. Some arise accidentally, Some things do get lost in transla- or tragically. In 2015, an tion. As one of two translators, Béchard 11-year old Ojibwe girl renders “allochtones”—French for “non- Legal Cannabis represents a $50 billion dollar per year N Makayla Sault named natives” or “settlers”—as “Whites,” a industry and “big business” competitors have yet to died of leukemia after her parents had decision he justifies at length. This refused chemotherapy on her behalf. unfortunately frames reconciliation as emerge. You can easily find books for marijuana Contrary to her physician’s wishes, a responsibility exclusive to Indigenous entrepreneurs opening retail locations, and books about Makayla’s parents peoples and settlers how to grow cannabis. CannaBiz is the only book on the had sought tradition- of European-descent. market that is for marijuana retailers, growers, produc- al medical treatments Towards the end of and homeopathy. their correspondence, ers, suppliers, distributors, and everything in between. A Québécois jour- Fontaine poses to nalist named Denise Béchard an incisive $22.95 CAD | Paperback | Download Kit Bombardier subse- question. “What is quently ridiculed In- your relationship digenous culture in a with the idea of In- blog as “deadly” and digeneity,” she asks, “unscientific.” “now that I have re- A Guide for the Budding Investor! At a literary event, vealed so many se- Innu poet Natasha crets to you?” Kanapé Fontaine

PHOTO Béchard’s answer tried to read a let- is anticlimactic: In- TESSIER ter to Bombardier digeneity is tied to an that expressed the “openness” to other BARIL hurt her words had Natasha Kanapé Fontaine intellectual and cul-

wrought. MYRIAM tural traditions out- Bombardier cut side his own. Fontaine off, and ✫ read aloud her own KUEI, MY FRIEND definition of “Amerin- also includes dian”—the French for a chronology of “Indian”—from her events that led to the most recent novel. establishment of the After witnessing National Inquiry into Bombardier’s conde- Missing and Mur- scension, Vancou- dered Indigenous ver-born Deni Ellis Women and Girls; Béchard approached an English to Innu- Fontaine and com- aimun lexicon, and miserated. Their sub- questions and exer- sequent friendship cises for educators to and 26 letters have use in the classroom. resulted in Kuei, My Deni Ellis Béchard Ultimately Kuei, Friend: A Conversa- My Friend pursues tion on Race and Reconciliation. honest, open-ended dialogue over po- As Béchard reveals, his grandmother litical expediency. Through their letters, Have you thought about how you could make money had once told him his ancestors “walked Béchard and Fontaine chart future pos- like Indians.” Rather than assume this sibilities for reconciliation. Their letters in the emerging legal cannabis market? This book is a could be evidence of having “Indian shake up the stultified debate spurred concise and straightforward guide on investing in Cana- blood,” Fontaine sees it as a reflection by the 2015 publication of the Truth da’s new and growing cannabis industry. It’s not only a of how Béchard’s family adapted to the and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) primer for investing in the stock market in general, but customs of Indigenous lands. of Canada’s final report. “One day, perhaps,” she writes, Although political leaders quickly also a comprehensive guide on the Canadian cannabis “Québécois will understand what it recognized the TRC’s damning con- industry and how to capitalize by investing in it. means to ‘walk like an Indian.’ Walk in clusions, few have paid more than lip their shoes. I believe that the day will service to implementing its 94 calls to $15.95 CAD | Paperback | Online Updates come soon where ‘Indians’ invite the action. 9781772011951 ‘Whites’ to make a journey with them. And the latter will perhaps notice that Dylan Burrows is an Anishinaabe Ph.D. it is comfortable to walk in shoes that candidate at UBC’s History Department. don’t imprison feet. Shoes that are Raised in central Ontario’s Kawartha adapted to the territory, shaped by it. Lakes region, his doctoral research And that bring them freedom.” focuses on the nature and meaning of www.self-counsel.com In Kuei, My Friend, Béchard reckons Inuit labour under the aegis of Danish, with his father’s bigotry. Virulently British, and Canadian Arctic exploration 1-800-663-3007 anti-Indigenous, the elder Béchard and sovereignty exercises between 1849 also bore a deep self-loathing nurtured and 1948.

21 BC BOOKWORLD WINTER 2018-2019 housing

e asked Kate Braid, paradigm of business” by keep- people without a lot of cash who ily flow away? But especially I worry about the a former Red Seal ing wages lower than market pay $500 per week for the op- lack of inspectors, of an experienced builder to WJourney(wo)man car- value, by practicing bartering portunity to work on someone give that impersonal double-check that assures penter, to inspect the new book and by training others in the else’s house—and incidentally a building is safe to live in. The Mudgirls assert put together by the Mudgirls skills of building with mud. learn how to build their own. that regulations offer “a fictional sense of safety.” Natural Building Collective, a The “workshops” they lead, Only the Mudgirl who is the As they put it, “The more we stayed under the feminist construction team that each of about 20 people, are workshop leader on a building radar, the less risk we’d have to compromise on was started on Lasqueti Island building opportunities. Many of site job gets paid, along with the anything.” by Beth Gobie, in 2004. Origi- the Mudgirls are young mothers, cook and a childcare worker. The Safety is a huge issue in building, and the nally called the Mudgirls Barter- so free childcare is considered owner of the property gets free Mudgirls do address some concerns, mentioning ing Collective, the ever-changing essential and is built into all their labour—labour that is in effect, hard hats, roof harnesses and the importance group serves as a hands-on workshops, meetings (of which paying for the privilege of learn- of safe ladders and scaffolding, though there’s solution to finding affordable and there are many), and time spent ing to build. not a single hard hat to be seen in the photos of environmentally-friendly hous- actually building. “And therein lies its awe- people working. ing in non-urban settings. The The people who sign up to someness!” enthuses their Mani- I was alarmed to learn they don’t seek out women “challenge the capitalist learn and work tend to be young festo. trained electricians, but I have to remind myself the women’s goal is not just to practice alterna- tive building, but to find and practice alternative “living, connecting, learning, and sharing.” They state: “We make the decision over and over again to change the world, one bucket at a time.” How else can we create real change in this competitive and violence-ridden world except through the passion of wildly determined op- timists like these? Maybe more of us need to gather our courage, leap in, and try doing things i a little differently, using the best parts of tradi- u l tion—yes —but breaking free of what doesn’t and B d it hasn’t worked so well for so many. ✫ I WAS TRAINED TO BUILD BY THE BOOK—LITERALLY, THE Building Code book that sets provincial stan- AND THEY WILL CHUM dards for building including requirements for spacing support posts and beams, the strength of concrete, electrical, plumbing and all other aspects of building. Though the Mudgirls make With sand, straw and clay, Mudgirls some gestures toward the Building Code, they also brag about the fact that they can slip under enable women to experience the deep the radar because one of their main building materials—cob—is not yet part of the BC Build- satisfaction of building shelter for others. ing Code. My unease increased on page 21: “Not to say we don’t often collaborate on projects that are Mudgirls Manifesto: least a chance to try, women’s answer was, “If I fully code and/or engineer approved—we do Handbuilt Homes, Handcrafted Lives can’t do it alone, I’ll ask for help.” And that’s ex- so all the time. But what really gets our hearts by the Mudgirls Natural Building Collective (New Society Publishers $29.99) actly what the Mudgirls do; they help each other. pumping is figuring out how to do things accord- “We had nothing to prove, at least not on ing to good sense and natural laws, not according the muscular side of things,” they write. “What Workshoppers to capitalist logic.” You mean, they don’t build by we had to prove was that we did things differ- the Building Code? There’s even a section here PHOTO BY KATE BRAID ently.” As they put it, “We’ve learned that brute overflow the on why cob walls (built of fine sand with straw DEEPLY UNDERSTOOD THE force would not solve too many of our building ramparts of a and clay as the mortar) fall down. WALKER pleasure of building with obstacles. We have had to think about the best new house. They acknowledge that walls falling is the other women. The first way before doing it.” most dangerous thing that can happen at a BRIANNA time I worked with a wom- In the same way, early tradeswomen told building workshop (though I wondered: what an in construction, after each other: “Use your brain, not your back,” man’s work to make all decisions —a vital part makes a wonderful base coat for earthen struc- about people falling off roofs? ladders? cutting off five years of working ex- and we found that when the first women on the of moving every job along. The Mudgirls wrestled tures and sculpting walls? Or that lime has an body bits with saws and chisels?) They end this clusively with men, was a job occasionally asked for help on heavy loads, with this fact. They realize that when you’re electromagnetic charge and likes to be applied section with “a wall fall play list,” that includes revelation. With a woman, the men began to do the same. Mudgirls take working, you can’t call a meeting on the spot to on top of other lime? tunes for your walls to fall down to, like Bastille’s I didn’t have to prove my- it a step further, making a truly revolutionary discuss every simple decision, “like where to pile The Mudgirls point out that with mud and “Pompeii.” This kind of “gee-whiz” enthusiasm self over and over. I could suggestion. When they talk about building in the sifted manure,” and they know that clients clay, there is an “inability to maintain complete felt naïve at best, dangerous at worst, and yet…. openly express my de- their highly non-traditional, cooperative style, (more traditional than their builders in this case) control” over your materials. In contrast, the There’s an exuberance and joy in the text as light in a wall well-built, they ask, “What if we can set the men free, by expect “to have one person who looks and acts whole focus of my trade training and prac- well as in the faces in the many photographs, a problem solved. I could relieving them of the expectation that they have like the boss.” tice was about control. That’s why traditional that I, as another builder, deeply understand. talk about personal things to look after everything?” They have resolved the dilemma by distin- construction workers—carpenters, plumbers, It was the first thing I loved about construction like relationships, not just Mud Girls talk on the job a lot, something guishing between “leader” and “boss.” The an- ironworkers—are crazy about levels and squares —the joy that comes from physical labour, the cars and sports. that would drive traditional (mostly male) con- swer, they decided, was a compromise (agreed (and sledgehammers, should materials refuse to fact that building lets us see the “direct results of our actions.” This is the deep satisfaction of In Mudgirls Manifesto: Handbuilt Homes, struction workers crazy. It’s one of the group’s to by all) that “encourages all crew members PHOTO cooperate). The thinking is that with everything

Handcrafted Lives the Mudgirls concur. “In Guiding Principles that they are structured to make more effort to understand the bigger Building a living roof. perfectly plumb and square and straight (or as women building shelter for others. It is a pleasure WALKER Imore ways than we even realized at the time, we non-hierarchically and another that “we create picture, and to give constructive feedback at perfect as we can get it) that things won’t fall we women are rarely allowed to find out for our- effectively side-stepped the baggage and bullshit a work environment that nurtures us.” I admit, check-ins.” down. We build it “right,” which means complete selves. For Mudgirls, the physical fact that every

of justifying our skills and our existence, by en- not the aim of any construction job I ever worked ✫ BRIANNA control over every aspect of the building. It’s stick and handful of mud in the emerging house Workshop participant uses earthen tirely inventing our own arena of work…. Nobody on, including my own. They work strictly by con- FOR ME, THE BEST PART OF MUDGIRLS MANIFESTO STARTS something I learned, and learned to be proud of. has to be “pulled, dug, cut, peeled, barrowed, or plaster to sculpt a honeycomb, complete could tell us we weren’t doing it right, because sensus: “We all have to agree with every aspect almost two-thirds of the way through when we And yet… Over fifteen years, it’s true, I got carried up to the house site…. sounds like fun, with little bees made out of old tiles. we were the only ones around doing it.” of every proposal that is presented.” get to the nitty-gritty. Here are the tantalizing de- tired of those thousands of perfect ninety-degree like freedom, like something worth doing.” These women largely avoid machines and Meetings include not just a facilitator and tails of how to actually build; here we learn some angles, the absolute uniformity of 4’x8’ sheets Indeed! electrical tools. They specify that the point of minute-taker but also a “vibes-watcher”—one of the tricks of the trade like how to test clay to of plywood and drywall. The Mudgirls are on to I could have used less manifesto and more their work is not speed (which it specifically is who keeps an eye out for anyone in the circle see if it’s suitable, how to mix cob and plasters. something, even from a traditional builder’s point mud, but the Mudgirls have my blessing. May in traditional building) but “about the people who might be offended, or silent for too long. Here’s the importance of sheer vs. compressive of view. The body that’s building is still a body, their revolution continue—safely—to grow. Keep building something themselves… all while not They estimate they spend one third of their strength, recipes for paints for plaster and mud, and to see its curves reflected in the structures the spirit, sisters. Keep what has worked in the having to yell over the sound of loud machines.” time together in meetings, including four or five how and when to pick trees for post and beam around it, would be lovely indeed. And all that past, too—but keep it all safe! 978-0-86571-877-7 (After several years in construction I realized day-long meetings at the beginning and end of building (in spring when the sap’s running so mud and dirt so liberally spread across faces that one of the reasons men talk so little on the each season, plus a daily morning “check-in.” they’re easier to peel), and a list of essential tools. and hands in the book? It’s true, dirt is fun. Kate Braid, of Victoria and Pender Island, has job is very much for this reason: that you can’t They admit it’s not always fun but, “we definitely I learned a lot from this book, including how Maybe we women never got enough of it when written, co-written, edited and co-edited fourteen hear each other over the roar of skill saws and would not have the high level of trust, cohesiv- to build a dry stack rock foundation, fix cracks we were young. books. For fifteen years she was employed as a the clacking of cranes.) ity, resilience, and butt cramps that we have, if in clay, and that a building made of natural ✫ construction labourer, an apprentice and as a The oft-repeated reason for excluding women it weren’t for the value we place on committed materials, once allowed to dry, will not melt if I DO, HOWEVER, REMAIN UNEASY ABOUT THEIR DISREGARD Red Seal Journey(wo)man Carpenter who built from construction entirely until the 1970s was communication.” it gets wet as long as the foundation is at least for traditional building skills—how do they cut and renovated houses, high-rises and bridges. that we weren’t strong enough. With the support As a traditional carpenter I had to ask: who 18 inches off the ground and there’s a large Tossing straw in clay slip before rafters to sit straight, dig drainage ditches and Her most recent book of poetry is Elemental of new Human Rights laws that gave women at leads? On any job I’ve been on, it was the fore- overhang. Did you know horse manure plaster Spinning mud stuffi ng it into a wall cavity. set up plumbing to be sure water and waste eas- (Caitlin $18).

22 BC BOOKWORLD WINTER 2018-2019 23 BC BOOKWORLD WINTER 2018-2019 Blank new and timeless Ekstasis titles from the deep well of the imagination

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24 BC BOOKWORLD WINTER 2018-2019 review BIOGRAPHY

RITTEN IN 1962 AND RE- museums across North America. her subject’s perspectives. Where leased in 1964, “Uni- Sainte-Marie has remained stead- Sainte-Marie is reticent to delve into versal Soldier” con- fast in her political conviction and Blacklisted by two her relationships with members of demned America’s has never flinched from challenging American presidents, the American Indian Movement, and war in Vietnam and colonization. She founded a charity, two of her three marriages, Warner Wbecame one of two protest anthems the Nihewan Foundation, to fund In- the Universal Soldier treads softly. Similarly, Warner does that defined Sainte-Marie’s musical digenous post secondary students, and not explore in detail any of the conten- and political agendas in the 1960s created digital Indigenized curricula, songwriter breastfed tious relations Sainte-Marie had with and 70s. “The Cradleboard Project,” for elemen- her child on Sesame the music industry, notably Vanguard On the same album, “Now that the tary children. Records, with whom she released her Buffalo’s Gone” was compelling in its While embracing the tenets of the Street in 1977 and first works. indictment of injustices perpetrated Truth and Reconciliation Commis- But Warner does capture her sub- against Indigenous people. The song sion, this year she toured First Nations won a Best Song ject’s spirit and energy. She never was motivated by a treaty violation to communities of Saskatchewan with lets us forget that Sainte-Marie was build Kinzua Dam in Seneca territory. members of the Regina Symphony Oscar in 1983 for and is forever an innovator. Con- As new injustices arise in the 21st Orchestra. She now melds classical Up Where We Belong. cisely and clearly, Warner reviews century, she has updated her lyrics. music with her own intense pow-wow- her selected tracks bringing to the In the 1970s, Buffy Sainte-Marie inspired electronic genres, paying trib- page the musical compositions that surfaced from the urban folk scene ute to Tchaikovsky, whose music first “After all, I’ve seen the almost impossi- thunder and whisper, circling back she shared with the likes of Bob Dylan influenced her as a very young child. ble become possible in really big ways.” through fifty years to remind us that and Pete Seeger. She has Buffy Sainte-Marie: ✫ Some sixty hours of interviews oc- the issues Sainte-Marie contested in since merged genres and The Authorized Biography ANDREA WARNER TRACES PER- curred face-to-face, over the phone and the 1960s are the social and political by Andrea Warner, styles—funk, soul rock, sonal experiences to moti- via the internet. Additionally, Warner challenges we face today. 9781771643580 foreword by Joni Mitchell torch ballads, love songs, (Greystone Books $36) vations for particular lyrics joined Sainte-Marie on two tours, one pow-wow music, the vi- and technological innova- on the east coast and one on the west. Jo-Anne Fiske of Fraser Lake has brato of Edith Piaf and tions from Sainte-Marie’s Journalistic accounts and reviews from worked extensively with First Nations electronic technologies. BY birth on the Cree Piapot the past fifty years supplement her in central B.C. since the 1970s. With The heady successes of JO-ANNE FISKE reserve in Saskatchewan interviews, along with citations from Betty Patrick she co-wrote Cis dideen the 1970s were followed by an Oscar in 1941, to her adoption by Albert and Sainte-Marie’s colleagues, peers and kat—When the Plumes Rise: The Way in 1983 for “Up Where We Belong,” for Winnifred (of Mi’kmaq descent) Saint- childhood friends. of the Lake Babine Nation (2000). the movie An Officer and a Gentleman, Marie—who raised her in Maine and In an afterword, Warner glowingly co-written by her then husband Jack Massachusetts—through her studies describes her “lovely little friend- Nitzsche. The marriage soon became in Oriental philosophy and education, ship” with Buffy Sainte-Marie and abusive, and after seven years Sainte- to her home life in Hawaii with a herd acknowledges that “together Marie fled with her young son, Cody of goats. we’ve made a book.” We are Wolfchild. “The Universal Soldier” was in- told, “Buffy has combed In the biography, Sainte-Marie spired when—on a flight from Mexico every inch of this book, warns women who remain with abu- to Toronto—Saint-Marie met wounded every page bears her sive partners that “It was not worth it. American soldiers returning from fingerprints, and Please do not go through it.” Warner Vietnam. I can hear her posits the abusive relationship that “Cod’ine” speaks to her personal voice at every ended in 1989 was one reason for a negative experience with opiates, but turn.” sixteen-year break between recording also stands as a critique of shifting Warner her 1976 album Sweet America and her music culture from coffee houses to praises and 1992 comeback album Coincidence and bars, which she views as undermining empathizes, Likely Stories, which Warner praises the student culture that supported and she for its political provocation and sonic political change. does not experimentation. Warner addresses the blacklisting challenge Albums were released in 1996 and of Sainte-Marie by two American presi- 1998, with the latter including new dents, Lyndon Johnson and Richard protest songs that won her a Juno for Nixon, when the FBI kept files on her Best Indigenous Album. In 2015 she close ties with the American Indian released Power in the Blood, which Movement, and considers the impact brought her international acclaim. Here that political advocacy had on her she is as intensely political and vibrant career, notably in the 1980s when her as she was in 1964. popularity waned. She has since been awarded a Juno Two chapters introduce Sainte- and the Polaris Music Prize for Power Marie, covering her childhood and in the Blood and another Juno for her youth. Another fifteen chapters cover 2017 release Medicine Songs, a collec- the content and techniques of se- tion of her protest anthems that spans lected recordings, and the origins her five-decade career and amplifies of songs. her commitment to Indigenous resis- “Interludes” is a chapter tance. She has more than a dozen hon- of excerpts from Warner’s orary degrees, she was inducted into interviews with Sainte- the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, and Marie. Through it all, she is an Officer of the Order of Canada. Sainte-Marie’s creativ- Ever the pathbreaker, Sainte-Marie ity and optimism shine. has also earned accolades for her visual “But I love the world art, where once again she led in the and I love people, I re- digital world, being among the first to ally do…” Sainte-Marie display large-scale digital paintings in says toward the close.

LIFTS US UP BUFFYWHERE PHOTO

Buffy Sainte-Marie was born WE BELONG BARNES on Saskatchewan’s Cree

Piapot reserve in 1941. MATT

25 BC BOOKWORLD WINTER 2018-2019 review OUTDOORS A HIKING WE WILL GO

A great guidebook often goes unheralded.

105 Hikes in and Around wrote 109 Walks in B.C.’s Southwestern British Columbia Lower Mainland (D&M 1980). by Stephen Hui; foreword by T’uy’t’tanat Cease Wyss In 1972, there was a pre- (Greystone $24.95) decessor to the Macaree’s book, Mountain Trail Guide for the South West Mainland

AY BACK WHEN, Area of B.C., published by PHOTO Mary Ma- the Federation of Mountain HUI caree and Clubs of B.C. A version of the David Ma- Macaree’s book, titled 103 Wcaree STEPHEN co- Hikes in Southwestern B.C.: Stephen Hui on Cheam Peak, east of Chilliwack, from 105 Hikes Around Southwestern B.C. wrote 103 Hikes in South- Revised and Updated by Jack western B.C. (Mountaineers Bryceland, listing Mary and In and Around Southwest- Second World War he served David joined the UBC Depart- Books/B.C. Mountaineer- David Macaree as co-authors, ern British Columbia, an with the Royal Marines from ment of English as a lecturer, ing Club), a classic regional appeared on the BC Top Ten expanded follow-up version 1940 to 1946, first in the earned his Ph.D. from the Uni- title that has reputedly sold Bestseller list in 2008. with an additional selection Mediterranean Sea, then the versity of Washington in 1965, more than 120,000 In 2014, of trails on the islands and in Indian Ocean and later with and taught as an associate copies since 1973. Greystone Books Washington’s North Cascades. the Commandos in continen- professor of English at UBC The couple’s of- published 109 105 Hikes covers a wider area tal Europe. David married from 1970 to 1985. He died ten whimsical and Walks in British and wider range of abilities Mary Watson in 1949, and on Dec 9, 1998. In 2003, the beguiling text ac- Columbia’s Lower than its predecessor. in 1955 they immigrated to David Macaree Award for Im- counted for much Mainland, credited ✫ Prince George, first teaching proved Dementia Care, worth of the book’s ap- to the Macarees LEST WE FORGET: DAVID MACAREE in northern British Columbia $500, from the Alzheimer’s peal. As members with Alice Purdey. was an English professor at before moving to Vancouver. Society, was created by Mary of the British Co- Now Stephen UBC and Mary Macaree was Mary went back to school, in honour of David, who had lumbia Mountain- Hui has carried on a librarian at UBC. Both were graduated from UBC and dementia. Mary died on July eering Club since the Macaree’s leg- born in Scotland, in 1919 and became head librarian at the 31, 2008 due to complications 1964, they also Mary Macaree acy in 105 Hikes 1922 respectively. During the MacMillan Library at UBC. from a stroke. 9781771642866

THE SUITCASE &

THE JAR

A MOTHER’S JOURNEY

BECKY LIVINGSTON CELEBRATINGREAD AND RESPECTINGWRITE DIVERSE AND WOMEN’S VOICES LISTENCAITLIN PRESS & DAGGER EDITIONS

26 BC BOOKWORLD WINTER 2018-2019 BC BESTSELLER!

WHITEWATER COOKS More Beautiful Food David Wood The Knifenerd Guide Shelley Adams Cooking for Friends to Japanese Knives David Wood Kevin Kent Nelson cookbook author Shelley Adams shares fabulous recipes that have kept this Well known in BC as the co-owner of the Salt A good chef knife is the most important tool ERRN RQ WKH %& %HVWVHOOHU /LVW IRU WKH ¿UVW Spring Island Cheese Company, David Wood in any kitchen. This beautiful book takes us year of its release. The Whitewater Cooks was also the owner of the David Wood Food behind the scenes and into the artistry of brand has become known nationally for Shop in Toronto before moving to our west WKHEODFNVPLWKVZKRPDNHWKHZRUOG¶V¿QHVW simple, healthy, delicious and fool-proof coast. Here, David offers up an appealing knives. From the forging and sharpening recipes, many of which have become range of 150 easy to follow recipes for anyone to the choosing and collecting, Kevin Kent standards in Canadian households. This who loves to cook and wants to share their love reveals his extensive knowledge and is the 5th book in this bestselling series. of food with friends and family. passion on the subject of Japanese knives. 9780981142432 $34.95 pb Alicon Holdings 9781770503007 $34.95 pb Whitecap Books 9781999390600 $45.00 hc Long Ladder Media

Cooking without Mom Okanagan Lake Kootenay Trips & Trails Tiger, Tiger A Survival Cookbook An Illustrated Exploration Murphy Shewchuk A Life Restored by Nature 30th Anniversary Edition Above and Below the Waters Patrick Walter Herzog This amazing guide to southeastern BC’s Illustrations by Robert Bateman The Hen Party Raphael Nowak Kootenay-Columbia region will keep you exploring and enthralled with this rich area for This classic cookbook is a great gift for For decades, the author tracked wild animals +HUH¶VWKH¿UVWFRPSUHKHQVLYHERRNHYHUZULWWHQ years. Information on hiking and recreational WKRVHOHDYLQJKRPHIRUWKH¿UVWWLPHDOLIH about Okanagan Lake featuring the geology, until being bushwhacked by cancer. After opportunities range from the US Boundary north saver for individuals who have lost their biology, limnology and history of the lake. Over experimental treatment, he was lost in to Valemount, and from the height of the Rockies, partners and a starting point for retirees 300 colour photographs illustrate everything from the wilderness of fatigue and brain fog. west to the Okanagan – with maps, GPS taking up the challenges of the kitchen. Wildlife art, and a chance encounter with SODQW DQG ¿VK VSHFLHV WR XQGHUZDWHU IHDWXUHV reference points, detailed descriptions and vivid In this new edition, over 150 recipes of the lake bottom using deep water cameras. a tiger, awoke his passion for wildlife, colour photographs. A must-have BC guide book. EHWWHU UHÀHFW WRGD\ V FRRNLQJ WUHQGV ZLWK /DNHWUDQVSRUWDWLRQWZRÀRDWLQJEULGJHVLVODQGV and soon the undeniable healing power 9781554551002 $29.95 pb Fitzhenry & Whiteside valuable info on domestic adulting skills. shoreline features and lake mysteries are also of nature took hold and saved his life. Don't let your child leave home without it! examined in this incredibly detailed book. 9781775398202 $19.95 pb P Herzog 9780920923122 $18.95 pb Sandhill Publishing 9781775240501 $32.95 pb Inst for Underwater Research Available now through your favourite BC bookstore!

2018 Vine Children's Book Award

Shared Histories Witsuwit’en- Settler Relations in Mapping Your Rare is Everywhere Smithers, BC 1913-1973 Mixed Critters Deborah Katz Tyler McCreary Retirement Road An ABC Book Larry R. Lovis Jeff Chiba-Stearns CONGRATULATIONS to Vancouver author Shared Histories looks deeply into what Deborah Katz, who has won the $10,000 happened at the intersection of settler 7KLVQRQRQVHQVHJXLGHWRD¿QDQFLDOO\EHWWHUOLIH Inspired by his own multiracial heritage, prize in the 2018 Vine Awards for Canadian dreams and Witsuwit’en reality. Planted in a LVZULWWHQE\DQH[SHULHQFHG¿QDQFLDODGYLVRUDQG award-winning author and illustrator, Jeff Jewish Literature in the young adult/ swamp at the base of a mountain in 1913, the appeals to a wide audience from young people Chiba Stearns, introduces readers to mixed children's lit category. Rare is Everywhere UDLOZD\WRZQWULHGWRH[FOXGHWKHUHJLRQ¶V¿UVW planning for the future, boomers approaching identity by blending together various animals. takes readers on a journey through the inhabitants. These hidden histories reveal retirement and anyone already in retirement. Through the imaginative depictions of animal kingdom – and teaches children how generations of Witsuwit’en made a place Written in a straight forward, entertaining style, the hybrid animals from A to Z, children are about physical diversity and how our for themselves despite local, provincial and author guides readers to the heart of the actions introduced to notions of racial mixing and differences make us spectacular. national efforts to push them, and indeed QHHGHG WR ¿QG WUXH ¿QDQFLDO LQGHSHQGHQFH blending in an accessible and creative way. 9780995826106 $19.95 hc Miss Bird Books 9781775107002 $24.95 pb Lovis Wealth Management all Indigenous peoples, to the fringes. 9781775234302 $14.95 hc Meditating Bunny Studio 9781928195047 $24.95 pb Creekstone

27 BC BOOKWORLD WINTER 2018-2019 Mud • Rum • Strangers • Hockey

Don’t Never Tell Nobody From Rinks to Regiments: Nothin’ No How: The Real Story Hockey Hall-of-Famers of West Coast Rum Running and the Great War by Rick James (Harbour $32.95) by Alan Livingstone MacLeod (Heritage House $19.95) Contrary to popular perception, rum- running along the Pacific coast wasn’t Thirty players, one referee, and one dominated by violent encounters like builder now enshrined in the Hockey those portrayed in the movies. Instead, Hall of Fame were also soldiers in it was usually carried out in a relatively World War 1. Most of them served civilized manner, with an oh-so-Canadi- in the Canadian Expeditionary Force an politeness on the British Columbian that distinguished itself on the battle- side. Most operated within the law. But fields of Ypres, the Somme, Vimy and there were indeed shootouts, hijack- Passchendaele. From Rinks to Regi- ings and even a particularly gruesome ments tells these remarkable stories murder associated with the business. of their contributions on both the ice and the frontlines.

Mudgirls Manifesto: Handbuilt Ordinary Strangers: a novel Homes, Handcrafted Lives by Bill Stenson by The Mudgirls Natural Building (Mother Tongue $23.95) Collective (New Society $29.99) This astonishing novel begins on a A group of west coast rebel women decided hot August day in 1971. Sage and to teach themselves how to build houses using Della Howard are driving to Fernie to the most abundant material on earth — mud. start a job and begin a new life. They They’d learn by building, gathering skills and stop for a break, lose their dog and allies. They’d have fun, sharing whatever they in the search find a crying toddler in learned with whoever wanted to come along the nearby woods instead. They take for the ride. The Mudgirls revolution was the child and continue on their way. born. Mudgirls Manifesto is about respecting As the years pass, the Howards keep the earth, each other, crafting meaningful lives their dark secret and raise the child as and a practical guide to building natural homes their own. Winner of the 4th Great for real people. B.C. Novel Contest.

Thought provoking Selected by books available on Alan Twigg

fresh reads

www.newstarbooks.com

28 BC BOOKWORLD WINTER 2018-2019 review MEMOIR After Becky Livingston lost her daughter Rachel (below) to a brain tumour, she set off on a global walkabout for 798 days, scattering Rachel’s ashes a bit at a time, a fiercely loving mother The Suitcase and the Jar: “Lost” by David Wagoner, Travels with a Daughter’s trying to find her way. “For the Traveller” by John Ashes by Becky Livingston O’Donohue). A list of “Books, (Caitlin Press $24.95) Songs, and Poems” in the back pages, or available online, BY CARYS CRAGG would be an added resource for the reader, because many IGHTEEN MONTHS works are referenced but after her daugh- not cited, likely for copyright ter’s death, reasons. Becky Livings- Back and forth, between ton set forth on past and present, the transi- Ea journey to continue her tions are seamless. In one daughter Rachel’s dying wish- sentence, Livingston describes es to keep travelling. how her daughter liked to fly, The Suitcase and the Jar: and in the following para- Travels with a Daughter’s graph, Livingston is waiting Ashes takes us across the to board a plane. The constant globe and the terrain of loss. movement from one continent From her family home in North to the next risks disorienting Vancouver, Livingston goes to the reader, but Livingston Mallorca (Spain), County Clare anchors us with a repeating (Ireland), Zurich (Switzerland), action: the scattering of her Northumberland and Leices- daughter’s ashes in yet-to-be- tershire (England), Bunbury, determined locations. Melbourne, Launceston (Aus- As Livingston lets go of tralia), Delhi (India); New York, the ashes, she lets go of her Seattle and San Francisco. daughter, giving her to the We are asked to consider: world to carry forward. She Who am I without someone likes to think that Rachel is who is essential to my being? “playing in the shifting sands, Where is home, when what I caught between your chil- have come to know I no longer dren’s toes or carried home in recognize? a castle-shaped pail. All of us Leaving her house and job, carrying her away.” Livingston proceeds to scatter At times, The Suitcase and Rachel’s ashes wherever she the Jar reads as poetry. “Her goes, housesitting for one to ashes like asteroids pit the seven weeks at a time, “skip- bleached sand.” Her 22 rela- ping seasons, changing hemi- tively short chapters contrast spheres.” SKIPPING with one lengthy one. She Interspersed throughout frequently uses fragmented her travels, we move back in SEASONS sentences — “My despair fully time, bearing witness through exposed… Just one more step a mother’s eyes to the all- … Keep going … Risk life for consuming destruction by just one more day”—which cancer of her daughter’s body mirror the fragile, contempla- and mind at the age of 23. We Changing tive nature of grief itself. witness Livingston as she ex- Changing Livingston is both brave periences the kind of grief that and imperfect as she both “changes the narrative of your surrenders and re-takes con- life” as she also recounts her HEMISPHERES trol of her life after her world fiancé’s death of a similar fate. has turned unrecognizable. Livingston recalls how her Livingston gives us such a nu- ex-husband moved back into her life to process her mother’s She describes moments rative, Livingston frequently anced and detailed picture of the home where their daugh- death in Wild: From Lost to that are brutally real, exqui- refers to the music playing her journey that we can attach ter was dying; and how these Found on the Pacific Crest Trail sitely painful, and authentic within particular memories some piece of ourselves along events affected her younger (2012). in a way that anyone who has and to books she has read her way and walk with her as daughter, who later moved Scattered throughout the lost someone close will imme- that resonated in some way. she sets forth to re-establish away. Alongside the descrip- pages of The Suitcase and the diately recognize. She also quotes from poems who she is after a life-altering tion of Rachel dying, we also Jar are fragments of Livings- Helping deepen the nar- (“Grief” by Stephen Dobyns, loss. learn how “easy she was to ton’s grief as it morphs and We gravitate to memoir for love” and how she was always evolves with each passing inspiration. In The Suitcase planning her next trip. housesitting destination and and the Jar, readers will find As Becky Livingston trav- every location at which she This book is for grievers a quiet and comforting whis- els, friends and travellers are leaves a portion of Rachel’s per, one that reminds us that, often naysayers, doubters, ashes. and travellers, mothers and “If I could do this, I could do and judgers, telling her she Livingston sometimes grap- daughters, lovers and wan- anything.” It is a devastating, “won’t find what [she’s] looking ples with how she managed poetic and ultimately beautiful for in some far-off land.” her daughter’s needs. “We derers, and for anyone who meditation on living after loss. At its core, The Suitcase snuggle them up, we talk 9781987915747 and the Jar is a contempla- baby-talk, hoping as we do has ever considered that, tion on grieving itself. Read- to absorb some of their pain.” Carys Cragg is the author of ers may be reminded of Joan We share in the intimate and “You think you know the Dead Reckoning: How I Came Didion’s non-linear, intensely painful realities of a parent shape of your life but one day to Meet the Man Who Murdered introspective rumination on who has lost her child: “No- My Father (Arsenal Pulp Press), mothering and her daughter’s body messes with a grieving the whole f------thing falls a 2017 Globe & Mail Best 100 death in Blue Nights (2011), mother,” she observes. Also: ‘‘ Book of the Year and 2018 or perhaps Cheryl Strayed’s “No one knows what to do with apart.” — CARYS CRAGG Hubert Evans Nonfiction B.C. self-imposed hiking exile from a person like me.” Book Prize finalist.

29 BC BOOKWORLD WINTER 2018-2019 review MEMOIR

An Uncommon Road: safe distance from state pro- How Canadian Sikhs FROM PUNJAB vocateurs. Not only was the Struggled out of the Fringes and into the Mainstream WSO dubbed an extremist by Gian Singh Sandhu group, Indian diplomats were (Echo Storytelling/Heritage discouraged by Canadian Group Distribution $29.95) TO WILLIAMS LAKE politicians from mingling with its leaders. In the Trump era when alt-right movements Sandhu and some of the BY GURPREET SINGH have gained traction, Gian Singh Sandhu’s people close to him, including one his neighbours in Wil- ODAY, HARJIT An Uncommon Road gives hope to minority groups liams Lake, were subsequently Singh Sajjan is denied visas by the Indian the first Sikh fed- who continue to grapple with racism and bigotry. government. Sandhu clarifies eral Minister of in An Uncommon Road that National Defence he has had arguments with Tand Jagmeet Singh is the first fighting for concessions for extremists, including the late Sikh leader of the federal NDP. their minority community as Talwinder Singh Parmar, the But, as Gian Singh Sand- well as political autonomy for Babbar Khalsa leader who hu’s subtitle, How Canadian the state of Punjab, which was the alleged mastermind Sikhs Struggled out of the remains the home for the in the Air India conspiracy. Fringes and into the Main- followers of Sikhism through He has also denounced hate stream suggests, the Sikh democratic means. speech made by another Bab- community’s journey to gain Previously the situation bar Khalsa activist and former widespread respect, with only had escalated with the emer- Air India suspect, Ajaib Singh 2% of Canada’s population, gence of Babbar Khalsa, an Bagri (in a public speech at has been fraught with racism. extremist group formed in New York’s Madison Square In his memoir, An Uncom- 1978 that believed in armed Garden, Bagri threatened to mon Road, Gian Singh Sand- resistance against injustice. kill 50,000 Hindus). hu recalls how he came from Gradually, the movement Sandhu believes that the India in 1970 to Williams Lake, turned violent and death Air India bombing could be where he went into the lumber squads began killing innocent part of a larger conspiracy, industry and started Jackpine Hindus in Punjab. involving Indian spies, to dis- Forest Products in 1987. This divisiveness culmi- credit Sikh activists and weak- To become a part of the nated in an army invasion on en their cause. He writes that Canadian mainstream he the Golden Temple Complex, some Sikhs, including himself, had to cut his hair—a painful the holiest shrine of the Sikhs were equally disturbed by the experience for a devout Sikh, in Amritsar, in June 1984. Ac- deaths of innocents aboard for whom cutting long hair cusing the militants of stock- the ill-fated flight and would is unthinkable. However, he piling arms and ammunition never condone such action by grew his hair back when the in this place of worship, Indian anyone. situation changed and Cana- Prime Minister Indira Gandhi The WSO, meanwhile, has dian society started showing ordered a military attack on tried to build bridges with signs of openness. He credits the shrine. other communities and faith a Canadian friend for encour- The infamous army op- groups, such as Indigenous aging him to follow his religion eration left many innocent Gian Singh Sandhu, with wife Surinder, wearing peoples, Jews, Muslims, and openly. pilgrims dead and buildings “Dogwood” medallion (Order of British Columbia). LGBTQ groups. The founders His daughter was harassed heavily damaged. This enraged of the Sikh faith have always at school because of her eth- Sikhs all over the world, in- ted against ordinary civilians. munity under the microscope. taught their followers to stand nicity. But this memoir is not cluding in Canada. On Octo- In the meantime, Air India He himself became a target of up for everyone. In the face merely a forum for personal ber 31, 1984, Indira Gandhi Flight 182 from Vancouver to racial taunts and came under of criticism from many or- revelations. Sandhu proceeds was assassinated by her Sikh London was bombed mid-air surveillance merely because of thodox Sikhs, the WSO has to provide historical back- bodyguards at her official resi- above the Irish Sea in June his advocacy for Sikhs, even supported the demand for ground to the Sikh struggle dence in New Delhi. This was 1985, killing all 329 people though the WSO denounced allowing same-sex marriage against racial discrimination, followed by anti-Sikh mas- aboard. The crime was blamed violence. and same-sex education in highlighting complex issues sacres allegedly engineered on Vancouver-based Sikh Sandhu goes into depth schools. 9781987900163 such as Sikh extremism and by the supporters of Gandhi’s separatists associated with as to how Indian agents have the Air India tragedy. Congress party. Babbar Khalsa, now a desig- been trying to malign the WSO Gurpreet Singh is an indepen- ✫ The movement to establish nated terror group. and link it with violent groups dent journalist and a broad- EFFORTS TO CARVE A SEPARATE AND an independent state of Kha- As one of the founders of such as Babbar Khalsa, even caster with Spice Radio (1200 independent Sikh homeland listan eroded considerably by the World Sikh Organization though the WSO never en- AM) in Burnaby. He publishes (Khalistan) out of India had the mid-1990s, partly because (WSO), Sandhu points out dorsed extremism and encour- Radical Desi, an online maga- its roots in events of the early the militants lost public sym- in his book how the incident aged its members to stay away zine and he writes frequently 1980s. Sikh leadership was pathy due to excesses commit- brought the entire Sikh com- from violence and to keep a for The Georgia Straight.

Nightwood Editions presents available at your local bookstore puzzles • politics • poetry • and more www.nightwoodeditions.com

O Canada Take the Torch What the Poets Difficult People The Bec & Call What Your Hands Crosswords 19 • memoir • Are Doing • stories • Abandoned • poetry • Have Done • puzzles • Ian Waddell • essays • Catriona • a novel • Jenna Lyn • poetry • Gwen Sjogren $22.95 edited by Rob Taylor Wright Kyp Harness Albert Chris Bailey $14.95 $22.95 $19.95 $19.95 $18.95 $18.95

30 BC BOOKWORLD WINTER 2018-2019 review LAW

commentators are overly def- erential, and to Reynolds’ credit he does not shy away WE HAVE from criticizing the path fol- lowed by Canadian courts in the development of Aboriginal law. LED THE WAY Aboriginal Peoples & the Law will appeal to law stu- dents wanting a handy “Coles Much of Canadian Aboriginal Notes” summary of the princi- ples of Aboriginal law. In fact, law has evolved from cases Reynolds goes so far as to end originating in British Columbia. each chapter with a one-page set of bullet points under the heading “To Sum Up,” which Aboriginal Peoples & the Law: laws and legal traditions. Ab- is in effect a summary of a A Critical Introduction original law is the body of law summary. by Jim Reynolds (UBC Press/Purich Books $29.95) that exists with the Canadian Aboriginal Peoples & the legal system” Law should also attract seri- Reynolds fills a gap in the ous students in other disci- BY NEIL VALLANCE literature on Aboriginal law in plines, such as anthropol- Canada. The options available ogy and political science, who BORIGINAL LAW to the interested reader until might want a well-written is often con- now have been brief articles Musqueam people and supporters protest destruction of overview of a complex subject. fused with In- on law firm websites and in Marpole village site. Vancouver Sun, February 19, 2012 However, there are no co- digenous law. academic journals, or fat and lourful anecdotes or intriguing Understanding very expensive law school Reynolds, who is Associate Just Society?” Reynolds of- case studies to help the reader Athe difference is crucial, and texts. Until now, there has Counsel at Mandell Pinder fers his own opinions, based through a topic that is admit- Jim Reynolds could have or, been nothing in the middle, LLP in Vancouver, notes that on a long career representing tedly a tough slog. should have, dealt with that or a book of moderate length Canadian courts have yet First Nations in B.C., espe- 9780774880213 issue at the very beginning and price. to incorporate a substantive cially the Musqueam people of Aboriginal Peoples & the In his study, Reynolds amount of Indigenous law into of Vancouver. Reynolds shares Neil Vallance earned his Ph.D. Law: A Critical Introduc- adopts the succinct definition their deliberations. his thoughts on the present from the University of Victoria tion, instead of in Chapter 7. of the Truth and Reconcilia- Each of the first seven state of Aboriginal law, its Faculty of Law. His disserta- That quibble aside, he does tion Commission: “Each In- chapters deals with a differ- past achievements, and future tion was on the Vancouver provide a thoughtful analysis digenous nation across the ent aspect of Aboriginal law: prospects, a refreshing change Island (also known as the of the issue, adopting the suc- country has its own laws and definitions, background, sov- from the existing literature, “Douglas”) Treaties of 1850 cinct definition of the Truth legal traditions. Aboriginal ereignty, Aboriginal rights and which typically denies any to 1854. He now writes occa- and Reconciliation Commis- law is the body of law that ex- title, treaties, consultation, voice to the author. sional expert reports for First sion: “Each Indigenous nation ists with the Canadian legal and international law. In the While the judiciary is en- Nations claiming breaches of across the country has its own system.” eighth and final chapter, “A titled to great respect, most their treaty rights.

NATALIE MORRILL Photo credit: Esther Barrett

MIKE REISS

MARJORIE INGALL

%R[2ƯFHjewishbookfestival.ca

TILAR J. MAZZEO

31 BC BOOKWORLD WINTER 2018-2019 review POETRY

Some End/West Broadway cept in winter. by George Bowering In “The Weight,” Bowering and George Stanley (New Star $18) offers recognition to the poet Margaret Avison that he feels she fully deserves. I confess I BY DANNY PEART had not heard of her prior to this—yet she won the Gover- HIS SMALL BOOK OF nor General’s Literary Award poems is an un- twice as well as the Griffin usual enterprise. Poetry Prize. One side of the ✫ book includes 31 GEORGE STANLEY INCLUDES MANY Tnew poems by George Bower- Vancouver references, includ- ing. When you flip over this ing this stanza from “Our Age tumble book (or flip book), you (an imitation),” after the Rus- find 43 more pages of poetry sian poet Anna Akhmatova: and prose by George Stanley. West Point Grey chills in The book cover is made late sunlight, sun’s rays gleam up of two halves of the strong off shop windows & cars, but and bright imagery of Jack deep scratches have appeared Shadbolt’s 1995 painting, in some of the house doors, and “Encounter.” rows of ravens weigh down the ✫ power lines. CANADA’S FIRST POET LAUREATE, In “To a Young Voter,” George Bowering, was born Stanley reflects that: in the Okanagan Valley. A I can’t take politics seri- distinguished novelist, poet, ously, at 82 I’m too preoccupied editor, professor, historian, with my own mortality. But I and tireless supporter of fel- can go “meta”—I can take your low writers, Bowering has CloseClose EncountersEncounters taking politics seriously…. authored more than eighty Stanley and Bowering also books, including works of address poems to each other.

PHOTO Bowering’s starts, “I’ll be in

poetry, fiction, history, au- tobiography, biography, and your poem if you’ll be in mine,” RODIN ofof thethe GeorgeGeorge kindkind youth fiction. and Stanley responds with his

His most recent books in- RENEE “Letter to George Bowering: clude Writing the Okanagan The Two Georges at People’s Coop Bookstore, Vancouver, March 2018. … Yet out my window the (Talonbooks, 2015) 10 Women building across Balaclava (Anvil, 2015), The Hockey Star. West Broadway is his Grade 8 student, and others Kidsbooks used to occupy Scribbler (ECW Press, 2016), tenth book of poetry. helped to get him medical at- will come down soon. The city and The Dad Dialogues (with ✫ tention in time to save his life changes faster than the heart. Charles Demers, Arsenal, BOWERING’S HALF CONTAINS A and aid in his recovery. We’re reading our next books. 2016). He is an officer of the table of contents; George Stan- In “Speech Language,” he It reassuring to see these Order of Canada and a mem- ley’s does not. detects “…a new understand- two veteran writers, in their ber of the Order of British Early in Bowering’s section ing that something awful/ eighties, laughing together in Columbia. he reveals, “The world speaks this way comes with appetite the photo from their Vancou- ✫ to me/in sentences.” We also for you.” ver book launch this year. BORN IN SAN FRANCISCO, GEORGE learn, though, that he fell into I especially enjoyed his 9781554201457 Stanley has lived in B.C. since a coma for two weeks and that: poem about his friendship 1971 and has been a Cana- Being in a coma can play with Al Purdy, “The Country Danny Peart has published dian citizen since 1978. He havoc with your sense of time. North of Summer,” which three books of poetry and sto- taught English in B.C. com- It can turn your eyes from ends: ries: Ruined By Love (2012), munity colleges for 26 years, brown to blue. The grave wherein my pen Stark Naked in a Laundromat: publishing nine books of po- Three years ago he was pal is laid lies at the bottom of a The Port Dalhousie Stories etry on the way, the most re- walking his dog, Mickey, when country road saying his name. (2016), and Another Mountain cent of which are After Desire he collapsed from a cardiac It’s a dandy place to lean to Climb (2017), all published (2013) and North of California arrest outside the West Point against the stone book and by Milagro Press. He lives in Street (2014), both from New Grey Library. Ivy Zhang, a read a bunch of poems, ex- Vancouver.

TOFINO’S ment services since age thirteen. His first POET LAUREATE MAKE MY DAY mentor was the painter Sveva Caetani, for Yes, Tofino now has its own poet laure- whom he worked as a garden- ate. The first one is Joanna Streetly IN VERNON er, followed by author Harold who has also launched her memoir this year, Wild Fierce Life: Danger- “I write because the rich and the beautiful Rhenisch. The “El Greco” of ous Moments on the Outer Coast and the connected have the monopoly on Vernon has been described by (Caitlin $22.95). Launch could be the operative word since the communication access and distribution,” says his publisher as Canada’s Trinidad-born Streetly lives on a John La Greca, in an addendum to his first Charles Bukowski. floathouse in the Tofino harbour with her partner, Marcel, and collection of poetry, “Some six-year-old kid daughter, Toby, and she works in Homeless Memo- / Looked at me in the Clayoquot Sound as a naturalist library / I gave him the guide and sea kayak instructor. rial: Poems from One of her goals is to encourage the Streets of Vernon (Ekstasis finger. / He smiled back poetry submissions to Hearing at me. / I think I made Range, a project that looks at the $23.95). At 64, the long-time intrusion of artificial, man-made Vernon resident has been a client his day.” 978-1-77171-275 sounds into the Clayoquot area. of govern- Also, for the upcoming Pacific Rim Art Society’s Cultural Heritage Festival fundraiser, students will collect stories and histories INFONEWS / from local elders to produce John La Greca original poetry. Streetly will THEVENOT also appear at the Winterlights Joanna Festival in Tofino in December.

Streetly SHELBY 978-1-987915-65-5

32 BC BOOKWORLD WINTER 2018-2019 review KIDLIT

Up In Arms Illustration by Molly by Amanda Spottiswoode, March from Up In Arms. illustrations by Molly March She has also designed (Heritage House $12.95) sets for operas, ballets, Ages 10-13 and theatre.

BY STEVE POCOCK potlatch ban and the confisca- T IS ALWAYS DIFFICULT FOR tion of Indigenous regalia, are an adult to review a melded into the story. children’s book objec- Experiencing through the tively because they are eyes of children an alien cul- not the intended audi- ture, replete with eccentric Ience. Up In Arms by Amanda coastal characters, provides Spottiswoode reminded me an engaging backdrop to Spot- a little of the Enid Blyton tiswoode’s adventures. stories of my own childhood, Given that the book is set where children—temporarily in the 1940s, inevitably there free of parental guidance— are some gender stereotypes; banded together to have a but Molly, the eldest of our rip-roaring adventure coupled heroines, becomes an accom- with a dose of morality and plished pilot, and her flying important life lessons learned. prowess subsequently forms Up In Arms is none the worse a crucial part of the plot. for that comparison. Up In Arms is the latest in In 1939 and 1940, some a series—that includes Brother 6,000 British children, known XII’s Treasure, and The Silver as child evacuees and British REFUGEE KIDS MEET Lining— involving these same guest children, were sent to plucky young adventurers Canada to escape the threat of from the MacTavish and Phil- German invasion. The practice lips families. Children—and was stopped in September COUGAR ANNIE parents—who appreciated 1940 with the sinking of SS Spottiswoode’s previous sto- City of Benares by a U-Boat to Vancouver Island on their their new lives. The first half of exploits on the west coast of ries, and those who are discov- and the loss of 77 children. own to escape the dangers fac- the book feels more “tell” than Vancouver Island, first with ering them for the first time, ✫ ing Britain and Europe during “show,” with a lot of ground an encounter with the legend- will find much to enjoy here. UP IN ARMS RECOUNTS THE ADVEN- the Second World War. being covered through exposi- ary, real-life character Cougar 9781772032024 tures of six child evacuees We follow the adventures tion rather than action. Annie and then with a group on Vancouver Island. This of Sophie, Molly, Mark, Har- The second half of the of First Nations children who Steve Pocock is a researcher fictional story follows the for- riet, Leticia, and Posy as they story warms up nicely, espe- come to their aid. Indigenous with Hansard Services at the tunes of the MacTavish and journey across the Atlantic, cially once the children leave history and the impact of Legislative Assembly of British Phillips children who are sent across Canada, and settle into Victoria and commence their colonial policies, such as the Columbia.

Live at The Cellar Vancouver’s Iconic Jazz Club and the Canadian Co-operative Jazz Scene in the 1950s and ’60s Marian Jago

Marian Jago combines archival research, interviews, and photos to tell the story of early jazz in Canada: the fascinating musical lives, the social interactions, and the new and infectious energy that paved the way for today’s vibrant Canadian jazz scene.

978-0-7748-3769-9 • paperback $29.95 • 364 pages

FREE ubcpress.ca SHIPPING thought that counts on Canadian orders over $40 at ubcpress.ca The University of British Columbia is situated on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the xɮmȒθkɮȒyʤȒm (Musqueam).

33 BC BOOKWORLD WINTER 2018-2019 The Return of a Shadow review By Kunio Yamagishi A poignant novel about the Japanese internment in KIDLIT Canada and an internee’s life after his release Eizo Osada had his shadow, always there inside his head, ready, unbidden, to announce itself. It had been there since he left Japan for Canada over forty years ago. He had left his wife and three sons, one of them only two years old, to earn money to maintain the family back home. Then Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. A worried Canadian government interned Japanese people. After his release his shadow questioned why he did not go back to his family, but there was the last letter from his wife twenty-three years ago asking him to stay in Canada as there was no employment in war-torn Japan. Now, approaching retirement, the time had come to return to the wife and family that he had not seen for so long. Little did he know what awaited him and how he in turn would become a shadow.

ISBN 9781786937155 • Available on amazon.ca, amazon.co.uk, amazon.com, or bookstores near you.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ Libros Libertad CANADA'S TRULY INDEPENDENT PUBLISHER [email protected] x 1-604-838-8796 x libroslibertad.com

$56 NEO-HELLENE POETS An Anthology of Modern Greek Poetry: 1750-2018 Translated and Introduced by Manolis Aligizakis ISBN: 9781926763514

THE QUEST Illustration by Shaoli Wang, from A Grain of Rice $26 Fiction by Manolis Aligizakis ISBN: 9781771712835 Trust no one — and flee

A Vietnamese girl tells her harrowing CHTHONIAN $48 tale of escaping to Malaysia from BODIES Poems by her village on the Mekong River Manolis Aligizakis. Paintings by A Grain of Rice eventually reconnects with her father, Ken Kirkby by Nhung N. Tran-Davies it’s not the reunion she has been crav- (Tradewind $12.95/$19.95HC) ISBN: 9781926763408 ing. She doesn’t tell anyone. Back in their home village, the fam- SHADES AND ily sells most of its possessions, except COLORS ESTITUTE, FEELING FORTUNATE the sewing machine. When a rumour to be alive after a tremen- spreads that Saigon could be their se- Poetry by dous storm has almost cret destination, they must suddenly Ion Deaconescu. decimated their bamboo flee on the river, by moonlight, leaving $20 Translated by caul (house) on stilts on behind Ma’s precious sewing machine, Oliver Fraggieri & Dthe Mekong River, 13-year-old Yen, with their only source of income, to avoid Manolis Aligizakis her courageous, seamstress mother being questioned and likely imprisoned ISBN: 9780926763491 and five siblings, must somehow rein- by authorities. vent their lives. “The sound of a gunshot reverber- EROTOKRITOS It’s what people do in Vietnam. ated through the consuming darkness, [FOR COLLECTORS OF RARE BOOKS] Poetry by Vitsentzos Kornaros. After French colonials were finally echoing over the water from behind us. Transcribed by Manolis Aligizakis. ISBN: 9781926763361 sent packing, the country was ravaged Monkeys shook the trees, shrieking… by civil war and American bombs. My heart felt like it had exploded into ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ After Uncle Sam was vanquished, the a million pieces. Tears rolled down my Vietnamese endured more havoc when cheeks.” millions were sent to re-education Eventually they join a crowd of pas- camps, prisons or killed by the Viet sengers lined up for the day-long bus “This uplifting tome offers Cong victors. trip to Ho Chi Minh City, the new name well-founded hope...” Leaving the rest of their family behind for Saigon… “A roadmap to liberation from the in Vinh My village, Yen and her mother, Set during the late 1970s, Nhung N. greedy banksters’ death grip on our Ma, must take their little boat downriver Tran-Davies’ debut pre-teen novel A environment and societies.” to the neighbouring village of Phong Grain of Rice is directly based on the Thang, where they must hire a motor author’s own experiences when there Joyce Nelson boat to take them further to Ca Mau— was a mass exodus of refugees from where Yen’s father is thought to be. Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. She was Bypassing Dystopia: Her father’s name is not to be men- one among a million-plus Vietnamese tioned, but Yen secretly hopes for a re- who earned the name Boat People, risk- +RSHÀOOHGFKDOOHQJHVWR union. She has never been told exactly ing illness, starvation and attacks from FRUSRUDWHUXOH what bad thing he might have done, or pirates to seek better lives in countries why Ma has chosen not to live with him; such as Canada. 7KH6HTXHOWRBeyond Banksters she only remembers him as a man who Having made her way to Canada never scolded her. after spending eight months in a Red Watershed Sentinel Books “Pride is a foolish thing.” “Crying Cross-run refugee camp in Malaysia, ZZZZDWHUVKHGVHQWLQHOFD won’t help.” “Trust no one.” Ma is a Nhung N. Tran-Davies became a doctor E\SDVVLQJG\VWRSLD tough mother. She has to be in order with three children of her own. In 2016, to negotiate her way through Viet Cong ,6%1 her family helped sponsor two families officialdom. They revisit the house that fleeing the conflict in Syria.

Yen had lived in until age six. When Yen 978-1-926890-25-8 / 978-1-926890-33-3 HC

34 BC BOOKWORLD WINTER 2018-2019 review TEEN FICTION

Fifteen Point Nine in math. Or maybe a C+. In by Holly Dobbie Fifteen Point Nine we’re just (DCB Books $14.95) IN HALLWAYS & ON TWITTER hoping that Aggie can make it Ages 13+ to age 16. N HOLLY DOBBIE’S FIFTEEN “I’ve seen more money spent on new ✫ Point Nine we meet HOLLY DOBBIE IS ISSUING A WAKE- 15-year-old Agatha basketball uniforms than on workshops and up call. She believes changes “Aggie” Murphy who is are needed at almost every persecuted by a clique classes that could address the increasingly level of the middle and high Iof in-girls at school who claim school environments to more she is dirty and smells. harsh reality of bullying,” says Holly Dobbie, adequately recognize the pro- In fact, she is bravely try- liferation of bullying. ing to overcome a thoroughly “that is literally killing our youth.” Having taught in Port dysfunctional home life with Moody and Langley high an alcoholic mother who is a schools, Dobbie has also hoarder. At first, Aggie tries hallways and on the internet Aggie’s mother is oblivious experience, worked with the Red Cross to defend herself with caustic is unpoliced. to her needs. Paranoid alco- Prior to the big Winter Child Abuse Prevention Pro- wit, but it’s a weak defence. In desperation, Aggie initi- holics can be that way. So, in Solstice Carnival dance, to gram and with at-risk youth She has some collegial sup- ates the Warriors Video Club. her most secretive despair, Ag- which Aggie has received an as a school mentor with Big port from fellow victims: over- She and her bullied cohorts gie self-harms. There’s kind- invitation from an anonymous Brothers and Big Sisters. weight Susan, tiny Carson, try using a camcorder to docu- ness from a school janitor and admirer, a classmate commits She currently volunteers at sweaty Nicole and the brainiac ment the perpetrators. But several moms, but, basically, suicide. If Fifteen Point Nine the Langley Youth Hub, mak- Travis. But they all wake up such self-empowerment can we are shown the extent to sounds bleak, well, that’s the ing dinners for homeless and every day dreading school be- only go so far if school authori- which simply showing up at whole point. vulnerable youth. cause they know cruelty in the ties turn a blind eye. high school can be a hellish Never mind getting a B 978-1-77086-523-5

“Fifteen Point Nine is about hope and PHOTO frailty, courage and despair.”

HERRING HOLLY DOBBIE

LIAM

When I was twelve years old,” HOLLY DOBBIE on bullying but also the kids who are comfortable says Holly Dobbie, “my father died of in their intolerance. The mental health pancreatic cancer, and soon after, my mother sold his locker. Afraid of further and even more intense services for our young adults are inadequate our house and many of our personal belongings, violent episodes, I never told anyone of authority and unprioritized. I’ve seen more money spent and uprooted us from everything that was familiar about these incidents. Now, so many years later, I on new basketball uniforms than on workshops and safe. Upon entering a new school in a lovely know that disclosure, accountability, and solidarity and classes that could address the increasingly Dunbar neighbourhood, in a new city in grade are the key elements to stopping any abuse. The harsh reality of bullying that is literally killing our eight, a girl my age decided that she hated me as power of the bully is only as real as it is toler- youth. My heart breaks for the kids who have soon as I walked in the door. She continually and ated, only as strong as it is hidden, and will only taken their lives because they believe they have aggressively threatened me with verbal taunts and continue if we all remain silent. My hope is that no other choice. I want this to change, and I have imminent violence, until she finally beat me up, this book might inspire young adults to embrace no doubt that given the right guidance and sup- ripping out my hair and leaving me bruised and the belief that they are capable and worthy, and port, middle and high school kids will learn of their fully shattered. they deserve to live free of fear, shame, and any options and choose to stay alive, and the schools “In a no-alternative-route school hallway that form of systemic persecution. are the best place to complement and further the we had to use to get to class, we frequently en- “Fifteen Point Nine is about hope and frailty, outreach programs. countered a terrifying older boy who made a point courage and despair, and it needs to be in the “This stuff keeps me up at night, and writing of forcefully kicking us every time we passed by classroom, to reach not just the vulnerable kids, about it just now, makes me really sad.”

‘‘ 35 BC BOOKWORLD WINTER 2018-2019 MOTHER TONGUE OBITS M mothertonguepublishing.com PT PUBLISHING LIMITED

children, Palmer was forced to become Dave Perrin the sixth wife of the community’s leader when she was 15. Assigned to two other (1948-2018) older men after that, she escaped in 1988 and was later profiled on CBC’s AVE PERRIN DIED ON AUGUST 6TH, Fifth Estate. The co-authored work 2018, in Calgary, Alberta at earned the VanCity Book Prize in 2005. Dthe Foothills Medical Center Perrin had provided veterinary ser- at age 70. He had a manu- vices to the Mormons over the years

SONGEN CROW JAZZ UNDISCOVERED ORDINARY script soon to be published entitled so he had some knowledge of the Poetry Short Stories COUNTRY STRANGERS Better Late than Never. subject prior to helping Palmer write Patrick Friesen Linda Rogers Poetry Novel $19.95 | 106 pgs $23.95 | 264 pgs Al Rempel Bill Stenson According to his distributor, Nancy her memoir. $19.95 |88 pgs $23.95 |282 pgs Wise Great BC Novel Winner of Sandhill Book Marketing, Dave Perrin’s first book, Don’t Turn Your Back In The Barn: Adventures of a Eldon Lee Our 2018 Books Great Gifts! Country Vet (Dave’s Press 2000), sold 23,000 copies through bookstores. (1923-2018) “It’s likely he sold another 5–6,000 on his own,” she says, “direct to the HE ENDURANCE OF B.C.’S PIONEER public over the years. He used to go doctors was only surpassed to horse shows, dog shows and other by that of their wives accord- trade shows and sit at a table selling T Eldon Lee ing to , when he his books.” wrote Scalpels & Buggywhips, Medi- A Vancouver Sun review once cal Pioneers of Central B.C. (Heritage, dubbed him, “a modern-day James 1997). Beginning with early Indian Herriot, B.C. style.” shamans and ending in the 1920s, Lee traced the history of an area bounded by Clinton, Prince George, Hazelton and Anaheim Lake. Lee wrote four other books and was Central B.C.’s first obstetrician. Born in Chico, California on May 5, 1923, Eldon Lee was raised with his 20 plus younger brother Todd on a Cariboo ranch. They first arrived in Canada in Yoka June of 1929. varieties is reading & After serving as an RCAF bomber recommends: pilot, he graduated from the University After Life: of Washington Medical School in 1952, Ways We interning at the Vancouver General and Think About Shaughnessy Hospitals. Death With his wife Marjorie and the first by Merrie-Ellen of their six children, he moved to Hazel- Wilcox ton and became a rural doctor. He later (Orca Books). specialized in obstetrics at Vancouver ISBN: 9781459813885 General, worked for a year in England Dave Perrin before he became the only obstetrician and gynaecologist north of the 51st Raised in Casino, a small com- parallel in B.C. munity near Trail, B.C., David Per- He was a resident of Prince George rin started his veterinary practice in for three decades. Creston in 1973 and remained there In retirement he studied Latin and until 1998, after which he began writ- Greek, and piloted ultralight planes. ing and self-publishing the first of six With his brother Todd he co-wrote Tall humorous and heartwarming books in the Saddle: Ranch Life in the Cariboo about his career. (Heritage House, 1995). In 1982, Perrin married a woman His other books were From Califor- #5 - 1046 Mason St. Victoria, B.C. V8T 1A3 who, as a teenager, had broken away nia to North 52: Cariboo Experiences from the Mormon community in Lister. (Caitlin, 1994), The Hutchwell Papers 1-250-384-0905 (just off Cook Street) His book about the polygamous Mor- (Self-published, 1995) and A Western • Hand sorted for premium quality • Full selection of exotic teas mon Fundamentalist community at Doctor’s Odyssey, From Cariboo to Kos • B.C. honey and Belgian chocolates • Mail orders welcome PremiumAffordable Quality Pricesat Bountiful, B.C., Keep Sweet: Children (Heritage, 1996). of Polygamy (Dave’s Press, 2004) was He died on September 3, 2018. www.yokascoffee.com written much later in collaboration with Debbie Palmer, who had similarly For more information on Dave Perrin fled the sect. Herself the oldest of 47 and Eldon Lee, visit abcbookworld.com

• Supporting B.C. authors • More than 400 reviews • More than 300 contributors • 1,000 readers per day • New stand-alone website in 2019 • More book reviews, more often.

PUBLISHER/ EDITOR RICHARD MACKIE THE ORMSBY REVIEW A rebirth for serious book reviews

36 BC BOOKWORLD WINTER 2018-2019 Douglas Lake Ranch cowboys, 2017. Photo by Greg Bos, Trails of the West: Images of the North American Cowboy.

BRITISH•COLUMBIAWHO’S later—when Francis is diagnosed with AIDS and returns home. Whitty moved A is for Ardley to the West Coast in her early twenties. RAISED ON THE PRAIRIES, PAT ARDLEY, WITH HER 978-1-98791561-7 fear of water, never dreamed she would spend most of her adult life near the F is for Foster ocean. But within months of meeting RARELY, BEYOND THE WORLD OF GRANTS AND George “Hurricane” Ardley, the two galleries, can an artist generate a body were off to Addenbroke Island to work of work in which roughness triumphs as junior lighthouse keepers. They soon WHO over sophistication. Replete with reflec- left their jobs to start a fishing lodge “More than twenty-five years after the took a life-altering loss in the 1988 tions of street life that are undeniably on Rivers Inlet where they stayed for poetry-writing Phyllis Webb ceased,” he Olympics at Seoul to shed his ‘in-it- vital from the margins, Sean Nosek’s almost thirty years, raising two chil- writes, “the wordless poet Phyllis Webb to-win-it’ attitude and no longer view Ken Foster’s Vancouver: Life, Art and dren. Since then Pat Ardley’s memoir, carries on, seems—permanently indefi- every competitor as an enemy. Alleyways (Granville Island $49.95) el- Grizzlies, Gales and Giant Salmon: nite.” We learn more about Collis than 978-1-77203-173-7 evates the art of a former addict from Life at a Rivers Inlet Fishing Lodge about Webb. But the tribute is made. the Downtown Eastside, Ken Foster, (Harbour $24.95), has made it onto Respect one’s elders. He has already E is for Ethel who was once in Tri Cities Adult Com- the BC Bestsellers List. 978-1-55017-831-9 written, Phyllis Webb and the Common DURING THE TWELVE YEAR PERIOD WHEN SHE - munity Corrections under evaluation Good (Talonbooks, 2007) to examine worked as director of the Carnegie and rehab (but has no criminal record). Webb’s work in relation to 20th century Community Centre in Vancouver’s The book reveals the coherency of Fos- poetics and social movements. B is for Bos downtown eastside, Ethel Whitty, a ter’s heart-wrenching oeuvre. Nosek, a WITH TEXT BY KEN MATHER, FORMER GENERAL 978-1-77201-207-1 graduate of the SFU Writer’s Studio, former English teacher who became an manager of Historic Hat Creek Ranch, wrote her debut novel, The Light assistant superintendent of the Van- north of Cache Creek, photographer is for Dorland a Body Radiates (Caitlin $24). The D couver School District. 978-1-9269919-1-7 Greg Bos has completed his 33-year OLYMPIC ROWER JASON DORLAND’S SECOND protagonist Eileen MacPherson grows documentary photo project, Trails of book, Pulling Together: A Coach’s up in a working class family in Cape the West: Images of the North Ameri- Journey to Uncover the Mindset Breton. When Eileen is eight, her teen- G is for Green can Cowboy ($29.95), independently of True Potential (Heritage $19.95), age brother Francis, whom she adores, SHARI GREEN OF CAMPBELL RIVER HAS WON published in conjunction with Bos’ describes his evolution from an ultra- leaves home after a violent family the ALA Schneider Family Book Award photo exhibit at the Barbican Library competitive athlete to a supportive altercation and she doesn’t learn the in the Middle School Books category for in London. This remarkable, limited rowing coach at Shawnigan Lake. It reason for his departure until 25 years her middle-grade novel Macy McMillan edition tribute to cowboys of western and the Rainbow Goddess (Pajama North America began in 1984 when, Press $12.95). The American Library as a rookie photographer for the Kam- Association (ALA) oversees the Schnei- loops News, Bos was snowbound at the der Family Book Awards which honour Douglas Lake Ranch for an assignment authors or illustrators for artistic ex- to mark the 100th anniversary of one pression of the disability experience of Canada’s biggest and most iconic for child and adolescent audiences. cattle ranches. Having worked twenty Winners receive $5,000 and a plaque. years as a Reuters staff photographer Shari Green’s novel introduces the in Europe, Bos returned to Douglas reader to deaf, sixth-grader Macy’s Lake in 2017 after a 30-year absence. world. An elderly neighbour, Iris, 1-978-9996778-1-7 learns how to communicate with Macy through sign language, and C is for Collis Macy, in turn, learns how Iris sends MORE OF AN HOMAGE THAN AN INTIMATE messages through the gift of cookies. investigation, Stephen Collis’ Almost Their friendship helps Macy to navigate Islands: Phyllis Webb and the Pursuit friendships, family changes and school of the Unwritten (Talon $24.95) deliv- assignments. Shari Green’s latest title ers as a collection of poetic, political is Missing Mike (Pajama Press $18.95) and philosophical digressions for read- about the devastation of wildfires and ers who are already familiar with one the resilience of the human spirit. of Salt Spring Island’s most venerable Green works as a practical nurse. seniors. Collis’ style is often like a per- Granville Street, 2017 (36 x 24”, acrylic on canvas) by Ken Foster, from Macy: 978-1-77278-017-8 sonal journal, rather than a public one. Ken Foster’s Vancouver: Life, Art and Alleyways (Granville Island $49.95). Mike 978-1-77278-045-1

37 BC BOOKWORLD WINTER 2018-2019 WHO’SWHO BRITISHCOLUMBIA

H is for Hicks FAITH ERIN HICKS OF VANCOUVER WORKED in the animation industry for several years before turning to writing and drawing comics full-time in 2008. Her latest is a juvenile fiction fantasy, The Nameless City: The Divided Earth (Raincoast $28.99). A rogue prince, Erzi, is under siege by the combined forces of Dao and Yisun. The lead characters Rat and Kai must infiltrate the palace and retrieve the ancient and deadly formula for napatha, an ancient weapon for mass destruction, before Erzi decides to use it. 9781626721616

I is for Indigiqueer POET JOSHUA WHITE- head’s debut novel, Jonny Appleseed (Arsenal $17.95), The Trio (1954) by Harry Webb hung over the bar at the Cellar, from Live at the Cellar by Marian Jago. joins David Chari- andy’s Soucouyant who observed that the owl of Minerva, tershed Sentinel $20), she cites ana- in 2007 and Claire is for Lerner the Roman goddess of wisdom, only lyst Wendy Holm who decries how Mulligan’s The Reck- L spreads its wings with the coming of NAFTA has already erased sovereignty SOON SCHOOLCHILDREN WILL NOT BE TAUGHT oning of Boston Jim dusk. That is, understanding comes issues around water exports. “With Joshua Whitehead how to write beyond their signature. As in 2008 as one of late in life. And C.S. Lewis opined that respect to trans-boundary movement we increasingly render control of our the rare works of fiction from a B.C. “Bereavement is not the truncation of water, there are no real ‘decisions’ lives to machines, the world of graphic publishing house to make it onto the of married love but one of its regular to be made.” says Holm. “The ship has art made by human hands becomes Giller Prize longlist. The book has phases—like the honeymoon.” Finding already sailed.” In essence, if Canada more precious and engaging. Emily also been nominated for the Governor the latter hard to digest at first, Mat- tried to stop bulk water export, it would Carr art history prof Jillian Lerner General’s Literary Award for fiction. thews, a former dean at Malaspina be subject to an investor-state dispute has therefore explored the culture of Jonny Appleseed is the tale of a Two- University-College and Vancouver Is- settlement (ISDS) lawsuit. graphic art that blossomed in 19th Spirit Indigiqueer cybersex worker who land University, eventually came to see Both Holm and Maude Barlow are century Paris in her Graphic Culture: fetishizes himself in order to make a bereavement of her long term relation- urging that water “as a good, service Illustration and Artistic Enterprise living in the big city. Jonny has one ship with her late husband as part of or investment” be removed from both in Paris, 1830-1848 (McGill-Queen’s week before he must return to the an ongoing relationship. 978-0-88982-325-9 NAFTA and the FTA. 978-0-9953286-3-1 $49.95). Whether it’s a portrait of Vic- “rez”—and his former life—to attend the tor Hugo, a political cartoon or an ad- funeral of his stepfather. Now Arsenal vertising poster, the richness of talent has partnered with VS Books (founded N is for Nelson O is for Onjana is undeniable and alluring. by Vivek Shraya in 2017) for an im- IN HER FOLLOW-UP TO BEYOND BANKERS AS HER SPOUSE TRANSI- 978-0-7735-5455-9 print to boost young writers who are in 2016, social critic Joyce Nelson tions from perceived Indigenous, Black or people of colour. not only exposes the fallacies of the masculinity towards 9781551527253 M is for Matthews neoliberal economy, she highlights the a new identity, poet DESCRIBING THE FINAL STAGE OF HER MARRIAGE inspirational efforts of those who are Onjana Yawnghwe J is for Jago in Minerva’s Owl: The Bereavement rallying against it—such as the ongoing bravely records her FOLLOWING WORLD WAR II, RETURNING VETERAN Phase of My Marriage (Oolichan Citizens’ Revolution enacted in 2007 by own sense of won- Al Neil pioneered the formation of not- $17.95), Carol Matthews cites both Ecuadorian president Lenin Moreno. der and loss in The the philosopher Hegel and author In Bypassing Dystopia: Hope-Filled Small Way (Caitlin for-profit jazz clubs in several Canadian Onjana Yawnghwe cities, most notably the Cellar on Wat- C. S. Lewis. The title comes from Hegel Challenges to Corporate Rule (Wa- $18), a remarkably son Street (near Main), in Vancouver compassionate view of a heart-twisting, and two lesser-known venues, the dwindling friendship, sated with re- Black Spot and the Flat Five. Touring spect. jazz heavyweights mingled with up- Born in Thailand, Yawnghwe is a and-comers in the 1950s and 1960s, Shan-Canadian who grew up in B.C. giving rise to a pan-Canadian jazz cul- and works as a nurse. 978-1-987915-77-8 ture as outlined in Marian Jago’s Live at the Cellar: Vancouver’s Iconic Jazz Club and the Canadian Co- P is for Propp operative Jazz Scene in the 1950s BOLIVIA WAS ONE OF THE FEW COUNTRIES and ‘60s (UBC $29.95). 9780774837699 willing to accept Jewish immigrants during World War II. Dan Propp was born in Sucre, Bolivia in 1944 after K is for Katz his parents Arthur and Elsa Propp ONE IN TWELVE PEOPLE HAVE A RARE DISEASE. fled the Nazis. His mother had fled A rare disease is defined as a condi- Germany by ship to Brazil. His father tion affecting fewer than one in 2,000 had been imprisoned by the Nazis after people. There are more than 7,000 Kristallnacht. Before the war ended he known rare diseases. To raise aware- managed to escape from Berlin by air ness of rare diseases, “the underdogs with the assistance of a woman from of health care,” Deborah Katz has the British underground. produced Rare is Everywhere (Miss The Propp family came to B.C. in Bird/Sandhill $19.95) to educate chil- 1950, settling in Gibson’s Landing dren about nature and make them feel where Arthur Propp, in his 60s, started better if they have a rare disease or any the Sucre Lumber Co. After his father anomaly that makes them feel differ- died, Dan Propp wrote to Nobel Laure- ent. “So if you ever feel different, like ate, and Holocaust survivor, Elie Wie- a white spirit bear, you don’t have to sel about his parents’ experiences. Wi- worry because, rare is EVERYWHERE!” esel provided notes of encouragement Lobsters can be blue. Alligators and as Propp went on to self-publish four tigers can be white. Katz has won a books. Propp has since arranged for $10,000 Vine Award for Canadian Jew- the publication of his father’s memoirs, ish Literature in the Children’s/Young Self-portarit (1842) by Benjamin Roubaud, a 19th-century French written in German, now translated into Adult category for Rare is Everywhere. painter, lithographer and caricaturist, from Graphic Culture: Illustration English as Where the Straight Path 978-0-9958261-0-6 and Artistic Enterprise in Paris, 1830-1848 by Jillian Lerner Leads (Amazon, 2017), 9781927626719

38 BC BOOKWORLD WINTER 2018-2019 Self-Publish.ca

Q is for Quisling T is for Tippett
     PENDER ISLANDER   A PSYCHIATRIST WORKING IN MEXICO UNDER Maria Tippett the thumb of a local drug cartel, falls " ' '(  for a woman whose husband is dis- raised hackles for covered by the cartel to be a traitor in writing truthfully &)*$+$#,+-
Dr. Lawrence E. Matrick’s first novel, about Bill Reid’s ./( The Quisling (Bellevue $18.95). It’s private life but she not clear which character is the quis- also included him 
 
 
ling: the doctor or the husband but in her Made in Brit-  
 
after the latter disappears, the doctor Maria Tippett ish Columbia: Eight 
 
 
pursues the husband’s wife, all the Ways of Making Cul-  
 
 ture (Harbour, 2015) which also pro- while wondering if it’s worth risking his  !"#$%& medical career for such a dangerous filed Emily Carr, Francis Rattenbury, love. Billed as a medical thriller, the Arthur Erickson, Martin Allerdale story is full of violence, dysfunctional Grainger, Jean Coulthard, George personalities, and sex. Matrick was Woodcock and George Ryga. Now she an assistant professor of psychiatry has boldly cast a far wider net for Memoir Writing Services at UBC and had a full-time private Sculpture in Canada: A History (D&M practice in Vancouver for almost 50 $39.95), an unprecedented survey of Your life adds up to a story. years before retiring and becoming a an art form for which Canadians are writer. He is working on a new novel not generally renowned. 978-1-55017-729-9 set to be released in 2019. 978-1773-740089 Tell it. Now you can hire an experienced writer— U is for Unity with more than two decades as a full-time IN 2008, SHELLEY HRDLITSCHKA freelance writer in Vancouver—to help you: introduced the fictional, polygamous community of • Record your life stories through an Unity with her YA novel, extensive interviewing process. Sister Wife, nominated • Conduct research to augment your story. Write the story with you. for a Governor General’s • • Manage the book design. Award. Its Bountiful-like Provide advice on printing. leader called the Proph- • et has 26 wives and 90 For more information contact me at children. Fifteen-year-old 604-688-1458 • [email protected] Celeste instinctually ques- Beverly Cramp

tions the strict doctrines LAURA SAWCHUK PHOTO and befriends a mutually skeptical boy, Jon. Caught kissing, he runs away be- fore he can be banished by Raziel Reid: from Pulp to Penguin the Prophet. In the sequel, Lost Boy (Orca $14.95), Jon is unprepared for life outside Unity R is for Reid and struggles with alcohol, drugs and AT 24, RAZIEL REID BECAME THE YOUNGest homelessness. 978-1-4598-1637-4 Curious, winner of the Governor General’s Award rigorous, and for English-language children’s litera- interdisciplinary. ture with his debut YA novel, When Literature, politics,   Everything Feels Like the Movies, from philosophy, humanity. Arsenal Pulp Press. It was inspired in Graduate degrees in liberal part by the 2008 murder of gay teen- studies. Explore MA GLS. ager Lawrence Fobes King who wore high heels to school in California. Optioned for a movie, published in the U.K. and Germany, and selected for inclusion in the 2015 edition of Canada Reads, it gained Reid a teaching job at UBC’s Creative Writing Program. Reid has now jumped ship to Cana- da’s largest Ontario-based publisher
 for another novel about high school called Kens (Penguin Random House $21.99), described as “the gay Heath- ers meets Mean Girls.” 9780735263772     S is for Sono Nis AFTER ITS DISASTROUS WAREHOUSE FIRE OF August, 2016, which destroyed almost Lost Boy (Orca Books) cover art its entire stock, Sono Nis Press of Winlaw has arisen Phoenix-like from the ashes. Two of the first books to be Graduate Liberal Studies reprinted are Terry Reksten’s classic, V is for Vahabzadeh Rattenbury, first published in 1978, INSTEAD OF VIEWING THE CONCEPTS OF and Ormsby Review editor Richard violence and non-violence as mutually Looking back to look forward. Mackie’s Island Timber: A Social His- exclusive, in Violence and Nonvio- SFU Vancouver: tory of the Comox Logging Company, lence: Conceptual Excursions into The intellectual first published in 2000. This is the Phantom Opposites (UTP $37.95), 6th printing of Mackie’s book, which UVic’s Peyman Vahabzadeh proposes heart of the city. won the Lieutenant-Governor’s Prize understanding the relationship be- from the BC Historical Federation and tween them as concentric. Born and www.sfu.ca/gls was shortlisted for the Roderick Haig- raised in Iran, Vahabzadeh immigrated Brown Regional Prize. Publisher Diane to Canada in 1989 and earned his Ph.D Morriss reports that book stores, espe- in sociology from SFU. He is a regular cially on Vancouver Island, asked often commentator on Iranian affairs in about these two popular titles. Canadian media. 978-1-4875-2318-3

39 BC BOOKWORLD WINTER 2018-2019 WHO’SWHO BRITISHCOLUMBIA

Wis for Wooldridge IN SEPTEMBER, ANDREW WOOLDRIDGE accepted the Jim Douglas Award from the Association of Book Publishers of British Columbia on behalf of his company, Orca Books, at a dinner in Victoria at the Union Club. The award amounts to recognition for “publisher of the year” in British Columbia, re- stricted to members of the main pub- lishers’ association. Wooldridge’s speech is posted on the BCBookLook.com news hub.

X is for Xiaoming ONCE AGAIN PROLIFIC AND UNDER-RECOGNIZED Vancouver Island author John Wilson has delved deeply Andrew Wooldridge (centre) with Orca employees and Bob Tyrrell (at right), at the Union Club. into history as he approaches fifty tion, and Community Engage- Alaska highway in fuel-efficient cars Research at the University of Victoria. titles. This time ment Award at the 34th annual and self-sufficient RVs, which means He has done extensive work on the John Wilson a screenplay by Yukon Heritage Awards for the demand for lodge services has neural control of human locomotion— Xiaoming Yao her book about the evolution diminished and the businesses are particularly how the arms and legs has been the basis for Wilson’s nov- of Alaska Highway culture, struggling to survive. interact during walking. el, The Third Act (Orca $14.95), for Beyond Mile Zero (Harbour 978-1-55017-797-8 Zehr’s previous books ages twelve and up. Three con- $24.95), with photos by include Becoming Batman: temporary Chinese students Mark Kelly. With the is for Zehr The Possibility of a Super- studying in North America opening of the Alaska Z hero (2008), Inventing Iron become involved in the pre- Highway in 1948, at the A NEUROSCIENTIST AND MARTIAL Man: The Possibility of a sentation of an unfinished play beginning of the golden artist, E. Paul Zehr has Human Machine (2011), and about the Nanjing Massacre of age of the automobile, published Chasing Captain Project Superhero (2014) 1937. 9781459819672 quaint and quirky es- America: How Advances in which have used superhe- tablishments sprang up Science, Engineering, and roes as metaphors to ex- along the highway to serve Biotechnology Will Pro- plore the science of human Y is for Yukon the travelling public. Now, duce a Superhuman (ECW potential. He has also writ- YUKON-BASED LILY GONTARD HAS Lily Gontard aside from truckers, $19.95). Zehr is director of ten for Scientific American. won the Innovation, Educa- most people travel the the Centre for Biomedical E. Paul Zehr 978-1-77041-199-9

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41 BC BOOKWORLD WINTER 2018-2019 LETTERS QQUICKIES A COMMUNITY BULLETIN BOARD FOR INDEPENDENTS

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Neo-Hellenic Poets An Anthology of The villagers at Modern Greek Poetry: 1750-2018 Luhombero will now Translated by Manolis Aligizakis Skilled translations that have a reliable vehicle. have never been done for English-speaking readers. Includes biographical profiles of each poet. 978-1-77171-301-6 • $55.95 www.libroslibertad.com POETRY ANTHOLOGY Hooray, you did it.

Warriors for the ith significant help from Michael construction projects that Father Placid Kindata has BC Book- Working Day Audain and Yosef Wosk, already generated in this remote community. With his World by John Wiznuk readers have successfully irrigation systems, he’s now growing food for everyone year-round. I was there in July and checked. The evolution of a come together and supported our rural fire service, two-year fundraising initiative to The spanking new four-door pick-up will also be and a volunteer Wpurchase a new Toyota pick-up truck to help a small a great benefit to the village and surrounding area firefighter. because all too frequently a reliable vehicle is required 9781525516139 soft cover: $20.36 village in western Tanzania called Luhombero. 9781525516146 ebook: $5.24 Yes, Luhombero is hard to say—and easy to for- for emergencies. The roads are dreadful, almost im- friesenpress.com/bookstore get—so my colleague Sharon Jackson and I have passable due to heavy rains and flooding at times, and MEMOIR built an informational website at helpluhombero.org it’s about a 16-hour drive from Luhombero to one of We can’t show you a photo of the truck yet cuz the country’s few major hospitals on the coast. The it’ll take another three months for the vehicle to be Your generosity is going to help Father Placid save Chocolate delivered to the African coast at Dar es Salaam, from a few lives. Pilgrim Europe, by freighter. But I do want to say thank you It was a bit of a no-brainer to ask you all to mo- by Marie Maccagno to everyone who saw fit to contribute to this initiative. bilize as a community and do something useful with We’ve printed a lot of your names already; now there our collective strength. Thank you for verifying my Fearless, honest. A must- read for those walking their are too many to include here. belief in you. own personal journeys. 978-1-7750721-0-2 A reliable vehicle will obviously prove to be a Think Globally. Act Locally. Act Globally. $25 CDN/PB • e-book versions available tremendous asset for the various agricultural and —Alan Twigg, BC BookWorld mariemaccagno.com/books MEMOIR your wonderful magazine many years a delight to see my book on the pages Long may you run ago. So now I always look forward to of your publication. Even if there is Drawn To I’M WRITING TO ACKNOWLEDGE ALL THE finding it at my public library. For a not yet sales to cover the expense, the Change years that participants of the Half- person without a computer, it’s re- thrill and satisfaction of being there Graphic Histories of moon Bay Writing Workshop have freshing not to have to go “on line” to will suffice. Working-Class Struggle received copies of BC Bookworld. Our access your publication. John Wiznuk This evocative collection... should inspire us to group had a good run but it’s now I share my copy with a friend who Saturna Island Winner of both the ‘dream of what might be’ time for me to pull back as facilita- Canadian Historical and to act to bring it is an avid reader and we make notes Association’s Public about.”—NOAM CHOMSKY tor and focus more on editing rather History Prize and the about books we want to read. Since Quirky essence $10,000 Wilson Prize! 9781771132572 • $29.95 than ‘teaching.’ We no longer need a my retirement in 2003 it’s delightful www.btlbooks.com THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR YOUR WRITEUP bundle of them, but thanks for being to spend endless hours, on the couch, GRAPHIC NOVEL in BC BookWorld about the Haiku so generous, for so long. Long may the with a book in my hands. Thank you Gumball Machine at Albion Books. publication continue! for your service. You captured the quirky essence of A.S. Penne Doris Bach The Listener this fun literary installation, and I Sunshine Coast Kamloops by David Lester am thrilled to see the big photo of it in Who’s Who. This is great for haiku “A dense and fiercely Offline reader The thrill anon intelligent work... and for Albion Books, which David all in a lyrical and I JUST READ THROUGH THE AUTUMN 2018 ONCE AGAIN, I WISH TO RENEW MY AD Beaver, my husband, has owned and stirring style.” edition of BC BookWorld. Like one for Warriors for the Working Day in run for 34 years. — Publishers Weekly (NY) of the letters from people on board your Quickies section for small, in- Julie Emerson 978-1894037488 • $19.95 www.amazon.ca a B.C. Ferry, that’s how I discovered dependent publishers like me. What Vancouver GRAPHIC NOVEL Send letters or emails to: BC BookWorld, 926 West 15th Ave., Vancouver, BC V5Z 1R9 [email protected] • Letters may be edited for clarity & length.

Anvil Press...20 George Ryga Award...17 New Star Books...28 Talonbooks...14 Banyen Books...43 Graduate Liberal Studies (SFU)...39 Nightwood Editions...30 Tanglewood Books...43 Basil Stuart-Stubbs Prize...17 Granville Island Publishing...8 Now or Never...18 Tanner’s Books...43 BC Ferries Books...28 Greystone Books...16 Orca Books...2 Tradewind Books...16 BC Historical Federation...17 Harbour Publishing...44 Ormsby Review... 36 UBC Press...33 Caitlin Press...26 The Heritage Group of Publishers...13 Penguin Random House...20 Vancouver Desktop...39 Cramp, Beverly...39 Houghton Boston...41 People’s Co-Op Books...43 Victoria Book Prize Society...11 Douglas & McIntyre...4 Jewish Book Festival...31 Polestar Calendars...40 Watershed Sentinel Books...34 Douglas College/EVENT...17 Libros Libertad Publishing...34 Printorium/Island Blue...41 Yamagishi, Kunio...34 AD Ekstasis Editions...24 Luminous Edits...39 Ronsdale Press...6 Yoka’s Coffee...36 Ellis, David...43 Marquis...41 Royal BC Museum...18 INDEX Friesens Printers...41 Mermaid Tales Bookshop...43 Sandhill Book Marketing...27 Galiano Island Books...43 Mother Tongue Publishing...36 Self-Counsel Press...21

42 BC BOOKWORLD WINTER 2018-2019 BOOKSELLERS

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Tanglewood Books, located in a heritage building OPENING HOURS: at 2306 West Broadway on the corner of Vine Street, Mon to Sat: 10am to 6pm is an Aladdin’s cave of new and used books. We can Sun: 12pm to 6pm get your special orders to you within 4 business days, • we have a popular and unusual DVD collection, as Tel: 604-736-8876 well as some rare vinyl thrown into the mix. Tanglewoodbooks.ca

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43 BC BOOKWORLD WINTER 2018-2019 44 BC BOOKWORLD WINTER 2018-2019