agnostic nudist Carellin Brooks FREE DIANE JARVIS-JONES PHOTO BOOKWORLD www.abcbookworld.com BC Wreck Beach B.C. AUTHORS 8500 MORE THAN as seenby FIND YOUR GUIDE going towrite achildren’s book somedaywhenthey have afree weekend.” SEE P.3 “Nearly is everyone kids mightbeourmostimportantreaders. — Kidlitmaven — FEATURE INTERVIEW TO BOOKS SEE PAGE 30 Ann Walsh & ABOVE looks atwhy AUTHORS CLIMATE OF IN NORTH KOREA DEREK EVANS’ • & FEAR DISTRIBUTEDBY700OUTLETSINBC WRITERS WHO ARE P. 22 P. BEYOND IAN MCALLISTER IAN MCALLISTER URBAN BUBBLE ANNE DEGRACE ANNE DEGRACE PURCELL NATURALIST

K. LINDAKIVI K. K. LINDAKIVI K. DONNA KANE DONNA KANE OUTSIDE THE

PEACE RIVERPOET COAST CRUSADER NELSON NOVELIST WINTER 2007-2008 VOL. 21 PAGE 26 PAGE 25 PAGE 21 PAGE 26 • NO.4

Publication Mail Agreement #40010086 PEOPLE WRECKWRECK BEACHBEACH UNCOVERED BY KORKY DAY

INSET: Carellin Brooks

Wreck Beach near UBC was 27th runner-up in CBC’s contest to be one of the Seven Wonders of Canada. PHOTO

SLADE

DON long Wreck Beach and on Vancouver sidewalks, the Fringe Festival), to the World Na- perts on that, but Brooks does. UBC ked Bike Ride (which began in Vancou- sometimes consults with us, the public— I’ve been selling copies of Carellin Brooks’ new ver), and the budding topfree movement largely because Judy Williams, the (females legally doffing their shirts wher- Mother of Wreck Beach, insists it does. social chronicle Wreck Beach (New Star $19) be- ever males can). Luckily, chunks of the cliff usually don’t cause it helps people be proud of their Wreck As an example of Vancouver attitudes collapse on clear, calm days when the slowly regressing to indigenous-like most people are there. However, watch Beach nudist community and its accomplishments. views, the October front cover of Van- out for earthquakes. couver’s Shared Vision magazine had a Brooks challenges the powers that be The reaction has been mixed. Some ✍ huge tasteful nude colour cover photo to justify the risk of continued develop- rednecks,A even on Commercial Drive, My own activism for the beach, and of Stephanie MacDonald, the ment of UBC—classrooms, apartments, have shouted obscenities, complaining for nudism, goes back to when I organ- author of their lead story on breast ther- and a big, new shopping mall. The pow- that I’m naked, despite my sky-blue ised the first two (and only) demos to de- mography to detect cancer. erful will try to ignore this book, not skimpy swimsuit! On Davie Street oth- fend nudity at Wreck Beach. Nobody has I would have liked a similar photo of wanting to bring attention to their weak ers have angrily called me gay. been charged with nudity (a federal Brooks in her book, but she and her arguments. Many more passers-by have con- crime) at Wreck Beach since our “Nude- publisher have opted for posing her like Right now UBC students have set up gratulated me, in part because Wreck In” on August 23, 1970. We protesters a bespectacled 1940s “girl reporter,” al- a People’s Park (illegal occupation) to Beach has done much to help free atti- numbered 3,000 (not 2,000, as the book though they will provide a nude pub- protest the coming commercial mall tudes about nudity for 37 years. Wreck says). At the time I was a young U.S. war licity shot, as seen in Xtra West. smack in the middle of campus, at the Beach—the book—is also filling a gap. resister. Not quite as slack as Brooks writes, ✍ old bus loop. Visit it on your way to the Full of wit and integrity, it’s a vital his- but it reads funny, anyway. Then in 1978 Carellin Brooks has managed to beach. Maybe this generation won’t be torical summary that supports the pres- we welcomed the Rev. Bernice cover with sensitivity even the material lost do-nothings after all! ervation of this freedom destination. Gerard, city councillor, as she tried to which is disturbing, such as the rare Why do half a million people from ✍ exorcise the nudity out of us. unnatural death. around the world annually head to this Although Carellin Brooks is herself a Do I claim to have “started” nudism She discusses the nudist movement beach that is just west of—and outside young Vancouver “agnostic nudist” (or at Wreck Beach? No. As the book ex- and philosophy and their relation to this of—Vancouver city limits? Because it’s naturist), she is mostly objective telling the plains, nudity with the First Nations is beach. Whereas some nudists deny any one thing to be influenced by the media, ups and downs of the beach community. not a crime or a fetish, as it is for the sexual motive for their nudity, Brooks by school, by church; it’s quite another She matter-of-factly relates how the beach invaders. They swam but had no doesn’t buy that argument completely. to go to Wreck Beach and be thoroughly was named, why it’s nude, the legality, and swimsuits. Among the many revealing She nonetheless makes it clear that so- re-educated, mentally and emotionally, the politics, including the beach being a interviews, Brooks talks with Musqueam cial nudity is not the Hugh Hefner through all five of your senses. largely self-policing enclave. elder Larry Grant. We’re reminded poolside fantasy that many imagine. Although Brooks refused my fact- Some people mentioned in the book that all of greater Vancouver is part of Brooks celebrates the triumph of checking, she gets nothing major wrong. might be a little embarrassed (including Coast Salish territory (First Nations). people to keep a piece of the earth a near My detailed suggestions: www.korky.ca/ me), but their treatment is pretty fair. The indigenes’ attitudes, private nud- wilderness, and to create there an en- nude-peace.html. She goes into drugs (legal and illegal), ist clubs, and the Doukhobors’ nude during human community of liberation Wreck Beach is for now the only book the blonde beach vendor Watermel- protests in BC in the 1960s helped set and love. on the store shelf focusing on our spec- on’s naked busts (her pot arrest), gay sex, the stage for popularising Wreck Beach Brooks explains the mounting dan- tacular beach in the rain forest. It’s a 96- gambling, strolling food vendors, rela- nudism in the 1970s. ger of further building and paving at page soft cover with 27 black-and-white tions with the RCMP (mostly harmoni- You might say that the generational UBC. With such development, the uni- photos and one map. The next two books ous), outhouses, gawkers, textiles attitude shifts about nudity reflect a trend versity risks its people, its art and arti- I hope will be published are a big col- (genital-hiders), nude enforcers, flower throughout our culture toward facts at the Museum of Anthropology, our photo book and a book by or about boxes, Bare Buns Fun Runs, Kokoro tolerance. That trend is prompted in its other buildings, and its (our) invest- Judy E. Williams, whom you get to know Dance performances, and much more. large part by nude beaches, especially ment. Even in our lifetimes, more sand in Brooks’ book. 978-1-55420-031-3 Brooks’ fair-minded approach might Canada’s most famous beach of any kind, slides onto the beach could bring some help save this near-wilderness from devel- Wreck Beach. edifices down. Korky Day, one of the early young upstarts opment. And it might even help save Uni- Vancouver being home to Wreck The whole peninsula on which UBC in the collective that owned and produced versity of British Columbia buildings from Beach has played no small part in nu- sits is mostly sand. The university plan- the Georgia Straight newspaper, has long sliding down the cliff onto Wreck Beach. dity spreading to the stage (such as at ners don’t always consult their own ex- been an activist for nudism.

3 BC BOOKWORLD WINTER 2007-08 PEOPLE HEAVY METAL “The collapse of the bridge was my personal Titanic.” — GARY GEDDES

hree events in British Columbia drew world attention during the 1950s. Englishman Roger Bannister and Australian John Landy eclipsed the four-minute- mile barrier at Empire Stadium during the Miracle Mile (on August 7, 1954); north of CampbellT River, engineers generated the largest non-nu- clear peacetime explosion in human history at Ripple Rock (on April 5, 1958); and eighteen steel workers and one rescue diver were killed when the Second Narrows Bridge collapsed during its construction (on June 17, 1958). In 1958, having just graduated from King Edward High School, Gary Geddes was working on the wa- terfront at BC Sugar Refinery, loading boxcars with 100- pound sacks of sugar, so the news of the bridge collapse did not take long to reach him. “What I did not know at the time,” he says, “was that my father had been called out as a former Eighteen men died navy diver to stand by when the Second in the search for bod- Narrows Bridge ies in the wreckage. collapsed. It was I’ve carried for a long later renamed the time the image of Ironworkers Memorial Bridge. him dangling from his umbilical cord of oxygen in that caul- dron of swirling wa- orn in New Westminster in 1979 and raised in Belcarra, ter and twisted YOUNG B.C., Kyle MacDonald recalls in One Red Paperclip metal.” B(Three Rivers $17.95) how he was between jobs and Geddes has imag- MACDONALD relying on his girlfriend to pay the rent in Montreal when a girl in Gary Geddes and novelist Ann ined the voices of HAD A FARMHOUSE Vancouver agreed to trade her fish pen for his paper clip. Eriksson were married this summer those most directly Using the internet site Craigslist, he traded the pen for a at French Beach overlooking the affected by the acci- How ex-pizza delivery man doorknob in Seattle, the doorknob for a Coleman camp stove Strait of Juan de Fuca. in Massachusetts, and the stove for a Honda generator in Cali- dent for an unusual Kyle MacDonald bartered his way into fornia. Eventually snow-globe collector and television star collection of poetry, the Guinness Book of World Records prose and archival photos called Falsework (Goose Lane Corbin Bernsen traded him a role in the film Donna on $19.95). The title is an engineering term that refers to Demand for MacDonald’s newly acquired Kiss the temporary supports that are required for a snow-globe. Ultimately MacDonald acquired a cantilevered bridge under construction. two-storey farmhouse from the mayor of media- hungry Kipling, Saskatchewan in July of 2006. “In this case,” he says, “a mistake was made and the When he isn’t gallivanting around the planet, horizontal I-beams were inadequate to support the appearing on talk shows, MacDonald is back with weight. It was a simple mathematical error that should his girlfriend Dominique in Montreal—and not liv- have been picked up by both the contractor, Dominion ing in the farmhouse. Bridge, and the consulting engineers, Swan Wooster and In Canada, MacDonald boosted his profile by Associates.” remarking on CBC’s The Hour that he wouldn’t The Second Narrows Bridge was renamed the Iron- go to Yahk, B.C. to make a trade. When the good workers Memorial Bridge in 1994 to commemorate the denizens of Yahk protested, MacDonald upped tragedy. To this day many British Columbians are haunted the stakes, like a good poker player, and vowed by the event. This summer, when Geddes read from he would never go to Yahk unless The Hour Falsework at the Denman Island Writers Festival, a woman agreed to broadcast from the town itself—which in the audience recalled working as a telephone opera- they did. tor in 1958—and every conversation she overhead on Kyle MacDonald leaps from the world’s largest red paperclip in We have seen the future, and it is YouTube. that fateful day mentioned the bridge failure. Kipling, Sask., as recorded in the Guinness Book of World Records. 978-0-307-35316-0 978-0-86492-498-8

Publication Mail Agreement #40010086 Contributors: Grant Shilling, Mark Forsythe, WINTER Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to: BC BookWorld, Joan Givner, Louise Donnelly, Hannah Main-van der Kamp, 2007-2008 3516 W. 13th Ave., Vancouver, BC V6R 2S3 Heather Ramsay, Cherie Thiessen, Shane McCune. Writing not otherwise credited is by staff. Produced with the sponsorship of Pacific BookWorld News We acknowledge Photographers: Barry Peterson, Laura Sawchuk. the assistance of BC Issue, Society. Publications Mail Registration No. 7800. BOOKWORLD Proofreaders: Wendy Atkinson, Betty Twigg. Canada Council and the Vol. 21, No. 4 BC BookWorld ISSN: 1701-5405 Design: Get-to-the-Point Graphics. Deliveries: Ken Reid Province of British Columbia, through the Publisher/ Writer: Alan Twigg Advertising & editorial: BC BookWorld, 3516 W. 13th Ave., Ministry of Community, Vancouver, B.C., V6R 2S3. Tel/Fax: 604-736-4011 • Email: All BC BookWorld reviews are posted online at Aboriginal, and Editor/Production: David Lester available on request. Annual subscription: $19.08 www.abcbookworld.com Women’s Services.

4 BC BOOKWORLD WINTER 2007-08 PEOPLE

Karen Brain and her horse Brain jumps her greatest hurdle Dasskara in For young girls who want to learn how to compete at the Athens, 2004 highest level, KAREN BRAIN has become a model of perfection.

ight months after an equestrian highest level in both able-bodied and accident left her partially disabled riding competitions. She won Eparalyzed with a spinal cord injury, two Bronze Medals at the 2004 Athens Karen Brain started riding again. Paralympic Games with the mare Unable to place her feet in the stirrups, Dasskara, and won two Silver Medals in she used two small whips to direct her 2005 at the Dutch Open International horse, in lieu of her legs. Dressage competition for disabled riders As outlined in Nikki Tate’s juvenile in Helvoirt, Netherlands with the Dutch biography Double Take: Karen Brain’s gelding Mozart. Olympic Journey (Sono Nis $12.95), In 2005, Brain moved home to BC, doctors discovered during a ten-hour after living and training in Germany, the surgery that Brain’s lung was also US and Eastern Canada for nine years. collapsed from the weight of the horse Having represented Canada in 3-Day on top of her during her fall. Brain Eventing at the World Equestrian Games received a new 12th vertebrae, from her in Rome in 1998, with her horse Double 10th rib, enclosing it in a titanium cage. Take, and won the Advanced Canadian “I hear models will remove their last Championships in 3-Day Eventing that

ribs to get a smaller waist,” she same year, Karen Brain now hopes to PHOTO remarked, cheerfully, “so I guess I’m half-

win a gold medal for Canada at the BRAIN way there with one of my 10th ribs gone.” Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games.

Brain has since competed at the 1-55039-162-3 DARLENE

NOW AND THEN: Mary Trainer, Rick Antonson and Brian Antonson in 2007; and the same threesome preparing NUGGETS YARN SUPERSIZED their original manuscript in 1972. ick and Brian Antonson first heard about Slumach’s lost gold mine Slumach’s Mine, but died soon after- In recent years Rick Antonson was wards, leaving behind an intriguing let- contacted by a former Columbian news- in 1957. Fifteen years later, the brothers co-wrote and published R ter that provided hints as to the site of paper publisher who confided that gold one of B.C.’s most enduring tales of murder and gold, In Search of a the mine in a remote part of what is now seekers had found what he believed to Garibaldi Provincial Park—and becom- be the legendary mine. This tidbit helps Legend: The Search for the Slumach-Lost Creek Gold Mine (Nunaga, ing the first victim of the mine’s alleged to justify a 35th anniversary edition, tri- 1972), co-written with Mary Trainer. This title reputedly sold more than curse. The Vancouver Province once es- ple the size of the original version, which timated 30 people have died trying to introduces new material (three television 10,000 copies in various editions, making it a B.C. classic. find Slumach’s mine. documentaries have been made) as well The Antonsons and Trainer note that as expanded research and more photos. Fast-forward another 25 years and Newspapers brazenly described stories of Slumach spreading his gold There are only imaginary images of the threesome has expanded their re- Slumach as a murderer long before he nuggets in local “sporting houses” and Slumach and verification that he ever search for Slumach’s Gold: In Search of was caught and brought to trial. If the taking women into the bush with him— had access to gold nuggets from a hid- a Legend (Heritage House $14.95). suspect (probably Salish) had a lawyer, a never to be seen again—only emerged den mine does not exist, but Slumach’s Without being overly didactic, the sto- plea of self-defence might have been suf- after his death. In hindsight, it’s possible reputation is global. There are more than rytellers reveal the extent to which rac- ficient to save his life. Prior to being Slumach’s unsavoury reputation for con- 2,000 references for Slumach on the ism might have played a significant role hanged in New Westminster sorting with non-Aboriginal and internet. Fred Braches of in the embellishment of the tale. in 1891, the elderly Métis women could be rational- Whonnock maintains an excellent ref- The legend of a lost gold mine in the Slumach supposedly ized by white society if he was be- erence site for skeptics at Fraser Valley, near Pitt Lake, about 35 placed a curse on anyone lieved to have had access to wealth. www.slumach.ca with encouragement miles from Vancouver, only arose after hoping to find his hidden from Rick and Brian Antonson, Mike an elderly First Nations man named motherlode, also known as Nobody knows Collier, Ann Lunghamer, Rob Slumach was hanged to death for the Lost Creek Mine. for certain what Nicholson, David Mattison, Joanne murdering a brutish Métis man, Louis In the early 1900s Slumach looked Peterson, Don Waite and the staff of the Boulier, also known as Louis Bee, at an American miner like—this early New Westminster Public Library, Van- Lillooet Slough near the Pitt River, in named Jackson sketch is based on a couver Public Library, and BC Archives. 1890. reportedly found description of him. 978-1-894974-35-6

7 BC BOOKWORLD WINTER 2007-08 WHO’SWHOBC

is for Ackles

Any BC Lions fan who wants a plainspoken insider’s summary of the team’s operations need look no further than Bob Ackles’ autobiography The Water Boy: From the Sidelines to the Owner’s Box: Inside the CFL, the XFL, and the NFL (Wiley $32.99), co- written with Ian Mulgrew. As the little guy who went from being Lions’ first water boy in 1953 to a crony of XFL owner Vince Bob Ackles McMahon and Miami Dolphin’s head coach Jimmy Johnson, the Sarnia-born Ackles freely disses QB Casey Printers, sportswriter Al Davidson and oth- ers. 978-0-470-15345-1

is for Baldry

After musician Long John Baldry ended his roller-coaster ride at age 64 on July 21, 2005 in Vancouver, his protégé and friend Rod Stewart acknowledged the enormous debt that British musicians owe to Baldry for bringing Black blues to England. “Not just myself but the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, the Yardbirds, Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck….,” said Stewart. After two years of research, Paul Myers has provided a thorough biog- raphy, It Ain’t Easy: Long John Baldry PHOTO and the Birth of the British Blues (Greystone $22.95). 978-1-55365-200-7 MCCARTNEY

MIKE is for Christie Liverpudlians Paul McCartney and Long John Baldry chat about music outside the Lime Street railway station in 1962.

Gordon Christie has edited Aboriginality and Governance: A is for Delehanty is for Ellis is for Fodi Multidisciplinary Perspective (Theytus $40.95), a compilation of articles by In response to her mother’s terminal Sarah Ellis has won the $20,000 Magic, monsters and mythology Quebecois academics who examine the illness, Kootenay-based Eileen TD Canadian Children’s Literature abound in the stories and art of Lee complexities of Aboriginal governance Delehanty Pearkes has written a Award established in 2005 to honour Edward Födi who grew up in the from English, French and Aboriginal deeply personal spring-to-winter narra- the most distinguished book of the year Okanagan and now lives in Vancouver. perspectives. tive, The Glass Seed: The Fragile for children aged 1 to 13. In Kendra Kandlestar and the Door Originally from Inuvik, Christie Beauty of the Heart, Mind and Body The publisher of Ellis’ sixteenth title, to Unger (Brown Books $20.95), a gi- earned a law degree from the University (Timeless Books $19.95) that examines Odd Man Out (Groundwood 2006) ant named Unger enables young Kendra of Victoria and a Ph.D in philosophy the politics of womanhood and social is- also receives $2,500 for promotional to match wits with dwarves and a magic- from the Univer- sues germane to purposes. wielding faun in sity of California. compassion. Entries were order to untangle His mother’s fam- Influenced by judged on the the truth about ily is Inupiat- yoga, this poign- quality of the text her long-lost fam- Inuvialuit. ant work also ex- and illustrations ily in the mysteri- Christie joined plores the nature and the book’s ous forbidden the UBC Faculty of memory and overall contribu- land of Een. of Law in 2004. Eileen Delehanty healing. tion to literature. 978-1-933285-83-2 Gordon Christie Pearkes Sarah Ellis Edward Fodi 978-1-894778-24-4 978-1-932018-18-9 0888997027 continued on page 10

9 BC BOOKWORLD WINTER 2007-08 WHO’SWHO

continued from page 9 home-schooled by hippie parents, who becomes anxious about conforming in GREAT GIFTS high school, Susan Juby has spread is for Gainor her wings to write a love triangle about a girl, a boy and a horse, Another Kind Aerospace historian Chris Gainor of Cowboy (HarperCollins $17.89). examines why plans to build Canada’s Available in December, it’s the story of For Everyone own jet fighter planes were cancelled by two dressage riders, Alex and Clio. She’s the Diefenbaker government in 1959 hot to trot for romance, but beyond his on Your List! (after the U.S. macho façade Alex is another kind of gave notice no cowboy. 9780060765187 Canadian jets would be bought.) In his Who Killed the Avro Arrow? is for Koppel (Folklore $18.95), Gainor notes the One of the West Coast’s leading sci- Chris Gainor decision to halt ence writers, Tom Koppel has exam- production of the Arrow was made on ined how scientists have learned to the 50th anniversary of J.A.D. understand how tides work, and how McCurdy’s first powered aircraft tides impact coasts flight in Canada. Ex-Avro engineers and marine life, in later played key roles in Apollo moon Ebb and Flow: landings, a brain drain that Gainor re- Tides and Life on called in Arrows to the Moon: Avro’s En- our Once and gineers and the Space Race. 978-1-894864-68-8 Future Planet (Dundurn $26.99). Tom Koppel After an open- is for Honjo ing chapter on tides and history, Koppel also recalls his own perilous encounters Born in the former Yugoloslavia with tides in local waters since he moved (Bosnia and Herzegovina) in 1948, to Salt Spring Island in the early Ibrahim Honjo is a sculptor and 1970s. 978-1-55002-726-6 painter who arrived in Vancouver in 1995. Having worked as a jour- is for Lane Jade Bell nalist and econo- mist, editing books and newspapers, Having received the fourth annual publishing books Lieutenant Governor’s Award for Liter- of poetry and or- ary Excellence earlier this year, ganizing literary Patrick Lane has released a collec- Ibrahim Honjo events in Europe, tion of new poems, Last Water Songs he now finds himself in Port Moody, (Harbour $16.95), including his recol- struggling to re-emerge as a writer. He lection of sixteen deceased Canadian has self-published Do Not Write This writers. Down [Ovo Ne Zapisuj] ($15), a collec- Among those recalled are his brother tion of poems in both English and the Red Lane, Adele Wiseman, Al Pittman, Serbo-Croatian language. 245B Evergreen Dr., Al Purdy, Alden Nowlan, Anne Port Moody, BC V3H 1S1. Tel: 604-936-2442 Szumigalski, Bronwen Wallace, Earle Birney, Elizabeth Smart, Frank Scott, Gwendolyn MacEwan, John Newlove, Milton Acorn (known as “Uncle Miltie” is for Irani to Lane’s kids), the murderer Roy Lowther, Pat Lowther and Irving Set in the red-light district of Bom- Layton. 155017-450-2 bay, Anosh Irani’s play about a pow- erful eunuch, The Matka King, premiered at the Arts Club Theatre in Vancouver in 2003. His follow- up play about Bombay’s most famous dancer, Bombay Black, Anosh Irani premiered at To- ronto’s Theatre Centre in 2006. It’s a harrowing tale of love, revenge, myth and magic. Both are contained in The Bombay Plays (Playwrights Canada $19.95). 978-0-88754-560-3

is for Juby

Having had a CTV television Susan Juby: penguin.ca series called Alice, I Think made back in the Carole Gerson from her books about Alice fiction saddle MacLeod of Smithers, a teenager,

10 BC BOOKWORLD WINTER 2007-08 WHO’SWHO

Julie Morstad and Sara O’Leary

is for McWhirter is for O’Leary

Teresa McWhirter’s first novel Former Vancouver Sun book section about urban girls who drink too often, columnist Sara O’Leary is the co- and hang out with male losers, Some recipient of the $10,000 Marilyn Baillie Girls Do (Raincoast 2002), has been fol- Picture Book Award for When You Were lowed by a novel about a young woman Small (Simply Read Books 2006) with named Spider who drifts through a simi- illustrations by Julie Morstad of lar malaise in Dirtbags (Anvil $20). Vancouver. The Marilyn Baillie Picture Sated with Book Award honours excellence in the loud music, drugs illustrated picture book format, for chil- and parties, these dren aged 3 to 6. are not the hip, O'Leary’s previous books include irony-driven Comfort Me With Apples (Thistledown quipsters from Press 1998) and Wish You Were Here Douglas (Exile Editions 1994). 1-894965-36-1 Coupland novels, Teresa McWhirter biding their time, hoping for elevation into a higher level of consumerism; McWhirter’s genera- is for Pratt tion of urban drifters and outlaws are jumping over the edge of despair into Betty Pratt-Johnson learned pits of self-destruction. Romance is a to dive in 1967 at the YMCA in Van- luxury they can’t afford. 978-1-895636-88-8 couver when there was only one dive shop in the city. First released in 1976, her authoritative guide to scuba and is for Nadir skin diving in B.C. and Washington, In sympathy with the 1.8 million peo- 141 Dives, has ple who currently comprise the Iraqi been reprinted diaspora, with an English mother and and updated an Iraqi father who left Baghdad in the many times. In 1960s, and degrees from McGill and Betty Pratt-Johnson 1994 it was re-re- Edinburgh, Leilah Nadir has writ- leased in two volumes, 99 Dives and 101 ten a family-fueled memoir, The Orange Dives but now it has been revised as 151 Trees of Baghdad: In Search of My Lost Dives (Adventure $34.95), available via Family (Key Porter $32.95), a story of Sandhill Distributing. “I personally have Iraq by someone who has never been enjoyed every dive included in this there. “This is a book about what loss guidebook,” she says. GPS datum are really means,” says Naomi Klein in her included for every boat dive to help lo- endorsement, “the theft of history and cate dives sites. 978-0-921009-40-5 homeland.” 978-1-55263-941-2 is for Quaglia

Allesandra Quaglia is from To- ronto and Jean-Francis Quaglia is from Marseilles. After the husband- and-wife team met in Nice, France, they came to Canada in 1992 and opened their first Provence restaurant in Van- couver in 1997. After opening a second restaurant in 2002 called Provence Marinaside, they have gathered more Leilah Nadir is than 120 recipes, augmented by 32 col- currently working on a memoir titled our photos, for New World Provence: The Sea of Gold, Modern French Cooking for Friends and about life in Iraq Family (Arsenal $26.95). 978-155152-223-4 since the invasion. continued on next page

11 BC BOOKWORLD WINTER 2007-08 WHO’SWHO continued from previous page tagonist, now a grandmother, must cope with the humiliation of being regarded as snobbish and crazy in her declining is for Russell years, despite her extensive professional success in a man’s world. 978-1-894800-99-0 S. Thomas Russell is one of those non-flavour-of-the-week novelists who don’t get invited to writers’ festivals is for Xmas but will likely out-write most who do. After a series of acclaimed fantasy novels from his home in the Comox Valley, writ- If you’re looking for an Xmas gift that ten as Sean Russell, he’s altered his pen lasts all year long, for only $12.72, look name slightly for a 500-page nautical his- no further than right here. For the price tory thriller, Under Enemy Colours (Pen- of a bottle of wine you can give up-to- guin $30), set in the 18th century. date news of B.C. books and authors. PHOTO As England once more attempts to There’s a B.C. BookWorld subscription rule the waves, this time against revolu- form on page 40. PETERSON

S. Thomas Russell tionary France, the protagonist is a BARRY young lieutenant, Charles Saunders Hayden, son of an English father and a in 1966. For his series depicting Cap- is for Young French mother, who must choose be- tain George Vancouver’s voyages, tween honour and duty. For more on is for Umedaly Horton sailed Vancouver’s routes from Russell, a lifelong sailor, visit the Olympic Peninsula to Alaska to in- In 1991 Terence Young of Vic- toria convinced renegade high school abcbookworld.com. 9780399154430 Born in Pretoria in 1930 as an corporate recognizable shore features. Ismaili, Lella Umedaly moved to Horton has produced more than one principal John Pringle to let him Uganda in East Africa where she mar- thousand meticulously researched mari- teach a new Writing 12 class. After ried, had five chil- time paintings. 978-1-894974-34-9 Young showed his colleague Bill is for Sandborn dren and became Stenson some of the work thee stu- a Montessori dents produced, Stenson became the Calvin Sandborn, as a lawyer schoolteacher. She is for Watmough driving force behind The Claremont Re- supervising the Victoria Environmental came to Canada view, a periodical specifically created to Law Clinic, has recalled how he over- as a refugee after publish neophytes across Canada and came the hateful put-downs of his alco- her family was ex- At 81, David Watmough is re- the U.S. Some thirty issues later, Young, holic father and the collapse of his own pelled from leasing his 18th book and his 13th work Stenson, Susan Stenson and Janice marriage to cultivate better relationships Lella Umedaly Uganda by Idi of fiction, Geraldine (Ekstasis $22.95), McCachen have edited a celebratory in Becoming the Kind Father (New So- Amin in 1972 as part of the expulsion a tribute to women of the twentieth cen- teen literature anthology, Naming the Baby: The Best of the Claremont Re- ciety $18.95). 978-0-86571-582-0 of over 80,000 people of Indian ances- tury who were feminists before the word try. existed. As a Victoria-raised bio-chemist view (Orca $19.95). 978-1-55143-772-9 Co-authored with Muneera U. in the field of medical science, the pro- Spence, her cookbook Mamajee’s is for Theytus Kitchen (Umedaly Publishing / Sandhill is for Zeballos $29.95) arose from questions repeatedly Theytus Books’ Red Rooms by asked by her children and grandchildren Cherie Dimaline was awarded the about Indian cuisine. It’s a combination Eleanor Witton Hancock Fiction Book of the Year Award 2007 at of recipes gathered from Africa, In- grew up in Zeballos where her family ran the general store after her grandfa- the Anskohk Aboriginal Literature Fes- dia and North America. 1-59971-026-9 tival and their Zoe and the Fawn by ther Seth Witton purchased it in 1939. Catherine Jameson, illustrated Her interest in the 1938 Zeballos gold by Julie Flett, was a Bronze Medal boom led her to interview 120 people Winner for the Moonbeam Children’s is for Vassilopoulos in the 1980s about the pioneers at Book Award in the category of Nootka Sound, Zeballos and Kyuquot. Multicultural-Picture Book in the USA. Peter Vassilopoulos of Her Salt Chuck Stories from Vancou- As well, Theytus has released its Tsawwassen has profiled one of ver Island’s West Coast (Sandhill tenth printing of Jeannette the world’s foremost marine art- $17.95) recalls the Perry Brothers of Armstrong’s fiction classic ists for John H. Horton: Mari- Nootka Sound, Eva Benjamin of Slash!, the first adult novel by a ner Artist (Heritage $59.95), a Zeballos, carpenter Alder Bloom, Canadian Aboriginal woman. study of the English-born de- Rebecca McPhee and the Red Cross Frequently adopted for use in signer and architec- Hospital at Kyuquot and Swiss trapper/ schools, it recalls First Nations’ tural artist who prospector Andy Morod alienation and militancy during immigrated of Nootka Sound. David Watmough 0-9739980-3-2 the period from 1960 to 1983. Jeannette Armstrong to Canada

12 BC BOOKWORLD WINTER 2007-08 HISTORY WHEN THE GOING GETS arry Gough’s Fortune’s died from an illness that led to a fatal fall a River: The Collision of from his horse at Krasnoyarsk in Siberia. Doña Concepción, it is said, did not Empires in the Pacific learn about this for forty years after. So B ended the first attempt to bring Russia Northwest (Harbour $36.95) and Spain into closer cooperation on the could have been titled The Vast Pacific coast of North America.” Gough refrains from turning this epi- Quarter or The Last Quarter. sode into Entertainment Tonight. His He examines the infiltration of GOUGH subject is, after all, the collision of em- Americans and Europeans into the last NAUTICAL HISTORIAN BARRY GOUGH HAS pires, not bodies. unmapped area of the North American Neither does he care to speculate as continent. PRODUCED A JIG-SAW PUZZLE OF OUR PAST to how the history of the Pacific Coast It’s all fascinating stuff, in bits and might have evolved had Rezanov not pieces—from Russians in Alaska, to mi- WITH THE MOST NUMBER OF PIECES. fallen from his horse. grants from Missouri, to the Span- ✍ ish in California—but Gough’s Watching Barry Gough play hop- avoidance of storytelling can be scotch with history is highly agree- downright odd for anyone famil- able if you already know the broad iar with his range of choices. outlines of the game; that way one ✍ can take pleasure in the details. Whereas most historians nowa- We learn, for instance, that when days would have succumbed to the Alexander Mackenzie met David pressure of including gobs of First Thompson, he told the mapmaker Nations material, and most would that he (Thompson) had “per- have veered sideways to regurgitate formed more in ten months than juicy details of Captain Cook’s he expected could have been done murder in the Sandwich Islands in two years.” (Hawaii) or John Jewitt’s sen- And hands up anyone who sational captivity as ‘the white slave knew that José Narváez was of the Nootka,’ Gough prefers to the first Spaniard to encounter Rus- open his panorama by elevating sians in person on the West Coast? the stature of the little-known but Cumulatively, Fortune’s a River remarkable world traveler John is a grand performance by a maes- Ledyard (the ‘American Marco tro who can only be criticized by Polo’) who became the first Ameri- the likes of a Salieri who once dissed can to set foot in B.C. territory, ar- Mozart for having too many notes. riving with Cook in 1778. In the process, readers gain a A few chapters later, Gough much-needed appreciation of the similarly elevates the significance of formative role played by Tho- American mariner John mas Jefferson—an admirer Kendrick, a robust character of John Ledyard, and the master- who purchased pieces of property mind behind the Lewis & Clark ex- in the late 18th century and be- pedition—in determining the fate came the province’s first land of the Pacific Coast. speculator. “Kendrick’s hunger for There’s also the odd pleasure of land knew no bounds,” writes encountering a crusty professor, Gough. like the kind portrayed by the late After Kendrick was also killed John Housemann in movies, who in Hawaii, he was overshadowed can assert, with complete confi- by the achievements of his sailing dence: partner, Robert Gray, the first “We can now see that it was the American captain to enter the British, surprisingly, not the Rus- mouth of the Columbia River and sians, who had prevented the to circumnavigate the globe. WOULD-BE FILM PRODUCERS TAKE NOTE: If ever there’s a movie northern consolidation and expansion of An old-school professor with long or mini-series to be made from Barry Gough’s book, they might want to the Spanish empire in this quarter… paragraphs and pro-British leanings, know about this fanciful depiction of forty-year-old Baron Nikolai Rezanov “By excluding the Spanish from Gough allocates less than a page to the and his love-struck meeting with fifteen-year-old Doña Concepción Nootka Sound and Neah Bay, the Brit- expedition of Juan Pérez, the first Argüello, daughter of the Spanish commander of San Francisco, in 1806. ish inadvertently handed the United explorer known to have reached B.C. Due to religious complications, the beautiful Doña Concepción Argüello never States a remarkable gift.” waters in 1774, and even less coverage At 400-plus pages, Fortune’s a River married her handsome aristocrat from Alaska who died on his way back to of the highly civilized Malaspina, is not for beginners. It needs to be di- Moscow. She only learned the details of her lover’s death from Sir George who aimed to serve as the equivalent of gested slowly, so only time will tell if it Simpson of the Hudson’s Bay Company during his visit to San Francisco in Captain Cook for Spain. becomes the primary overview for pre- 1842. She entered the Sisterhood of St. Dominic at Monterey in 1851, at age David Thompson, who literally Confederation history for the Pacific sixty. Three years later she moved with the Sisters across the bay to Benicia covered far more ground that anyone, Northwest. might have received even more empha- where she died on December 23, 1857. This mural by Victor Arnautoff Having written the first book to be sis in such a geographically ambitious can be seen at the Post Interfaith Chapel in San Francisco. published by UBC Press in the early work, but Gough seems to favour the 1970s, Gough has returned from three influence of Alexander Macken- When the widowed Baron teenage Spaniard enabled the Spanish decades of teaching in eastern Canada zie, about whom he has written a biog- Rezanov sailed to San Francisco Bay governor to fudge the rules, ostensibly to publish Fortune’s a River with a B.C. raphy. in 1806, desperate to obtain some badly- allowing trade between relatives. Unfor- company. It’s a homecoming, of sorts, Simon Fraser, essentially a Mac- needed food supplies for his fellow Rus- tunately a papal dispensation was re- one that might go under-appreciated be- kenzie-wannabe, is appropriately allo- sians who were nearly starving in Alaska, quired to enable the Greek Orthodox cause he errs on the side of content in cated to second fiddle. he fell in love with the Spanish comman- baron to marry a Roman Catholic, so an age of piffle. ✍ dant’s beautiful daughter Doña the lovers were forced to postpone their Barry Gough was founding director As if it’s against his nature to enter- Concepción. nuptials after a six-week courtship. of Canadian Studies at Wilfrid Laurier tain, Gough opts not to give details of Trading between Spain and Russia It’s a true story worthy of an opera, University. He now lives in Victoria one of the few romantic tales he might was illegal at the time, but the sudden but Gough limits it to a few sentences. where he is not a blogger, and he doesn’t have legitimately told. betrothal between Rezanov and the We learn, “shortly thereafter Rezanov have a website. 978-1-55017-428-1

15 BC BOOKWORLD WINTER 2007-08 WORLD

The Lundberg Family Farms in Richdale, California is a hands-on operation where animal welfare is as important as profit. BY SHANE MCCUNE Oil spills, the clear writing, Building An deforestation of the Ark zips right along, with each chapter occupying Amazon, overfishing. precisely two pages includ- Extinction of ing illustrations, fact boxes species, shrinking and lists of related materials such as books and websites. wilderness, global It’s easy to read and suitable warming. for readers of high school It’s easy to get age and up. numbed by tidings of It’s a pity there are only five solutions for schools, but eco-doom, but some of these are among the eco-redemption is most thoughtful and prac- at hand. tical: Creating a humane biology classroom, adopting lthough Building an an endangered animal Ark: 101 Solutions to through an international A Animal Suffering agency and incorporating (New Society $27.95) has its animal references through- share of sad tales of animal out the curriculum, from abuse and offers dire warnings math to art. about the consequences of ne- In her introduction, zo- glecting nature, the overriding ologist Dr. Jane message of Ethan Smith Goodall says many of and his co-writer Guy these activities will be ap- Dauncey is one of hope har- plied in her foundation’s nessed to action. “Roots & Shoots” programs After an introductory sec- for children. “Building an tion called “A Path Beyond Ark will give our (Roots & Suffering,” provides a mini- Shoots) groups so many encyclopedia of humanity’s new ideas,” she writes. “It crimes against nature—from will help us realize the im- the general (regarding ani- portance of small actions we mals as property) to the spe- can take each day. When bil- cific (internet hunting, cruise lions routinely make these ship sewage)—the authors ANIMALS little changes, we shall see prescribe remedies grouped big changes.” mainly according to the num- GET READY, THERE’S AN ARK A-COMIN’ Ethan Smith was raised bers of people involved or in a remote valley in the their occupations. West Kootenays, where he ✍ Another section focuses on specific fering in Fac- was home-schooled on a family farm “Ten Solutions for Individuals” in- threatened species. Some “solutions” are tory Farms” with no electricity. He now lives in the clude practising humane pest control, less concrete than others, and some are and “Practise Gulf Islands. switching to a vegan diet and getting arguably facile. Developing nations are Reverence for Founder of the Solutions Project, Vic- media coverage for animal rights cam- urged to “Practise Sustainable Forestry,” Life.” But even toria-based columnist Guy Dauncey is paigns. “Take a Stand Against International these are the author of Stormy Weather: 101 Solu- “Five Solutions for Fishers” includes Whaling” and “Listen to the Dalai clearly written tions to Global Climate Change, also from alternatives to longlining and an end to Lama.” with the desire New Society. 9780865715660 fish farming, and so on. There are sug- The final “Ten Global Solutions” are to inspire, not gested actions for farmers, businesses, more manifesto than a how-to guide, criticize. Shane McCune is a non-activist cities and governments. with such headings as “Unite to End Suf- Jane Goodall Speaking of who lives in Comox.

Storefront, recalls Tom Ilves co-managed the Literary OUR MAN IN ESTONIA Storefront with Wayne Holder following her departure in the early 1980s. “In his CV,” says Fertig, “he says that he any British Columbians are aware that Sir Bob was director of the Vancouver Art Centre, which didn’t exist. MGeldof began his career as a part-time music writer I guess The Literary Storefront sounded too unofficial for a for the Georgia Straight but few know the current president political candidate.” of the Republic of Estonia, Toomas Ilves, was once involved During the early 1980s, according to Fertig, Robert in the management of Vancouver’s Literary Storefront. Bringhurst was also involved in Literary Storefront-related Under Ilves’ presidency, Estonia has become the first readings that were held at a Duthie’s bookstore outlet in the country in the world to introduce voting via the internet for West End, on Robson Street. Rumours circulated at the national elections. Estonia has also declared access to the time that Ilves could be involved with the CIA. Coincidentally, internet to be an unalienable human right. the current president of Latvia, Vaira Vike-Freiberga, Mona Fertig, the main founder of the Literary Toomas Ilves is also someone who lived in Canada for an extended period.

16 BC BOOKWORLD WINTER 2007-08 LETTERS

7 rides & 7 reads Smoke alarm I measure my reading by ferry rides, The story of how the Trail Smoke which are a necessary and almost daily Eaters got their name, as described in part of my life. Your Reckoning 07 issue the Encyclopedia of B.C. and mentioned took me 7 ferry rides and a total of 3 in BC BookWorld [BCBW Summer hours to read, cover to cover. I read, 2007], is a myth. and then re-read almost every article, First of all, it was Carroll Kendall, not because each one took me back to my Craig Kendall, who smoked a pipe on beginnings as a librarian on the west the ice. Secondly, while a Vancouver Prov- coast. ince cartoon depicting this event does The Reckoning 20th anniversary is- exist, it actually appeared in 1931, a dec- sue [BCBW Autumn 2007] is heart- ade after the team unofficially became warming, mind-bending, nostalgic, known as the Smoke Eaters. brilliantly compiled, and very beautiful As to the true source of the name, in a literary and artistic sense. one need look no further than the smoke- I particularly liked Anne Cameron’s stacks towering over the city. A Trail base- article—I’m so glad she is still ball team was called the Smoke Eaters as raging against the Machine. Her men- early as 1901, while sports teams in tion of Thora and Jerry Howell’s Butte, Montana, another smelter town, book store in Nanaimo brought back my also used the nickname. Cominco dis- own memories of meeting just about every liked the name, but their efforts to author on this coast at one time change it proved futile. It was Thank you or another in that store. convenient for them, however, In all my 25 years of librar- to point to an origin that didn’t to our partners ianship I’ve never come across involve the smelter. another couple who did so Greg Nesteroff much for Canadian authors— Castlegar local and not-so-local. for making BC BookWorld is still the first Jesse messy and foremost publication I Thora Howell read and recommend to all li- Heads up: Jesse Owens was a brary patrons, readers, and writers. And man. Article in BC BookWorld [Summer Reckoning 07 isn’t it looking SO good after 20 years?! 2007] has him as Jessie. Then claims that Susan Yates he was notorious. I don’t remember AN APPRAISAL OF BC WRITING & PUBLISHING Vancouver Island Regional Library hearing anything bad about him. Nanaimo George Harvey Bowering Vancouver into a successful Reddening’s path Gender minder Congratulations on BC BookWorld’s gathering. anniversary and thanks for your story of Are there less women being pub- The Reddening Path. It’s amazing how lished in B.C.? On the ferry over to the many people have bought my Reckoning ’07 event in Vancou- • Dr. Lesley Cormack, book at the Hornby Farmer’s ver I thought I’d see how many Market on the strength of it. It women had new books coming SFU Dean of Arts & Social Sciences seems everyone reads BC out. Of the aprox. 150 authors, BookWorld and is guided by it. illustrators, translators and edi- • Association of Book Publishers of BC Amanda Hale tors whose books are being pro- Hornby Island moted and published by 16 • Canadian Centre for Studies in Publishing (SFU) B.C. publishers in the autumn • Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (SFU) Amanda Hale issue of BC BookWorld, only Not all bad about 50 were women. I won- • Federation of BC Writers I enjoyed the Reckoning 2007 issue der if this figure will rise or are women [BCBW Autumn 2007] very much, but writers finding it more difficult to find a • UBC Creative Writing Department must protest the idea of renaming Brit- publisher these days? • Vancouver Public Library ish Columbia. Mona Fertig In the first place, it would be very dif- Salt Spring Island • W.A.C. Bennett Library (SFU) ficult to pick a better name that would please and represent our present ethnic • Ann Cowan, SFU Harbour Centre mix. More on Clutesi Secondly, the present names of the I just want to corroborate Randy Provinces of Canada and the States of Fred’s article that characterized George the United States of America contain a C. Clutesi as one of the greatest Cana- symbolic and rich history of the explo- dian Native artists, as well as a great hu- ration and settlement of the New World. manitarian and philanthropist. Thirdly, the British Empire wasn’t all As a young man I lived in the Alberni bad. James Morris in his Pax Britannica Valley when there were two distinct trilogy decries the arrogance and bru- towns, known as Port and Alberni. If you tality but “the good in the adventure, the lived in downtown Port you could hear courage, the idealism, the diligence had the rattle and bang of industry all day contributed their quota of truth towards and night. Indeed sawdust was always the universal fulfilment.” And this is why in the air. This was one of the reasons I people from all over the world want to first worked in the logging side of the bill bissett accepts the George Woodcock Lifetime Achievement Award come to Canada and British Columbia. industry, as opposed to the mills. during the opening reception for Finally, both sets of my grandparents In those days Alberni people were Reckoning 07 in Vancouver on were pioneers in British Columbia— friendly, not a bit stand-offish. They ac- September 14. good, diligent, courageous people of cepted you at face value, no matter where English origin. I want to preserve and you arrived from, or what your racial protect their contribution. background happened to be—mine Celebrating 20 years of publishing BC BookWorld Barbara Whistler being Métis, Scottish and Prairie Cree. Via email This is where I first met George Clutesi.

18 BC BOOKWORLD WINTER 2007-08 Linda Rogers soars above Olu Deniz in Turkey Looks, not books really enjoyed the Reckoning 07 issue and conference, especially the off-line dating. I have one suggestion should you decide to make it an annual event. I hope you do because there were loads of almost fit men there. Since so many writers are concerned about marketing, what about a dress-for-success seminar? I suggest that we apply to CulturalI Service’s Walter Quan (has he had work done?) to propose self- improvement grants for writers to make us look better. How about liposuction for poets, plastic surgery for non-fiction writers, and hair extensions for pure fiction? BC BookWorld could run Before and After makeover jacket photos, just like those mags at the check-out stands. Brilliant! I killed off the hero of my novel The Empress Letters rather than let her age. Linda Rogers, Victoria

I was raised the seventh child of thir- dustrial divisions of the empire of the late teen. Our mother taught us to respect Macmillan and Bloedel families. These our racial heritage and indeed the her- people paid little more for George’s art itage of others without exception. So I works than the costs of his paints and had no problem in conversing with canvasses. And George always felt badly George, who at the start was shy and a about that. bit uncomfortable in the presence of this The fact that George Clutesi wasn’t kid who he didn’t know from Adam’s pet paid fairly for his work by people who goat. could have afforded to do so remains a After I married a young lady from great tragedy and travesty. Port Alberni, I soon found work on the Hugh M. Hamilton boom at the Old Somas Sawmill Divi- Victoria sion of Bloedel Stewart and Welsh. The Somas Division was reputed to be the largest and most modem sawmill on Van- Madame Ethel couver Island. George was also working Thank you for always sending along the boom, feeding logs with a pike pole BC BookWorld. I have a son who now onto the log slip, on their way to the head lives in Nelson, BC, and a daughter-in- rig where they were cut into lumber. He law working at the library there. They must have been around age 43 around always pass along books from local writ- that time. ers they think I would enjoy. I re-dis- George and I soon hit it off. He be- covered Ethel Wilson after you did a gan to confide in me his great need to story on her. So thank you for your pub- paint. He often asked me to visit his lication. home and workshop, which I did. This Margaret Goldik is when George began to tell me of the Association of English-language circumstances surrounding his people’s Publishers of Quebec reluctance to encourage him to record the history of his people on canvas. Tribal elders often ostracized him, accusing him Letters or emails contact: of giving away their tribal customs and BC BookWorld, culture. 3516 W. 13th Ave., Fortunately, George’s compulsive Vancouver, BC V6R 2S3 need to paint their history and write their sacred stories won the day, but in email: [email protected] the end, it must be noted, that in his overpowering need to paint, George was Letters may be edited for clarity & length. often taken advantage of by a number of people who managed the various in-

19 BC BOOKWORLD WINTER 2007-08 LOOKOUT #29 3516 W. 13th Ave., Vancouver, BC a forum for & about writers: V6R 2S3 • [email protected] LOOKOUT Geography is not destiny ABOVE & Contemplating Prosecco & Gord Downie vs. blizzards & road kill BEYOND by Donna Kane tain to pop up as a subject far more Babstock was shot at with a BB gun Some say the internet is a third often than it would, say, in the work of and Lorna Crozier learned to tie her culture. Whether you live in the a city poet. And if a city poet comes for logging boots) have, in my opinion at “boonies” or in the city, where you eat a reading, it’s entirely possible that a least, given our venues the kind of lit- breakfast dissolves the instant you fierce blizzard will prevent me from erary fame that would turn Toronto’s YOU WON’T SEE HER log on. reaching the airport to pick them up, Drake green with envy. activities covered on A writer in Rolla, up here in the which might then inspire a poem about My reading series has, in fact, Bravo TV or men- Peace River country, can be in the blizzards and road kill. reached such a level of chic that a same space as a writer on Queen Last winter, Liz Bachinsky came to recent reader, upon arriving in tioned in Quill & Street—both equally “there”—just read and I didn’t make it to the airport. Dawson Creek, undaunted by the Quire, but for ten like that. In less than an hour the temperature number of pickup trucks with moose Sometimes I do catch myself think- dropped 20 degrees causing the wind antlers in the back, asked the first years Donna Kane ing about what it might be like to be a to pick up so ferociously that the sud- person he saw where the nearest veg- writer living in Toronto, perhaps drink- denly falling snow drifted my road un- etarian restaurant might be. That may has organized writing ing Prosecco with Griffin poetry prize til it disappeared. That Liz’s plane have taken things a bit far, but it does retreats, festivals and winners in someone’s backyard or landed in the midst of that storm suggest that just because you live in reading at the Art Bar where Gord seems less miraculous than just plain the boonies, doesn’t mean you can’t writer-in-residence Downie might show up and invite me stupid. acquire at least the essence of liter- programs throughout to a party. So there’s the northern weather, ary hip. But the boonies is where I’ve al- the northern roads, the northern im- Here artists working in various dis- the Peace River region. ways lived, a place where, offline, a agery. At the same time, there’s the ciplines band together because there Recently she worked good cappuccino is at least one reading series I’ve held in the Peace aren’t enough writers or visual artists gravel road and several hours away, for the past 10 years where many of to make up their own separate clans. with the City of and Saturday’s Globe and Mail might Canada’s best poets have come to Having such a diversity of artists chat Dawson Creek to not arrive until Monday. With 70% of read. And the after-reading events, at and drink wine together has resulted Canadians living in urban areas, when places like the Rolla Pub (where Ken in some groundbreaking events. A name a street after I look out my window and see more prime example is the launch of my new singer/songwriter Roy land than houses, I know I’m in book inside a granary at the the minority. The imagery Sweetwater Festival in Rolla. My read- Forbes. Her new book around me mostly passes for ing from Erratic was conducted next of poetry is Erratic natural, so it can’t help but to a two-headed calf, an art installa- give my writing a rural tion by Karl Mattson entitled Industrial (Hagios Press $16.95). flair. Driving where I Evolution. 978-0-9739727-9-5 do, road kill is cer- In the end, I’m grateful for email and bookninja.com, but as a writer, I’m in- terested in who we are as human be- ings, how we view the world where we are. I don’t think those concerns would be different if I was in a Toronto backyard or standing next to a two- headed calf.

[Donna Kane lives a few miles northwest of Dawson Creek, in Bessborough. She has just completed a reading tour that included Rolla, Regina, Saskatoon, Booner’s Ferry (Idaho), Antigonish, Halifax and Vancouver. Now she’s back in the boonies—where she belongs. You can visit her world at www.donnakane.com] Donna Kane and Roy Forbes on Roy Forbes Drive

21 BOOKWORLD • LOOKOUT • WINTER • 2007-2008 ABOVE & BEYOND

“I have been detained twice by the police in North Korea,” writes Derek Evans, “once for jogging and once for riding the subway. The jogging incident was just a misunderstanding; I suppose any individual running in North Korea is assumed to be trying to escape from something, “Derek Evans and the police simply acted instinctively.” is a kind of Forrest Gump or even TinTin character,” writes Yosef Wosk in his introduction to Dis- in hall at Beijing’s international my way to the nearest subway station. However, I patches from the Global Village (Wood Lake / Cop- airport, and to wait. soon discovered that there are four different types per House $23.95). “You get the feeling Curious but obedient, I did of money in North Korea (for the political elite, as directed. However, I’ve never for foreign dignitaries, for proletarians or ordi- that he has been everywhere, met every- been very good at waiting, so nary workers, and for “sub-proletarians”—who- one, and done everything… and that even eventually I began to ask at the ever they are!). The money I had could not be different airline counters where used to buy a subway ticket (a proletarian activ- if he hasn’t, he will.” to find the flight to Pyongyang. ity). I decided to try something that had prob- Having served two terms as Deputy The staff simply pointed vaguely ably never been seen in North Korea, before or toward the middle of the vast since. I stood outside the station as endless lines of Secretary General of Amnesty Interna- hall. Feeling absurd, I neverthe- workers streamed past, bowed my head, and tional, Derek Evans “has met prime min- less followed their instructions raised my hands in the universal posture of a beg- and gradually became aware of gar. Immediately a crowd surrounded me, and, isters and presidents, rebels and kings, a couple dozen other travellers without a word of discussion, the workers filled beggars and saints, terrorists and schol- who seemed to be aimlessly my cupped hands with proletarian notes, more standing around, or endlessly than enough to get on the subway. I got about ars, generals and chiefs. His travels have searching the monitors as if for four stations down the line before the alarm was propelled him through dozens of coun- some secret clue. We began steal- raised and the police boarded the train and took ing glances at each other, with a me away. tries on almost every continent.” strange combination of recogni- ✍ With his wife Pat Deacon, a tion and suspicion. Finally, a man Throughout my second visit to North Korea, The Dalai Lama to in a nondescript airline uniform with the Inter-Parliamentary Union, I pressed the Derek Evans and his homeopath, Evans came to the Okanagan in 2000 to walked to the middle of the room authorities for a copy of the Criminal Code. The co-workers at carrying a little sign that read, formal reason I gave for wanting the text was so serve as Executive Director of the Naramata Centre, Foreigners who are invited to visit North Korea are often asked to pay homage to the Great Leader President Kim Il Sung at the Kumsusan Memorial Palace. Amnesty International: “Flight 000, Destination X.” that I could carry out an assessment of it in rela- “I am a simple monk, and an experiential learning institute. In his 14th book Without a word, all the lost strangers formed a tion to international human rights standards. But line, and we dutifully followed the man through what I really want to say is he has collected some of his observations as one of the really, I just wanted to find out if it actually ex- an unmarked exit and onto a North Korean plane. isted, as no one outside the country had seen the simply that I believe that the world’s leading human rights activists. ✍ work all of you are doing— North Korean basic law. Every day, I asked for a The hotel in Pyongyang was modern and well- copy, or suggested adjustments to our itinerary to caring for the dignity of Citing Evans’ Dispatches as a Book-of-the-Month, appointed, but came with some unusual services. stop at a bookstore or at a court building. But strangers, protecting their the SFU Bookstore declared, “Whether he’s negotiat- There was a television in the room, but like all there was invariably some excuse that made it im- rights—I believe this work ing with rebel factions in Sudan, or meeting under TVs and radios in North Korea it had only one possible—the store is closed due to holidays, the is sacred. I believe it is more switch—on/off. For the first five days of my first building is under renovations, and so on. important than prayer.” threat of death and in the dead of night with families visit, the evening “news” broadcast consisted Finally, on the last day, after a particularly long CLIMATE OF FEAR mainly of reports of what my colleagues and I had of ‘disappeared’ children in Sri Lanka, what shines meeting, my “host” suggested that we take a break Derek Evans of Amnesty International recalls playing diplomatic done that day. It was a great relief—probably for and visit the “Great Study Hall of the People,” through in each story is Evans’ unfaltering hope that ping-pong in Pyongyang, North Korea everyone in the country— when the President of the national library. We climbed the stone steps people can find within themselves the wisdom to the Seychelles arrived on a state visit and became of the enormous stolid building, and took the el- the new focus of obsessive media attention. Oth- evator to the seventh floor. This, he said, was the choose a different path—that somehow we can learn ne of the less dramatic but most significant consequences of the War on Terror is tives, and become prone to acting aggressively to erwise, TV consisted of endless lectures denounc- section on law and politics, as we walked through perceived threats. ing the country’s many enemies, and providing to live in peace despite our differences.” the creeping encroachment on some of our fundamental and supposedly cherished ✍ the gloom past rank upon rank of barren shelves rights—the rights to freedom of expression and of thought. I say “supposedly cher- detailed instructions on the correct line of and vacant desks. He ushered me down a par- Wise and caring, Evans’ essays are encouraging ex- thought—that of the “Great Leader;” or of his ished,” because with each new restriction that is imposed, it becomes apparent that Perhaps most Canadians have little sense of ticular aisle and stopped in front of a single steel what is at stake if we abdicate our fundamental son, the “Dear Leader” and current President, shelf on which were four thin green volumes. He pressions of the continual need to mediate between many people in our society actually place very little value on these rights and are freedoms, even just a bit, in the interests of good pictures of whom peered down on every room in took one down and gave it to me—a copy of the the powerful and the oppressed to limit abuses of ready to abandon them with little more than an indifferent shrug. taste or of a quiet life. The most ex- every building. Criminal Code of North Korea. Embossed in gold power. treme example, I suppose, is North My hotel room was not only and in mint condition, the text was in English and OI’m speaking not only about the complex se- zine was fear. The feeling of fear is understand- Korea. North Korea is usually de- cleaned every day while I was out, it inscribed as a gift to me. Here he recalls one of his two disturbing visits to curity laws hurriedly adopted in Washington and able enough, in my view. It’s just too bad it can’t scribed as “totalitarian,” “paranoid,” was also thoroughly searched. In I was touched by the near intimacy of the ges- North Korea, while noting the insidious encroach- in Ottawa in the weeks following 9/11—which be openly acknowledged and honestly addressed. and “Stalinist,” and even as part of fact, only every second room was ture, but also troubled by the thought that this allow people to be imprisoned indefinitely with- It is important to mention that the article in the “axis of evil.” It regularly threat- occupied by a guest; the interven- basic legal text may actually have been created or ments of post 9/11 paranoia and censorship world- out charge or evidence—though certainly those question, “Drawing Blood: Outrageous Cartoons ens its neighbours with missiles and ing rooms were reserved for those contrived during the past week simply to satisfy wide. laws should worry us all. And I’m speaking not and the Art of Outrage,” was written by the most nuclear tests. who monitored us 24 hours a day. my demands and to try to ensure a favourable only about the secret, paranoid conspiracies of our prominent political cartoon journalist in America, I’ve been to North Korea twice, One morning, the guests on my report to the parliamentarians. Most of all, public security agencies, which allow government and that it presents a scholarly discussion of the once on an assignment for the World floor decided to test the surveillance. though, I was disturbed by all of the empty shelves officials to aid, abet, and acquiesce in the abduc- role of editorial cartooning during the past 200 Council of Churches, and once as a At exactly 7 a.m., each of us turned that surrounded us—a whole library without tion and torture of Canadian citizens in Syrian years. As a subscriber to Harper’s, I had read the special guest of the Inter-Parliamen- on our showers and then shouted, books, the ultimate expression of a regime that prisons. article before the ban was put in place, and had tary Union. Whatever words may be “Damn, no towels!” We then opened could not tolerate the challenge of diversity, the I’m thinking also about the many ways that a recommended it to a number of people as the most used to describe it, North Korea is our doors and looked out into the risk of dialogue, or the right to freedom of climate of fear and self-censorship has gathered insightful analysis of the cartoon controversy I’d fundamentally about complete con- Derek Evans as he looks today corridor. Within seconds, it was filled thought. around us, and has begun to infect many aspects yet seen. trol. I think the most chilling image with men in suits running from the It is an extreme image, I know, but one that I of public life. One of the more recent and insidi- Sadly, such scholarly reflection and critical I have of this comes from a visit I made to a kin- other rooms carrying stacks of fresh towels, rush- wish the executives of Indigo Books, and others ous examples is provided by Indigo Books. The thought is now deemed to be too offensive—or dergarten in Pyongyang, the capital city. The four- ing about and bumping into each other. who act in fear of the open and respectful ex- ✍ Derek Evans on largest bookseller in Canada, Indigo Books de- dangerous—to be permissible. I’m not sure what year-olds sat ramrod straight and silent at tables change of ideas, might hold in their hearts. It will meeting Yasser cided to ban an issue of Harper’s Magazine be- should be considered the greater scandal: the bla- until the teacher gave the command “Be happy!” I have been detained twice by the police in certainly be the image I have in mind the next The children immediately erupted in cheers and North Korea, once for jogging and once for rid- Arafat in Gaza: cause it featured an article discussing the Danish tant hypocrisy and cynicism of Indigo Books, or time I am tempted to shop at Coles or Chapters, laughter and clapping, and just as abruptly re- ing the subway. The jogging incident was just a “It seems that political cartoons of Muhammad. the fact that their suppression of the magazine or hear about a magazine being banned. Echoing the feeble justifications of the CBC, generated so little public concern. Try to imagine turned to their seats, silent and staring, when the misunderstanding; I suppose any individual run- ✍ leadership means never The Globe and Mail, and numerous other mem- what any bookstore or library would look like if teacher declared, “Enough happy!” ning in North Korea is assumed to be trying to [Derek Evans’ royalties and a portion of pub- admitting one’s own bers of the “free” press, an internal corporate we removed all materials that might be offensive You get a sense of how repressed and bizarre escape from something, and the police simply lisher proceeds are being donated to Amnesty In- weakness or failure.” memo sent to all Indigo stores—as well as its Coles to some individual or group. The shelves would the political life of the country is long before you acted instinctively. The subway was a more seri- ternational and the Naramata Community Fund and Chapters branches—explained that the arti- be empty, and a dark silence would soon gather get there. Most visitors enter the country on a con- ous incident, in that there was a real danger I might Society.] 978-1-551455-53-2 cle may offend some Muslims. It went on to note around us. Having shunned the honest effort re- necting flight through China—only you don’t re- have had unsupervised contact with ordinary peo- that the cartoons have “been known to ignite dem- quired for dialogue or for understanding, we ceive a ticket or a boarding card, you just get a ple—precisely my objective. All BC BookWorld articles are posted onstrations around the world,” making it clear would soon become prisoners of our own fears letter of invitation from whatever organization is With some diversions from my colleagues, I had online at www.abcbookworld.com that Indigo’s real motivation for pulling the maga- and prejudices, unable even to imagine alterna- your “host.” The letter tells you to go to the check- managed to leave the hotel after dark, and made

22 BC BOOKWORLD • LOOKOUT • WINTER • 2007-2008 23 BC BOOKWORLD • LOOKOUT • WINTER • 2007-2008 ABOVE & BEYOND LONELONE WOLFWOLF HAVING SAVED THE GREAT BEAR RAINFOREST, IANIAN MCALLISTERMCALLISTER IS GOING IT ALONE, SCOUTING WOLF CUBS

BY ANDREW FINDLAY Sometimes you needn’t see wolves to TEN YEARS AGO, ow somewhat of a loner in the B.C. sense their presence. During springtime Ian McAllister and his wife Karen in the rich tidal estuaries of the central published one of the most influen- conservation movement, it’s not sur- coast, unlike bears that meander in seem- tial Canadian books ever. ingly chaotic patterns in search of choco- The Great Bear Rainforest (Har- prising that Ian McAllister is late lilies and cow parsnip, wolves leave bour) generated legislation to protect purposeful straight paths through the lush sedges as they move stealthily be- one of the northern hemisphere’s rich- N tween the timber and tide lines. Such est unprotected wildlife habitats—the drawn to wolves as subject matter for his new book. ecological subtleties are revealed only to main B.C. habitat for grizzlies. Growing up in Victoria, while other for the book, McAllister spent weeks and the patient observer. After provincial and federal govern- kids flocked to the shopping mall, Ian months following wolf packs, allowing ✍ ments pledged $60 million to preserve McAllister boated Vancouver Island’s time for the canines to become accus- McAllister describes seeing a black- 1.2 million hectares of the largest in- west coast exploring tidal pools, surge tomed to his scent and presence. He has tailed deer grazing contentedly within tact temperate rainforest left on earth, channels and inlets with his father. enough anecdotes from his trips to fill a 50 yards of a wolf pack that lay concealed Time magazine heralded the young “Over the years I’ve spent three, per- stack of notebooks. in the tall grass. Though the wolves had couple as “Environmental Leaders for haps four months alone, at a time, in “There’s incredible variability in gone days without a fresh kill, they nei- the 21st Century.” these inlets looking for wolves,” says wolves on the coast. In a span of just 20 ther lifted their muzzles nor made any But as founding members of the McAllister, as we motor through a nar- nautical miles you can go from wolves suggestion of a chase. Evidently the Raincoast Conservation Society, Ian row passage near the entrance of Roscoe that prey on deer and bear to wolves that predators calculated the cost of giving and Karen McAllister believed main- Inlet which the Heiltsuk people call the have a totally marine-based diet,” pursuit and decided that there would stream environmental organizations— Gateway. “It’s been at times very frus- McAllister says. be other, more rewarding opportuni- such as Greenpeace, the Sierra Club trating but also very rewarding.” ties. and Forest Ethics—had struck a com- Anyone who has tried to track and McAllister has also observed a promise with industry and government photograph wolves soon realizes they symbiotic relationship between that was unacceptable. would have almost as much success cap- wolves and ravens. Just as the noisy Keeping an arms-length from the turing a shooting star or a bolt of light- squawking of ravens alerts wolves to negotiations, the McAllisters settled in ning. But McAllister has maintained a the presence of carrion, ravens of- the tiny west coast outport of soft spot for these animals, recording the ten descend to pick over the remains Shearwater on Denny Island where elusive carnivores on film with a Zen- of a carcass left behind by wolves. they have raised their first child. like commitment. It’s the same sort of After three days in Roscoe Inlet, And their conservation crusade tenacity that enabled him to fight so ef- we had almost given up hope of continues. fectively for the preservation of the Great finding wolves. The estuaries we ex- plored were full of signs—fresh scat, Over a five-year period, Ian Bear Rainforest. Wolves occupy a curious, and one a palm-sized print in the mud, and McAllister has repeatedly returned to might say unenviable, position in the coarse hair on a salmonberry bush the rainforest to track wolves for his animal kingdom, at least as far as humans next to a forest game trail. Then as new natural history title, The Last Wild perceive them. Hunters malign them for we motored back down the inlet, Wolves: Ghosts Of The Great Bear killing “their” game. Ranchers ostracize McAllister spotted a lone black wolf Rainforest (Greystone $45). them for preying on livestock. And with white paws standing on a In June, freelancer Andrew popular literature often casts them in an shoreline granite bluff, casually Findlay joined McAllister aboard his unfairly sinister light. watching our passage. trimaran Habitat to sail up the serpen- For McAllister, wolves are anything As quickly as it appeared, the tine Roscoe Inlet in search of hard-to- but cold, bloodthirsty creatures. They are wolf vanished like a ghost into the find wolves in the lush estuaries near intelligent and fascinating animals, rainforest. And Ian McAllister van- the head of the fjord. highly attuned to their environment and TEN YEARS AFTER: During his travels, ished from the wolf’s sight—a brief He sends this report. able to use cunning, skill and strength Ian McAllister discovered that wolf meeting of the minds. to hunt and kill prey. To gather material packs feed on giant Humboldt squid. 1-55365-242-8

25 BC BOOKWORLD WINTER 2007-08 ABOVE & BEYOND

Editor, POST- HIPPIE naturalist and neo-peasant PICK-UP& PRE-LATTÉ, K. Linda Kivi lives on a land ANNE DEGRACE co-op in the Kootenay CAPTURES THE ZEITGEIST River Valley. LINES OF THE SEVENTIES

BY CHERIE THIESSEN Bob, the local policeman, is too softhearted to be a PEAKS & CHALETS cop and quite happy to pay the price by being stuck in self-described ‘story vulture,’ a backwater. Not only does Bob help deliver babies whilst Forget Y2K. Conservationists have on duty, he joins Pink in smoking a few joints, subse- Anne DeGrace confesses her formed Y2Y to stop Purcell ski resort. quent to chasing him through the forest for trespassing second novel Wind Tails in an old cabin. ith more than 50 peaks above 3400 me- Add to the mix a rich boy who may have killed his (McArthur & Co. $29.95) arose father’s partner, an angry young American who threat- tres, the Purcells give rise to the largest pro- W ens Pink because he didn’t fight in Vietnam, an old tected area in southern B.C. encompassed by Gla- from a pub night in Nelson when a friend de- A woman who camps out near the café, a water witcher cier National Park and Bugaboo Provincial Park. Located between the Rockies and the Selkirk scribed a hitchhiker who would only travel coming to terms with his unwanted abilities, and a dy- ing and doughty old woman who wants to see her sons Range to the west, the Purcell Range is a stun- in the direction the wind blew. ning array of lakes, glaciers and forbidding ter- again, and you’ve got the makings of a fairly normal A second friend added a true story about a driver Kootenay town. rain that includes some of the oldest exposed rock who asked hitchhikers to send him postcards from wher- Along the way a tiny character appropriately called in North America. ever they wound up. Pixie orchestrates another meeting between Jo and Pink A proposed Jumbo Glacier Resort, two dec- For Wind Tails, DeGrace turned the wind-following ades in the planning, has prompted residents and by telling them about a campsite and handing out a hitchhiker into an American draft evader named Pink— 280 partner organizations to mount a Jumbo Wild map. named after the group Pink Floyd—who has allowed a awareness campaign in keeping with the With me so far? beautiful pair of eyes, along with a determination not to ✍ Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative (Y2Y). go to Vietnam, to bring him to Canada, and the post- Basically, what we have is a series of mini-stories whirl- “The highly contested resort,” according to K. card collector gets turned into Evelyn, an intellectually ing around a central place and a premise: if you are open Linda Kivi, “would place a real estate develop- challenged housewife who strays further and further ment of 6500 inhabitants in the remote Jumbo to interactions with strangers and willing to let the wind afield to pick up and drop off hitchhikers. Valley on the northern boundary of the Purcell Wil- take you where it will, you can find your own direction Most of the action occurs in an Alberta mountain derness Conservancy.” more quickly. pass, at the Roadside Café, circa 1977, on a day when In The Purcell Suite: Upholding the Wild What these characters have in common is the road the wind seems to be blowing in circles. Think of the they travel on, the café where they all wind up, if only (Maa Press, $25), a collection of essays Kivi has comedy tv-show Corner Gas, transferred to the Purcells. for a glass of water, and their effect on Jo, so fragile it edited to raise money for Jumbo Wild, 25 con- Cass, the owner of The Roadside Café, still mourns tributors illuminate the Purcells as a vital corridor feels as if a slight breeze will scatter her. As delicate as a the baby she gave up, and the niece her sister spirited in the wilderness that stretches from Yellowstone dandelion gone to seed, Wind Tails feels as if a slight away from her. Archie, a truck driver, keeps coming National Park to the Yukon territory. puff of breath will send all these characters and their back, and not just for the coffee. stories off with her–a Kootenay-inspired fairy tale for One of her contributors, Ktunaxa elder Leo One day Archie picks up Jo, a dispirited 19-year-old grown-ups. Williams, recalls the process by which indig- who has dropped out of university, and he brings her Born in 1960, DeGrace is a librarian, illustrator, pho- enous peoples were eradicated or dislodged from like a lost puppy to Cass, the nurturer of lost souls. Jo is the area. “My church is there—outside,” he says. tographer, volunteer and mother who made waves with on the run, and her distressed parents don’t know ex- “For those who don’t know much about Sinixt her first novel, Treading Water (2005), based on the fate actly why—but her mother has an inkling. It was an ill of Renata, a community submerged under 35 feet of history,” says Marilyn James, spokesperson wind that brought her daughter home unexpectedly one for the sinixt nation, “it is very important to note water by the erection of the Hugh Keenleyside Dam. fateful day to discover they were both sharing the same So we have had water, and we have had wind. Fire that the sinixt were declared extinct in Canada by lover. might be next. 1552786633 the federal government in 1956, just prior to the signing of the Columbia River Treaty between the USA and Canada. “Since the sinixt were the only Indian people on the Columbia River system in Canada, it is apparent to me, a sinixt, why we were declared extinct. We were in the way.” Now Kivi and others are the ones in the way of commerce—except this time the media-savy en- vironmentalists are not likely to be considered ex- tinct in the foreseeable future. 0-9685302-3-0 www.maapress.ca

ILLUSTRATION

MORROW

PAT PHOTO Co-founder of the Purcell Wilderness Conservancy, Art Twomey broke his sunglasses while climbing Findlay SCHAFER Peak so he made a pair of “Inuit glasses” from a raisin box. He died in a 1997 helicopter crash in the Purcells. TIMOTHY

26 BC BOOKWORLD WINTER 2007-08 ABOVE & BEYOND

drought by becoming dor- mant, survive in the KEEP ON THE GRASS grasslands.” This climate results in The grasslands of the Cariboo Chilcotin cover only 1% of our abundant bunchgrasses, land mass, yet they support almost a third of the threatened and sagebrush, cactus, lichens and diverse wildlife, including the Chris Harris: tramping vulnerable plant and animal species of British Columbia. photographer largest breeding population of Barrow’s goldeneyes in B.C., as hris Harris is some- The view- with two ecologists from the Grasslands well as three species of bats that occur points range Conservation Council, Ordell only in the grasslands and ancient thing of a pub- from sweeping, Steen, a former research ecologist with sandhill cranes. lishing loner. His wide angle per- the B.C. Forests Service, and Kristi Threats to this delicate habitat include spectives high Iverson, a plant ecologist and past our habit for dousing fires at every turn. company at 105 above a jade chair of the Council. When fire traditionally swept through, green Chilcotin From these experts we learn the once every seven to fifteen years, it re- Mile in the Cariboo includes a stu- C MARK FORSYTHE River to tight intermountain grasslands are part of the newed life by keeping the forest in check dio constructed of straw bales. close-ups that rich tapestry of ecosystems. In the and fertilizing plants with ash. mingle light, form and purple mariposa grasslands, only about 30-55 centime- “After 1860, the frequency of the Over 17 years he’s produced ten pho- lilies into something hinting at Monet. tres of precipitation falls each year, less fires decreased as cattle grazing removed tography books in his ‘British Colum- Harris also has an eye for adding than any other area in the Cariboo- the fuels necessary to carry fire, First Na- bia and Beyond’ series; with a focus on drama to wildlife photos: a California Chilcotin. tions people were penalized for starting his regional landscapes, from the Big Horn Sheep defies gravity as it “Air temperatures are the highest in fires, and fire suppression reduced the Bowron Lakes to Barkerville and the ser- crosses a nearly vertical cliff face so it can the region,” writes Iverson. “Forests can- size of wildfires. When the fires stopped, pentine BCR line. nibble on a small green bush. not thrive in the grasslands; only plants trees and shrubs invaded many cool, Harris is also a skilled outdoor adven- ✍ that hold their moisture against the pull moist sites in the grasslands.” ture guide with a knack for positioning For this project Harris collaborated of the dry air, or that can avoid the Many areas are now choked with for- his camera in interesting places est. The grasslands are also being most of us will never get to. seriously eroded by urban devel- Spirit in the Grass: The opment. We need look no fur- Cariboo Chilcotin’s Forgotten ther than the Thompson and Landscape (Country Light Okanagan to see what can hap- $39.95) is something else again. pen if human habitation isn’t ad- After immersing himself in equately curtailed. Cariboo-Chilcotin grasslands for Alien plants introduced by three years, Harris has placed humans, can displace native spe- himself near the forefront of a cies and animals; over grazing by movement to preserve one cattle can “hammer” the of B.C.’s most endangered eco- grasslands, and no one knows systems. for certain what global warming “I’ve walked through the will bring. grasslands in snow and ice, thun- ✍ derstorms, rain, wind and fire. Poet Harold Rhenisch “I’ve tramped across ancient contributes a brief cultural his- lichens in heat that turned my tory of the grasslands, tracing the skin to leather and have camped first nomadic people from almost on open benchlands to capture 10,000 years ago, to more per- the dawn... manent Secwepemc and “The sound of the Tsilhqot’in pit house villages be- meadowlark is now a part of me, side the rivers. and the grasslands now centre White settlement and ranch- my life.” ing followed with the gold rush ✍ of 1858, and legendary ranches For Spirit in the Grass, Chris like the Gang Ranch, Alkali Lake Harris often spent nights camp- Ranch and Empire Valley Ranch ing on the grasslands, camera at sprang from the superb the ready as morning light crept bluebunch wheatgrasses. into the viewfinder. The first light Wild horses still run free in came quietly, “as if slowly push- the Esketemc, and the Esketemc ing the darkness away.” people migrate each year to In one early morning shot, “bring the horses and their spirit patches of bunchgrass and home, and then to return them sagebrush shimmer like distant again, in this culture that has galaxies. never been broken.” Harris also photographed late Harold Rhenisch concludes: into the evening where in one “Because of the continued hon- shot the setting sun turns Mid- our that the Secwepemc and Fraser River Canyon into a mol- Tsilhqot’in people and ranchers ten slash that disappears into have maintained for the land, the black benchlands. spirit remains in the grass.” The grasslands were by far the A portion of the profits from most challenging landscape he the sale of this book will be do- has photographed because the nated to the Grasslands Conser- land is flatter and the colour pal- vation Council of British ette is muted. Columbia. 978-0-9685216-8-7 “The grasslands reveal them- selves quietly and slowly,” he says. “I was photographing in the grass-level world, when I heard a rock tumble down a cliff Mark Forsythe is the host of “They’re soft and rolling, the col- across the valley. I looked up and saw a solitary sheep that had left her herd for a tiny CBC Radio’s BC Almanac. ours pastel, and it’s much more morsel of green vegetation in the middle of an almost vertical cliff wall. For some His new book is The Trail of inscrutable reason, out of all the vast miles of available food, this sheep felt drawn to the difficult to create images that 1858 (Harbour, 2007), small bush on this vertical mud cliff.” — CHRIS HARRIS that evoke a response.” co-authored with Greg Dickson.

29 BC BOOKWORLD WINTER 2007-08 INTERVIEW

n his old age, Tolstoy dis- Do you talk about this sort of thing with other Kidlit authors? missed War & Peace and These days, most of my “talking” is done Anna Karenina as bour- on-line. The closest children’s writer is Kathleen Cook Waldron. She’s an hour- geois entertainment and de- and-a-half drive from my house. We KID POWER have co-authored a book, Forestry A-Z, cided it was better to write Sales of children’s books are on the rise forthcoming in 2008, and we did this fables for children. Some authors, on the in British Columbia, and kidlit veteran by driving 63 km to meet at a restau- I rant halfway between our homes. We other hand, such as Ann Walsh of Ann Walsh is one of the best reasons why. also had a few revision sleep-overs. Williams Lake, chose to write for young Our children’s book columnist Louise Donnelly gets weary of readers from the outset. get my hands on. As a teenager in Van- shout, “Look how ugly this is!” But all the teenage angst novels and After completing a 10-day summer couver I discovered science fiction and shouting at readers doesn’t encourage the onslaught of political cor- course with Robin Skelton in 1981 read nothing but SF until I had my first them to finish the book. So I try to write rectness. Do you have any gen- in Wells, B.C., she first wrote a time-trav- baby. Then I switched to murder mys- the ugliness well, so that the readers see eral perceptions of the teenage elling tale set in Barkerville, Your Time, teries. I’m sure there’s no connection. it for themselves. novel genre? My Time, and returned to the gold rush Several of your books concern Do you think most people who The PC problem is hard. I wrestled with era for Moses, Me and Murder, The Doc- racism. Do you ever struggle write for kids lie awake nights the word ‘Chinaman’ in one of my tor’s Apprentice and By the Skin of His with how overt the messages in and secretly feel hard done by Barkerville novels. But “Chinese gentle- Teeth. your books should be? because they don’t get the at- man” didn’t fit the language of the day, Ann Walsh has recently edited a col- All the time. It’s hard to find that fine tention they deserve? so I used the words of the era even lection of short stories about young peo- line between plot and pulpit. As a child, Well, you probably say that about almost though they made me uncomfortable. I ple coping with loss and grief, Dark I saw racism in all its ugliness, both in any writer! [laughter] But, yes, Kidlit know exactly how Louise feels. Angst Times (Ronsdale, 2005), and written two the American South and in South Af- writers can and do whine. For most of well-done is great, but it’s hard to take kids’ novels about social issues, Flower rica. I remember ‘whites only’ signs on us the money doesn’t pour in, the re- in large doses. Most teens, however, are Power (Orca, 2005) and Horse Power drinking fountains and in restaurant views are scanty and we get little respect one huge blob of angst. I know. I raised (Orca, 2007). windows. In my from the rest of the literary world. We two daughters. ✍ writing I are ‘just’ children’s writers. Nearly Why have you done nearly all your books with B.C. publishers? Why did you start writing books want to everyone is going to write a chil- My subjects have been deemed too lo- for children? dren’s book someday, when cal by many national publishers who still I had a manual typewriter with sticky they have a free weekend. reject me regularly. When I started, YA keys. Children’s books are shorter. After all, kids’ books [Young Adult] novels were just begin- No, the real reason. are short, how hard ning to interest publishers. My first pub- I had been a teacher for many years and can they be to write? lisher had never done a YA novel until I wanted to share B.C. history with Robin Skelton recommended mine for young readers. I fell in love with its “strong sense of place.” Small, local Barkerville and I found out that a mur- publishers are great for keeping an ac- der had been committed there in 1866, tive backlist and for reprinting titles. way back in the gold rush days, and the However their small size can cause finan- clue to the murderer’s identity was an cial problems. One publisher still owes oddly shaped gold nugget stickpin. You me my 2005 royalties–for six titles—and can hardly invent a story with a plot like is no longer answering my queries about that, but it’s a true story. So that became when I can expect payment. the basis for Moses, Me and Murder. Should we name that publisher? What did you read growing up? We should not. Growing up in different countries, I We mustn’t end on that note. read what was available. The ‘Just I agree. William’ series in South Africa; my In Flower Power there’s a local mother’s old nurse-in-love series in Kan- crusade to save a neighbour- sas, and anything else I could hood tree. Was that based on a real incident? Like that Barkerville murder? No, that was a case of life imitating art. Shortly after I finished writ- ing it, I heard a news report about a woman who had chained herself to a neigh- bour’s tree, just like in the ‘My favourite story. compliment thus far, from one of my readers, has been, “Do you know you’re world famous in PHOTO Kamloops?’ WINDERS

LINETTE

30 BC BOOKWORLD WINTER 2007-08 from the author of Some Girls Do But clearly you have a personal luctantly involved in her moth- agenda in some of your books. er’s crusade to save a neighbour- Dirtbags Well, it’s a composite of things. My hood school. Where does that a novel by mother was a dedicated environmental- story come from? ist. She belonged to SPEC which was the All across North America and even in rural Teresa McWhirter first recycling project in the Lower Main- Scotland and Ireland, small schools are land. However, Mom was too much a being closed. A few years ago there was a $20. / 240 pp. Southern lady to sit in a tree for days. I, sit-it at a school at Forest Grove, near 100 ISBN: 1-895636-88-4 on the other hand, have many, many Mile House. Many other schools in the times embarrassed my own children. I Cariboo have been closed. These things can never forget how accomplished they don’t always percolate into the newspa- were at the eye-roll, the sigh, and the per in Vancouver or Victoria, but they’re “Do you have to, Mum?” important to those of us “out here.” So I guess Flower Power came from a Does it bother you that some- blending of mothers—with my father’s times people assume “easy-to- sense of humour thrown in for good read” books are easy to write? measure. As well, I stole the Often. Nathaniel Haw- Fresh fiction. In stores now. idea of having all the women thorne said, “Easy reading in the story named after is damned hard writing.” flowers from a British mys- The fact that a book has an tery writer. Except I didn’t adjusted reading level to in- use any of the same flowers terest reluctant readers Sugar Bush she did. should not be taken, as it In the new book, Horse often is, as a negative. Not & Other Stories Power, your heroine that I’m sensitive about this. Carrie gets herself re- [laughter] by Jenn Farrell

“Radish” from Horse Power $18. / 168 pp. ISBN: 1-895636-76-0

“... Farrell’s stories surprise with ANN WALSH ON SOLITARY REFINEMENT sophisticated twists and unexpected turns ... whimsical and unpretentious ... enjoyable and highly readable.” Writing can be a lonesome occupation—especially – Quill & Quire in a small town—so camraderie is precious. www.anvilpress.com

HEN MY FIRST BOOK WAS ACCEPTED rewrites, the lengthy process from idea Wfor publication, I bored all my to book. They mostly just wanted to know friends in Williams Lake with my about Pierre Berton. incessant talking about its progress. Just as I didn’t understand much “Look at what that editor did! Here’s about ranching or forestry: my sTreeT sTorIes: the cover, isn’t it great? The proofs have neighbours didn’t understand much about 1oo Years oF arrived!” my new writing world. It wasn’t until the book was in print and In those days, we had no Internet or HomeLessness thrust into my friends’ reluctant hands that e-mail. So at the Writers’ Union AGM it I realized that, except for a kind librarian was a relief to find people talking about In Vancouver and a supportive bookstore owner, no one rejections at breakfast, movie rights at in my town knew or cared a lunch, and swapping photos by LINDSAY MEARNS hoot about writing and ‘...in the words stories of editors from hell publishing. of my first during dinner. I still try to text by We had a well established mentor, Robin attend the AGM every year. MICHAEL BARNHOLDEN Art Society, a flourishing Skelton, I should Those yearly meetings and & NANCY NEWMAN pottery club, The Woman’s contacts with friends I met stop whining and $20. / 144 pp. Institute and a dozen “get on with it.”’ there have kept me going ISBN: 1-895636-85-X churches, but there was no through the lonely dark group for writers. So I winters of my early career. —ANN WALSH stopped talking about my I admit I am sometimes writing and went back to jealous of the busy schedule www.anvilpress.com work at a ‘real’ job where the after-work of the children’s writers in Vancouver who blithering wasn’t literary, but the have easy access to meetings, socializing companionship was great. and can participate in literary events such When my second book came out, I as WOTS and the International Writers’ joined the Writers’ Union of Canada and Festival, but if I can’t get to those meetings True Tales About Brushes with Mortality registered for the AGM—three days of and events, at least now I can ‘talk’ to other meetings, workshops, socializing, writers on-line. Sometimes I even behave and the Medical Establishment... dancing, listening to other authors and a like the senior writer I am and offer advice! windup barbecue at Pierre Berton’s Writing from the boonies, I’ve learned BODY home. I intend my fellow Puddlers no there are other writers near you, but they disrespect when I say that once I may still be in the closet, so you have to BREAKDOWNS: mentioned that I was going to Pierre make an effort to do the things other Berton’s house, I finally became a writer writers do, even if it means buying a TALES OF ILLNESS + RECOVERY in their eyes. plane ticket or driving 500 km to go to a “Pierre, eh? I’ve seen him on TV. Say meeting or a conference. Janis Harper, editor ‘hi’ for me, will you?” Or you can form your own writers’ $18. / 168 pp. ISBN: 1-895636-86-8 Then people started asking me group. A good writers’ group is a thing of questions (after they’d inquired about wonder where ideas flourish. My writing Pierre’s state of health), including one of group keeps me focused on the fact that the toughest questions for a writer to I am a writer, that writers write and so, in answer: “So, when’s your next book the words of my first mentor, Robin going to be ready?” That was when I Skelton, I should stop whining and ‘get stopped talking about my current writing on with it.’—Ann Walsh www.anvilpress.com project. People didn’t really want to know [For a complete list of Ann Walsh books, visit about the rejections, the delays, the www.abcbookworld.com]

31 BC BOOKWORLD WINTER 2007-08 reviews KIDLIT WHAT’S ALSO NOTED Sue Ann Alderson, illos by Millie Ballance, The Eco-Diary of Kiran Singer (Tradewind $18.95) 978-1-896580-47-0 IT ALL ------Heather Kellerhals-Stewart, Extreme Edge (Lorimer $7.95) Ron Smith 1-55028-967-5 ABOUT, ------Irene N. Watts, When the Bough Breaks (Tundra Books $12.99) 978-0-88776-821-7 ELFIE? ------AGES 5 TO 8 Barry McDivitt, The Youngest Spy Elf the Eagle by Ron Smith & (Thistledown Press) 1-897235-17-8 Ruth Campbell (Oolichan, $19.95) ------Kit Pearson, A Pefect Gentle Knight ormer Malaspina College (Penguin $20) 0-670-06682-6 English professor Ron ------, illos by Smith—a poet and editor Liam O’Donnell F Mike Deas, Wild Ride (Orca $9.95) who helped Randy Fred estab- 978-1-55143-756-9 lish Theytus Books, Canada’s ------first Aboriginal press—is most Joan Stuchner, illos by Cynthia often described as the founder Nugent, Honey Cake (Tradewind of his own publishing company, $16.95) 978-1-896580-37-1 ------Oolichan Books, based in Chris McMahen, Klutz Hood Lantzville. (Orca $8.95) 978-1-55143-710-1 His Vancouver Island home is ------situated on the waterfront, sur- Frieda Wishinsky, Crazy for Gold rounded by nesting eagles, but (Maple Tree Press $6.95) it wasn’t that idyllic setting that 1-897066-93-7 inspired Elf the Eagle, the first in ------Christopher Millin, a planned series of picture books The King of Arugula (Thistledown about a runty and fearful baby Press $12.95) 1-897235-21-6 eagle’s adventures. It was Smith’s ------own fear of heights. Sarah N. Harvey, Bull’s Eye (Orca Elf the Eagle opens with Elf as Soundings $9.95) 978-1-55143-679-1 a fuzzy ball of fluff, his egg tooth throbbing, breaking free of his shell into the terrifying world of Illustration by Ruth Campbell a sky-high nest. There is noth- from Elf the Eagle ing below but water and dagger ferns and “sharp, scary rocks.” What were his parents thinking? In the days that follow, as dark COCK-A- brown feathers replace the white fluff and his show-off sister Edwina aces her first solo flight, DOODLE- Elf cowers in the nest. Edwina Richard Van Camp, taunts him, his parents bribe him with food held temptingly just SCREWS Welcome Song for Baby out of reach, but it’s a clumsy AGES 5 TO 7 (Orca $9.95) 978-1-55143-661-6 tumble that sends the eaglet Mechanimals by Chris Tougas ------hurtling down towards rocks that (Orca $18.95) Michelle Mulder, Maggie and the “loom as big as a whale.” Chocolate War (Second Story Press At the last moment Elf man- hat if you were a $14.95) 978-1-897187-27-2 ages to open his eyes, bravely farmer besieged by a ------Karen Rivers, X in Flight somersault with an updraft of air tornado that left be- W (Raincoast $11.95) 1-55192-982-1 and is soon gliding higher and hind nothing but “a mountain ------higher, “wheeling and soaring of scrap metal and machine Marion Gonneville, The Adven- in the blue, blue sky.” parts” and not a single animal? tures of Kitty Witty (self-published) Having taught in Italy and Well, if you’re the ruddy-nosed, ------had his poetry translated into a bespectacled farmer in Victoria John Wilson, The Alchemist’s Dream (Key Porter Books $16.95) bilingual Italian-English edition, artist Chris Tougas’ clever book Stephanie Hill illustration 1-552639347 Smith will oversee an Mechanimals you make ------Italian version of Elf, lemonade when life Robin Stevenson, Out of Order also illustrated by Ruth hands you lemons – or (Orca $9.95) 978-1-55143-693-7 Campbell, whose rains sockets, sprock- WIGGLES & GIGGLES ------fetching illustrations ets, funnels, springs AGES 3 TO 6 Lizann Flatt, illos by have captured the maj- and cogs. Lilly and Lucy’s Shadow by Christopher Aslan Kennedy & Stephanie Hill Scot Ritchie, Let’s Go! (Maple Tree (Benjamin Brown Books $19.95) Press $19.95) 987-1-897349-02-1 esty of the parent ea- The enterprising ------gles, Edwina’s avian farmer declares he will vercoming fear is the theme of Lilly and Lucy’s Shadow, Daniel Wakeman, illos by insouciance and Elf’s LOUISE DONNELLY make a masterpiece Christopher Aslan Kennedy’s first book from a fledgling Van- Dirk van Stralen, Ben’s Bunny fearful black marble from the disaster, re- couver-based imprint. Kennedy has partnered “both on and Trouble (Orca $18.95) eyes. As an Emily Carr graduate building with the materials that O 978-1-55143-611-1 off the page” with newbie publisher Meghan Spong, production living on Vancouver Island, are strewn in his yard. “When ------editor at Raincoast Books. Chris Mizzoni, Campbell says her portrayal of Elf pigs fly,” his neighbours reply. Lilly and Lucy are two wild-haired girls who head for the park to Clancy with the Puck (Raincoast is a product of her sympathy for Soon enough, a mechanical play on the balance beam. “Wiggling and jiggling…and always gig- Books $21.95) 978-1-55192-804-3 all of us who have to leave our rooster emerges from the weld- gling,” the pair meet up with Stan who is cowed by his bullying shadow. ------comfortable nests. ing sparks. This new rooster-bot Afraid to play, Stan escapes the park with a dire warning for the girls James Heneghan, Payback Having undertaken volun- is so good at his job he wakes the to be careful. Lilly and Lucy start to notice their own menacing shad- (Groundwood Books $19.95) teer work with wildlife rescue, people in China. Powerful Her- 0-88899-701-9 ows, but the dauntless girls face their fears by asking their shadows if ------Campbell writes, “Freedom and culean chick-bots follow and they want to dance. Linda DeMeulemeester, independence [are] ambitions then a cow-bot that makes great Illustrated by Vancouver artist Stephanie Hill, this title has already The Secret of Grim Hill (Lobster of the human care givers, not chocolate milk. picked up an iParenting Media Award. The second in Spong’s Press $10.95) 1-897073-53-4 the fledglings themselves, since But nothing compares with planned series dubbed The Rainbow Collection will be called Wenda the ------, illos by , young birds are quite the flying pig-bot! It’s a refresh- Wacky Wiggler. 978-0-9782553-0-5 Paul Yee Shaoli Wang happy…being fed juicy ingly original and quirky idea for Shu-Li and Tamara (Tradewind $7.95) tidbits…and having all their a children’s picture book. Louise Donnelly of Vernon has written about children’s books 978-1-896580-93-7 needs attended to.” 978-0-88982-241-2 978-1-55143-628-9 for BC BookWorld longer than we can remember.

33 BC BOOKWORLD WINTER 2007-08 featureview FICTION HAPPINESS IS A WARM CARROT

The Footstep Café by Paulette Crosse (Simon & Pierre / Dundurn $21.99)

ou don’t need to watch reality TV to see that few Yfamilies aren’t dysfunc- tional when exposed to close scrutiny. Just as David Chariandy has embellished the darker as- pects of his characters for Soucouyant, Paulette Crosse has relished the abnormality of her characters in The Footstep Café. The heroine of The Footstep Café, Karen Morton, lives near tragedy-plagued Lynn Canyon in North Vancouver where she operates a café (with an ac- cent). Her husband is a podia- trist with a foot fetish and her daughter thinks she might be a lesbian. Her son is prone to bowel movements in closets and her David Chariandy has father is an oddball Anglican been nominated for a

PHOTO Governor-General’s

priest. And the priest is married Award and long-listed to a Tibetan.

LOWRY for the Giller Prize.

GLEN

Certainly her later “bill for services rendered” would indi- MONSTER MACHINATIONS cate that, but details in Soucouyant are often sketchy. The incredible neglect of How a Trinidadian vampire destroys a Canadian family. Adele continues until she is killed by a preventable accident BY CHERIE THIESSEN prone to early-onset dementia. Because Meera avoided at home. Previously she has Soucouyant by David Chariandy Even though she’s still a rela- them, the narrator (let’s call him trashed the kitchen many times, (Arsenal Pulp $19.95) tively young woman, she is in- X) doesn’t recognize her when disappeared outside, and run creasingly vicitimized by he discovers her in his mother’s baths that have overflowed. n Soucouyant we are intro- cognitive deterioration that in- home. Initially, he thinks she’s a Are Meera and X intention- duced to a Trinidadian vari- cludes memory loss. live-in nurse, caring for his ally depicted as monsters spong- Iation of the vampire. The Or is the soucouyant some- mother. X seems a little spaced ing off a sick woman, culpable Paulette Crosse term refers to an old woman how to blame? Could the trauma himself, so it takes a while for for her death? who sheds her skin at night, flies of that childhood meeting with him to figure out that a nurse When there is a quarrel, Advertising for this novel has through the air, and usually ap- the soucouyant have followed would have an income, and Meera simply walks out on the included an excerpt describing pears as a ball of fire. her to Canada and brought the would not have to live rough in woman who has come to depend how the heroine likes to mastur- During the day she might be disease on prematurely? And the attic or wear clothes stolen on her, without so much as a bate with a carrot: It should be an old woman lurking at the edge could this be an inherited con- from his drawer and closet. goodbye. of the village, but at night—watch dition? Meera, in fact, has turned Then, knowing that his organic and it is important to mi- out—the soucouyant sucks blood The narrator himself appears her back on her classes and uni- mother has been wandering crowave the vegetable for 26 from its victims. to be one teabag short of a pot. versity scholarship and her down to the basement, X goes seconds, thereby taking off the It’s a lilting word, soucouyant, We don’t hold out much hope home. Her distressed mother to bed without securing her chill and endowing the versatile but there’s nothing uplifting for his future. The father, has no idea where she is until X safety or locking the door that vegetable with a stimulating about the story that first-time Roger, was killed at work, leav- informs her. Compelled to leads to her death. heat. novelist David Chariandy has ing his two sons to cope. A move in with the abandoned The nightmarish outlandish- Described as quirky, wrapped around its presence. monthly widow’s pension ena- Adele, Meera feels she must ness of this dysfunctional family absurdist, touching and su- Set in the Toronto-area in the bled the diminished family to atone for being one of those continues. Mrs. Christenson ar- premely irreverent, this previ- 1970s, Soucouyant is mostly the survive, but then the unnamed cruel young people who had rives to take care of the funeral ously announced novel was de- immigrant Adele’s story, nar- oldest son abandoned his earlier harassed the immigrant arrangemnts and presents her layed after David Godfrey’s rated through her son’s eyes, mother and his doting young family with anonymous phone bill for home care for although Chariandy tosses in brother. calls and worse. $345,033.48. Beach Holme Publishing failed to some of Trinidad’s history for In the novel, both the narra- Meera’s educated mother After X has sold the family honour commitments to its con- good measure. tor and his older brother are was also from the Caribbean, and home for $53,000, he allows her tracted authors. As the press As a child in the Caribbean, nameless. The latter never although Meera’s father is to bully him into handing it all was still evading creditors and “one morning when the sun was only makes an appearance, although Welsh, as far as the neighbour- over, even his brother’s half. authors, Beach Holme editor a stain on the edge of the earth and according to Adele’s neighbour hood is concerned, she’s a This story disintegrates into Michael Carroll moved to On- the moon hadn’t yet gone under,” Meera he returns now and again ‘darkie.’ a rant, and the characterization tario to work for Dundurn, ena- Adele encountered the evil with a little money for his At 17, X decides he doesn’t is not always credible, but the bling the manuscript to resur- presence of the soucouyant mother, and once with a box of want to be his mother’s nurse- evocation of the soucouyant is face under Dundurn’s Simon & while running through the for- old books for Meera. maid anymore. He tells her he’s effective and Soucouyant suc- Pierre imprint. During that two- est in Carenage. It was a premo- ✫ made provisions for her, but she ceeds with its images of the Car- year waiting period, the retail nition of the direst sort. Not long Meera is an attractive and can’t understand. What sort of ibbean. afterwards, Adele’s mother be- bright young woman, probably provisions would leave her in a No doubt it was the original- price went up two bucks. came like the soucouyant. about 18, but it’s hard to know house alone, where realistically ity of this uneven first novel that Paulette Crosse is a pseudo- ✫ for sure, as Chariandy has a laid- she could not have survived for enabled Chariandy, who teaches nym for Janine Cross of North When Adele arrived in back approach to time. Meera more than a few days? in the Department of English at Vancouver who has published Canada to work as a domestic has mostly kept her distance, not The abandonment is callous. Simon Fraser University, to gain the fantasy novel, Touched by ten years earlier, she was stared wanting others to identify her as It’s not clear how long it is be- nominations for two prestigious Venom, one of Library Journal’s at, treated like a whore by the being ‘like them,’ the embarrass- fore Meera moves in to care for fiction prizes. 978-1-55152-226-8 Five Best SF & Fantasy Books of men, and made so uncomfort- ing family that lives up the block her, but maybe Adele’s long 2005. 978-155002-716-7 able that she rarely left her in the old house, uneducated time friend, Mrs. Christenson, Cherie Thiessen writes from apartment. Then she became and rough, with those two boys. has filled in the gap. the Pender Islands.

34 BC BOOKWORLD WINTER 2007-08 reviews POETRY

A Few Words Will Do by Lionel Kearns (Talon Books $16.95) ALSO NOTED “A fresh cougar skin on the fender / of the old Plymouth, and a boy / about three years old, sitting on it…” THREE WISE MEN An old-timer reminiscing or po- ems from way back brought out of the photo album? Nelson in From Mexico, to Winlaw, to Victoria the 40s, East Hastings in the 60s, Mexico six decades back. High Speed Through Shoaling of Calgary except in Kearns has been there and done Water by Tom Wayman irony or distaste. His (Harbour $17.95) HYPOGOGIA that and his poems stand the test real work is the of time with ease, “exploring the words about snow Moving Day by Terence Young (Signature $14.95) circled universe of memory.” The “When the switch trips and wind and silence cover photograph of dead cou- and I convert to nothing…” and recollections of Gillian gars draped over a forties car is emories can often take the What is it with poets his life as a labourer drifting shape of hypnogogia, Wigmore one of the many memorable fea- when they turn sixty? MAIN-VAN and, (did I mention that state between dreaming tures of this volume of selected M , soft geography Tom Wayman of HANNAH DER KAMP it?) aging. and awakening where odd clarities and Gillian Wigmore poems. Winlaw investigates The last section in cloudy sensations present themselves (Caitlin Press $15.95) 1-0894759-23-6 ------what lasts and what doesn’t, body without apparent connection. In Moving Shoaling Water is about poem- Allen Bell, Ma Vie Va S’Achever Day, tender-hearted Terence Young tells pain, fate, death, burial, eternity, making. “The Garden,” in (Flask $12.95) 978-0-973683-6-7 his life as sunny days with cloudy peri- existence and aging all in the which older and young poets ------ods. book’s first section titled “60.” garden together but not all in Margo Button, Heron Cliff “A marvel, really, all “I will spend a very long time/ in (Signature $14.95) 1-897109-17-2 harmony, is required reading for these bits that come together the dark/ without a face/ or word. / all poets manqué. The section ------like a math equation when , Only the light /knows my name.” Marita Dachsel ends with a lullaby, “Sleep poems/ it looms into sense: All Things Said & Done (Caitlin Press, These poems, many already yet unformed…/ You and your bur- I live here, $15.95) 978-1-894759-22-9 published in an impressive list den/ shall not vanish/ nor lose your These are the people I love.” ------of journals, are plain spoken ac- powers/ You remain forever the be- Blending literate humour (a lonely kid Peter Levitt, Winter Still counts of rural living and espe- ginning/ of the story, / the word quotes William of Occam in Latin to a (Mother Tongue Press) ------cially about the earth. Wayman drowsing in the stone.” 978-1-55017-401-4 bag lady) with day-to-day domesticity revisits the same scene: moun- (those garden-darkening plum trees re- ally must come down), Young is alter- tain, aspens, creek, house, re- Hannah Main-Van Der Kamp nately wistful, funny and hyperbolic. He peatedly but the repetition is Andrea writes from Victoria doesn’t unfold the Big Themes of War not dulling, rather it is MacPherson, and Peace, Gain and Loss. He’s a skilled Natural a deepening expe- Lionel Kearns poet who can relate the universals within Disasters: rience of awe the world of his own street, heightened Poems and affection. by occasional travel and his hesitant (Palimpsest “And for those who store these ex- His loving at- fidelities as son, friend, lover, husband, Press $18) periences in words on paper, time be- father and son again. 0-9733952-6-5 tention to Andrea comes a line. But do not fasten onto A breathless argument with a con- the land- MacPherson that line. The fascination is in the scape of SE tractor over a collapsed sundeck, living.” Kearns is compelled to BC, where tongue-in-cheek solutions to the expense Pierre Coupey (graphics) rules of the of raising children and the burden of ex- wonder about time/memory/ he lives, river (DaDaBaBy & Blue Orange cess friends, disposal of family heirlooms Publishing) 978-0-9698897-3-1 here/ now. Many of the poems through the are extended questions about in an imagined auction; the over-arch------cycles of sea- ing impression is one of challenged , Wisdom is Modesty existence that elude answers. Ian Rudkin sons, weath- contentment, “the dramatics over.” (Brio Books) Poem-making itself is often ers and The contentment is tinged here and ------the object of his inquiry includ- personal there with confusion but not with re- Ian Rudkin, What Goes Up Comes ing a funny piece in which the moods, is the grets. Out (Brio Books) poet’s product is likened to el- strength of the If you have lived in the Victoria area ------ephant turd. In “Big Poem,” most of your life and, in mid-life, Susan Stenson, My mother agrees book. Never ob- with the dead (Wolsak & Wynn $17) Kearns asks for “a literary scure, he is so plain- enjoy reminiscing, then this blackberry 978-1-894987-18-9 liposuction or an editor / who chops spoken however that ------patch is for you. text like a plastic surgeon,” but he risks verging on the W.H. New, Along a Snake Fence 1-897109-11-3 these poems are not flabby. Con- prosaic. Is this poetry or (Oolichan $16.95) 978-0-88982-236-8 crete poems from the sixties chopped-up prose? ------George McWhirter, The Incorrection may look at bit dated now but Wayman has devel- it’s important to recall how new (Oolichan $17.95) 978-0-88982-234-4 oped a reputation as a ------they were once and that they ‘work’ poet who Diane Tucker, were composed on typewriters. writes about labour Bright Scarves of Hours A Few Words is thin on the but he hardly (Palimpset $18) 978-0-9733952-7-3 current publishing conventions touches on his job ------, Kites (Ekstasis for a slim volume of poems. as a teacher at George Whipple There’s no index or dedication, $18.95) 978-1-897430-09-5 the University ------no chronology of the poems and Harold Rhenisch, Return To Open no acknowledgments. The Water (Ronsdale $15.95) 155380-050-8 reader has no way of knowing ------which poems were previously Kim Goldberg, Ride Backwards on published, when or where. An Dragon (Leaf Press $18.95) 978-0- author bio would have been wel- 9783879-1-4 come. Does it matter? Talon ------K. Louise Vincent, The Discipline of Books is a seasoned publisher Undressing (Leaf Press $17.95) 978-0- and would not have overlooked 9783879-0-7 such details. The format’s lack ------of pretentiousness may be pur- Bernice Lever, Never a Straight Line poseful; a seamless fit with these (Palm Poets Series $15) unpretentious poems. If some of 978-0-88753-438-6 them are new, they fit seamlessly with the old. Bernice Lever In a short poem about wood ducks, Kearns says, “Perfection is Tom Wayman has being totally adequate / in any given coincidentally published moment.” Maybe they’re not ex- his first fiction collection hilarating experiments with lan- Boundary Country guage but these accessible (Eastern Washington pieces are more than adequate, University Press $18.95) a reminder of how good poetry and four novellas collectively hangs in there. And how pleas- titled A Vain Thing urable! (Turnstone Press $19.95). 978-0-88922-558-9

37 BC BOOKWORLD WINTER 2007-08 featurereview MEMOIR SURVIVOR—FOR REAL Hiding in a converted pig-sty, Rhodea Shandler kept her compassion alive in rural Holland during World War Two.

A Long Labour: A Dutch Mother’s supposedly for relocation, had In the 1960s, the Holocaust Memoir by Rhodea Shandler been killed in the concentration Dutch population (Ronsdale/Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre $21.95) camps. She also found that the that had lived neighbours to whom she and through the war t age 87, Rhodea her husband had entrusted years, like that of Shandler finally began their money and possessions for other European A writing A Long Labour: A safe-keeping, were unwilling to countries, came in Dutch Mother’s Holocaust Memoir. return them. Her story ends as for severe criticism by It contains the story she felt un- the couple and their children a younger generation. able to talk about with her fam- start a new life in Canada. The myth of a wide- ily for most of her life. She died ✫ spread heroic response a year later, soon after it was fin- In spite of the gruesome cir- to Nazism was exposed ished. Simply put, A Long Labour cumstances, Rhodea’s tone is as a lie; numerous pub- describes Shandler’s life as a fu- surprisingly benign and tolerant, lications indicted the gitive in the Dutch countryside not so much because of the mel- wartime generation for during the five-year lowing effect of old the abandonment and German occupation age as the result of an betrayal of Dutch Jewry. of Holland more than enviably optimistic The effect of these two sixty years ago. outlook that helped juxtaposed female voices— Soon after the Nazi her during her or- that of Rhodea Shandler sum- occupation of Holland deal. She speaks moning up vivid memories from began, Rhodea and sadly but rarely in an- her own distant past, and that her husband left the ger. Any incipient bit- of Dr. Lillian Kremer drawing city and, assisted by the JOAN GIVNER terness is either on a wealth of scholarship to give underground resist- suppressed quickly or a broader perspective—is to set ance movement, traveled to the tempered with understanding. up a kind of dialogue. It is a dia- farming country of rural Hol- Rhodea manages to sympa- logue that deserves, even cries land where anti-Nazi feeling was thize with the young German out, to be continued in formal strongest, and Nazi patrols less soldiers she saw in the last years and informal settings, in class- frequent. Over the ensuing war of the war. She saw that they rooms and in book clubs, appro- years they moved frequently, as were little more than children, priate for all ages. one hiding place after another drafted unwillingly into the de- ✫ proved untenable. pleted army. When she visited a Only a few quibbles: There is Found and paid for by the German town after the war, she no explanation as to how and underground, their home was was greatly moved by the plight when Rhodea Shandler’s sur- a former pig-sty, whereas a of German mothers who had name was changed from wealthier Jewish couple who lost their sons. Bollegraaf and the scholar who could afford to pay more was Like many survivors, Rhodea wrote the preface repeatedly accommodated in the house remained tormented by guilt uses the term “disinterested” with the host family. Their pro- over her own choices—for her when, I think, she means tector’s attitude, kind at first, abandonment of the mental pa- “uninterested.” Also, prior changed overnight to hostility tients it was her job to care for to describing her arrival when Rhodea discovered she before she became a fugitive, for in Canada, Shandler was pregnant. Rhodea neverthe- leaving her older daughter to recalls how she less feels gratitude to the fam- the protection of others when crudely assumed ily. She is fully aware of the risks she fled, and for failing to con- B.C. was going to be taken on their behalf—their vince her parents to go into hid- full of Indians—an hosts would have been shot in- ing, rather than making the fatal off-putting refer- stantly for harbouring Jews— journey to Poland. ence that might and she understands that those ✫ have benefited risks were greatly increased by Perhaps because Rhodea’s from some edito- the presence of a baby on the world-view is so generous and rial tinkering. premises. In spite of severe pri- forgiving, it was deemed neces- 1-55380-045-1 vations, Shandler remained on sary to contextualize her story by friendly terms with her hosts and prefacing it with a factual ac- Joan Givner regularly visited them after the war. count by an expert on the Dutch reviews biographies ✫ Holocaust. Dr. Lillian Kremer, and autobiographies Her baby was delivered in the professor emerita of the Univer- from Mill Bay. unheated pig-sty on a frigid De- sity of Kansas, puts a somewhat cember day, with unsterilized different perspective on equipment, and with help from Rhodea’s narrative and her husband and a fellow fugi- makes a fierce indictment tive who had some nursing train- of Dutch collaboration in ing. Once the child was born, the the persecution of their resistance movement arranged Jewish neighbors. for her to be placed with a Gen- Kremer states that the tile family. number of Dutch Jews Rhodea and her husband who perished in the were dispatched to separate hid- Holocaust was slightly ing places, not far from each higher than the number in other. When convoys of German other European countries; soldiers searched the area, that Dutch civil servants cooper- Rhodea hid in a shallow dug-out, ated in the disenfranchisement like a grave, in the ground. In a of Jewish citizens; and that the sad footnote, she notes that the Dutch police actively partici- first member of the under- pated in the deportations. After ground who helped them was the war, Jewish survivors found captured and shot. little support from their compa- After the war, when Shandler triots, who were interested returned home to Amersfoort, mainly in re-establishing their she discovered that her parents, own lives. It is alleged they had brother, and many members of little sympathy for the greater Rhodea Shandler her extended family who had losses and the atrocities suffered been transported to Poland, by the Jews.

39 BC BOOKWORLD WINTER 2007-08 reviews NON-FICTION SHOW ME YOUR MUSIC, I’LL SHOW YOU MINE All was not fear ‘n’ loathing during coastal encounters of the first kind

Myth & Memory: Stories of Indigenous- other canoe arrived: European Contact edited by John Sutton “Night had fallen, and we Lutz (UBC Press $32.95) were all reciting the rosary of ith truce-like solem- Our Lady of the Immaculate nity, prior to inter- Conception… Seeing that no Wnational sporting attention was paid to them, be- matches it’s customary for play- cause we were at prayers, the ers to stand at attention as na- people in the canoe began to cry tional anthems are played. out, and they continued shout- As indicated by John Sutton ing until such time as the daily Lutz’ essay in Myth & Memory: recital of the rosary and special Stories of Indigenous-European Con- prayers to some saints were con- tact, the ambassadorial power of cluded and the hymn of praise, Pen and ink wash drawing done by José Cardero in 1792 depicting the Spanish ships Sutil and music has surely arisen from which caused great admiration Mexicana meeting the Coast Salish people near Victoria with Mount Baker in the background. some deep-seated human im- on their part, was sung.” pulse that is likely prehistoric, ✫ fect of this music on their coun- tween 1789 and the present, of cause their faces were pale and and therefore beyond analysis. In 1778, at Friendly Cove on tenances. how indigenous people per- they were wrapped tightly in According to Lutz, the crews the west shore of Vancouver Is- “Not to be outdone in polite- ceived the arrival of Europeans blankets, like corpses. of Captains Juan Perez and land, when Captain Cook’s two ness they gave us another song, on the west coast of North The Nuu-chah-nulth in James Cook—the first two Eu- ships arrived, carrying the young & we entertained them with a America. His contribution to this Nootka Sound, however, as- ropean explorers known to have British officers George Vancou- French horn, to which they anthology of essays which he sumed Cook’s men came from reached B.C. waters—were ver and William Bligh, music was were equally attentive.” edited—derived from a confab the moon, one of the most pow- both serenaded by music from also traded, rather than salvos of ✫ of academics at Dunsmuir erful of all spirits in their cos- Aboriginals upon their arrivals, weaponry. The collectively writ- Lutz, who teaches history at Lodge near Victoria in 2002— mology, because they wore in 1774 and 1778 respectively, ten journal of Cook, as collected the University of Victoria, is teasingly offers tidbits from his yellow and their brass decora- and both crews cast their own by his second-in-command working on a book based on research. tions shone like the moon. music upon the waters in ex- James King after Cook’s death close to two hundred different We learn that George Van- As Lutz concludes, “Rather change. in Hawaii, records the meeting surviving accounts, recorded be- couver’s arrival in the harbour than immediately destabilizing In July of 1774, when the at Nootka Sound: that bears his name, like the ar- traditional beliefs, the arrival of European “discoverer” of Brit- “After we had anchored the rival of Cortez in Mexico, oc- Europeans was merely part of ish Columbia, Juan Perez, con- boats came alongside without curred at a “spiritually potent the ongoing proof of these be- tacted Aboriginals in hesitation but none of the Na- time,” vastly increasing his im- liefs.” canoes—presumably Haida— tives chose to venture on portance. According to ✫ off Langara Island, at the north- board … as they had no Arms Squamish elder Andrew Paul, his First contacts in our part of ern end of Haida Gwaii, it was and apperd very friendly we people believed some disaster the world only date back a few subsequently recorded: did not care how long they was scheduled to befall them at centuries, so Myth & Memory is “The first thing they did staid to entertain themselves, seven-year intervals and Vancou- a terrific idea for a book. Unfor- when they approached within & perhaps us; a man re- ver’s appearance happened to tunately the contributions in- about musket shot of the ship peated a few words in tune, coincide with the culmination of clude encounters that occurred was to begin singing in unison and regulated the meaning that cycle. as far afield as Utah, Virginia to their motet and to cast feath- by beating against the Canoe Whereas the Nuxalk weren’t and the Kalahari Desert. Five of ers on the water… They make a sides, after which they all sure if the European arrivals the chapters concern the coastal particular signal. They open joined in a song that was by no were from the sky or from the areas of British Columbia; two their arms, forming themselves means unpleasant to the Ear … land of the dead, the Squamish, analyze contact stories from in a cross, and place their arms “As they were now very atten- according to Louis Miranda and Chilliwack and the Okanagan. on their chest in the same fash- tive & quiet in list’ning to their Philip Joe, were thought to be The ardent history buff will ion, an appropriate sign of their diversions, we judg’d they from the land of the dead be- find plenty of obscure gems. peacefulness.” might like our musick, & we Fort Vancouver, for example, The theatrical encounter was ordered the Fife and drum John Lutz’s “Work, Wages was known by indigenous peo- placed into a religious context to play a tune; … they and Welfare in Aboriginal- ple as “the place of mud turtles.” by the Spaniards. As Lutz takes Observd the Non-Aboriginal Relations But for the so-called general in- in B.C., 1849-1970” care to note, a motet is a vocal Profoundest si- terest reader, Myth & Memory is won the Governor composition in harmony, set usu- lence, & we General’s Gold Medal a stylistically obtuse and daunt- ally to words from Scripture, in- were very sorry and the Eugene ing melange of academics talk- tended for church use. The that the Dark Forsey Prize for the ing to each other, pointing the expedition’s priest, Father Juan hind’red our best dissertation in way to more intriguing work yet- Crespi, further wrote, after an- seeing the ef- labour history. to-come. 978-0-7748-1263-4

40 BC BOOKWORLD WINTER 2007-08 LAST WORDS JACK’S NOSE BOONIES VERSUS TOONIES: Sheila Peters and Perry Rath n September, at the Reckoning 07 conference, a prominent To- Ironto publisher shocked more than a few people by making a pub- lic apology to Nanaimo-born novel- ist Jack Hodgins. Having published all of Hodgins’ books since 1976, Doug Gibson confessed he might have erred in advising Hodgins to remain on Van- couver Island for three decades, rather than move to Ontario. Even though this statement was clearly intended to provoke con- structive debate, noses went out of joint immediately, including Jack’s. A heated discussion ensued about the viability of “writing from the boonies.” But these days who can adequately define where the boonies begin? With the onset of Above & beyond the sub-boonies the Internet, do the boonies even ex- ist anymore? No consensus was reached ince 1998, Creekstone Press in Smithers date: roughly one book per year. Their newest title, the weather from the west about how best to write, where best has resolutely not operated as a back- to write, or why. Meanwhile, to coun- ($24), is an overtly artsy book of 42 poems by ter-balance the urbane palaver at to-the-land press that encourages eve- Sheila Peters and 23 paintings by Perry Reckoning 07, we have featured six ryone to make log houses or provide authors who function “above and Rath—a sophisticated “synergistic” interplay beyond” the 50th parallel: Donna home-birthing techniques for cattle. between landscape, heart and mind. Kane, Ian McAllister, Chris Harris, S Creekstone books attempt to do nothing less Anne DeGrace, K. Linda Kivi and Run by Lynn Sherville and Sheila our ‘cover person’ Ann Walsh from than reflect life in northwestern B.C. from Williams Lake. , Creekstone has endured for nine Peters places such as the Bulkley Valley, Smithers, the Call it the Hinter issue. years as the lone, ongoing, situated-in-north- ✍ Hazeltons, Vanderhoof, the Kispiox Valley, Ter- ern-B.C. imprint within the Association of Samuel Johnson once said “no race, the Skeena and Bulkley watersheds, the man but a blockhead ever wrote, Book Publishers of B.C. ever since the untimely Spatsizi or Tatlatui Wilderness Parks, Haida except for money.” death in 2005 of , who I believe he was wrong. Writ- Cynthia Wilson Gwaii, the Nechako and Fraser watersheds, the managed Caitlin Press from Prince George. ing to make Inside Passage and other traditional Gitxsan money is one Caitlin continues to publish writers from cen- way to write, and Wet’suwet’en territory—almost half the tral B.C., but its headquarters have shifted to but it is not the province. only way—or the Sunshine Coast. Sometimes, maybe those of us below the 50th the best. Thus far Creekstone has released nine books —Alan Twigg parallel should think of ourselves as the sub- of non-fiction, fiction, poetry, photography and boonies. painting. Theirs is a modest but realistic man- 978-0-9783195-0-2

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