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It was a disturbing vision of discrimination. I glimpsed more hord reolii with Terry Jordon. Debntedwith the authorsof Clayoquot Lh Dissent. And felt both poin ond pleasure with Patricia Seaman. Books by Canada’s authors are some of the best books avoiloble. They’re the books we love to rend. took for them ot your fovourite bookstore. 2 ,.’ f ! / , : ..’ ’ I , : : .x,..: . :I ;.i VOLUME XX I I I, NUMBER9 Uncommon Sense JohnRalston Saul aims m nun our turbulenttimes inw anotherage of enlightenment Letter5 . .._............ 5 BY JOHN LOWNSBROUGH GraphicTales by Maurice Vellekoop . 48 The Best of I994 Emkrin Cmoda’s editors name this Pooeby year’srap tides by Rhea Tregebov . 5 I FirstMovels byMaureen McCallum Garvie . 53 ‘Tis the Season Children’s Books There are gik possibilitiesgalore for rhe holidaybook-buyer by Diana Brebner . 55 BY RICHARD PERRY Young Adult Books by Pat Barclay. 57 up front Working Up an Appetite by Barbara Carey . 59 The ISPIT culinq temptations- CanLitAcrortic~8 betweencovers! BY CLARA ALBERT by Fred Sharpe . 60 A BackrvadGlance The Pucks Stop Were by Douglas Fetherling . 6 I Roundingup rhisseason’s sports books. Coren at Large hum on-iceheroics m off-speedpirching by Michael Coren . 62 BY ELIZABETH MITCHELL NewRcdcm by GeorgeBowwing and Katherine Gtier. a biographyof Karen Kain. and much more BEGlNRllPdG ON PAGE 19 Short noticesof ficrion and non-fiction PAGE 49 . ......... Books in Canada December 1994 3 ,.,_ C-n_. _ _ -- ._-- . ._. _ n ny-I___..._ I__. .._.:___.____ . .. Donald Harman Akenson’s lacescbook PUBLISHER is Conor(McGill-Queen’s). a biography of Anita Mleanikcwski Conor Cruise O’Brien. Clara Albert is a EDITOR Toronto writer and occasionalcook. Rob Paul swewe Allen is a Toronto photographer. From MANAGING EDITOR 1977 co I9g3 John Ayre wds the dance Barban Carey cridc for Madeon%he is the auhhor of ADVISORY EDITORS Norfhmp Frye(Random House). Pat Doris Cowan Barclay is a frequent conuibucor co rhese Brian Fawcea pages:she lives on Sak Spring Island. B.C. ART DIRECTOR Diana Brebner’s The GoldenLotus Gordon Alexander (Nerherlandic) won rhe Pat Lowrher Award CIRCULATION NANAGBR last year; her new book of poetry. Fkrm & SusanAihoshi Founo.will be publishednext spring by CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Nerherlandic. Roger Butford Mason’s Laurel Boone (Martimes) most recent book is The &over Rcwre and Allan Casey (Pnlrles) Clive Cocking (Eridsh Columbia) Other Stories(Hounslow). Anne Cimon’s Dennis Cooley (Manitoba) laoeslbook is No Cwnuy for Women Mary D&on (Newfoundland) (Mosaic). a collection ofpoevy. John Doyle Ray Filip (Quebec) is a Toronto writer. Gary Draper is the NATION&LADVER,ISINGSA~ librarian at the University of% Jerome’s Jory. Hii &Associates College in Waterloo. Onr Louise Fabiani Tel: (4 I6)447-7999 is an Ottawa writer. Brian Fawcett’s most recent book is GenderWars (Somerville House). Maureen McCailum Carvie is a wirer livingin Kingston. Onr George Kaufman reaches at a hii school in Oshawa. Onr John Lownsbrough is a Toronto journalin Elizabeth Miihell and Donna Pdurse are freelance writers livingin Tomnro. Denyse O’Leary is a Toronto editor and writer. Richard Perry teaches in the visualam depamnenr ofYork University. Fred Sharpe is a Tomnco puzzle entbusiasr Margzwet Swatman is the author of Fox (Turnstone): she lives in Winnip% Eva Tihanyi is a writer livingin Welland. Ont Rhea Tregebov’s new collecdon of poetry. Mapping the Chaos.will be published by V6hicuie next spring. Lynne Van Luven teaches journalism at Carleton University. Maurice Vellekoop is a Tomma illustntor~ his work appears regularly in Dmwn and Quo+. Joel Yanohky is a writer livingin bval. Que. 0 4 Books in Canada December 1994 -_ ._ --_ . ., . .., --.. ,r i - -.- .__. w..... _- . Lwioag Short among its readers, particularly when it is Wordswonh says that poetry is the his- ICHAEL COREN’S RAGGING women doing the intellecrual work’? mry and science of feeling. Music evokes lxlof Karl Marx. Alan Paton, H. G. I would like your readers 10 know lhat emotion. and paen) is rhr art thal connects WeUganaoulasfafsho~of~i~- Wild Mofhw Dmrc~in~ghas been receiving us withour inner. non-v&al life through ist sainthood in their private lives reveals intensely enthusiaslic responses and rc- the musical. sensory use of language. as a childish idea I thought endemic only to views in many different contexts. well as through he cognirive. It may be w- themore~veleft:tharonlypureorigins Bridging the gap that exists in our culture gued that the ecology of tile soul cannot be give good results. By Coren’s lights we between academic and non-academic tendedat all thmugh kmguage.without lhe should prefcra brutal, but sincere, fascist modes of experience and discourse was musical. pmsodic skills of the poet. to a progressive who does good in public one of Ihe goals of thin book. and il seems One more quole: Pound sdyysthat poetry but remains flawed at home. Let us now to have been successful. Halpem’s face- musl be written crl kwr II.Vw/l as prose. pmisc.August0 Pmochet. As for his con- tious commenls notwithslanding. Every tention that “authentic”conservatives are person on my dissertation commiltee fortbrightthmugh beliefin Rightish fancies commented on ia engaging wiling style: like “natural law,” “instinctive correct- many people both in and outside the hk~t ExacQly as Described ness,” and such, 1 ask him only to name academy have told me how “moved” Ihey WOULD LIKE TO CORRECT theseold-lineparagons. Were they in the were by my argumenl. 0 several inaccuracies in Maureen Mulroney. Reagan, Nixon, or Major As for focusing on daughter stories“IV- McCallum Garvie’s review of my novel. cabinets? mrmberingand recreating their mothers” Irr r/w Lurrpcr,sy ofLow (First Novels. for much of Ihe book. I call only say 10 Oclotw). The epigraph with which Garvie Halpem: go read the book again. and pay begins her review does not appear in the particular attention10 my descriptionof the published book. The main character. 3f&+ Dismissa way mothers and daughters are tom apart Joanna. does not move to the West and AVlNGJUSTRERBADSHERYL and turned againsteach odxr in patriarchy. then returnto Ontario: she moves Fromone M HsJpem’sre.view ofmy bookof lit- and how that in itself becomesthe most ef- Ontariocity toanother. The last chapter is erary criticism, Wild Mother Donring: fective suategy for editing thr maternalOUI not called “Fear”: it is called “Afraid.” Maternal Narrative in Canadian of narrative. There is nothing in the bookabout”being Litewwe (Brief Reviews, Sttmmer). I feel hit by a bus.“The novel is not 320 pages. not only miffedand annoyedas I did the but 350 pages. Some of these arc minor tkst time,but angry. Halpan criticizes my pointi of course. But one expeutsa review- book for reading“lie the Ph.D. disserta- The nsnpotiiance of Fow?l er to be accurate. if nothing else. tion it once was.” She charges the book ILE 1 SYMPATHIZE WITH What is not such a minor point is whh ‘%xhicspeaVand suggesu”it is a spe- w the reviewees Maurice Mierau Garvie’s ass&on that my novel was”a bid cialist’s book.” On the other hand she ad- savagesin his October poeny column. I re to take Schormperlen closer to the pan- mits that I occasionally “make the reader joice to concur with his insistence on Ihe Iheon of Atwood. Munm. Shields. and ragesndexult[abouttextsandgenderpol- importanceof poedc form. and his disdnc- Gallant.” Not exactly. 11wasjust me wrh- itics],“aratherdmmatic feat to pull off in tion between the inlentions and usesof po- inp a novel. criticspeak! etry and those of prose. I have been a po- /XIIIIC .%buqehn IftnditouhageousthatB&.rirzCmfu& etry editor with Brick Books for seven Ki)Rlton. ant. allowssuchashoddyandeasydismissalof years. and a poetry awardsjuror for four: academic work by women. I have seen a good poetsarc nellrly as scarcezx nightin- similar anti-intellectual bias in reviews of gales’ teeth. and loo many of the rest ap- Advance cwpieaof booksconle with wam- otheracademicbcoksbywomenwritersin pearto see lheabovedistinction to liesole- ings thar reviewers should check any ma- your magazine. Could it be that Bookr iti ly in whodeurmines the lineendings. the Canada mcmwagt-s anti-intellectualism writer or the typesetter. - forgood ret&on. Most of the inaccura- Books in Canada December I994 5 .-._-_-;---_I-- ~. .~. .~ ~-.-~. _ _-. .--.~. _~._. .--- -- . c galumphingcouplets.” If she had paid al- process they lind their inuer voices. they tention to what is made abundantly clear collaborate.thry improvisr. rhey commu- throughoutthe book. she would know that nicate: they roll back Ihe frontiers of their the two authon anived al this text after livrs and each othrr’s.” working with grade IWOstudents. These .1111r~Gn-wis kids are seven yrars old. The fact is that Ellilk4.I loa Ars Lois Burdett. a teacher in Stratford. wlrdrm: OM,t. Ontario. has heen working with teaching Shakespeareto gmde two studentsfor the Not in the Middle past 25 years. It is no rxaggention to say ICHAEL COREN’S COLUMN that they know more about the English Pll about polarization (September) re- bard than most adults. Each year they peatsa perniciousand very Can;ldi;ulenor: prove this to the Stratford Festival. They the yearning for”a middle. modcte. and correspond with the actors-and much correct path.“This is precisely what has of this is in evidence in their own hand- precipitated the “ignorant and splenetic wrhing thmughout the book -and they solitudes” that ax in evidencr whenever draw pictures of Shakespeare and the a debating p&r is being made. characlers in the play. And that work is What we have is each side. perfectly scatteredthmugbout this book. And when awNI: that the ucr nwdia will be the path the spring comes amund.