B R the Pacific Rim R P Review of Books Issue Seven, Fall/Winter 2007 Publication Mail Agreement Number 41235032 ISSN 1715-3700 $4.00 Josef Skvorecky on diplomat jan drabek’s His doubtful Excellency Joseph Howe and the Battle for Freedom of Speech: Hilary Turner reviews John Ralston Saul al maclachlan reads Spain’s roberto bolano Dr. Nicholas Katz Diane di Prima at City Lights Bookstore makes a really wild salad the war against Len Gasparini remembers the imagination Tennessee Williams trevor carolan Meets beat sage diane di prima: The Relevence of strindberg revolutionary letters by Rachel Wyatt 40 years on Plus: Townes Van Zandt, Louis Zukofsky, Portrait of George Melnyk on Film, Vali Myers, The Astro Boy Essays, H.H. the Dalai Lama, gabrielle Roy Sanja Garic-Komnenic on PEN Exiles by Linda Rogers and the Wisdom of Gary Snyder Contents FEATURES Gabrielle Roy: a Passion for Writing by André Vanasse Reviewed by Linda Rogers page The Space Between a Bed and a Chair: Remembering Tennessee Williams PRRB By Len Gasparini page Avanti! The Dharma Poetics of Diane di Prima: Revolutionary Letters The Pacific Rim Review of Books Reviewed by Trevor Carolan page Issue Seven, Winter 2007 ISSN 1715-3700 Stop Making Sense: The Fire: Collected Essays of Robin Blaser Reviewed by Peter Grant page “I’m a Liberal, You’re an Ideologue, He’s a False Prophet”: Joseph Howe and Publication Mail Agreement Number 4123503 the Battle for Freedom of Speech, by John Ralston Saul Reviewed by Hilary Turner page DEPARTMENTS Published by Canadabooks Ltd. Sound & Fury: “Cartographers of the Heart”: Publisher/Editor: Richard Olafson Too Lives To Fly: Ballad of the Late, Great Townes Van Zandt by John Kruth Managing Editor: Carol Ann Sokoloff Lonely Avenue: the Unlikely Life of Doc Pomus by Alex Halberstadt International Editor: Trevor Carolan Reviewed by Joseph Blake page Music Editor: Joseph Blake Healing & Health: Making A Wild Salad, by Dr. Nicolas Kats page Medical Editor: Dr. Nicolas Kats Circulation manager: Bernard Gastel REVIEWS His Doubtful Excellency by Jan Drabek Cover photo: Reviewed by Josef Skvorecky page The Poem of Life: a Biography of Louis Zukofsky by Mark Scroggins Legal deposit at the National Library of Canada, Summer/Fall . Reviewed by Mike Doyle page “Playing August Strindberg” Miss Julie by August Strindberg, adapted by PRRB welcomes manuscripts and letters, but we take no responsibility for their safe David French; The Butcher’s Apron by Charles Tidler return. If you would like your work back, enclose a stamped, self-addressed envelope. Reviewed by Rachel Wyatt page Do not send original artwork. All texts will be edited for clarity and length, and Sunrise in Armageddon by Will Alexander authorship checked; please include all contact information. Reviewed by Allan Graubard page “Reclaiming the Mother Tongue”—Speaking in Tongues: PEN Canada The PRRB is published three times a year. Back issues are available at .. A one-year Writers in Exile by Maggie Helwig, Ed. subscription is .. Please send a cheque payable to the PRRB. Reviewed by Sanja Garic-Komnenic page PRRB mailing address for all inquiries: At the Same Time: Essays and Speeches by Susan Sontag Reviewed by Michael Hsu page Box Main Postal Outlet “Joyful Wisdom from the Old Master”: Back On The Fire by Gary Snyder Victoria, B.C. Reviewed by Joseph Blake page Canada VW S My Mother is an Alien: Ten Takes on Life and Film by George Melnyk email: [email protected] Reviewed by Martin Van Woudenberg page phone & fax: () - Louisiana In Words by Joshua Clark Reviewed by Len Gasparini page Copyright the Pacific Rim Review of Books for the contributors My Mother Agrees With The Dead by Susan Stenson Opinions expressed in reviews and articles in the Pacific Rim Review of Books are the Reviewed by Yvonne Blomer page The Astro Boy Essays: Osamu Tezuka, Mighty Atom, and the opinions of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the editors of the PRRB. manga-anime revolution by Frederik L. Schodt Review by Hillel Wright page Sit Down and Shut Up: Punk Rock Commentaries by Brad Warner Reviewed by James Eke page A Memoir of Friendship: Letters Between Carol Shields and Blanche Howard Reviewed by Linda Rogers page I’m a Liberal, You’re an Idealogue, He’s a False Populist Jospeh Howe and the Battle for Freedom of Speech by John Ralston Saul Reviewed by Hilary Turner page “Depth Psychology East and West”: The Dalai Lama At MIT by Anne Harrington and Arthur Zajonc, Eds. Reviewed by Patrick Carolan page The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolano Reviewed by Al MacLachlan page Vali Myers: A Memoir Reviewed by Allan Graubard page “Where Literature Meets Sport”: The Bone Cage by Angie Abdou Reviewed by Heather Kerr page Radiance by Shaena Lambert Reviewed by Linda Rogers page Lover of Unreason by Yehuda Koren and Eilat Negev Review by Linda Rogers page The Bone Sharps by Tim Bowling Review by Mary Jo Anderson page Image by Miles Lowry, from cover of Ordinary Days by Cornelia C. Hornosty available from Ekstasis Editions HIS DOUBTFUL EXCELLENCY Josef Skvorecky he fate of Jan Drabek is in many respects typical of many of those from Central Europe. He was four Tyears old when the Nazis occupied his country and his father became a notable member of the Czech resist- ance. In the end his father was arrested by the Gestapo and sent to Auschwitz as one of the few non-Jewish pris- oners for whom the notorious ovens were waiting as well. But Drabek senior survived and after the war his ten-year old son was sent to a boarding school for orphans and children of prominent resistance members. It had been established along the lines of an English boarding schools and there Drabek met a notable group including among others, Vaclav Havel, Milos Forman and Ivan Passer. Except that dark clouds gathered not only over the institution but over the entire country. As a non- His Doubtful Excellency Communist prosecuting attorney, Drabek’s father, man- Jan Drabek. aged to bring to the gallows K.H. Frank, the Nazi leader Ekstasis Editions, 2007. who became notorious for ordering the eradication of 220 pages, $21.95 the entire village of Lidice. After a Communist takeover he had to escape from the country with his two sons and Jan Drabek meets Hillary Clinton (from His Doubtful Excellency) his wife. That is how, at the age of 13, young Jan arrived in the West, where the fate Drabek was much more in his element after his return to Prague, where he was typical for many American writers awaited him. He studied at universities in the USA, named chief of diplomatic protocol. But even in this new position he was learning that India and Canada, paid for his studies as a labourer, waiter and dishwasher, then the change in 1989 was mainly political, not much of a microenomic one. Notorious served for two years in the U.S. Navy. Finally he dropped anchor in Vancouver, Communist employees of the various ministries were often replaced by young dissi- Canada. Initially as a teacher, then after the successful publication of his novels dents. While these newcomers were unsoiled by collaboration with the old regime, Whatever Happened to Wenceslas? and Report on the Death of Rosenkavalier, he devot- they had also been denied the usual career rise and were therefore inexperienced. They ed his full time to writing. When, in 1989, European Communism came to an end in soon intermingled with the old, quite compromised officials and adopted their ways. Europe, he returned to his native land. They were simply used to the local conditions…they knew that the present society, like The career of a diplomat and an unusual change in spiritual climate awaited him the one before it, was to a large extent fuelled by such things as graft, lies and disregard there: I had grown up in the West, says Drabek early in his account. I really hadn’t for one’s self-respect. Of course, writes Drabek, I had come across all those qualities understood what half a century of totalitarianism could do to one’s thinking. In Prague before, but I had never operated within a system where they were considered the norm. he was put up in a place called The House of Hotel Living, which resembled a hotel Because he himself, while world-travelled, lacked experience of the strange world about as much as Alcatraz, its cell-like rooms being just as ugly, dark and uninviting. The of diplomacy, his career was frequently accompanied by experiences more fitting for place required a police registration, and to his astonishment in the First District of satire. It took him a while, for example, to teach his staff not to refer to the diplomat- Prague, Drabek discovered that although he had been married in a historically signif- ic corps as a diplomatic corpse, but at times he committed a faux pas himself. Despite icant Little Church Around the Corner in intense instruction from the British ambassa- New York, he was really still single. Czech dor, he greeted Queen Elizabeth II as Your law recognized only a marriage performed Royal Highness, a title rightfully belonging to by civil authorities. her husband. While meeting with the Turkish Naturally this was a regulation of the ambassador he praised his country’s famous previous, Communist government. So was chocolate which, as he says, I had loved for the concierge of the hotel who had been put years. When the ambassador was leaving, I there many years before by the Secret Police. noticed a slightly bewildered look on his face.