D Natiod Review of Books VOLUME 5, NUMBER 4 APRIL, 1976
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
- -_. _ . , _. _ I ___i OX-. .._._ _~._-_;_ ! d natiod review of books VOLUME 5, NUMBER 4 APRIL, 1976 ENGLISH FKTION STAKES $2500 purse Rider - Morley Callaghan Future stakes pick but may be off his form in fast field. - Robert Kroetsch - General (TrendSetters) Stable- Oberon SUBSCRbTlON $9.95 A YEiii- :_- _.__:-L1.. _-. __.. ‘Y.,__.._ ___. :__:. A INba&xmG UESTION Who’s goingto win the GeeGees this year? A tip sheet straightfrom the horse’s mouth The judges are not crooks. they are not fixers, but they By LINDA SANDLER are subject to certain ideological pressures. They want a Western winner one year, and a woman the next. They want to be fair. and so their decisions aren’t easy to calculate in wtu HISTORYvindicate the Governor General’s LiteraG adVanCe. Awards? Some of them, yes. Margaret Laurence’s The I was not one of the pundits who predicted Joe. Clark’s Diviners was an obvious bet last year, and so was Dave sprint to victory on the last stretch of the recent PC Leader- Godfrey’s The New Ancestors in 1970, despite &exe cotn- ship Convention. so 1 advance the following assessments petition from Robertson Davies’ Fiph Business. But history cautiously, confining myself to the fiction candidates, and is a hanging judge, and the race is not always to the swift. offering no certain bets. We have no ~011s. no official rat- Meanwhile. the GeeGces would serve their purpose admir- ings - although sales figures. reviews and packaging will ably by honouring and Ewarding some. of our best authors. play some part in_the outcome of the race. It’s unlikely, for and publicizing the best of tbeir books. example, that an excellent dark horse like Lamar Sama’s This year. for the first time in the checkered history of the The Man Wlto Lived Near Nelrigan will win, be&se he’s GeeGees. the winners were to be announced at a public had insufficient publicity, he’s a newcomer, and he’s even event. the Montreal International Book Fair. This would younger than Joe Clark. haw been the first step towards freeing the awards from Robertson Davies’ World ofWonders is clearly a winner. their closet ceremony at Government House, where they He may be eliminated on the first stretch - if for no other have been “conducted” with all the guilty secrecy of an reason than Davies’ 1972 victory, when The bfmticore crossed the finishing line a neck ahead of Margaret Atwood’s SurfacittS. So DavieS’ Time cover story, his The judges are not crooks, they are notfixers, but cross-country rave reviews. and the fine condition of his they are subject to certain ideologic~pressures. horse, may not help him this time. But I think they will. Hugh Hood’s The Swing in the Garden is one of the swiftest and most audacious runners in the field. Hood has consistently performed well in the face of fierce competi- illicit system of patronage; it would have been the first move tion. and his victory is long overdue. The Swing in /he towards turning the ceremony i,nto a literary and sales Gwden is a horse to watch. and we hope that the judges will event, rather than the virtuous’ and official sanctioning of not withhold the purse from Hood until the year 2000, when literature it has been since the inception of the awards in 1937. But now ‘we hear that the officials have changed their minds. The awards will be announced. as alwavs. within the cloisters of Government House. ihe ident& of the judges. as always, will be protected until after the race, the short list of authors likewise, and the principle of selection will be mysterious and sudden. What the public has done to merit this mistrust, this cruel and unusual punishment, is uncrrtain. Given the sullen aura of secrecy surrounding the Gee- Gees. and assumicg the race is open and not subject to t)e man-s of fixers, it’s interesting to speculate on the outcome. Who is the best horse? In the non-fiction race. the odds am strongly in favour of Peter Newmin’s The Can+ dim fitablishment. In the poetry and drama division, if James Reaney’s Sticks and Stones doesn’t carry away the prize 62.500) it should go to one of the younger contenders like Rorence McNeill’s Emily. Will the best horse win? Few poets will forgive the poetry judges for spurring Miriam Mandel’s horse to victory in 1973. Folklore has it that the judges. being divided, settled for a dark horse who offended no one. An admirable case of democratic compromise, but hardly calculated to maintain the credi- bility of the Racing and Wagering Board. April.1976. Books in Canada 3 . .._. _ _ ____. _... __.. i _ ._ .._ - . ~~~. .._ _.... _.. _.._ he hopes to enter the last of 12 horses in this bloodline. 1951 and A Fine and Priwte Place might jusl take (Hood says wryly: “If you want my opinion. I’m too good the purse. Matt Cohen’s Woo&w Huurers and Robert 10 be awarded a GeeGee.” He may be right about his handi- Kmetsch’s Badlands are two dynamic stallions, pra-urban cap.) in temperament, who are expected fo perform well. If you’re the kind of bettor who backs straight qualhy. Kmetsch. however. had a GeeGee in 1969, :w he may not you couldn’t do belter rhao Bhamti Mukherjee’s W# - have his heart in t-herace this year. an extraordinarily powerful and stylish runner, raised in an Austin Clarke. had he not defected to Barbados, might American stable. The latier may count against her, even have streaked 10 victory with The Bigger Light, the last of though 1975 was declved International Women’s Year. rhme related horses raised in Upper Canada. Brian Moore’s If the Board is on the lookout for a filly in honour of The Grear Vlcrorion Collection is a horse of a similar col- lWY, wo other favouriles am books of stories by Jane Rule our, since Ihe rider is no longer domiciled in Canada. And and Joyce Marshall. Short fiction is a strong, independent his horse, one might add, is not up 10 the form of The Luck Canadian breed, and it should have ia own race lrack. As it ofGinger Coffey, which took the prize in 1960. is, books of stories sre seldom winners (with the norable With Jan Drabek’s Whatever Happened to Wenceslas exception of books by Hugh Gamer and Alice Munm). (published simubaneously in Conajao sod Czech) we enter Word has it Ihat Joyce Marshall is a member of the panel of Ihe realm of exotic belling. Drab& rides a high-powered judges, so we must eliminate her swift horse, A Privofe P/a&. Marian Engel’s Inside the Eosrer Egg will be ruh- Don’t put too much money on Martin MyerY ning, but h’s not her best. And besides, Engel will be enter- Frigate, which k agelding, or on Hany Poll&k% ing a stronger contender this year. (Bear, alas, will have to contend with Margaret Arwood’s A Ludy Oracle in rhe Gabriel, a horse ofthe Depressing Thirties. 1976 GeeGee stakes.) Still in Ihe short-fiction category, aside fmm Jane Rule’s horse, blit Wenceslas is a newcomer who hasn’t been tried very appealing Theme for Divqse Instruments, we have on Ihe Ottawa track. Don’t put too much money on Martin Ernest Buckler, an old favourite who enters this year wit* Myers’ Frigate, which is a gelding.- on Harry F’ollock’s The Rebellion ofYoung David and Other Stories - a horse Gabriel, a horse of the Depressing-Thirties - or for lhar of pastoral breed, a farmhone. ill-disposed to take on the matter on Harry Bbyle’s The Luck of rhe Irish, which is thoroughbreds. Farley Mowat’s The Snow Walker, accus- reputed to be more of a myth than a horse. tomed 10 Arctic temperawes. will probably melf in the heat Finally. there are Ihe longest shots of all - horses like of Ihe race, but W. D. Volga&on’s finely tuned colt, God Richard Rohmer’s Exodus UK, which don’t stand a mule’s Is Nor (I Fish Inspector, may surprise everyone. chance of winning, but which deserve an accolade because Morley Callaghan is an old pro, fonder of pugilistic they are pioneers of popular literary sport inCanada. sports than of Ihe track, but he hasn’t won a GeeGee since May Ihe swiftest horse win! 0 A HARD YEAR TO SCAN New modernismor old humanism?If I975 isany guide, Canadian poetry is riding off in alldirections Borderlauds or Brunswick Books’ publication of Alden By ELI MANDEL Nowlan? So there is a problem in attempting to talk about trends, 70 REVIEWTHE poewy of 1975 wms out 10 be ao unpleas- developments, achievements, characterislics - whatever antly complicated task for a number of reasons, most of - of Ihe poehy of 1975. We don’t even know the rral which cell us something about the odd slate of publishing, boundaries. Gilbert. to judge from his Skies, for example distributing, finding books in Canada today. First of all, in (Talonbooks. undated!), is an extraordinarily intelligent the publishing world the correspondence between the date experimentalist in inter-media form. worth looking at any of copyright and the appearance of a book is often askew. In time, and Doug Barbour’s continuing consolidation of other words. 1974 sometimes means 1975. A nice question moderdist metrics.