BC BOOK PRIZES PHOTOS

MARTIN

SARAH / PRIZES

BOOK

BC here were 302 entries John Vaillant won the for this year’s B.C. Roderick Haig-Brown Prize to how nervous one can be when they haven’t prepared anything.” Book Prizes, capably go with his Governor General’s T The shortest speech [non- Award for English Non-Fiction speech] came from Meredith hosted by Bill Richardson. and the Pearson Writers’ Quartermain, winner of the For only the second time in Trust Non-Fiction Prize Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize for Vancouver Walking (NeWest Press). 22 years, neither Douglas & “I have nothing, even jotted down, to say,” she said. McIntyre nor Harbour Pub- Some of the best lines of the evening came from new Book lishing had a winning title. Prizes president Michael Hay- ward who noted publishing “is a In the six categories for which relatively slow way to make a for- books published outside of the tune.” province were eligible, the only Jack Hodgins ended the homemade winner was Stan night on a high note, accepting the Persky for The Short Version: An third Lieutenant Governor’s ABC Book (New Star). Accepting Award for Literary Excellence with the Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize a typically self-effacing view of his on behalf of Persky, who was in writing career, including a tribute Berlin, his usually talkative pub- to his wife of 45 years, Diane, lisher Rolf Maurer told an au- “who, when I told her what I dience of nearly 400 people at the wanted to do with my life, she married Barbara Marriott Pinnacle Hotel in Vancouver, Charlotte Gill: me anyway.” fiction prize Nickel: “Gosh. I’m non-plussed.” [Jack Hodgins’ speech is posted at winner children’s The best-crafted Book Prize accept- literature www.abcbookworld.com under Hodgins]. ance speeches came from John winner Vaillant and James Delgado. Delgado, co-recipient of the BC Booksellers’ Choice Award in Honour SURPRISE of Bill Duthie, for Waterfront: The Illus- YOUR trated Maritime Story of Greater Vancou- EYES ver (Stanton, Atkins & Dosil), recently announced his plans to resign as the COMING NEXT ISSUE… Director of the Vancouver Maritime Museum, a position he has held since Pearl Luke’s second novel, Madame Zee (HarperCollins $32.95), invents a 1991. “In many ways Waterfront is the sympathetic character for the little-known Maritime Museum I [had] hoped to mistress of Canada’s most remarkable build in this community,” he said, re- more than its usual share of surprised Barbara Nickel, accepting the cult leader, Edward Arthur Wilson, a.k.a. gretfully. winners. Sheila A. Egoff Children’s Literature the Brother, XII, the shyster who charmed Vaillant picked up his third major “This is quite a shocking honour,” Prize for Hannah Waters and the Daugh- and terrorized his followers near Nanaimo in the late 1920s prize of the year for The Golden Spruce: said Tanya Lloyd Kyi, winner of ter of Johann Sebastian Bach (Penguin). and early 1930s. A True Story of Myth, Madness and Greed the Christie Harris Illustrated Children’s Nickel acknowledged the influence of John Oliphant is (Knopf), winner of the Roderick Haig- Literature Prize for The Blue Jean Book: the UBC Creative Writing program and re-publishing his Brown Regional Prize. “To be associated The Story Behind the Seams (Annick fellow writer Rhea Tregabov. definitive biography in any way with Roderick Haig-Brown Press). Her history of blue jeans for “Wow,” said Charlotte Gill, ac- of the Brother, XII, and Luke’s novel is a great honour,” said Vaillant, “To have young readers was a project suggested cepting the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize will be reviewed by it recognized and received locally is the to her by Colleen MacMillan of for Ladykiller, a short story collection that Sheila Munro in greatest honour I could receive.” Annick Press. doubled as her thesis at the UBC Crea- Pearl Luke our next issue. The smoothly-run affair included “I’m quite humbled,” said tive Writing program. “It’s amazing

Contributors: Mark Forsythe, Sheila Munro, Joan Givner, Sara Cassidy, Louise Donnelly, INDEX to Advertisers BC Hannah Main-van der Kamp, Heather Ramsay. BOOKWORLD Writing not otherwise credited is by staff. Anvil Press...26 Givner, Joan...35 People’s Co-op Books...38 Arsenal Pulp Press...19 Granville Island Publishing...29 Playwrights Canada Press...32 Summer Issue Vol. 20, No. 2 Photographer: Barry Peterson Banyen Books...38 Harbour Publishing...44 Printorium...40 Publisher/ Writer: Alan Twigg Proofreaders: Wendy Atkinson, Betty Twigg BC Book Prizes...9 HarperCollins...29 Ronsdale Press...12 Editor/Production: David Lester Design: Get-to-the-Point Graphics BC Non-Fiction Award...9 Heritage House...14 Royal BC Museum...15 Deliveries: Ken Reid Bolen Books...36 Hignell Printing...41 Sandhill...6 Publication Mail Agreement #40010086 Save-On Foods...36 Return undeliverable Canadian Book Warehouse...14 Houghton Boston...41 We acknowledge the addresses to: BC BookWorld, assistance of Canada Council Brick Books...34 Julian, Terry...38 SFU Writing & Publishing...16 3516 W. 13th Ave., Vancouver, and the Province BC V6R 2S3 of British Columbia, Brindle & Glass...36 Multicultural Books...16 Sidney Booktown...38 through the Ministry Broken Jaw Press...31 Morriss Printing...41 Sono Nis Press...11 Produced with the sponsorship of of Community, Aboriginal, Pacific BookWorld News Society. and Women’s Services. Caitlin Press...15 Nature Guides BC...42 Thistledown...42 Publications Mail Registration No. 7800. TSAR Publications...40 BC BookWorld ISSN: 1701-5405 Crown Publications...36 New Society Publishers...43 Douglas & McIntyre...2 New Star Books...32, 35, 38, 40 Thomson, Ann...42 Advertising & editorial: Transcontinental Printing...41 BC BookWorld, 3516 W. 13th Ave., Douglas College/EVENT...40 Nightwood Editions...25 We acknowledge the Vancouver, B.C., V6R 2S3 financial support of the Dundurn...27 Northstone...38 UBC Press...20 Government of Canada Tel/Fax: 604-736-4011 through the Book Ekstasis Editions...26 Now or Never Publishing...32 Vancouver Desktop...38 Email: available on request . Publishing Industry Development Program Ellis, David...19 Ocean Cruise Guides...38 Woewoda, James C...38 Annual subscription: $12.84 (BPIDP) for this project. Festival of the Written Arts...3 Oolichan Books...31 Yoka’s Coffee...40 All BC BookWorld reviews are posted online at www.abcbookworld.com First Choice Books...41 Orca Books...24 TO ADVERTISE CALL Friesens Printers...41 Penguin Books...12 604-736-4011

5 BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2006 PHOTOGRAPHY

every book • bargain priced • every day

“Wait for me, Daddy.” Best Picture of the Week in North Royal City America, 1940. DOUBLEDOUBLE EXPOSED

JIM WOLF’S ROYAL CITY: A Photographic History of New Westminster (Her- itage $39.95) concentrates on resident professional photographers from 1858 to 1960, whereas A New Westminster Album (Dundurn $29.99) by Gavin Hainsworth and Katherine Freund-Hainsworth has a broader, folksy mandate. BOTH BOOKS INCLUDE THE FAMOUS “Wait For Me, Daddy” photo- graph taken on Eighth Street by Daily Province photographer Claude Dettloff— the one with five-year-old Warren Bernard reaching for his father’s hand, running alongside a long column of soldiers, as his father, in uniform, reaches back. SELECTED BY LIFE MAGAZINE AS “PICTURE OF THE WEEK” in 1940, this iconic image ranks with the explosion of Ripple Rock, Malcolm Lowry with his gin bottle and Bannister/Landy’s Miracle Mile as one the most- seen photos from B.C.

or Royal City, archivist Jim Wolf reproduces the hitherto unheralded works of pioneers Frances George local • independent Claudet (son of emi- nent photographer BROADWAY • KITSILANO Antoine Claudet), as well as F. Dally, POINT GREY • DOWNTOWN • YALETOWN Ffilmmaker Hugh Norman Lidster, P.L. WEST END • NORTH SHORE Okamura, Stephen Joseph Thompson, David Roby Judkins and COLLECTION www.bookwarehouse.ca others. Works by John Vanderpant and FAMILY

Horace G. Cox, both subjects of previous BANNO books, are also included. Paul Louis Okamura

14 BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2006 Of these men, Paul Louis Ralph Richards “The Wizard” who gave Okamura, originally named him his first out-of-town work in 1927: Tsunenojo Oyama, has perhaps the most a six-month tour that ended in Winni- remarkable storyline. Born in Tokyo in peg. 1865, he was the second son of the last Mandrake was twice married to his samurai in the Emperor’s court. To avoid on-stage assistants; first Narda Mandrake conscription, he was adopted into the from 1939 to 1946, then Velvet Man- Okamura family. drake or “Miss Velvet.” The latter cou- At age 26 he came to New Westmin- ple honed a two-hour magic show for ster and met Oblate Augustine nightclubs during the 1940s and Dontenwill who employed him as a Pro- 1950s. fessor of Drawing for his St. Louis Col- Called ‘the best-loved magician who lege and also St. Ann’s Academy. Oyama ever sawed a woman in half,’ the converted to Catholicism and supple- tuxedoed illusionist and ventriloquist was mented his income by drawing oil and the inspiration for an unaffiliated comic crayon portraits based on photographs. strip, Mandrake, that ran for decades. He opened his first photography studio Drawn by cartoonist Phil Davis and writ- from his home on Royal Avenue in 1902 ten by Lee Falk, this strip was created in and remained working as a photogra- 1934, in St. Louis, without Mandrake’s pher until his death at age 72 in New prior consent or knowledge. Westminster. According to Mandrake’s son Lon Wolf’s appendix provides a compre- Mandrake, a science teacher in Delta, hensive list of New Westminster Photog- B.C. who also performs magic tricks, Falk raphy Studios from 1858 to 1960 derived claimed he had invented the name Man- from the camera workers website of David drake the Magician coincidentally. Mattison, who is credited for his assist- When fact met fiction, Phil Davis drew

Wild Flowers Mandrake the Magician takes a “Blindfold Drive” in 1958, courtesy of Trapp Motor’s Buick & Pontiac. A new book by Emily Carr ance, along with former New Westmin- their character to resemble the real Man- ster chief librarian Alan Woodland and drake. Both parties verbally agreed to “Every exalted garden reference librarian Joss Halverson. cross-promote each other with the re- aristocrat has its ✍ sult that Mandrake the Magician be- A New Westminster Album is a grab- came recognized throughout North beginnings in a wild bag of populist history with sidebars that America. flower and if that garden introduce the likes of the province’s most During his long career Mandrake flower is left to its own famous magician, Mandrake. entertained royalty and was compared devices it will sneak Born “on the road” on April 11, to Houdini. Other Mandrake spin-offs 1911, in a small town in Washington included a television show, a movie and back to wildness.” State, Leon Mandrake was the son of two a novel. The ventriloquist Edgar Bergen – Emily Carr, from the introduction. vaudeville entertainers. When his par- made Mandrake three dummies for his ents divorced two years later, his mother stage shows. In this never-before-published brought him to New Westminster to live Mandrake’s publicity stunts were as collection of 21 vignettes and with his aunt, Mildred Wagner, who notorious as his act. He was known for short stories, Emily Carr worked at the post office and lived driving a car while blindfolded, hypno- Wild Flowers is celebrates springtime flowers nearby at 307 Carnarvon Street in a tizing a girl in a department store win- illustrated with and blossoms. house designed by Samuel Maclure in dow, making great escapes from boxes beautiful, finely-detailed Wild Flowers reads like a 1887 (and still one of the oldest herit- and mind reading on the street. Leon and watercolours of wild age homes in New Westminster). Velvet Mandrake retired to White Rock, plants by Emily Woods, cool breeze on a warm day, After his aunt gave him the Mysto B.C. after they quit performing in 1984, one of Carr's childhood the perfect refreshment for Magic Kit, Mandrake practiced in a ending a 62-year showbiz career. drawing teachers in anyone who enjoys gardens, backyard shed, borrowed books from the Mandrake Incomparable (Hades Victoria. nature, spring and summer. library, watched magicians at the local $27.50) by Sheldon O’Connell is a wan- Edison Theatre and attended circus dering but appreciative biography that June, $17.95 shows at the Pacific National Exhibition. culminates in Leon Mandrake’s death at 7 x 10” paperback, Available from your One year he was given the props and Surrey Hospital on January 27, 1993. 96 pages, colour favourite book store costumes of a magician who had left the A wake was held at the old Edison Thea- ISBN 07726-5453-0 or order from our show. He first performed on stage at the tre in New Westminster, now the Para- distributor, UBC Press. Edison Theatre at age eleven in 1922. mount Theatre, the first place Mandrake For the next five years the young illu- worked his magic. sionist appeared at the PNE as Man- Album 1-55002-548-1; Royal City 1-894384-84-9 drake the Magician. His mentors included Howard Thurston, Claude Al- All BC BookWorld reviews are posted online at www.abcbookworld.com exander, Doc Verge, Bannister and

15 BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2006 PEOPLE DEFT PALETTE Birds-I views from Harold Rhenisch stensibly about the avian behaviour of blackbirds, eagles, robins, martins, swallows, loons and the like, Harold Rhenisch’s es- The tithe that binds Osays in Winging Home: a palette of birds (Brindle & Glass $24.95), illustrated by Tom Godin, are also about the Cariboo and Rhenisch’s poetic responses to it. James Taylor’s holy communion with the Red Cross “The Cariboo is not a place, but a state of mind,” he writes. “In the fall the rusted tangles of junk in the ranch yards among the jackpine and the alkali lakes are covered with the heart-shaped sulphur-yellow leaves of the ccording to James Taylor, many trembling aspens.” Christians only expect to find God The birds in Winging Home are clearly part of a master plan that Rhenisch figures out on a daily basis. “We are the new kids on in a book or in a church. They put the block,” he says. “With our mammalian squeak and roar their faith in a straitjacket by look- we are just learning the ropes.” ing backwards, no longer expect- Asked by a new neighbour where the heck the Cariboo begins, Rhenisch suggests it doesn’t really ingA God to surprise them. start at Cache Creek. He suggests the Cariboo starts at the auto-wrecking yard just north of Hat “We treat God as a heavenly jukebox,” he claims, “that can Creek, with the collapsing fence, across from the only repeat forever the same selection of pre-recorded tunes.” cedar house that advertises worms and fishing Taylor wants to download new tunes. He wants to encour- information. There is no thought given to where it age people to discover God outside of religious ceremonies. ends because it’s endless. A sequel about wolves Harold Rhenisch He wants people to notice God when they look at the stars, will appear in the fall. 1-897142-12-7 Harold Rhenisch diaper a baby, play touch football or take out the garbage. To expand the concept of theology—thinking about God— Taylor has collected a series of insights drawn from his day-to- day experiences for An Everyday God (Wood Lake $19.95). For instance, in Blood Sacrifice he writes: Not getting busted “When I look at it objec- tively, giving blood to the Smuggling hashish in order to earn enough money to paint. Red Cross ought to offer lit- tle pleasure. How many Elizabeth Woods’ Woods explains: “I lived for a year people enjoy being stabbed first novel, The Yellow Volkswagen, pub- in Rochdale College [a Toronto ha- in a sensitive fingertip to get lished back in 1971 by Simon & ven for runaways and drug dealers a drop of blood for testing? Schuster, is hard to find. It’s a lively, in the early ’70s], not too long be- Or having a big needle comic narrative by a woman named fore it was closed down. Other in- stuck into a vein? Or watch- Tippy Peterson who mentions at the out- mates of the place who were into ing their blood run into a set of her cross-Canada memoir that her dealing drugs on a fairly large scale plastic bag? outstanding features are forty inches of used to tell me their stories—and the “And yet I have always bust and a yellow Volkswagen. rest I made up. found that after giving Very much “of its time,” it’s an unu- “Beyond the Pale is not about drug blood, my day is a little sually non-prudish, zesty tale that cul- smuggling per se; that’s just the set- brighter. Giving blood minates in marriage for the heroine after ting, just as Vancouver and Califor- makes me feel good. her amorous but not entirely satisfying nia are settings. The book is about a “I suspect it has some- adventures. Despite its tacky cover, this person’s relationship to the law, and James Taylor: God is everywhere thing to do with my ideals. first novel remains noteworthy because to other people, and to oneself.” It’s a way to share my abun- it reflects some of the “on the road” Born in Prince George in dance with someone else. experimentalism of the so-called 1940, Elizabeth Rhetts Woods “In one sense it’s the ultimate gift. My blood, after all, is far Free Love generation from received her B.A. from more valuable to me than any gifts of time or money I can a woman’s perspective. UBC in 1961, followed make. Time or money I can survive without—but not blood. Published 35 years by post-graduate work “My pint of blood comes close to the traditional ‘tithe’—it’s later, Woods’ new in psychology at a fraction less than one-tenth of all the blood I have. novel Beyond the Queen’s Univer- “But unlike money, I get nothing back for giving it, except Pale (Ekstasis sity (1961- a glass of juice or a cup of coffee. No receipts. No income-tax $21.95) con- 1962) and refunds. cerns a middle- UBC (1964- “I know I’m giving it to someone who really needs my help. aged woman, 1965). She A beggar may use a phoney sob-story to cheat me out of money. Emily Quinn, has worked But the person on the operating table, the victim of a traffic who becomes on copy- accident, the leukemia patient, is in no position to cheat any- involved in right and one or anything—except death. smuggling freedom of “I know too that my gift goes only to the person who needs hashish in or- expression it. Unlike money, none of it can be siphoned off by any inter- der to earn issues and mediary for administrative or publicity expenses. enough money to recently at- “And it’s completely anonymous. I don’t even have to cope paint. Once again tempted to with embarrassing ‘Thank yous.’ Or the even more embar- the struggle for self- launch a liter- rassing lack of them. expression puts the ary periodical, “I guess the biggest value for me is a kind of religious sym- heroine in conflict the Victoria Lit- bolism. At the last supper with the disciples, before being be- with society. erary Times. trayed and nailed to the cross, Jesus said, ‘This is my blood 1-894800-86-9 which is shed for you.’ Church members hear those words each time and they share the sacrament of the last supper, whether they call it communion, Eucharist or Mass. “So as I lie here on my back, donating to the Red Cross, I can’t help feeling that giving blood is like a sacrament. It makes His words a lot more real than sipping wine or grape juice.” ✍ A former broadcaster, James Taylor became managing edi- tor for the United Church Observer for 13 years, then co- founded Wood Lake Books with Ralph Milton in 1980. He lives in the Okanagan Valley, having published more than Elizabeth Woods 15 books. He holds an honorary Doctor of Divinity from United College (McGill University). 1-55145-519-6

10 BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2006 PEOPLE

David Suzuki and Chief Paiakan with body painting by the he outspoken ge- chief’s wife Irekran. neticist-turned- Tbroadcaster- turned environmentalist David Suzuki recently came in 5th in CBC’s Great- est Canadian contest—the highest among living nomi- nees. Born in Vancouver in 1936, David Suzuki grew up in Ontario after his fam- ily was interned in Slocan, B.C. during World War II.

Like many Japanese Canadians whose families had some or all of their holdings confiscated or sold, David Takayoshi Suzuki was embittered and emboldened by his unfair incarcera- tion, seemingly intent on proving his worth to society beyond any doubt. David Suzuki studied at Amherst College and the University of Chi- cago, then taught at the University of Alberta. In 1963 he joined the UBC zoology department and won the award for outstanding Canadian re- search scientist under the age of 35 three years in a row. His educational television programs started with Suzuki on Science in 1971, leading to his long association with The Nature of Things on CBC, as of 1979. of Sea Shepherd Conservation Society “When I began to work in television founder Paul Watson, who checked in 1962,” he wrote, “I never dreamed out a used Cessna Utility 206 in Texas— that it would ultimately occupy most of THE MAN WHO then flew it to Brazil in hurricane season my life and make me a celebrity in to ensure Suzuki kept a promise that he Canada.” As well, Suzuki hosted Science had never made in the first place. Magazine on CBC TV and served as the Not without a sense of humour—or first host of CBC Radio’s Quirks and vanity—Suzuki includes the naked ‘fig Quarks from 1975 to 1979. With his MADE SCIENCE leaf’ photo of himself for the “Phallacies” wife Tara Cullis, he has since co- show for The Nature of Things and wryly founded the David Suzuki Foundation recalls his meetings with heavyweight and received countless honours includ- thinkers Noam Chomsky and ing the Order of Canada in 1977 and Ralph Nader. Suzuki speaks fondly the Order of B.C. in 1995. SEXY of Chomsky (“He is a superstar, and it In his second volume of memoirs, was flattering to be acknowledged so gen- Suzuki recalls how he proposed to his (SORT OF) erously”) and re-tells a curious anecdote second wife, Tara, on Hollyburn Moun- about Nader (“Ralph is a very serious tain in December of 1972. They have and intense person”). two daughters, Severn and Sarika. Suzuki from Metamorphosis and covering his ac- When Paiakan and his family paid a When taken to a Lebanese restaurant also has three children, Tamiko, Troy and complishments after age fifty. reciprocal visit to the Suzuki home in in Vancouver, the puritanical Nader re- Laura, from a marriage that ended in This breezy re-run doubles as a fam- 1989, they refused to wear any western fused to acknowledge the gyrations of a 1964. “My children have been my pride ily photo album as Suzuki rubs shoul- clothes that were not new, and they re- belly dancer who approached his table, and joy,” he writes, “but getting Tara to ders with close friends Myles quired new sheets, fearing diseases. The entreating him to stuff some bills into her marry me was the greatest achievement Richardson and artist Guujaaw six-week visit was fraught with misun- bra. Nader kept talking, as if she didn’t of my life.” of the Haida; entertainers Bruno derstandings, including the misguided exist, until the dancer left the table, un- Suzuki titled his first autobiography Gerussi, John Denver, Sting, notion that an airplane would be pur- able to engage his attention in any way. Metamorphosis: Stages in a Life Graham Greene and Gordon chased for their use in Brazil. “At the end of the meal,” Suzuki (Stoddart) to echo his ground-breaking Lightfoot; and he travels extensively Remarkably, Suzuki contacted writes, “as we got up to leave, Ralph studies of mutations in fruit flies. David to meet world leaders who have included Anita Roddick, creator of the Body made no mention of the belly dancer but Suzuki: The Autobiography Nelson Mandela, Dalai Lama Shop empire, and she wrote a cheque simply said: ‘That was a very nice meal. (Greystone $34.95) is an updated sec- and the Kaiapo chief Paiakan of the for $100,000. He then found a pilot And no one over ate.’” ond instalment, expanding on material Amazon rainforest. named Al “Jet” Johnson, a friend 1-55365-156-1

7 BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2006 WOMEN

WildernessWilderness neophyteneophyte SUNNYSUNNY WRIGHTWRIGHT describesdescribes howhow sheshe builtbuilt aa homehome nearnear Vanderhoof,Vanderhoof, ar from being a hippie, fully loaded fifteen shells into the Sunny Wright yearned outwittedoutwitted thethe RCMPRCMP .22 calibre semi-automatic rifle. to get out of the rat race F When I stood up, I used the butt ever since she ran away from && fendedfended offoff aa ganggang of the rifle to smash the window. I an orphanage at age 17. ofof drunkendrunken menmen inin could see the outline of the white In 1969, with no clear destina- pickup truck and the shadowy tion in mind, and six thousand dol- herher memoir,memoir, outline of a few men, but nothing lars in the bank, Wright and her ToTo TouchTouch AA DreamDream.. in detail. shy best friend Betty, a fellow “It was not my intention to kill millworker, quit their jobs, sold anyone, so I shot into the air, let- their possessions and drove north ting go seven rounds in rapid fire. in two small import pickup trucks, When I stopped shooting, every- accompanied by a dog and Sun- thing was dead quiet for a moment. ny’s five-year-old daughter, Lisa. Then a loud voice from the direc- Intending to build their own tion of the truck shouted, ‘That was cabin, they bought rifles, axes, seven shots. Let’s go get ’em!’ Obvi- saws, lanterns, hammers, canned ously, they had assumed that I had goods and sleeping bags. Only fired all of my ammunition. They trouble was, they had never even had no way of knowing that we had tried camping. the latest model semi-automatic On the road almost a week, which held fifteen rounds. driving as far north as Dawson “Bullet number eight was Creek, they gravitated back to aimed directly at the voice, and Vanderhoof, exactly in the centre now I was angry, rather than of the province. There, by a fluke, scared, and did not care if I killed they stumbled upon a quarter-sec- one of them or not. All of us heard tion of selectively logged land, six- the shell hit the truck, and once teen miles northwest of again, there was complete silence. Vanderhoof, which they bought Into that silence, I yelled, ‘I am go- for $4,850. ing to count to three, and then Their new home became a two- someone out there is going to die!’ room repair shed with hibernating “For the next few minutes there flies—and not much else. “We was a mad scramble as the men ran managed to keep from freezing,” to get into the truck. We heard Wright recalls, “but just barely.” someone shout in a frightened They melted snow voice for the driver to get water. “Getting to, ‘Hurry up and the wash took the entire get the hell out of day and, depending on here.’ Once the the weather, could take truck started, it still up to a week to dry.” had to be turned To get Lisa to school around, during in the mornings, which time I emp- Sunny had to thaw the tied the seven re- truck engine and JOURNEY maining shots in transmission by using their general direc- two cake pans full of tion. A few hit the sand saturated with TO THE CENTRE OF THE PROVINCE truck as it raced motor oil. One burn- past the cabin and ing pan was placed down the driveway under the engine with the other under logging camps, until Sunny could no fear for what seemed like an awfully long in a cloud of dust. the transmission. longer tolerate the unsuccessful RCMP time when Lisa, who had been holding “We learned a very important lesson ✍ raids on her property. “I lay awake with onto my leg, in a soft trembling voice that night. A gun has absolutely no value Whereas the helpless and overtly the thoughts of going to jail and even asked, ‘Mommy, what is going to hap- unless it is loaded.” feminine Blanche du Bois in A Streetcar losing custody of my daughter,” she pen? Are they going to hurt us?’ The fear ✍ Named Desire always relied on the kind- writes. I heard in my child’s question instantly Wright confronted bears, skunks and ness of strangers, decidedly non-girly The cops were not their worst night- changed my frame of mind from help- pigs; rode skidoos, paddled canoes, ran Sunny & Betty relied on the kindness of mare. Late one night a truckload of less victim to protective mother. Kneel- a dog kennel, built a log home, learned neighbours. drunken men arrived and threatened to ing down to hug her, I whispered, ‘Don’t dogsledding, faced breast and lymph Crotchety and reclusive Roy Walker, rape them. you worry, Lisa. They are not going to cancer in her late 30s, and had a remark- who lived four miles up the hill, turned “There were twelve or fourteen of touch any of us.’ able recovery after a radical mastectomy out to be an angel of mercy in disguise, them, and they had us terrified as they “I told Betty to lie down on the floor in Prince George. educating them on the realities of log circled the cabin, banging on the win- with Lisa and stay there. I crawled back Sunny Wright’s unfettered style isn’t cabin building and encouraging Sunny dows and the door while yelling at us. across the room in the direction of the going to get her confused with Bunny to shoot her first moose. We three stood clinging to each other back window where our guns were Wright, the late novelist, but it gets the Jim Moon, at the building supply in the centre of the cabin, not knowing stored in a cabinet. Feeling my way in job done. store, voluntarily bought all the lumber if the men would come at us through the dark, I found the cabinet and A postscript: Sunny and Betty con- they needed, then delivered it to them the only door or one of the windows. It searched the drawer under the guns tinued to raise Lisa together until Betty in his truck, for a mere $430. was pitch dark outside but the moon- until I felt the boxes of shells. As I was fell in love with a man from Fraser Lake A neighbour and his two sons helped light made it possible for us to see their doing this, I could hear the men attack- and married him in 1979. After Lisa left with construction. Another friend silhouettes as they passed by the win- ing our one and only door…. to take a government forestry job, Sunny helped Sunny operate a lucrative still, dows. “Kneeling on the floor in the dark, I sold her dream home and moved to supplying bootlegged whisky to remote “We had been silent in our shared felt my whole body tremble as I care- Sardis. 1-55380-035-4

18 BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2006 LETTERS Google-me up It seems that no matter what I am researching on Google, your website [abcbookworld] inevitably seems to crop up in connection with some subject re- lated to B.C. Now this morning I came across a link to a very gracious bio of myself and a list of my books. Although I already had many novels to my credit in South Africa, I could never have made it as an unknown au- thor, in country new to me, without your encouragement for my first non-fiction book about a strange disease, hitherto unknown to most people. Now I have my twentieth book in print. Thank you. Marie Warder Richmond Retro grade A friend has forwarded Michael M’Gonigle’s review of Hugh Johnston’s Radical Campus [BCBW Spring]. She thought I’d be interested in the photo of me holding a megaphone speaking to a SFU student rally. I’d be more satis- fied to have been interviewed for Johnston’s book. M’Gonigle comments that Radical Campus is more a biog- raphy of SFU than an analysis of the larger con- text. Without the context, the institu- Jim Harding tional record will inevita- bly remain superficial. Johnston arguing that support for the pursuit of everyday democracy in the university was under- mined by our bottom-up militancy, as M’Gonigle reports, simply doesn’t ad- equately grapple with the roots of the unfolding crisis and conflict. Those interested in some unedited words from the evolution of SFU’s ac- tivism and the larger context might be interested in my Student Radicalism and National Liberation: Essays on the “New Left” Revolt in Canada – 1964-74 (2006). These essays show the role of the anti-war and community organizing movements as precursors to the student movement, and how our activism oppos- ing the continentalist “higher education industry” (M’Gonigle’s good phrase) helped spawn the Canadian nationalist consciousness. I believe that M’Gonigle may be right that the war on Iraq is setting the stage for a renewed student movement which again makes the “radical connections.” Jim Harding Fort Qu’Appelle [Jim Harding’s other books are After Iraq: War, Imperialism and Democracy (Fernwood, 2004) and Social Justice and Social Policy (Wilfrid Laurier, 1995)— Ed.]

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Letters may be edited for clarity & length.

20 BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2006 SPORTS

rowing up around the pocket deserts near GOliver, B.C. George Bowering figures the warm weather in spring helps to ex- plain his very Canadian passion for baseball. “I never thought that baseball was a U.S. game,” he writes in Baseball Love (Talonbooks $17.95). “It was a birth- right. In the Okanagan sun you got your baseball stuff out as soon as the ground got softer in, say, March, and you played the summer game till apple season was over in October.” In Oliver, Bowering worked as a baseball scorekeeper and covered base- ball for the local newspaper—he didn’t play much baseball though. “I was afraid to try out,” writes Bowering. “I had an inferiority complex, and I had developed a superiority complex to protect it.” It wasn’t until he reached his thirties that Bowering began to play baseball in Montreal where he was a teacher “of sorts” at George Williams University and attended Parc Jarry to watch Le Grand Orange and les Expos. Bowering’s base- ball teammates included novelists Clark Blaise and Hugh Hood whom he en- joyed swapping sports trivia with. Fortunately drug testing was not around in those days. “As an avant-garde DIAMONDSDIAMONDS && poet, I felt it my duty to experiment with the available resources… One Saturday I played shortstop for the York Street Tigers shortly after consuming some- thing called “speed.” …You never saw such a hyper shortstop. I was all over the DOUBLEPLAYSDOUBLEPLAYS field diving for balls I had no hope of reaching, backing up the play at every position you can think of.” In the early ‘70s Bowering moved to Vancouver and became involved in his grand passion, the Kosmic Baseball ARE FOREVER League. The league was loaded with art- ists and writers and true to form they How George Bowering developed his superiority complex managed to get a grant during the and other ballpark estimates. swinging era of Trudeau’s Liberals for softball equipment and playing time on baseball diamonds. “That, I thought, was playing in shorts after his daughter, play- selves out of business, and the minor Parnell and the guys at Fenway Park wonderful—some civil servants in Ot- ing at second base asked: “Are those your league teams are marketing themselves were fiction to me.” tawa thought a bunch of softball play- legs, or are you riding a chicken?” in.” This is a charming book about one ers were contributing as much to the In July of 2003, riding in a Volvo, The baseball road trip also provides man’s love of baseball, and exhibits the local and national culture as any Bowering went on a baseball road trip the reader with Bowering’s own Air-Con- same even and humorous tone that childcare builders or folk-music- with his new love Jean Baird to plunk ditioned Nightmare. “We did not know Bowering employed in his memoir Mag- facilitators.” himself down on planks in the that Riggins, Idaho, would be our first pie Life. Bowering displays all the hall- The league included teams hot sun, to cheer on the efforts and last site of any idiosyncratic colour, marks of a baseball fanatic’s love of ball with names such as the Afghani of Latino-American infielders a our last old cabin in the wild, or last non- caps, statistics, names of players, minor Oil Kings, Flying Dildos, and half century younger than he. chain accommodation. From now on it league parks and where to find the per- the Napoleons, an activist group As “a retiree in shorts and ball would be Comfort Inn or Red Roof or fect hot dog (which he claims he had at who represented the Mental Pa- cap,” Bowering recalls his pas- Holiday Inn Express at some highway exit a ball game in Switzerland of all tients Association and dressed in sion for a game he has rarely cluster, where the eateries, too, would be places). uniforms complete with an im- GRANT SHILLING written about but “thought signaled by tall poles with billboards on What makes this book humm, baby— age of a hand tucked inside at about every day of my life.” The the top: Aries, Red Robin, McDonalds. to remember a phrase from Roger Craig, waist level. Bowering played for the new book Baseball Love alternates be- Not an apostrophe in sight.” the manager of the San Francisco Gi- Granville Grange Zephyrs, a collection tween chapters recalling that 2003 road Baseball, and writers have had a long ants, pronouncing on the forkball—is of poets and painters from the west side trip and Bowering’s life in baseball and relationship, William Carlos Williams, its rootedness in place as real as apple of Vancouver. its related ephemera. Walt Whitman, Philip Roth, Ring picking season and as sweet as the im- Eventually the Kosmic League would Bowering and Baird travel through Lardner and Bernard Malamud, have agination. 0-88922-529-X evolve into the Twilight League where Canada and the United States with a all taken swings at the bat and Bowering’s Bowering “grew old.” At “Needle Park” distinct preference for the minor leagues. chapter on the subject is a neat job of Many innings ago Grant Shilling in Woodland chasing balls between dog As Bowering notes: “In the twenty-first baseball crit lit. Bowering provides one published the zine Baseball Complete kaka, discarded condoms, high heel century the minor leagues are becom- theory as to why baseball occupies the with Spelling Errors and covered pumps and undies, outfielders had to ing more interesting to everyone. The mind of the writer: “When I was a kid the Vancouver Canadians for the keep their eye on the ball and the grass. main reason for that is marketing: the growing up in the Interior of British Georgia Straight and Vancouver At the age of sixty Bowering stopped major league teams are marketing them- Columbia there was no television, so Mel Magazine.

13 BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2006 COVER STORY

or three decades the learned that in Kitty Smith’s grandpar- ents’ lifetime, the Lowell Glacier, (locally glaciers of the St. Elias WOMEN called Nàlùdi or “fish stop”) surged un- Mountains—the world’s til a 200-metre ice wall blocked the river. F When the dam broke, the water burst largest non-polar icefields— forth with such force that villages were kept creeping into the stories washed away and the landscape was scoured. Julie Cruikshank was hearing Massive icefields surrounding the Alsek River, near the area where Mrs. from elderly Aboriginal women Smith was born, surged as much as a kilo- in the southern Yukon and metre at a time. Although scientists can measure these northern B.C. phenomena and can tell us how many times a particular glacier has surged over “It was a big a 2800-year period, the women puzzle to me,” Cruikshank interviewed speculated on she says, “The Folly such as cooking with grease near a human reasons for the upheavals. women kept OF ICE ✍ talking about glacier, or making careless remarks could HEATHER RAMSAY In Do Glaciers Listen? Cruikshank glaciers as being speculates as to whether or not the stories part of their social world.” cause unforgiving glaciers to react. that are the most difficult to understand According to Tlingit and are the ones being left out of Tagish storytellers, not only do Angela Sidney the mainstream discourse. glaciers have names and take and Julie “We need to understand on human characteristics, they Cruikshank in the range of stories associated can be quick to respond to hu- 1992 with a particular place,” she man indiscretions or be pla- says. “It may help us think cated by quick-witted more broadly about these responses. places we classify as wilderness In Do Glaciers Listen? or park.” (UBC Press $29.95), In particular, Cruikshank Cruikshank chronicles the en- explores the period when tanglement of natural and cul- Aboriginal people were tural histories pertaining to icy forced to move out of what is remnants of the last Ice Age. now Kluane National Park. Subtitled Local Knowledge, In 1943, after the build- Colonial Encounters and Social ing of the Alaska Highway, Imagination, Cruikshank’s the area was protected be- sixth book investigates en- cause over-hunting had im- counters with glaciers, weav- pacted the wildlife in the area. ing indigenous oral traditions, A UNESCO World Heritage early explorers’ tales and the site now encompasses the Ca- work of modern scientists and nadian and American na- environmentalists. tional, provincial and state Whereas Aboriginals have parks in the area. long viewed glaciers as sentient New discoveries are being and animate in their oral his- made in melting ice patches, tories, Europeans have tended which are helping bring to- to see them as inanimate, and gether the stories and subject to measurement and “There is a difference,” said timelines around human use scientific investigation. Annie Ned of the area. As she gathered more sto- (photographed Aboriginals now organize ries from her three main in- near her home in culture camps on their terri- PHOTO formants—Angela 1987), “between tory, inviting scientists and ar- PHOTO Sidney, Kitty Smith listening to and MCBEAN

chaeologists to come and listening for and Annie Ned— YUKON - stories.” discuss the work they do, but Cruikshank began to better NORMA ROBB

Julie Cruikshank suggests that understand how a landscape JIM although environmentalists can be sentient and responsive. and others may be genuinely “You have to be aware and pay at- the turn of the 20th century—asked “As Angela Sidney says, ‘I have no interested in Aboriginal points of view, tention,” she says, “because the landscape Cruikshank to record the chronicles of money to leave to my grandchildren. My the importance of Aboriginal stories is in turn paying attention to the people their ancestors, as recorded in Life Lived stories are my wealth.’” tends to get set aside. who are living there.” Like A Story. As Cruikshank produced her books ✍ She hopes her book will become an “There is no doubting the authen- over a 30-year period, the trio of elders argument for the importance of con- Cruikshank first came to the Yukon ticity of the voices,” wrote reviewer kept returning to glaciers in their story- necting the different stories from differ- from Ontario in the late 1960s, arriv- Barry Broadfoot. “As women, they telling. When she asked them why this ent cultures. 0774811870 ing in Whitehorse to document the im- had power and they used it wisely, and was so, even though they no longer lived Heather Ramsay writes from pact of the Gold Rush and the Alaska through their words and Cruikshank's near the icy mountain ranges, they sug- Queen Charlotte City. Highway on the lives of Yukon women. skills, you will change your mind if you gested the reasons were self-evident. Eventually Angela Sidney, Kitty think the anthropological approach to Intrigued, Cruikshank decided she All BC BookWorld articles are posted online at www.abcbookworld.com Smith, and Annie Ned—all born before oral history can only be dull. must visit the icebergs herself. She

17 BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2006 PEOPLE

UVic law professor cluding that, like many other North Michael M’Gonigle holds the American universities, it arose from co- EcoResearch Chair at the lonial displacement of First Nations and University of Victoria and the sacrifice of farmland to directs the POLIS Project on Ecological Governance. “suburbanism.” Justine Starke is a POLIS Planet U introduces a host of research associate studying sustainability thinkers. One is biologist for her MA in planning. and environmentalist Briony Penn: “In biology, there is increasing empha- sis on microbiology and genetics; I get fourth-year biology students who can’t tell the difference between a red cedar and a Douglas fir.” The magic of re-embedding is that it opens the “pedagogy of place.” Penn continues: “If place becomes an actual place, then everything is pedagogy. Every decision made on that landscape affects a particular commitment to sustainability, and this will change how people learn because it’s going to affect everything they do… That value system now affects how they see the world.” Planet U ranges between the theoreti- cal and the pragmatic, between Derrida to the U-Pass (the bus pass students auto- matically receive at upward of fifty uni- versities, whether they drive a car or not). ISIS The planetary university of the future draws on its internal expertise and is vig- orously “transdisciplinary.” Already at UVic, faculty and students collaborate THE with Facilities Management to identify THE and map exotic plants for removal from the campus’s native Garry oak meadow. Rich with photographs, cartoons, and pithy quotes, Planet U would make an UNIVERSITYUNIVERSITY excellent textbook to promote discus- sion—but don’t keep your fingers crossed. Planet U identifies the biggest stum- bling blocks to change are the universi- UNFOLDINGUNFOLDING ASAS ITIT ty’s own hierarchical structure and bureaucratic inertia. Universities, as an industry, have a lot to answer to, according to Planet U, start- SHOULD?SHOULD? ing with our battered environment. “We cannot have a sustainable world where universities promote unsustain- People get ready, there’s a “sustainable campuses movement” coming. ability,” write Starke and M’Gonigle, chair of Greenpeace Canada. 0-86571-557-2

ccording to Planet U: Sustaining the World, Reinventing $100 billion gross domestic product of Sara Cassidy writes—and attends the Silicon Valley economy came from university in—Victoria. the University (New Society $23.95), a sustainable cam- companies started by Stanford graduates puses movement could soon transform the modern uni- and faculty. The times they are a- A ✍ getting cost-effective. versity from an ecologically destructive, corporate patsy into an Drawing on James Kunstler’s innovative leader in environmental and social stewardship. ideas in The Geography of Nowhere, the • The University of California has man- authors of Planet U note that “at the uni- dated a zero increase in fossil fuel con- To make their point, co-authors automotive industries. The University of versity, nowhere is evident in the spiraling sumption and all new buildings must Michael M’Gonigle and Victoria, with a relatively small student acres of parking lots filled with mass-pro- exceed the state’s energy efficiency stand- Justine Starke have compiled a population of 18,000, employs over four duced cars, the cafeteria food delivered ard by 20 per cent. boldly idealistic vision of the university, thousand people, and its eco- via an exclusive servicing con- • The University of Victoria recycles wa- outlining its evolution as an institution nomic impact on Victoria, a tract with a nameless multina- ter, has installed permeable paving for and delving into the tenets of city of just 300,000, is $1.7 bil- tional, and the standard-issue groundwater recharge, and composts food bioregionalism (ie. local food produc- lion. buildings heated and lit by en- waste from campus cafeterias. SFU has designed UniverCity with traf- tion, alternative transportation, demo- UBC is the province’s larg- ergy from the void.” • fic-calmed streets and a network of bike cratic governing structures). est employer and has an eco- Students engage superfi- paths. ✍ nomic impact of $4.6 billion. cially with the built and natu- • Installing energy efficient toilets and light Of the ninety oldest institutions in the The University of Toronto is SARA CASSIDY ral environments and their and water fixtures saved Columbia Univer- world, seventy-five are universities. said to have an economic im- “community” has no historical sity nearly $3 million annually. But while the university’s lineage pact in ts region larger than the GDP of context or collective power. • The University of Colorado-Boulder pro- reaches back over 900 years, “its role is Prince Edward Island. By greening infrastructure, as well as vides 35 to 40 percent of the energy con- still not well understood, its functions Far removed from its religious origins, uncovering local history, the campus sumed by three of its buildings with wind usually just taken for granted, its social the university is stuck in what Jane becomes “re-embedded”: the university power. role and potential unappreciated.” Jacobs calls “credentialism”—the settles in to its place and this place has • UBC’s Centre for Interactive Research Universities have been booming process of producing employees rather value; travelling the globe for confer- on Sustainability has been developed to since World War II, and their impact than reflective citizens. Two-thirds of ences no longer signals importance. Para- produce more energy than it uses. Some universities are serving local food on industry and the economy is substan- new jobs created by 2008 will require doxically, the dream university becomes • in the cafeteria. Others have adopted tial. Last year, over a million students post-secondary education and already “planetary”—connected with the plan- “sprawl containment” policies and commu- were registered in Canadian universities. over half of the population between 25 et’s health and with other universities— nal “blue bicycle” programs. Dozens have University research sustained a mil- and 54 have post-secondary degrees. by becoming highly localized. “sustainability officers” and one has a “no lion jobs and contributed more to Cana- Their training shapes the way we live. In Planet U, the authors trace the species loss” policy. da’s GDP than the pulp and paper or In 1996, more than half of the US history of the land beneath UVic, con-

8 BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2006 END PAPERS is for Abebooks is for Lander

Abebooks is marking its tenth anni- A penny versary as one of the world’s most suc- whistle-playing cessful search engines for book sales, street poet, competing for most sales with Amazon. Tim Lander Founded by Rick and Vivian Pura, and has published Keith and Cathy Waters, the Victoria- numerous based company provides a virtual inven- chapbooks and tory of 80 million volumes from 13,000 a volume of po- independent booksellers in 53 countries. Tim Lander etry with ABE employs 90 people and has branch Ekstasis Edi- operations in Spain, Germany, the tions prior to his new release, Inappro- United Kingdom and the United States. priate Behaviour (Broken Jaw Press $19). Gentle, thoughtful and articulate, he has remained an important presence is for Bolan on the West Coast poetry scene for sev- eral decades, mostly based in Nanaimo. Having received a Courage in Jour- 1-55391-038-9 nalism award in 1999 for her coverage of the Air-India terrorism story, Vancou- ver Sun reporter Kim Bolan was com- is for Marlatt missioned to write Loss of Faith: How The Air-India Bombers Got Away With Mur- Born in Melbourne in 1941, der (M&S $36.99) following the acquit- Daphne Marlatt grew up in Ma- tal of Sikh leaders Ripudaman Singh laysia and immigrated to Canada in Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri in 2005. 1951. After writing prose narratives The trial of the two chief suspects in Van- about Steveston and her Strathcona couver revealed that the Canadian Se- neighbourhood, and numerous collec- curity Intelligence Service had destroyed tions of poetry, most recently This Tremor taped telephone calls between the sus- Love Is (Talonbooks 2001), and a novel pects in connection with the detonation that has been widely adopted for univer- of two bombs, on opposite sides of the sity curriculae, Ana Historic, she has been globe, within an hour of each other, on appointed to the Order of Canada. two flights emanating from Vancouver Kim Bolan visited the Punjab five times during the 20 on June 23, 1985, killing 329 men, years she investigated the Air India bombers, despite receiv- women and children overall. 0-7710-1130-X is for Needham ing several death threats. She will appear at this year’s Festi- val of the Written Arts in Sechelt. Bolan’s book has been Having is for Cutler worked as a nominated for the $15,000 Writers’ Trust of Canada’s bouncer, bar- Kamloops-born Laura L. Cutler Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing. tender, forklift examines the emotional lives of female driver, computer characters, including a lounge singer, a technician and divorceé and an aging stripper, to reveal magazine editor, how much each woman has risked be- Vancouver’s Chris ing viewed as maladjusted in This Side is for Fischer is for Jaccard Chris F. Needham F. Needham of Bonkers (Turnstone $17.95), her third has self-published Eastern Canadian photographer A former chair of the BC Utilities story collection. 0-88801-312-4 a first novel about an ex-hockey en- George Fischer offers a pictorial Commission, SFU’s Mark Jaccard forcer, Billy Purdy, whose violent on-ice book called Haida Gwaii / Queen Char- has received the $35,000 Donner Prize career was “prolonged by steroids and is for Dawe lotte Islands: Land of Mountains, Mist for Sustainable Fossil Fuels: The Unusual numbed by liquor.” An Inverted Sort of and Myth (Nimbus $29.95) with text by Suspect in the Quest for Clean and En- Prayer (Now or Never Publishing Andrew Merilees. 1-55109-568-8 Fringe Festival theatre performer TJ during Energy (Cambridge Press $21.95) is Needham’s attempt to repre- Dawe has followed the texts for his $33.95). He argues that fossil fuels can sent “the alienation, frustration, and ul- humourous one-man shows, Labrador continue as a key energy source because timate futility behind this quintessential and The Slip-Knot with The Power of Ig- is for Goldfarb the technological capability exists to use Canadian dream.” them without emitting pollutants. norance (Brindle & Glass $19.95), a 0-9739558-0-5. [See abcbookworld.com for info.] send-up of the self-help genre featuring Set in Manchester during the Victo- 0521679796 Vaguen, Master Ignoramus, co-written rian era, Sheldon Goldfarb’s first novel Remember, Remember (UKA Press with Chris Gibbs of Toronto. 1-897142-13-7 is for Knighton $18.50) has been shortlisted for an is for O’Rourke Arthur Ellis award for best Canadian ju- On his eighteenth birthday, Ryan Lynn O’Rourke, art director at is for Egoff venile mystery. With a doctorate in Vic- Knighton was diagnosed with retini- Victoria-based Orca Book Publishers, torian literature, Goldfarb, a former UBC tis pigmentosa (RP), a congenital disease has won first place in the Western Re- The B.C. Book Prizes paid a final trib- English professor is now archivist for the marked by a progressive pathology of gional Book Production ute to the late Sheila A. Egoff, the UBC Alma Mater Society. 1-904781-43-8 night-blindness, tunnel vision and even- and Design Awards for children’s librarian and critic whose tually total blindness. In the final stage By A Thread, a children’s motto was, “the right book, for the right before total blindness, with only 1% of picture book by Ned child, at the right is for Hayes his visual field, he has published Cock- Dickens and Graham time.” A mentor of eyed (Penguin $25), a memoir about his Ross, published in Bill Richardson This year’s deserving winner of the thoughts and experiences pertaining to 2005 and edited by and her protégé province’s most venerable book prize, his loss of sight. 1-58648-329-3 Maggie deVries. the Lieutenant Governor’s Medal for Judith Saltman, Ryan Knighton, who teaches at continued on page 40 Egoff once told Historical Writing, presented since Capilano College, lives in East Saltman, “Writing 1983, is the indefatigable map enthusi- Vancouver where he walks is the only thing ast Derek Hayes for his Historical with his seeing-eye that lasts.” Atlas of Vancouver and the Lower Fraser pug, Cairo. Sheila Egoff Valley (D&M $49.95). 1-55365-107-3

39 BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2006 printorium ENDPAPERS BookWorks Stanley grew up in San Francisco where he became associated with the writing Specializing in short run, soft cover, is for Plecas circle of Jack Spicer. Stanley came to perfect bound books from one to Canada in 1971 and taught for many one thousand. Based on interviews with former Pre- years in Terrace. mier Bill Bennett and others in his Social Black and white books and vivid, Credit administration, Bob Plecas’ eye-catching colour children’s books. Bill Bennett: A Mandarin’s View (D&M $22.95) provides an insider’s view of the enigmatic son of W.A.C. Bennett, focus- ing upon Bennett the Younger’s ten years “Just saw the books. They look great, as always. Thanks!” in power. A civil servant under 25 cabi- Heritage House Publishing net ministers and six premiers, Plecas later PHOTO www.printoriumbookworks.ca [email protected] represented the B.C. forest industry in softwood lumber negotiations with the A division of Island Blue Print Co. Ltd. in business since 1912 TWIGG 911 Fort Street, Victoria, BC, Canada, V8V 3K3 tel. 250.385.9786 toll free 1.800.661.3332 United States. 1-55365-177-4 Orca Books’ founder Bob Tyrrell (centre) with Andrew Wooldridge and is for Robson Susan Adamson. Reading Service for Writers Having worked on the Encyclopedia of is for Tyrrell new & established writers B.C. and provided a history of tugboating, If you are a new writer or a writer with a challenging or troublesome manuscript, affable outdoorsman and Pacific Yachting On behalf of his Orca Books imprint Event’s Reading Service for Writers may be of particular interest to you. editor Peter Robson has gathered evi- and its new co-owner Andrew Your manuscript will receive an assessment of 700 to 1000 words from Event’s dence for a positive view of aquaculture in Wooldridge, and employees such as editors, focusing on the strengths and weaknesses of the writing with attention to such aspects of craft as voice, structure, point of view, credibility, etc. That way Salmon Farming: The Whole Story (Herit- former editor Susan Adamson, publisher you’ll see how one group of experienced editors reads your work. age $19.95). 1-894974-07-7 Bob Tyrrell accepted the Jim Doug- Eligible manuscripts include poetry (8 max.) and short fiction & creative las Publisher of the Year Award from the non-fiction under 5000 words. Drama, chapters of novels and journalistic Association of Book Publishers of Brit- non-fiction are not eligible. All manuscripts read are, of course, considered ish Columbia for their series for publication. Expect to wait four to six weeks for the commentary to arrive. is for Stanley of titles for reluctant read- Event’s Reading Service for Writers costs a nominal fee: attach a cheque or money order (payable to Event) for $100.00 (inc. GST) to each manuscript. You'll also The Shelley Memorial Award of ers, Orca Soundings. Pre- receive a one-year subscription (or renewal) so you can check out Event's award more than $3,500, established by senting the award, Jim winning mix of poetry, fiction, creative non-fiction, reviews and notes on writing. the will of the late Mary P. Sears, is Douglas cited his late great EVENT—The Douglas College Review given to a living American poet se- Toronto peers when he said, P.O. Box 2503, New Westminster, BC V3L 5B2 Visit our website at lected with reference to genius and “If Jack McClelland and Phone: (604) 527-5293 Fax: (604) 527-5095 http://event.douglas.bc.ca e-mail: [email protected] need. It has been awarded to John Gray could see the list George Stanley of Vancou- George Stanley of Orca Books they would ver. Born in San Francisco in 1934, be gobsmacked!”

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40 BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2006 Hot Indie Lit ENDPAPERS from Thistledown Press is for You

You. Who just might want to know that there “ . . . ambitious in its structure, are more than 8,000 B.C.-related authors included and unconventional in its plot... at www.abcbookworld.com, but only 20 have sur- rewarding, resourceful names beginning with the letter U. storytelling.” JUST RELEASED is for Vassilopoulos or Vipond

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42 BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2006 reviews FICTION

BY CHERIE THIESSEN ble. Sometimes the reader is taken into a character’s mind as a child, some-

So It Won’t Go Away by John Lent times she/he is addressed directly. (Thistledown $16.95) Other times Lent interjects directly, positioning his characters like a con- he gluttonous, jazz-lov- ductor. ing character of Neil Frequently the act of creation itself MONET’S TConnelly in John Lent’s So It is explored, be it music, art or litera- Won’t Go Away can never get enough ture. out of life, no matter how much he ✫ over-indulges his desires: Cumulatively, this collection is more “Drinking, smoking, sex: a man’s than a series of literary experiments hands twittering, eyes bugged out in a and musings. It’s like John Lent is cir- desperate longing to be held, fondled, cling his narrative, studying it from all stuffed, stroked. Guzzling and inhal- angles. ing things in a big grab against death.” Each story connects to others. Along TRIO At the same time, John Lent can’t the way we learn about Jane’s inability get enough of Neil Connelly and his to find a permanent partner. We learn two siblings, Jane and Rick. Nine years about Rick’s long-term marriage to a ago he introduced this trio in Monet’s woman battling lupus. We learn about Garden. Neil’s break-up with his wife and his own Time has not been kind to the subsequent breakdown. Connellys. In Lent’s seventh book, the It’s not cut-and-dried. Instead it’s all middle-aged and jumbled together, like childless Connellys are BIBLIOGRAPHY a family that messily all ex-alcoholics strug- combines past and gling with feelings of A Rock Solid present and future at inadequacy and de- (Dreadnought, 1978) the dinner table. pression. Wood Lake Music Along the way, They have survived (Harbour, 1982) Colette, the 71-year- their alcoholic father Frieze old mother of the but it’s not clear if they (Thistledown, 1984) three Connellys, main- will survive them- The Face in the Garden tains her own balanc- selves--and their dis- (Thistledown, 1990) ing act: turbing similarities to Monet's Garden “...it was a matter of one another. (Thistledown, 1996) two landscapes: the All three find it Black Horses, one they were driving hard to be intimate. Cobalt Suns through, and another All have addictive per- (Greenboathouse, 2000) one, of words and sonalities. All have a So It Won't Go Away names and instruc- keen interest in mod- (Thistledown, 2005) tions, that became a ern art and literature. second version of the All three are writers who teach about one they were driving through—a land- writing. scape of language and facts and details Neil Connelly loves jazz and Lent is which she would store away and pull himself a singer/songwriter for an out whenever she needed it —one that Okanagan jazz trio. Neil and Rick teach was, in some ways, the most important at the same university where John Lent landscape, the most real.” teaches much the same courses. Her three children come together If that last paragraph sets off an in an idyllic village in France at the end, amber light of caution, well, you’re only and their deep affection for one an- human. Philip Roth aside, most fic- other could well be the remedy they tion writers who can only write about need to help resolve their problems. Jazz singer writers (ie., themselves) are sorely lack- The narrator muses, hopefully: ing imagination. “Was there another way of seeing it John Lent But in John Lent’s defence, he’s so you could fall into it, embrace had time to refine his style and hone it…gobbled up by an equally voracious in on what’s important to him. God?” recites The short stories in So It Meanwhile, there’s nothing wrong John Lent of Vernon has also Won’t Go Away are not plot- with filling your lungs with spring air, released a new jazz trio CD, the foibles of a Shadow Moon, with driven narratives. Instead devouring a tarte flambé, slurping guitarists Neil Fraser and they flip around in time, down a good scotch, jamming jazz into Shelby Wall. place and point of view, in- your ear or fitting your body to anoth- voracious god corporating first, second er’s in an act of love. and third-person perspectives. If the shoe fits, write it. 1-894345-86-X Lent’s dozen stories get as close to Cherie Thiessen reviews fiction three-dimensional writing as is possi- from Pender Island.

Three Gems from Brick Books www.brickbooks.ca

Ink Monkey Ghost Country Anatomy of Keys by Diana Hartog by Steve Noyes by Steven Price

In these spare and elegant poems “Ghost Country is not so much “Steven Price... draws us into the – not a word out of place, not a book of poetry as the range- intricacy of Harry Houdini's an unnecessary syllable – finder of an exquisite camera, character, as the Master himself Hartog turns a perceptive eye in which two worlds merge to entered trunks, chains, a web toward the stories of seemingly form a single, rich vision. To of knots. In poem after poem, ordinary things, of overlooked read this book is to walk into there is the miraculous surprise moments and long-closed rooms. this vision, to breathe its air, to of release. These are moving, speak its language.” brilliant poems, a remarkable — Terence Young debut.” — Tim Lilburn 1-894078-50-0 • $18 1-894078-49-7 • $18 1-894078-51-9 • $18

34 BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2006 reviews MYSTERIES

DEM BONES, DEM BONES EX MARKS ALSO RECEIVED Ron Chudley’s pick-up lines lead from crime to reconciliation. THE SPOT

BY CHERIE THIESSEN They, in turn, recall a school The Next Ex: A Madeline Carter Mystery by Linda L. Richards (MIRA $8.50) Old Bones by Ron Chudley girl from long ago. Jack and (TouchWood Editions $12.95) Margie track her down and she n ’ second pa- reveals the identity of the skel- Linda L. Richards perback crime novel, The Next ld Bones begins when a eton, but not the full story be- I Ex: A Madeline Carter Mystery, teenager finds the ru- hind why it’s there. former stockbroker-turned-day- ins of a very old pick- Jack becomes further en- Chris Bullock & Kay Stewart O trader Madeline Carter agrees to up truck in Christina Lake. meshed in a mystery when a gar- A Deadly Little List teach the indulged wife of an A- by Kay Stewart & Chris Bullock After half-a-century, water dener named Emily discovers list movie producer about the (NeWest Press $11.95) 1-896300-95-2 levels of the lake have dropped more bones on her own prop- stock market. White Stone Day: A Victorian Thriller to reveal the wreck. Curious and erty. When the first wife turns up by John MacLachlan Gray excited, the boy named Rudy Jack’s own origins as an (Random House $34.95) 0-679-31174-2 Ron Chudley dead, Madeline finds herself in the swims out to investigate. adopted child enter the picture. middle of a series of murders Crooked Lake by Nelson Brunanski Inside the vehicle he finds Plus there’s a gay couple, Joseph (Caronel Publishing $19.95) Chudley’s world is a moral while inadvertently opening up a old bones. and Ray, who become integral 0-9739121-0-3 one, where family is important, 40-year-old cold case. Old Bones is called a mystery to the plot. Luck: A Bill Shmata Mystery resolutions are available and an- While the first two books in on its front cover, but New Zea- So Old Bones is what might be by Dave Carpenter swers can be found. Richards’ series take place mainly (Great Plains $19.95) 1-894283-62-7 land-born scriptwriter and first- described as fusion fiction. Readers who love the “deus in Los Angeles, the third book, Cal- time novelist Ron Chudley says There’s murder, morality, coin- Seaweed on the Street ex machina” devices of Greek culated Loss, will be set in Van- by Stanley Evans (Touchwood Editions he doesn’t really write myster- cidences, love and redemption. plays and the mistaken identity $12.95) 1-894898-34-6 couver. 0-7783-2240-8 ies. It’s as much about reconciliation intrigues of Elizabethan com- “It appears that the publish- as it is about crime. edy, will find it easy to fall be- ing business always needs to cat- ✫ tween these covers. egorize,” he says. “All I wanted Others will have difficulty to do was write a tale about a There aren’t any ‘bad guys’ accepting the deliberately colos- group of people interacting in this story. Much of the narra- sal coincidences. with each other.” tion is philosophical, or roman- “In the end, telling stories is The local police officer, Jack, tic, but Old Bones is fueled by what it’s all about,” says Chudley. investigates the bones. He can’t Gothic elements. “I just want to tell them about find any record of a missing per- The ‘skeleton’ angle arose folks and situations that interest son in the area from fifty years from a newspaper article that me. ago but Jack’s partner, Margie, Chudley read years ago, very “As to classifying it as a mys- PHOTO has a childhood memory of an similar to the one that starts the tery—if that is an inducement old farm... book. to have my work read, then so Jack plays a hunch and Chudley admits he’s “consti- be it.” 1-894898-33-8 MIDDLETON checks with an elderly couple tutionally incapable” of not try- Linda L. Richards who have lived in the town for ing for some mystery and Cherie Thiessen reviews fiction DAVID most of their lives. suspense. from Pender Island.

Advance Praise for Chris F.Needham’s An Inverted Sort of Prayer “Intriguing . . . A hard-driving plot.” Vancouver Sun “Brilliant . . . Chuck Palahniuk without the minimalist style. A book that is uniquely Canadian.” OnceWritten.com “A satisfying and thought-provoking read. If you want to see the literary envelope pushed, I definitely recommend it.” Allbooks Reviews “. . . the best debut by a novelist this year.” Cut loose at the end of a long and violent hockey career prolonged by steroids and numbed by liquor, ex-enforcer Billy Purdy discovers that the soon-to-be-published novel of a celebrated politician’s son is in fact Billy’s father’s own, taken word for word from the original published, and promptly forgotten, some forty years before. Allowing the ruse to continue, and in an effort to distance himself from his violent past, Purdy embarks upon an exotic, oftentimes absurd adventure in an attempt to reinvent himself in what he envisions to be a more cerebral and civilized image, in a world he has never fully been a part of, or developed the necessary tools to prop- erly inhabit.Yearning for connection of any kind, yet seemingly unable to sustain it for any length of time, Billy Purdy comes to symbolize the alienation, frustration, and ultimate futility behind this quintessential Canadian dream. Backup to Babylon by Maxine Gadd Find it here

People’s Co-op Bookstore A Novel by Chris F. Needham Spartacus Books PB Cruise Bookseller ISBN 0-9739558-0-5, 360 pages, $21.95 Duthie Books Available at select bookstores and Magpie Magazine Gallery www.nonpublishing.com Abraxas Books Marnie’s Books non Miner’s Bay Books Now Or Never Publishing Co. Fighting Words. Published by New Star Books

32 BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2006 featurereview NON-FICTION

who might be an agent of land- owners, who might be the son or daughter of someone who DOMINICAN DOMINOES killed one’s father or mother. One quibble: Given the re- J.B. MacKinnon meets generals who remember how to smile—and little else. cent fuss over fictive “memoirs” by James Frey and others, it’s BY SHANE MCCUNE Although Greene’s novel least, come closer to his faith” is hard not to raise an eyebrow at Dead Man in Paradise by J.B. about Caribbean corruption and not entirely convincing. MacKinnon (D&M $22.95) the high dose of direct quota- brutality, The Comedians, was set in No matter; it’s not about tion in Dead Man. In his notes the other half of Hispaniola, in MacKinnon. Though he is nec- n June 1965, after U.S. Ma- and acknowledgments, Haiti, it’s fair to say both essarily omnipresent in the con- rines helped to quash a MacKinnon says the reconstruc- MacKinnons entered much the temporary side of the story, he popular revolt against a tions of his uncle’s last days are I same territory when they reached is an unassuming narrator, ob- military junta in the Dominican all based on “documentation or the Dominican Republic. servant and generous in atten- Republic, J.B. MacKinnon’s un- recollections.” Fair enough, but Of course we know which of tion to the Dominicans, friend Missionary Arthur MacKinnon cle Arthur MacKinnon, a Catho- what of his own conversations? the MacKinnons returned, but and foe alike. was killed 41 years ago. lic missionary known as “Padre MacKinnon admits his Spanish there is palpable tension in his As one would expect from an Arturo,” was found shot to death is less than fluent, but insists all dual narratives as he shifts back award-winning travel writer, the city slumps back toward de- in the village of Monte Plata interviews were recorded and and forth between a first-person MacKinnon also offers sharply cay, its sidewalks jumbled and along with the bodies of two po- vetted by native Spanish-speak- account of his quest for truth drawn impressions of the land it- broken, the gutters piled with licemen. ers. Perhaps he used a hidden and a reconstruction of his un- self, from city to swamp to moun- plastic and paper, funerary Those who inspected the Ca- microphone; it’s hard to imag- cle’s final days. tain to beach. Early on there are mounds of lime heaped over nadian priest’s body described an ine that some of the generals At the outset, MacKinnon a few clunky, overwrought pas- the road-killed dogs. At the arc of bullet wounds, probably who dodged interviews for has trouble explaining sages, such as one in which edge of a plaza of dying trees, from a machine-gun, below his weeks would open up in the exactly why he he steps from a bus into encoiled in an inner-city free- thorax, and what appeared to be presence of a tape recorder. a single pistol shot at the rear of felt com- “the fire that con- way, I stand once again in front of the offices recommended to ✫ his jaw. A young soldier claimed pelled to sumes heaven and to have shot all three in the trace the earth from the me by General Brea Garó. There is some comic relief in course of a gun battle. final moment the sun Somewhere inside, someone Dead Man in the form of dubi- knows exactly where and how Some 40 years later, as a steps of a shoulders over the ous characters such as “Charlie,” young journalist from Vancou- relative horizon.” to find José Ernesto Cruz Brea, a seemingly helpful character ver, J.B. MacKinnon went to the who died But he finds but the building is a monument MacKinnon meets at police head- to hopelessness.” Dominican Republic to investi- before he his footing: quarters. He arranges a rendez- gate his uncle’s death. The re- was born. “From the ✫ vous at a computer centre to hack sult, Dead Man in Paradise, has His insist- churning belly of Inside he meets yet another information about a police of- earned the 2006 Charles Taylor ence at the the old city I climb unhelpful bureaucrat who “has ficer who investigated the kill- Prize for literary non-fiction. conclusion the hill to the lawns forgotten how to smile.” The ings—only to announce that he ✫ that “I am of the National Palace, generals he meets, on the other doesn’t have the password. too late for his the pink dome washed Charlie might be a fool, a spy or, Dead Man in Paradise has hand, remember how to smile— church, but I with sunlight like a shell and little else. as one of MacKinnon’s friends been described as murder mys- have, at thrown into the sky. warns, both. tery, political thriller, and trav- “I do not remember the un- Within a few fortunate things. I prefer to re- On more than one occasion elogue—qualities it shares with blocks MacKinnon is tripped up by the best fiction of Graham member the good,” General Cruz Brea tells MacKinnon, as names. Is it General Fernandez- Greene who once said of a Hernandez or General doomed protagonist that he tinkers with a model of Sir Francis Drake’s ship, the Hernandez-Fernandez? he “entered the terri- Searching for anyone related to tory of lies without Golden Hind, and rhapso- dizes over his favour- the soldier who supposedly con- a passport for fessed to the killings, he is di- return.” ite novel, Les Misérables. This rected to three towns called La from a man Cuaba. There is a map at the widely believed front of the book and a chro- to have orches- nology at the back, but with so trated army many characters, so many purges, assassina- names and places, an index tions and cover- would have been helpful. ups. Without giving away too It’s a tribute to much, it’s fair to say MacKinnon MacKinnon’s story- doesn’t tie up every loose end telling skills that his of his uncle’s death, but he part of the story, learns more about the priest’s largely a litany of calling and his own beliefs (or stonewalling, evasions non-belief). Along the way and missed connections, there are insights into venge- moves as briskly as his ance and forgiveness, the pas- flashbacks to Padre sions and patience of the poor Arturo’s murder. and the ease with which some MacKinnon also conveys men can lie to themselves. the air of intrigue and para- MacKinnon also delivers a noia that still pervades even potted history of the Dominican sleepy villages, where one Republic, its three decades in doesn’t know who the grip of Rafael Trujillo, the might be a turmoil that followed his assassi- leftist, nation and the invasion ordered by U.S. President Lyndon James MacKinnon Johnson, down to Johnson’s dis- missal of the Organization of has won the $25,000 American States as an entity that “couldn’t pour piss out of a boot Charles Taylor Prize for if the instructions were written on the heel.” Literary Non-Fiction for his A generation earlier, Franklin Roosevelt, the most lib- memoir about searching for eral U.S. president of the 20th century, had supposedly de- clues to a relative’s death in the fended his support for Trujillo by remarking, “He’s an SOB, All BC BookWorld reviews are posted online at Dominican Republic. www.abcbookworld.com but he’s our SOB.” 1-55365-138-3 Shane McCune is a freelance journalist on the Sunshine Coast.

28 BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2006 reviews NON-FICTION DEMOCRACY AT THE GRASSROOTS Local yokels versus the provincial yoke—a century of haggling in British Columbia

Union of British Columbia Municipalities: The UBCM was in The First Century (UBCM / Granville a constant struggle Island Publishing $49.95) with the province, demanding more as- ccording to Union of Brit- sistance for its citi- ish Columbia Municipali- zens, and was ties: The First Century, mu- A eventually successful nicipal governments were ini- getting provincial tially listed somewhere “between and federal govern- asylums and saloons” in the 1867 ments to help pay for Constitution Act. B.C.’s 237 relief Although they had responsi- camps. They could bilities beyond their means— house up to 18,000 such as providing road, water men, one-third of and sewer services, managing the Canadian total, schools and were a step up and hos- from starving on the pitals, street. and By the end of the helping Depression there was the a better working re- poor— lationship between local gov- the province and its ernments MARK FORSYTHE communities, with in British B.C. promising to Columbia had little say over how take on more cost- services and social programs sharing for welfare, functioned, or were funded. hospitals and educa- The combined voice of the tion. Although it Union of B.C. Municipalities took another dec- (UBCM) has done much over Municipalities couldn’t easily enforce Prohibition as these Silverton locals demonstrate by posing with liquor bottles. ade, the province the last hundred years to alter did come through this paternalistic relationship isfactory way of maintaining the There are ample archival of UBCM support for the un- when the economy rallied. with “senior governments.” It wives and children of persons photographs—including popular Socred restraint pro- Then came the Bennett era. has lobbied hard to earn a little who desert their families.” It also Silverton locals posing with liq- gram of the early 1980s. Former UBCM president Ross respect, and the cash to go along slammed those “who drank their uor bottles on the first day of Newspaper headlines from 50 Marks remarked, “...there was with it. money away.” Prohibition—press clippings years ago (about gas tax sharing) no question that W.A.C. ran the That’s the gist of The First Cen- In 1920 there was a resolu- and biographical profiles that could have been written yester- show and Gaglardi was not far tury, a history co-written by tion to enable fire trucks to go flesh out how we got here. In- day. behind.” As former mayors of Wendy Bancroft, Harmony Folz, faster than 15 mph, but only teresting sidebars in The First ✫ Vancouver, provincial premiers Richard Taylor and Marie when responding to a fire. In Century include a profile of Pe- Mike Harcourt and Gordon Crawford. 1969, when land was rapidly be- The Great War of 1914 ter Wing of Kamloops, the first Campbell have both played sig- ing scooped up for urban devel- drained communities of almost ✫ mayor of Chinese descent in nificant roles on both sides of opment, Richmond put forth a 56,000 men who left to fight for North America; and an account the power struggle. Born out of frustration at the resolution to create an Agricul- the empire (more than 10% of The tug of war between the 1905 Dominion Fair in New tural Land Commission. When the total B.C. population). UBCM and its masters contin- Westminster, the UBCM was the provincial government of Property taxes were soon in ar- ues. Although the UBCM can largely the brainchild of Dave Barrett’s NDP delivered a rears, the economy stagnated, claim some significant victories, Kamloops Mayor Charles variation of that resolution to unemployment soared. the province can still call the Stevens who spearheaded a create the Agricultural Land When the province and mu- shots. The recent Significant group that launched the UBCM Reserve, it was not fully en- nicipalities ran out of money, Projects Streamlining Act, for with 22 member municipalities. dorsed by the UBCM. public works came to a stand- instance, has enabled the pro- Eventually a Royal Commission There is an account of the still. This was amplified on a vincial government to override was able to pry a few concessions birth of the Municipal Finance larger scale during the Depres- local bylaws on matters “where from the province with a revised and Assessments Authorities, lists sion. Municipalities felt helpless, the provincial interest was para- Municipal Act in 1914. of UBCM conventions, presi- some went broke (including mount.” 1-894694-39-2 The First Century overflows dents and, yes, a 1959 banquet Burnaby, Merritt, North Vancou- with arcana sure to please stu- menu. But The First Century also ver). All were trying to help the dents of governance, such as the provides a fascinating account of desperate and unemployed with Mark Forsythe, host of Almanac on 1913 resolution on Family Sup- an important journey through varying degrees of success (Port CBC Radio, has co-written The BC port that demanded Canada B.C.’s shifting political and so- Alberni’s cheques to the unem- Almanac Book of Greatest British and the province provide a “sat- cial landscape. First Chinese mayor Peter Wing ployed bounced). Columbians, with Greg Dixon.

TRANSMONTANUS 14 ELLEN IS BACK, THIS Basking Sharks JOAN GIVNER TIME WITH LITERARY by Scott Wallace & Brian Gisborne AMBITIONS IN... Find it here Ellen Fremedon: Miners Bay Books Crown Publications JOURNALIST Duthie Books by Joan Givner Blackberry Books People’s Co-op Bookstore ($15.95 Groundwood) Pollen Sweaters, Lund ISBN 0-88899-668-3 BC Ferries A young adult novel. Magpie Magazine Gallery

Published by New Star Books www.groundwoodbooks.com

35 BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2006 reviews FICTION

Douglas Coupland exploits Subway sandwiches, GO FIGURE television & matronly murder. jPod by Douglas Coupland a “hygiene pageant” ciously mind-bending or down- in all categories by Entrepreneur (Random House $34.95) for the unwanted right irritating. In terms of pac- magazine—for the 13th time in 17 guests. As the narrator ing, maybe these are the years! For more information about Subway restaurant chain, visit http:// f Douglas Coupland writes equivalents of commercial inter- Ethan, Coupland www.subway.com/. Subway is a reg- serious stuff, with charac- writes: missions. istered trademark of Doctor’s Asso- Iters we care about, talking “I got a conga line Amid the squibs of enlarged ciates Inc. (DAI). about nature and God, some going in and out of the lettering for urgent poetry (“I ✫ readers will be put off, as if he’s shower, and I put their smash your bones on rocks of ice being pretentious, so perhaps dirty clothing in the churned by spews of cola.”) and Go figure. he has consciously opted to go washer and gave them my info-breaks, we are treated to “Sleep is overrated,” says glib this time ‘round for jPod. own clothes to wear. The the following paragraph, in closet math whiz Bree, “Every- For Douglas Coupland’s 18th hot water ran out quickly, but smaller type, for the entirety one thinks that just because you book since 1991, six young em- nobody seemed to mind. I of page 142: have a nap, your life is fixed.” ployees at a Vancouver compu- felt like Elliott from E.T. Subway Restaurants is the Anyone in this novel could have ter game design company, all handing out Reese’s world’s largest submarine said that line, or about half the with surnames that start with J, Pieces.” sandwich franchise, with characters on TV, but even more than 24,000 loca- when Coupland is not at the top share a work station. Hence the If jPod strikes tions in 83 countries. of his game, when it seems like title, jPod. The six co-workers Coupland aficiona- In 2002, the Sub- are quirky in their own way, but dos as suspiciously way chain he’s dashing something off, or Coupland gives them a hasty like the stewpot for replicating himself, he is taking writing style that blends them Microserfs, Coupland’s risks and generating something into puppets for his own hu- novel about employees original. mour. at the Microsoft head- After Ethan retrieves his jPod comes complete with quarters in Seattle, well, mother, who has disappeared to gag lines and preposterous hey, give the guy a break. explore her femininity with les- events. From the outset, when That was, like, ten years bians during Uterus Week on the protagonist’s mother, a West ago. Three years later the Sunshine Coast, Coupland surpassed inserts himself as a calculating Vancouver matron, accidentally Coupland wrote Girl- McDonald’s in the capitalist who wants to hire the electrocutes a biker named Tim friend in a Coma, in number of restau- who has tried to extort her into which characters were rants open in the jPodders for his get-rich-quick giving him fifty percent of her working together on United States and scheme. The final page reads: marijuana crop and then the Vancouver-based TV Canada. Play again? Y/N. mother and son have to bury shows like The X-Files and Headquartered in “I know it’s only rock ‘n’ Milford, Conn., Sub- Tim in a nearby construction site Millennium. Perhaps jPod roll,” Mick Jagger sang, “but I way Restaurants like it.” atop the British Properties filled ought to be considered as the was co-founded by with “jumbo houses that resem- third work in a trilogy. Fred DeLuca and Dr. If Douglas Coupland wants bled microwave ovens covered Somehow we are making a leap from Peter Buck in 1965. to reinvent his own brand of with cedar shake roofing,” we episodic television to episodic fiction, mi- That partnership situation comedy, more power know Coupland is not giving nus the laugh track. Some of Coupland’s marked the begin- to him. At least he never com- ning of a remarkable Leo Tolstoy a run for his roubles. characters discuss how the author of Gen- mits the sin of being dull. jPod journey—one that is unabashedly forgettable and When the people-smuggling eration X, Douglas Coupland, really ought made it possible for brother of the protagonist to sue the pants off of Aaron Spelling thousands of indi- often funny fiction for people Ethan asks him to look after his for making the characters on Melrose viduals to build and who watch television a lot and shipment of twenty, stick-thin, Place, a TV show, so similar to the char- succeed in their use computers a lot. It’s experi- starving and unclean refugees acters in Coupland’s breakthrough novel own business. mental, cutesy, ‘edgy,’ impres- Subway Res- from Fujian Province, Ethan Generation X. sively clever in spots, padded in taurants was others, but ultimately charming forces his uncaring brother to Dozens of pages are filled with sequences of named the at least get some Chinese take- numbers or lists that nobody is going to read number one in a disposable Friends sort of out food while he orchestrates unless they are demented. This is either auda- franchise opportunity way. 0-679-31424-5

All BC BookWorld reviews are posted online at OF BUGS & MEN www.abcbookworld.com Spiritual capitalism for the bi-curious--a meditation on desire by George K. Ilsley

ManBug by George K. Ilsley (Arsenal Pulp $19.95) as streaked, puffy, too-tanned, frantic clichés of the sort one is not allowed to mention, it’s so embarrassing and so true. eorge K. Ilsley’s first novel ManBug is a fragmented “The type Tom goes for is sensitive and in transition (in the classical sense, meaning a lifestyle and/or self-concept metamorphosis, but not a Gand tragicomic exploration of a gay relationship between gender reassignment). What attracts Tom beyond all reason is a manboy a former entomologist, Sebastian, who has researched the exploring the boundaries of a gentle, proud, fierce, but uncertain masculinity. Young and naive enough to believe in his essential spiritual nature.” development of pesticides, and Tom, a left-handed, dyslexic Particularly focussed on the state of being bi-curious, Ilsley quotes “spiritual bisexual,” who may or may not be recruiting Sebastian from a biographer of Alfred Kinsey: “For Kinsey, then, labels such as ‘homosexual’ and ‘heterosexual’ did not make sense. People engaged for a cult led by the “Kardapa Lampa.” in homosexual acts; they were not homosexuals. Therefore, the only Sebastian suspects Tom is “wasting his spiritual capital on that tantric proper use for the word ‘homosexual’ was as an adjective, not as a mind control prosperity cult.” Tom suspects Sebastian is not fully noun. Pressing this point vigorously, he declared, ‘It would encourage advancing his sexual nature. clearer thinking on these matters if persons were not characterized as The relationship between the two men is complicated by the fact heterosexual or homosexual, but as individuals who have had certain that Sebastian suffers from Asperger’s Syndrome (similar to autism). experience and certain amounts of homosexual experience.’” Ilsley explains: “A thread that runs through ManBug is who lives and Like Kinsey, it would appear Ilsley’s design is to encourage clearer who dies and who makes the decision. Many of us, for example, do not thinking about sexuality. His title ManBug is derived from a common think twice before we kill an insect. Maybe we’ll throw a lobster in the occurrence in entomology studies when a student, upon viewing pot. But what else will we kill? Where do we draw the line?” ladybugs in a slightly sexualized context, invariably wants to ask, “Male The novel is mostly about sexuality. ladybug? Shouldn’t that be manbug?” Clearly the labels we ascribe to “Tom does not date the kind of gay boys who are determined, silly, both other creatures and ourselves do not always satisfactorily explain George K. Ilsley aggressive bottoms, overfed and undernourished, maturing into fruition behaviour. 1-55152-203-9

33 BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2006 reviews POETRY

who is a poet/friend, one would assume their subject is a guru, THE POINT EQUATORIAL AMBIGUITIES Point No Point by Jane Munro shaman, spiritual teacher, (M&S $17.99) therapist, prophet or healer. Touching Ecuador by Bill New Touching Ecuador contains an clear. Mists, language, ancient (Oolichan $16.95) account of the hallucination religion; the traveler cannot The descriptive words are the Having lived for 13 years in a house tucked in the woods near Victoria’s Point that is the Galapagos, “black touch, hold or define the Line elevated praise reserved for the likes of a Mandela, Ghandi, Tho- No Point resort, Jane Munro salutes her or those who have been upon black, the gargoyles/ except through “glimpses of neighbourhood, its nearby writer’s cabin to South America and the horned, marine-” and the connection/ leaving intact the mas Merton and John Len- non. and her forebears in Point No Point. Galapagos, and also for book’s last section has a dense, ambiguities of liberty.” The final poem “Moving to a Colder F Stephen those who dream of going, Bill challenging duality; a lapsed be- 0-88982-223-9 Climate” describes how her father New’s Touching Ecuador is almost liever/preacher is looking for a Roxborough Raymond Southwell, a builder, came as good as the journey but not new life in the mountains and SWEET WILLIAM writes, “bill’s to visit the new home site and died quite Quito! As a poet and in- an Everyman is travelling the friends are the weekend Munro moved in. Point veterate traveler, New Radiant Danse Uv Being among the No Point also pays tribute to Munro’s world to discover (Nightwood $23.95) proves himself an old “reading north de- fortunate few grandfather, George Southwell, who painted controversial semi-nudes in hand at making new pends on south, and ware wurr u wen shown how to PHOTO play inside the rotunda of the B.C. Legislature. connections. south north: the blewointment furst up eared? Point No Point is derived from the

and out, and BAILEY Whereas in his pre- idea of here discov- If you were anywhere in the eventually geographical survey of the former ceding collection, New ers there.” geographical and/or poetic vi- timberlands where Munro, 62, lives. through the ANDREA travelled the world to The Tourist ar- cinity of Kitsilano, Radiant Danse Point no point is a technical term re- strings of our Jane Munro celebrate trees, this MAIN-VAN rives in the high Uv Being, the new compen- ferring to a secondary point of land time he climbs the ac- HANNAH DER KAMP mountain capital dium/tribute to bill bissett, universe.” that is apparent, but doesn’t extend far- tive volcano Cotopaxi, and begins his trans- creator of blewointmentpress Someone please advise ther than two primary points on either rummages in the rug market at formation into Traveler. “I come during the Sixties, will be Nightwood Editions: anyone side. “It’s a ten-minute walk—down the Otavalo, ruminates on the an- from a country of zero degrees/ hugely enjoyable. Expect to who wrote or spoke or heard a gravel drive with its mossy centre strip, across the highway, into a maze of trails cient Andean civilizations and every winter a measure of mi- meet old friends as well as your poem in Kitsilano in the late Six- ties should qualify for a free winding through tall salal and wind- savours Quecha words and nuses, windchill and toque,” own tears, sighs, giggles and in- stunted alder to the beach. This is my copy. Me please. 0-88971-210-7 names. New writes. spired nostalgia. headland. On a map, it’s a promontory Myths and events about and “The Tourist snaps pictures, The eighty-five poets who Hannah Main-van der Kamp regu- that’s a point from one side, not the other. on the Equator/Ecuador clearly moves on. The Traveler/ steps have contributed poems and larly reviews poetry from Victoria. Point No Point.” 0-7710-6678-3 fascinate New. “You do not lightly on the line, plants feet anecdotes include Margaret touch Ecuador until you find across it, listens to the voices in Avison, Sharon Thesen, both the room in the garden for children the mountain air.” Patricks—Lane and Friesen— to play, until you tend the dis- The fecundity of the land be- Leonard Cohen, Jamie Reid, WHAT GOES AROUND, COMES AROUND tance within yourself.” wilders him, and much is un- P.K. Page and Margaret Atwood any years ago, when bill bissett was a poetry pioneer on Fourth (who has referred to bissett as Avenue in Kitsilano during the so-called hippie days, he generously her astral twin). Clearly bissett, Mpublished many of the poets he met under an imprint he called who raised alternate spelling to blewointmentpress. When money problems forced him to reluctantly transfer high art and subversive elo- ownership of the press decades later, it was moved to Ontario as Nightwood quence, and whose life and Editions. There it specialized in jazz-related books. work are already the stuff of In the late 1990s, under the direction of Silas White, the imprint was re- legend, is still charming invigorated as a poetry press in Toronto, then brought back to the West Coast. It after all these years. has since rekindled the original press’ reputation for publishing yet-to-be-known Edited by Jeff Pew writers. and Stephen As an appreciation of bissett’s enduring importance in Canadian literature, Roxborough, the Jeff Pew of Kimberley, co-founder of “Poetry on the Rocks,” and Stephen poems in this col- Roxborough of Anacortes, Washington, have edited a broad sampling of lection are as writing that celebrates bissett, published by the press he originated. Here’s a varied as the sample: contributors; high on memory, and Xcellent Birds by Kay McCracken a little un- even as po- half our clothes off but these silent birds are a etry. The bill, Helen, and i follow Ronn mystery anecdotes under Enderby Bridge about bissett into Shuswap River they may be doves, i say are remark- there are 4 of us and 4 doves, able. If one bill says he and i are offers Helen didn’t know easygoing gradualists doves are love, says Ronn these poems because of the way are describ- xcellent beautiful xcellent, says bill ing someone we approach the river we all agree but later when i we have become river gods and search goddesses, now transformed my bird books, unable to identify by river smell and penetrating sun them, that drives us into cool water i’m mystified maybe it was a group bill and i swim into an island hallucination, says bill, or maybe where everything is different a wolf print lingers among wild it was the way we approached strawberry plants the river.

when we leave the river —from Radiant soggy clothes heavy Danse Uv with sand Being: A we come across four si- Poetic Portrait lent of bill bissett (Nightwood grounded birds Editions / A blewointment they stand poised on a book $23.95). cliff Edited by Jeff Pew and while we cluck and coo Stephen A young over them Roxborough. bill bissett wondering our human Anthology contributor 0-88971-210-7 questions Kay McCracken

37 BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2006 reviews NON-FICTION

aren’t given a reason to care about them either. HOUSE OF HORRORS There are constant shifts in time and place within a convo- Timothy Taylor looks underneath a facelift luted plot, making for a some- times confusing narrative. Story House by Timothy Taylor out of the game. Drawn to what Descriptions of food and fashion (Knopf $34.95) is fake, Elliot is happiest tripping fads, though brilliant on their around Korea visiting places like own, can be distracting, gratui- n the way that his acclaimed Cult Fashion Mall, which boasts tous, and take away from the debut novel, Stanley Park, anything you bring to it can be context of the story. Icould be said to be about made in seven days. It’s to his credit though, that food, Timothy Taylor’s ambi- “Four floors of sunglasses Taylor has pulled off a novel tious and intricate second novel, and watches, mobile phones and where most of the conversations Story House, can be said to be cameras, handbags and designer revolve around the intricacies of about architecture. That is to T-shirts. Everything fake or fake- architectural design. Only a say, architecture is the central able. Everything for sale. Every- writer of great narrative and de- scaffolding on which thing vibrating with scriptive gifts could pull it off. Taylor hangs his the tension, the ex- Though the action is somewhat ideas. cited blood cells, the contrived, and the characters are Specifically we are nervous synapse firings driven by the plot rather than the talking about the de- of monied desire.” other way around, the suspense signs of the elusive The brothers come and drama around what happens Packer Gordon, an together again when to the Story House carry us icon in the architec- the producer of the through to the novel’s riveting tural world, whose reality TV show, Unex- and tragic ending. buildings are marvels SHEILA MUNRO pected Architecture, de- Like the house it is named of glass and steel, cides to make a series for, this novel asks difficult ques- planes and layers, appearing to about a recently rediscovered Timothy tions and provides no easy an- float in the air, to enter into a Packer Gordon design, Story Taylor swers. How can we rediscover dialogue with the landscape sur- House. It will be a little like Ex- the simplicity and purity of art rounding them. In their simplic- treme Makeover, Home Edition. He have to unlock its mysteries, to Besides Graham and Elliot in a post-modern world where ity and purity of form they wants to film the two brothers find out what it’s for. This they and their illustrious father, there everything is about image and harken back to the Haida discussing, arguing, hammering do, coming up with an ingenious are many minor characters. We branding and consuming some- longhouses of the Queen Char- out what to do about restoring idea that has spectacular and keep shifting from one charac- thing that isn’t real, that has no lotte Islands. and remodelling the deteriorat- devastating results, both for the ter to the next, from Pogey the organic roots in anything? How Story House begins, somewhat ing structure. building and themselves. boxing coach, to Rico, the un- can we reconnect with the natu- jarringly, with a brutal boxing Possibly Packer’s first build- ✫ derworld figure who lives in the ral landscape without going to match between Packer Gordon’s ing, Story House is an architec- Orwell Hotel, as well as Kirov, the extreme of camping alone two teenaged sons, orchestrated tural conundrum tucked away With all its embellishment Elliot’s punk Russian business on the beaches of the Queen and filmed by their famous fa- in Vancouver’s downtown and detail, its eccentric charac- partner; Avi Zweigler, the TV Charlotte Islands the way Gra- ther. Born only six months apart, eastside. With its double-helix ters, strange locales, and dis- producer; Graham’s estranged ham’s wife Esther does? Graham is the son of Packer and staircase, odd angles, empty hall- courses on architecture, Taylor’s wife Esther; and Elliot’s partner Timothy Taylor poses the his wife; Elliot is the product of ways, and lack of a kitchen, it construction is more like a ba- Dierdre, to mention a few. We questions and it’s for us to find a mysterious affair Packer con- isn’t really a house at all, but a roque cathedral than one of don’t get much of a chance to the answers. 0-676-97764-2 ducted in Korea. Far from re- riddle to be solved, a question Packer Gordon’s spare, modern focus on one particular charac- Sheila Munro is the author of solving anything between the to be answered. The brothers designs. ter. More seriously, we often Lives of Mothers and Daughters. two brothers, the fight deepens the enmity between them. Some twenty years on, long All BC BookWorld reviews are posted online at after the death of their father, MIDDLESEX MAGNET www.abcbookworld.com the estranged brothers are both struggling. Outwardly success- Mallory by Margaret Gunning ful, Graham has become an ar- (Turnstone $19.95) chitect like his father. But in contrast to his uncompromising ALSO RECEIVED argaret Gunning’s artist father who built only what he wanted to build, Graham’s Mallory is a coming-of- Zed by Elizabeth McClung (Arsenal Pulp Press $22.95) less-than-satisfying career is age novel about in- 1-55152-197-0 about fixing rather than making Mtense and gifted 14-year-old Tales of Two Cities things. Mallory Mardling, “a magnet for by George Fetherling Graham makes his living re- (Subway $20) 0-9736675-1-6 other people's bad intentions,” modelling and “rebranding” the Indigenous Beasts décor of hotel chains, replacing who can quote William Butler by Nathan Sallyn (Raincoast $22.95) 1-55192-927-9 one empty fashion statement Yeats in her essays but is often be- with another. He and his busi- Elliot & Me by Keith Harrison littled for her masculine tenden- (Oolichan $22.95) 0-88982-219-0 ness partner, who is also his part- cies and facial hair. time mistress, rip out all the Morgantown by Keith Maillard Set amid bullying in a fictional (Brindle & Glass $22.95) mahogany panelling, the striped 1-897142-07-02 upholstery, hardwood floors and northern Ontario town in 1968, Lyndon Johnson and the club chairs from ten years ago Mallory describes how an es- Majorettes by Keith Maillard and replace everything with (Brindle & Glass $14.95) tranged, would-be novelist is kid- neo-modern surfaces of chrome Beyond This Point and steel and glass, the new napped and sexually abused as a by Holley Rubinsky (M&S $24.99) 0-7710-7854-4 “core brand of sex” where captive at the hands of a charis- there’s a vibrator in the night matic church minister named 13 Ways of Listening to a Stranger by Keath Fraser (Thomas Allen table drawer rather than a Reverend Randolph Flet- Publishers $26.95) 0-88762-193-7 Gideon’s Bible. cher and a maladjusted juvenile Bright Objects of Desire Meanwhile Elliot has been by Michele Adams flirting on the edge of the crimi- named Chris Cooper. (Biblioasis $23.95) 0-9738184-1-7 nal scene, hanging out with bik- Mallory's behavior during her The Work of Mercy ers, punkers and assorted by Stephen Guppy (Thomas Allen ordeal confirms her strength of $24.95) 0-88762-223-2 unsavory types, much to the cha- character and ultimately brings grin of his wife Dierdre, a Smoke Show by Clint Burnham some social acceptance after her (Arsenal Pulp Press $18.95) former architect herself, and 1-551525-196-2 the mother of twin boys. For years assailants are incarcerated. Cease to Blush by Billie Livingston he’s been in the business of sell- 0-88801-311-6 (Random House $34.95) ing fakes, knock-offs of watches, 0-679-31322-2 sunglasses and T-shirts. Recently Cover photo he has turned to making fakes from Mallory of fakes. He can’t seem to get

30 BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2006 reviews KIDLIT

The Freedom of Jenny My Librarian is a Camel by Margriet by Julie Burtinshaw (Raincoast $12.95) Ruurs (Boyds Mills Press $19.95) Animal Alphabed by Margriet Ruurs (Boyds Mills Press $21.50) he Freedom of Jenny, based Emma at the Fair by Margriet Ruurs TEENAGE CONFUSION (Fitzhenry and Whiteside $19.95) on the true story of the Me and Martha Black by Margriet Ruurs “She holds onto my hand…maybe it’s a Brooklyn thing.” Timmigration of black set- (Penumbra Press $14.95) tlers to western Canada, follows young Jenny Estes as her family, Crush by Carrie Mac (Orca $9.95) hile researching a chil- their freedom paid for by the fa- dren’s book on mobile ther’s wages from a grueling cat- libraries around the hen her hippie par- W tle drive, make their way to world, Margriet Ruurs discov- ents head for Thai- California. But the Dred Scott ered Basarat Kazim who runs an land to celebrate W Decision of 1857 when the US inner city library and a mobile their 30th “non-wedding anni- Supreme Court ruled people of library based in Lahore, Paki- versary” by helping to build a African ori- stan. school, 17-year-old Hope is ban- gin—free or Ruurs has since arranged for ished to Brooklyn. enslaved— used books and teddy bears to The plan had been for her could never be sent to the youngest victims to remain at the Larchberry be citizens of the Pakistani earthquake. Af- commune by herself. But get- made Califor- ter two weeks in Lahore this ting caught naked in the hayloft nia no safer spring, Ruurs has also initiated with Orion, the tanned, hash- than the Mis- a book mark exchange to pro- smoking, too-old, too-married souri they’d mote international understand- Woofer (Workers on Organic Julie Burtinshaw escaped. ing and friendship. Farms) changed all that. So when James Douglas, fear- Along with My Librarian is a Now she’ll have to endure ful his fledgling colony of New Camel, the cover of which fea- an entire summer living with her Caledonia was vulnerable to tures children and book-toting flaky older sister. southern aggression, offers pro- camels in Mongolia’s Gobi But then Hope meets Nat, a tection and equality under the Desert, Ruur’s has three other lanky bicycle mechanic with Cover art for British flag, Jenny’s family and new titles. blond dreadlocks and a firm, lin- Carrie Mac’s dozens of other black families Illustrated by Jenny Emery, gering handshake. “She holds Crush. push on once again. Animal Alphabed is a nighttime onto my hand…maybe it’s a In her research author Julie fantasy and alphabet mystery in Brooklyn thing. She’s kind of Trouble On Tarragon Island by Niki Tate Sea Dog by Dayle Campbell Gaetz Burtinshaw, inspired by the life which a girl discovers one of her gazing at me, in a weird way. (Sono Nis $9.95) (Orca, $6.95) story of Sylvia Stark, who settled 26 stuffed animals is missing. Another weird thing—is that I on Salt Spring Island in 1860, Emma at the Fair chronicles don’t want her to let go.” he third volume in Niki ayle Campbell Gaetz’s discovered fully one-third of the the fourth adventure of the Yup. Nat’s a girl. And Hope Tate’s series featuring inspiration for Sea Dog cowboys who tamed the Ameri- plucky, yet addle-brained hen, is hit with a sudden, bewilder- teenage writer Heather came from the story of T D can West were black, as were this time in the boisterous at- ing crush. “Would kissing a girl Blake, begins innocently a dying dog found on the beach many in the sixty-man staff of mosphere, captured by artist be different from kissing boys? enough. In Trouble On Tarragon after a storm who, once healthy, BC’s first police force. 1-55192-839-6 Barbara Spurll, of harvest time If all I did was kiss her, Island, Heather’s would often insist on at an agricultural fair. would that make me grandmother, along swimming far out to Me and Martha Black, queer?” with the other embar- sea. Young Kyle, with cover art by well- With motherly ad- rassingly saggy and whose father doesn’t known artist Ted Harrison, vice from a lesbian liver-spotted mem- live with him and his introduces the exploits of couple, a timely bers of Ladies of the mom anymore, be- naturalist Martha Louise phone call from her Forest, poses nude for friends a similarly de- Munger who gave up a well- parents and guidance a fund-raiser calendar. termined dog. heeled life in Chicago for from her “gaydar” The Ladies of the But one day the LOUISE DONNELLY the lure of the Canadian Hope ultimately ar- Forest (a fictional take dog spots a pipe- north. rives at her own answers to her on the BC-based direct action smoking sailor with a Eventually married to troubling questions. group Women in the Woods) big gray beard and it’s George Black, who was later Crush is part of the Orca are determined to stop logging quickly apparent made commissioner of the Soundings series for reluctant of old-growth forest and soon what—or who— Yukon, Martha went on to teen readers. Vancouver writer the “wrinkle brigade’s” weekly Treasure has been receive an OBE for her Carrie Mac’s first contribution to meetings and the painting of searching for. work with Yukon service- the series was Charmed, a story banners turns to confrontation Is Kyle going to men during WW1 and, at of teen prostitution. She is also with angry loggers. Then her lose his only friend? Il- age 70, to become the sec- winner of an Arthur Ellis Award grandmother is arrested and lustrations in this ond woman elected to Par- for her gritty teen novel The Heather, voicing author Tate’s early reader chapter liament. Beckoners. “I’m equally fascinated conviction that kids are “per- book are by Amy Librarian 1-59078-093-0; Animal by disaster and grace,” she says. fectly capable of making up Meissner, who works 059078-200-3; Emma 1-55005-126-1; “Car wrecks, hurricanes, their own minds about tough is- in an Anchorage stu- Me and Martha 1-89413-187-8 plagues, genocides on one hand. sues,” must decide for herself dio with two “bad or- Margriet Small and stunning everyday whether breaking the law is a ange cats.” Ruurs Louise Donnelly writes miracles on the other.”1-55143-526-8 criminal act. 1-55039-154-2 1-55143-406-7 from Vernon.

25 BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2006 reviews NON-FICTION

Sailor on Snowshoes: Jack London’s Klondike Caper exactly. Then North had to trace the owner by Dick North (Harbour $19.95) of a slab bearing Jack London’s signature that had been cut from the cabin wall leaving a he story of Dick North’s efforts slash. Once that was done, handwriting ex- perts had to confirm that the handwritten in- to find and preserve a piece LONDON scription that read “Jack London, miner, of literary London—as in Jack— author, Jan 27, 1898” was actually London’s. T Fortunately, the Port Authority of Oakland, CALLING begins one afternoon in California California, on whose premises the Jack Lon- when he walked into Jack London’s don Square Merchant’s Association was housed, became enthusiastic. They contrib- Jack London old hangout, the First and Last uted $17,000 to the project, of which $500 spent eleven months prospecting Chance Saloon in Oakland. went to purchase the crucial slab. In 1969, when the slab was ready to be matched with for gold in the Yukon and Alaska. As North explains in Sailor on Snowshoes: Jack the slash on the wall, they scheduled an ex- In his autobiography, he wrote, London’s Klondike Caper, he listened to the bar- pedition that included the actor Eddie Albert tender’s tales and wondered if the shack that to bring it to the cabin. “I brought nothing back from the sheltered Jack London and his party during The California group flew to Stewart Island Klondike but my scurvy.” their Klondike winter of 1897-1898 could still and traveled 18 miles in three dogsleds to exist. Henderson Creek. There they witnessed the From reading Jack London’s works based exact match between the slab and the slash, on his Yukon adventure—The Call of the Wild and relished the atmosphere of the cabin and (1903), The White Fang (1906) and the popu- the creek described in London’s stories. Since lar anthology piece “To Build a Fire,” about a a journey by dogsled was not easy in the melt- man who freezes to death on the Yukon trail— ing snow of April, they also experienced on Dick North decided that London’s Yukon their return journey hazards similar to those cabin, a recurring image in his sto- experienced by London’s charac- ries, seemed to embody the spirit ters. of the writer: The project did not end there. It was his refuge, his sanctuary, the That would have meant leaving the place where he could obtain a maxi- cabin to molder away in a spot in- mum of warmth with a minimum of accessible by most means of trans- fuel. And it played a focal part in portation. A unique solution was many of his stories. It is a symbol of devised, whereby the Canadian a more simplistic era but not so far JOAN GIVNER and American elements in Lon- removed from us that we can ignore don’s legacy could be honoured. the fact that some day we may be forced to By using logs from the original cabin and add- return to the same kind of humble dwelling ing others, duplicate structures were created in order to survive. to the same scale as the original. One of these North was unconvinced by Irving Stone’s was transported to Oakland, and its twin was assertion in his popular biography Sailor on rebuilt in Dawson City. Horseback that London and a friend disman- Having already written about two myster- tled the cabin and made a raft out of it on ies of the Canadian North, The Mad Trapper of which they floated downriver to Dawson City. Rat River (1972) and The Lost Patrol (1978), ✫ North proves himself an old hand at creating Dick North got himself hired by the Daily a suspenseful narrative. But the richest part Alaska Empire in Juneau in the early Sixties, of the present book—which is an innovative but his editor didn’t believe a quest for the blend of quest-motif, mystery and travelogue— cabin would make good copy. is his evocation of the Gold Rush era, the char- PHOTO When North rustled up some financial sup- acters, animals and the landscape that provide 2033 port from the White Pass and Yukon Railroad, the stuff of Jack London’s fiction. the editor refused to give him time off. Unraveling the life and times of Jack Lon- ROCHE

LA North promptly quit his job, and set off on don, (who died of a morphine overdose at , the first of many journeys by bus, snowshoe the age of forty) is complicated by the fact and dog-sled. that London was plagued throughout his short COLLECTIONS

Not only did North establish the cabin’s lo- life by frauds and imposters. One of these, cation on Henderson Creek, 75 miles south claiming to have traveled with him across SPECIAL

, of Dawson City, but he made the triumphant North America, wrote a book on the putative discovery that remnants still existed not far journey. LIBRARIES

from Stewart Island. It then became neces- Another man impersonating London jour- sary to prove that this was, in fact, the cabin neyed throughout Alaska, giving birth to the The only known Klondike that London and his companions had built. enduring belief that London lived in Nome photograph of Jack London WASHINGTON Establishing the authenticity of the cabin when he never actually visited that city.

(second from left) at Sheep OF

Camp, August 1897. was complicated; it involved arranging for tree- 1-55017-384-7 ring experts to cut cones from the cabin’s logs Joan Givner is a novelist, critic and

UNIVERSITY and those of nearby trees in order to date it biographer who lives in Mill Bay.

A Kidnapped Mind: A Mother’s Heartbreaking Story of Parental Alienation Syndrome by Pamela Richardson

1-55002-624-0 | $24.99 | paperback Available now!

“A Kidnapped Mind by Pamela Richardson is a wake-up call to anyone who has ever been involved with divorcing families. Any parent considering divorce should read this book first.” — Dr. Reena Sommer

27 BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2006 LOOKOUT #24 • a forum for & about writers 3516 W. 13th Ave., Vancouver, BC V6R 2S3 • [email protected] LOOKOUTLOOKOUTLOOKOUT DON’TDON’T W.P. (Bill) Kinsella lives just above the Fraser River at Yale with KILLKILL Barbara Turner-Kinsella. BILLBILL When it comes to picking winners and losers in the field of fiction, story ump W.P. Kinsella, mastermind of Field of Dreams, calls ‘em like he sees ‘em. For five straight years Kinsella has adjudicated all rookie novelists for the Amazon/Books In Canada First Novel Contest. Now that he’s retiring from that job, we thought some questions might be in order PHOTO about the state of fiction in Canada. TWIGG

BCBW: Has the gender ratio for nov- lish come from? writing programs, while several very KINSELLA: I’d first try Knopf elists changed since you published your KINSELLA: Over five years Ontario good ones emerged, especially from the Canada. first fiction book in 1977? writers produced 46% of the first nov- UBC Writing program, which has a phe- BCBW: Can you explain to me how KINSELLA: The female-to-male ra- els submitted to the contest, followed by nomenal rate of published novelists. anyone writing or talking in Canada can tio of published novelists has increased. B.C. with 19%, Alberta with 10% and It has always been that in a class of 15 pronounce, with complete confidence, The novels I’ve read in the past five years Newfoundland with 8%. writing students, on average only one will that the novel they have just read is some- were equally divided 50/50. BCBW: What’s the average age of first- ever achieve any success. I do think Writ- how the ‘best’ novel of the year when BCBW: Does the old maxim ‘Write time novelists in Canada? ing Departments should be more diligent that person has likely read less than 10% about what you know’ still apply? KINSELLA: I’d say it’s late 30s. in weeding out the obvious non-perform- of the novels published? KINSELLA: I don’t think ‘Write BCBW: Do you sometimes think we ers, but the problem is age-old; the depart- KINSELLA: Something like that is a about what you know’ has ever applied. should place a moratorium on publish- ments get paid by the student, so anyone judgment call. What it means is that the The best novels are works of imagina- ing novelists under age 35? with diligence and a smattering of ability novel compares favorably with many ex- tion, the worst are full of autobiography. KINSELLA: Definitely. It got so bad can get a degree, which ultimately cheap- cellent novels of the recent past, there- BCBW: Do you sometimes ask your- that for a couple of years I added my own ens the degrees of the talented writers. fore it must be one of the best of the self if there are too many books? Bottom Drawer Award for novels whose That was my chief complaint with current crop. KINSELLA: I think there have always manuscripts should have remained in the Iowa where I saw students use the same BCBW: You’ve already cited Susan Juby been too many books. Unpublished writ- bottom drawer with orange peels, 60-page, unrevised manuscript they used as a ‘writer to watch.’ What other emerg- ers may whine otherwise, but nothing, cracker crumbs and condom wrappers. to gain entry to the workshop as their ing first novelists have impressed you? absolutely nothing even remotely good The worst offenders are the publish- Graduate Thesis Project. KINSELLA: The first year I picked goes unpublished. ers trying to qualify for future grants by BCBW: Are the first novels from larger the short list I was very disappointed that Literally hundreds of books both fiction publishing a certain number of books publishing houses any better, or differ- Lydia Kwa’s beautifully poetic yet tough- and non-fiction are published each year that each year. They end up publishing any- ent, than the first novels from smaller as-nails story of lesbian love and sacrifice, should never see the light of day, are read thing with a pulse. publishing houses? This Place Called Absence, did not win. I by virtually no one, and would never be BCBW: So should everyone attending KINSELLA: I’d say the novels I see felt it was the best novel of that year by a missed had they not been published. Creative Writing courses be encouraged from Knopf Canada, Random House wide margin. BCBW: The pop music industry has to get jobs delivering pizzas instead? and Doubleday are usually quality ones. I very much like Open Arms by Marina been ruined by the music video. Do you KINSELLA: No. I’m a graduate of the They are more consistent in quality than Endicott, Blue Becomes You by Bettina von detect any corresponding trend towards University of Victoria Writing De- [ones from] the smaller publishers, pos- Kampen, The Beautiful Dead End by Clint publishing novelists who ‘look good’ partment and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. sibly because they have money for better Hutuzlak, and Stay by Aislin Hunter. These rather than write well? When I went to UVic I was like a editors and proofreaders. people are very talented and could become KINSELLA: I don’t see any correla- baseball pitcher with a wonderful fastball BCBW: If you were writing a first novel major players in Can-Lit. tion. If looking good meant anything who threw every third pitch into the today, what small press would you send However, my favorite first novel of all there would be far more well-designed stands. Bill Valgardson, Robin Skelton, it to? time was a runner-up in 1976 to some- covers. There are only two or three good Lawrence Russell and Derk Wynand KINSELLA: I would go with Great thing long forgotten, The True Story of covers a season, the rest often appear to coached me until I was publishing regu- Plains Publications, a relatively new firm Ida Johnson by Sharon Riis. It was be designed by artsy-craftsy incompetents larly by the time I graduated. out of Winnipeg. Their books are all summed up by Margaret Atwood as “... who have no knowledge of lettering, and Iowa gave me two years of freedom beautiful and they give the impression a flatfooted waitress caught in the eerie probably just got their first computer. to write, and I was beginning Shoeless Joe that they really care about their product. light of the Last Judgment.” It is a novel BCBW: On a provincial basis, where when I received my MFA. Only one or BCBW: And what large press would I re-read several times a year, always find- have most of the new novelists in Eng- two bad novels came from graduates of you send it to? ing something new.

21 BOOKWORLD • LOOKOUT • SUMMER • 2006 FEATURE REVIEW HIMMLERHIMMLER

In 1935, Heinrich Himmler (with moustache) founded an SS research institute, the Ahnenerbe, to HUNTERHUNTER search for antiquities (as above) and to recreate the lost world of Germany’s ancestors. Theory.” Its chief proponent, work, he was moonlighting as an inventor. One s depicted in Raiders of the Lost Ark, HEATHER Hans Horbiger, prided himself of his inventions was the shiny piece of glass now on never performing calculations commonly mounted on bicycles to make them Adolf Hitler’s SS (Security Squad) and thought mathematics was “de- more visible at night. PRINGLE ceptive.” When Himmler learned of Loibl’s “bicycle re- was not only infamous for running ✍ flector” innovation, he inked a deal to produce reveals The Ahnenerbe’s researchers the new product. As head of the German police, plundered foreign museums, art gal- Himmler was able to insure the passing of a new the concentration camps and gas traffic law that required all new German bicycles how the leries, churches and private homes carting off valuable relics and to have a reflector. chambers, and for serving as the Fuhrer’s masterworks of art. But with the on- By 1942, Himmler was trapped in a frustrat- A ing marriage to a 50-year-old. Wanting more chil- Nazis made set of World War II, the activities of the Ahnenerbe became far more sin- dren, he took his blond secretary, twelve years bodyguards: the world’s most notorious po- ister. younger, as his mistress. She became ensconced in a science • The Ahnenerbe began using a mansion where he called her Little Bunny. lice force also played a key role in unearthing prisoners as guinea pigs to measure When Gerda Bormann and her children of delusion the effects of mustard gas and typhus. dropped by for a visit, Little Bunny showed them antiquities to ostensibly prove Aryan links to • When some SS members com- a special room where a chair was made of human plained about the stress of shooting legs and feet. There was also a copy of Mein Kampf large numbers of women, children with a cover made from human skin. ancestral greatness. and babies in the Crimean, According to Pringle, even the children of Himmler’s henchmen in the Martin Bormann, a man known as the “zeal- In 1935, Hitler sanctioned an obscure but Also an avid reader, Himmler maintained a list ” Ahnenerbe ranks introduced mo- ous executor, were creeped out. powerful research arm of the SS, the Ahnenerbe— of his favourite books to recommend to others. If bile gassing wagons that could kill In 1945, Hitler and Eva Braun committed a word meaning “something inherited from the television had existed back in the 1930s, the ex- 80 people at once. With three mo- suicide in their bunker beneath Berlin, and forefathers”—to uncover ancestral treasures, to ceedingly vain Himmler would likely have had his bile wagons in the Crimea, the SS Heinrich Himmler fled using an identification reconnect with past glories, and to present the own interview program to showcase his favourite was able to kill nearly 40,000 peo- card he stole from a police officer. Third Reich as a model for fairness and middle- authors—the Nazi equivalent of the Oprah Book ple, mainly Jews. After only a few weeks on the run as a member class decency. Club. • Human endurance at ex- of the Nazi guerrilla movement called Werwolf, This ‘Nazi think tank’ recruited scholars to in- Himmler originally wanted Ahnenerbe-spon- tremely high altitudes was tested Himmler devised a scheme to gain his freedom: vent crackpot theories and to undertake archaeo- sored research to stimulate his SS men to learn using concentration camp prisoners He would offer his services to the occupying Brit- logical digs around the world in order to more about Germanic folklore, religion and farm- in a vacuum chamber, resulting in ish and American forces, organizing Werwolf to authenticate Hitler’s view of Aryans as a master ing techniques, encouraging them to emulate the extreme suffering and many deaths. fight against Communism. When this offer was race (tall, blonde and blue-eyed men and women values of the Aryan race. Painful sterilization experiments rejected, Himmler swallowed a cyanide capsule who were the geniuses of civilization). • In 1930s, Ahnenerbe resurrected the de- were also conducted on humans. during a medical examination and strip search. With extensive documentation, Heather bunked notion that measuring cranial features • Himmler’s “scientists” were also ✍ Pringle’s The Master Plan: Himmler’s Schol- could effectively indicate intelligence and superi- keen to know how long parachut- Some of the Ahnenerbe scholars were arrested, ars and the Holocaust (Viking $35) unravels the ority. Nazi scholars hoped to discover racial data ing aviators could survive in freez- tried, disgraced, executed or killed themselves, but little-known story of the Ahnenerbe, a ridiculous that might be useful in justifying the removal of ing waters and still be revived. Male others enjoyed highly-respected careers. but lethal construct that used bogus science to cor- all “mixed-races” from the Reich. prisoners were placed in ice cold In the last chapter, Heather Pringle tracks down roborate racism and justify the murder of six mil- • In order to channel ancient knowledge, one tanks for hours and then laid on 90-year-old Ahnenerbe member Bruno lions Jews, intellectuals, gypsies (Roma) and of Himmler’s scholars, Karl-Maria Wiligut, beds where naked female prisoners Berger in a quiet German town. Berger, a so- homosexuals. would go into trances. A violent alcoholic and ex- were instructed to warm them up called expert in racial studies, only displayed emo- ✍ mental patient, Wiligut changed his name to Wise and engage in sex. tion when discussing the war crime trial he had The dreamer and mover behind the Thor. ✍ endured, muttering about “how the law is biased.” Ahnenerbe was Heinrich Himmler. A thin, • Equally bogus, the prehistorian Herman During several hours of conversation, he was un- pale man who headed the SS, Himmler never ex- Wirth claimed to have unearthed an ancient holy Originally reliant on grants from repentant, believing that Jews should be regarded ercised and his head was too big for his body. He script that would help Germany resurrect its a scientific and agricultural agency, as a mongrel race. was nonetheless obsessed with Aryan former greatness. Other notables were the classi- Ahnenerbe also received financial The Master Plan is a restrained work of report- perfection. cal scholar Franz Altheim and his lover, the help from corporate donors that in- age, without proselytizing or exploitation, but, on It was Himmler who decided his SS men ought rock art researcher Erika Trautmann, who cluded BMW. page 316, Pringle cites a 1971 survey that once to look elegant in newly designed black uniforms had turned down a proposal of marriage from Heinrich Himmler, deadly bookworm One of the organization’s key revealed fifty per cent of the German population from Hugo Boss, set off nicely by a silver death’s- Hermann Goring. sources of loot was Adolf Hitler’s believed “National Socialism [Nazism] was funda- head on their hats. This look, according to • To explain the origins of the universe, chauffeur. In 1936, when Nazi party PHOTO

mentally a good idea which was merely badly car- Himmler, would engender fear in men and “suc- Himmler and Hitler were particularly excited member Anton Loibl wasn’t ried out.” cess with the girls.” about the Ahnenerbe-sponsored “World Ice TWIGG driving the Fuhrer to and from 0-670-04464-4

22 BOOKWORLD • LOOKOUT • SUMMER • 2006 23 BOOKWORLD • LOOKOUT • SUMMER • 2006