VOLUME 2 NO. 6 DECEMBER, 1973

FILLING IN FOR PEARSON ’.Memoirsof theRightHdnourableLESTER 6. PEARSON, VOL. 2

mlewd by Roger Hall

DURING THB AUTUMN of 1972, esMike Pearson realized mere and mcxethe extreme gravity of his ilbles, heattempted to quicken the pace of theprcducticn of his memoirs. III eedyNovember, after drafting four chaptersand sketching in twc others, heabandoned work on his second vclcmeand huned tc the third; upon whichhe labcured until a few days before hisdeath on Dec. 27.

The second volume has now beenpublished. Pearson’s mseamh assc-&es, John Mmuc and Alex In&(with the help and guidance of BlairNeatby, Christopher Young andPearson’s mn, Geoffrey) have ccm-pleted his work - rhining the fbst-person style and drawing relevantm&i& frcm CBGTV trawaipts(The Tenth Decade and First PersonSingirlorl. Pearson’s diaries and otherpersonal and public papers. Admit-tedly the result is, as Geoffrey Pearsonwrites in the fcmwcrd, “not thevolume L,.B. Pearson would h a v ewitte.n” for he was ml ‘%lv&mte re-d&r” of manuscripts. but a work thatcan still be considered prlncipelly thepmduct of his pen.

Unhappily, the plan doesn’t workparticuhuly well. That whichlifted thefirst volume of Mike cut of the crdi-

canllnued on p@ 20

A $HuDDE@BLOODY

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THE TRUE LIFE OP.SWEENEY TODDCO.?Zi7-E DE CHARMOY

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IT SEBMS THE English have alwayshad an abiding affection for theireccentrics. Unlike the Americans, whotraditionally tend to favour the under-dog, the English have shown noreservation about extending theircompassion and fond interest not,onlyto the unpardonably rich but also tothe criminally insane. Both the Englishtabloid press (the masses) and themajority of distinguished Englishmurder-mystery novelists (the upper-

middle classes) -have helped cultivatethe native fascination for extravagantmurderers, from Jack the Ripper to hisvarious latter day descendents. Perhapsthen, Cozette de Charmoy, a residentCanadian painter for the last 15 years,is merely acknowledging her Englishroots by recounting in her recentcollage novel the extraordinary saga ofthe “demon barber of Fleet Stree:“,Mr. Sweeney Todd.

Wldle the design land layout of lazetie Life of Swemey Todd owe muchto the po@ularired vers ions ofMcLuhanism such as The Medium icthe Masmge and Cl&d Village withtheir strong graphic impact, theirdramatically varied type sizes and theirinsistence that visual ‘Ihwtrations” canconvey as much content as do words,Ms. de Charmoy’s exquisite little booktakes full advantage of its Victoriansetting. The book’s fuccessfid recrea-tion of the values and sentiments of apast yet familiar era somehow allowsus the distance from the materialneeded to accept the narratoks appar-.ent sympathy for the hem and obviousrelish in describing his grisly deeds.Indeed, there is an irresistible kind ofboyish charm to the zest and cease-lessly inventive imagination with

which Sweeney Todd pursues hi..in-terests in the ladies and the razor Upto a point. the anonymous narrator’senthusiam is infectious: “YOU HAVEA/WiDE/CHOlCE/SWE.BNEY/SOMANY WAYS/TO DEVELOP/ANART FORM”Cozette de Charmoy uses words

,with the assurance and intuitive right-ness of a poet. Without them, themorbid and baroque fantasies of hercollages would be overdoweriw. Herunobstrusive harrator is a comic inven-tion of high order. The narrator’scomments, which lace the telling ofthe story, range from exclamations ofalmost breathless wonder to the non-chalqnt acceptance of the extra-ordinary: “Sweeney Todd/discoveredinsulin/and never said/a word aboutit./ He had no/special interest/indiabetics.” The story itself is thestandard issue rags-to-riches melo-drama common to late Victorianpopular pulp fiction. The social corn-mentary inherent, in such fiction i spresent in the I)ue Lift in a casual,off-hanged manner. Piding tbem-selves suddenly orphans as well aspenniless, Sweeney’s beloved sisterBeth becomes a prostitute andSweeney is sent to live with an aunt inA,inerica. Sweeney takes up the art ofthroat slitting in order to earn somepocket money. Eventually he developsa passion for it.

The numerous collages in the bookare a world in themselves. Ms. deCharmoy’s artistry is unquestionablethroughout. Given the nature of hersubject matter, so, surprisinglyenough, is her tact and. tastefulness.The images am made up from copper-plate et- and newspsper litho-graphs of the late 19th century. Thecollages are an attempt to depictvisu$y what could not be expressedin words - the workings of a dement-ed ‘imagination. More importantly,they allow the reader, assumed to benorid and sane, to confront the subconscious and unspoken in a disturb- :ingly direct manner.

This stiange, darkly handsomeChrsitmas offering from Oberon Pressis detinitely not for the squeamish orfaint of hearf. To be taken (or given)with moderation and discretion. 0

Tdmnto joumalirt W&w I&pm hasD rpecil interest in contempormy bt.

Vol. 2 No. 5 December, 1973

editorDouglas Marehall

essocinte editorDoug F’etherling

ert directorMary Lu Tomsaiitorlal assktant

Susan Triter

advertisingmtd busbzessmanager

Robert Farrellyconsultant

Jack Jensen

CONTENTSFBATURES

RoScrHaUonMikeIt .., . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1SuiesonSerier:hY!L-Parts . . . . . . . . . 9

IV.O.3fihhlI’s latest novel . . . . . . . .I2

uryBrw%o”smalhvoo* . . . . . . . . . . . 1terRe.iionzolf. . . . . . . . . . ._. , . . . .15

RBvIBwsTkeTrueLifcofSweeneyTodd . . . . . . . .ZUltimatum ........................ .3The Peacock Papers ................. .4I’Arche JOunlsl .................... .5TheLelsureRfots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6canadianrandTkeir society . . . . . . . . . JOQIEIWC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .I0Subliminal Seduction ............... .11Co9pxmine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..I 7Four Monkeal Poets ............... .17Writersofthehiriu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .I9

Bookx in fhuda is published 12 times peranNIm by cawdian Review O f BooksLimited, 6 Ckarh St. I!& Toronto fd4YIn, Ontario. Second Class Mail - Rcgistrbtin No. 2593.contents 0 1973Canadh Rnvi.% of Books LtbRintedbyHwihgeRertCa.Ltd,

’

OUT OF GAS‘ULTIMATUM

RIGWRLI ROfihlER; Clnike Irwin:cloth $7.25: 2.27~~~

reviewed by Douglas Marshall

,THIS IS A political tract seductlwl~packaged a5 -ao Arthur HaiIey thr&.On one level, the level of getting thereader to turn the page, it’s pretty e$citing stuff. Juvenile, yes. But no momso tbsn. the average Hailey effort and alot 1esP contrived. The writing is spare,the structme tight. The action un-winds in neatly iotemut scena Rke the.wenlnade flbn or W drama it will un-.doubtedly become.

Aside from the traditional iogredients of the thriller - power, speed,danger, the tick of the clock runningout - Rohmer throws some bonustidbits into h& pseudo-potboiler. We’regiven a brisk historicsl survey ofCanada’s northern policy (or non.policy) during the past 25 years. Thereis pleoty of technological d-8, ~+II.plete wlth maps tid diagrams. con;cerniog the logistics of the High Arcticoil and gas play. And the plot is drivenforward by auxibary bursts of pa-triotic pride - the gallaot Maple Leafflag. snapping defiantly in the teeth ofa whole diplomatic gala - c&datedto moisten the eye of all but the most

, cynical citizen.I Oh yes, the plot. The time is 1980.One morning the President of theUnited States (who is mode&d onJohn Comlelly) phones up the PrimeMinister of Canada (who is modelledon a Grit campsign manager’5 dreamof a candidate - a Westerner withPearson’s moral authority, Trudeau’sstyle and Dick Dariog’s guts) and givesParliament 33 .houm to (a) settle thequestion of aborigioal rlgbts. (b) grantthe U.S. all the Arctic Island gas itwants. and cc) allow the Americans

move the gas out. The mason for thaultimatum: the U.S. is facing a oriticalfuel shortage sod Is fed up with Cana-da’s continued inability to come upwith a coherent policy on energy Ia-sourcee. The fora backing it up:massiive economic sanctions.

; So far, 50 credible. Indeed, eventsseem to have anticipated Rohmer,byabout seven years. The U.S. alreadyfaces a critlcsl ener8y shortage thiswinter and Canada still hasn’t formu-lated anything faintly resembling along-tsrm national energy policy. Roesthat meao, as the dust-jacket su&ests,that fantasy might soon become fact?

Hardly. For one thing, Rohmfx’5plot presupposes that th5 MackenzieValley gas pipeline is nearlag mm-pletion. (In a rather ragged sqbplot, itkeeps being blown up by discontentednative peoples.) But the pipelioe is stilla blueprint. The way things stand now,the proven nserves of Arctic gss amout of everybody’s reach - qo’ matterhow desperate the fuel shortage be-comes. Another point: Nixon is notConnally and Comwlly is not thePresident. Nor is he now likely to be.Although Nixon may jilt be crazyenough to start issuing ultimatums toffiendly neighbours (his recent hair-raising da&ion to put the U.S. forceson a global alert,indicates anything ispcesible), them is not the slightestchants he could get away with it. Itwould unite the world against him andfinally divide his own coui~try beyondrepair. In the atmosphere of post-Watergate Washington, no majorCanada-U.S. energy confrontation is atall probable before 1977. So we have aperiod of grace in which we must or-ganbze ourselves. which is the messageRohmer is trying to put across.

Rohmer is a “speoted expert onthe potential of the N&h and a per-suasive advocate for a more in@na-tive and determined approach tonorthern dwelopmeat. Unlike Hailey,he had no need to accumulate a moun-tain of resevch on his subject Most ofthe facts and figures’were already inhis head and the book radiates aointensity of purpose Hailey couldnevg muster. Given Canada’s officialvacillation end gened apathy con-

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coming the Arctic energy situation, athriller was perhaps the best vehiclefor presanting his case.

But ultbnately the rhetorical devicetakes over from the argument and runsaway with the game. For nine-tenthsof the book, as tha diplomatic chessmatch. 15 played out, Bohmer depicts aCanada reacting to pressure with un-characteristic uuity, efficiency andstrength of contitlon. Then, in a sunprise ending, he presents a Canadabehaving wlth equally uncharacteristicP”silla&tty.

For the average reader, who knowsthat Canada is neither black nor whttebut a good old compromising grey like

.most countries, ti ending *ewesmabrly to expose the hiddenflaw run-nblg through the whole book Hisargument is sound. The danger he iswart&~ about ls real enough. Whet wecan’t believe in is ourselves as he seesus.0

ONTOLOGYIN ONTARIOTHE PEACOCK PAPERS

LEO SIbPSONMa&&m of anada

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mvlawed by Chris Scott

+iBRE’ THB Greeks had modesty,’wrote Thomas Love Peacock in 1831,“we have cant; where they had poetry,we have cant; where they had patrlo-tism, we have cant; where they hadanything that exalts, .deltghts, oradorns humanity we have nothiig butcant, cant, cent!’

Peacock is writ lar8e in Leo 8lmpson’s new novel. Not only is the genialanbnadverter a character In the bookbut its sixth chapter IS written by him,metempsychotically no doubt.

The range and tenor of Simpson-Peacock’s interests are more defined

than in Arhvn&ht, their first literaryIncarnation. The locale this time isBradfarrow, southeastern Ontario(pop. 48,000); the hero, JeffreyAnchyr. a cattlefeed salesman affllct-ed with ulcers and emui. Bradfsrrow,however, has been selected as the sitbfor two experiments. The fmt is theshrinkage of the town llbraty, anelecirontc microminiaturlmtion o ftheprbrted word to be conducted byDr. Harrison Boyce, a media punditgiven to such utterances as, “linearfragmentation is the assembly-line ofthe mind”.

Armageddon is the second experl-‘ment to which Bmdfarrow is subjected- Armageddon wlth a whimper not abang. One Friday afternoon, JeffreyAnchyr meets an angel in a brir (whohas not?) and recelvas this apocalypticmessage: “We’ve run this play longenough, so we’re closing her up. It’sthe end of the world.” It is easy to besnobbish about an8eli. A quick checkwith Gustav Davidson’s A Dicdmaryof Angels assured me that BuntyOakes, for so he is called, is as Cana-dian as tiple syrup, a fan of the

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The townsfolk ark unaware of theirfate, and for a time thllgs move alongas usual. There is no fire and brim-stone, only a number of “relocations”including John Harrington, inventor ofthe wat_er closet; Arthur Hemshaw,balloonist; and Miss IGista St. John,“the uotorlous virgin of New Orleans”.Krista’s father has fitted her with achastl~y belt made of au dnknownfabric that accommodates the needs ofnature while deuyjng those of pass+.“It’s alive or something,” Bunty tellsJeffrey, “it acts with her body.”Around her neck, Krista wears apendant with a dial. If the rightsequence is dlled, the garment issupposed’ to come off and JcXfrey’sattempts to succeed where scientistsand angels have f&d constitutes an.engaging dive&on F readers satiatedwith excessiva literary concupiscence.

The main plot line 1s in the effortsof the relocated Thomas Love Peacockto frustrate the McLuhanatlc schemaof Dr. Royce. Allegorically, thestruggle represents the cIash betweenthe stately assumptions of clasdcalhumanism and the demier cri of aphlllstine technology. It would ibeunfair to reveal the outcome here, butSimpson must be congratulated for hisrefusal to moralize In a novel which -at its best - is a deIlghtfu1 satbicalfantasy.

As a whole the narrative Is framedby two disembodied speakers, TVviewers who are never ideutiRed. Ifound the device superfluous, as ifSimpson were attempting to say:“This is the vacuum, the noise ofsilence. How dull! How dreary!”

Sfmpson is at his wisest and wittiestin the sixth chapter, “DogmaticManor”. As weII as its Peacockkin styleand form, both serving the purposes ofIronic detachment, the chapter isreminiscent of Swift - not yet theSwift of Gull@&- %uals but certain-ly the author of A Tale of a nb. Thesubject ls the dlsiitegration of con-temporary inteUectuaI life intomutually ex&slva dogmas. Gatheredat Domatlc Manor are “Mr. ApelyHeritage, the human zoologist; hfr.Relapsus, the scandalous novelist; Mr.

Tactor, the touch-e&feel grouper; Dr.Harrison Royce, the mediamaniac; tid

Mr. ChIrm, the student incendiary”.To the disputants there can be noexchange of views, let alone an agreement to disagrae, and the. art of con-vention is reduced to the level of self-serving monologuas.

Closer to home i ihe port&it ofJonathan Farrow, the p!oprietor ofDogmatic Manor. He is “a thin andburning gentleman of some forty-five01 fifty years”; a writer of “opaquepbilomphical verse”. Farrow judges apoem according to the number of pinebees and cauoas it contains. Ha hasbought shares In several periodicalsand has actually founded his ownsmall publish& corn&my to issue hisworks. Their publibation is never indoubt, “‘although at infrequent times,whep his critical seuslbllities bad beenhoned by the winy morning ah, hemight delicately convert a semi-colopto a colon, or edit out a comma”.

The charm of such whlmsiealsqnoritiea does Mt conceal theiressential wickedness.

“‘It is hard not to write satire:’ saidJuvenal, and given the characters lnti book ona has to agree. Their follyIs beyond the correction .of mortals,but if the true aim of satire is ridiculerather than correction then Zie Pea-cock Papem hits the mark exactly. 0

Toronto author Chris Scott b cm-?entZy mmrkiw on (I novel a b o u tGiordano Bruno, the Itafian neoPfa-ton&t who uus burned at the stakeIn 1600.

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Jean VanWs commune for ment%lIy

THE LEISURE IflOTSERIC KOCH

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The first and. only corn&e recordretarded men, and took the Two

of Cansdian golf. Voices on. L lAmhe Joumai is as muchUntil Christmas $15.00 a spiritual quest ss it h a description of

THE CANADIANpla& Considerable editing must have ERIC KOCH’s first no&J, The Frenel

STYLE played in whittling down a.10.month Kiss. was heralded by one critic .as

Today and Yesferdayjournal into .&is slender work., What “Canada’s entry into the field of the

in Love, Work, Play emergeg is moti ho-m sfide-abow than international avant-garde now. If in

and Politics L’Archejoumal or soul kung fp. his second novel, The Leisure Riots,

Raymond Reid Too many slides eOncem common Koch violates any novelistic ‘con-‘Until Christmas $10.00 colds, flat’ tins, dame+ trMa and vention. it is only ths King’s tknous

THEONION . .countryside asides, all enthusiastically dictum to the White Rabbit: “Begin at

F I E L D ’exclaimed. Qne admires the sense of the beghming, and go on till you come

A true murder mysferyadventure but yearns for more wlour- to ths end: then stop”. The novel

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at the end.author of The New Centurions that he isn’t honest; his seIf+nage$9.95 never prachxdes the compulsion’ to Friedrich.’ Bierbaum, the narrator,

THEOPHILUS ’confess his inability fo feel, his doubts has just been dismissed as President ofabout what he does feel, his beatings CRUPP (Center fo; Research on Urban

NORTHA novel of the boys. But telling the terrible Policy and Plmning). America’s mostby Thornton Wilder truth is merely a bottom rung on the infIuentiel think tank. So influential isauthor of The Bridge of San Luis way to building a better truth. CRUPP that its relations with theRey. $9.15 Clarke seems not to have been in- White House have become the subject

BREAKFASt OF volvzdwithtbemenonatrulymean- of a Senate investigation. Sit- In

CHAMPIONS ; . ingful lew.1. After 10 monthsmhe stiU lonely exile at Habitat on St. Helen’sA nod -. refers to them as “boys”, w&b nick- Island. Bierbamn writes his memoirsby Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., names’such as Mr. Handshake. Also, (as he fondly recalls Napoleon engagedauthor of Slaughterhouse Fke.$9.15

reg&diag the Christiaa approach, It k in the ssma pursuit in St. Helena).no more possible to love the retarded . But Bierbaum’s real histo& coun-

A FAIRY TALE OF thanitiatolovetlieB&ksorJewri. tarpart ,is Herman Giianp, whom heNEW YORK If one claims to love them, chances are served as an adminisirative a&taut inA novel he loves them because they’re reiarded Nazi Germany. Gdring. he reflects, wasby J. P. Donleavyauthor of The Basdy Beatitudes

- and that is the Second Voice panto- a voluptuary, a man of genuine joie de

of Salthazar 6. $10.30 mimingtheFirst. * vivre who loved the power he wielded.A clear picture of L’Arche, as Unlike Gdr%ng. though, Bierbaum is

THE AMERICAN promised’ in the title, is never really not corrupt: he is a model bureaucrat-INTERNATiONAL attempted. The sphitual angst - the apolitical, amoral, and opportunktic.ENCYCLOPEDICCOOKBOOK

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Available en your b&storeporation’s English sarvice in Montreal.

Fublisbhed bv ’In this Mwl Koch brings the fruik

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Ont., czs D music thempisl.the major problems af%cting con-temporary American society - u)r-

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mption in l&b places, the incestuousmarriage of big business and politics,the phenomenon of mass media per-suasion and so on. But the real targetof his attack is the Protestant workethic. Koch’s America ls in the throesof ‘Qisure riots” - well-orchestratedacts of ostensibly mndom wndallsmdesigned to subvert leisure-time activi-ties; riots engineered by myent butunderemployed Middle Americans.Because the P&dent of the countrysees these incidents as determining theoutcome of his impenrlmg csmpalgnfor re-election, he commissionsCRUPP to solve the problem, not ofrising unemployment (that’s in-soluble). but of the electorate’s aware-ness of it.

This, then, is the crucial test put tothe thlnk tank, and the entire plotcentrea around the various ethicallydubious strategies employed byCRUPP in its lncreesl~y frenetic ef-forts to cope. There are genuinely fun-ny moments in the novel when Kochstops straining for the trenchant wittoo obviously beyond his comic meansand relaxes into .the send-up of the

pr&Vatergata morality he knows sowell. It’s not iuconceivable, for exam-ple, that the following words [Bier-baum’s) could issue from TrickyDick’s mouth any day now: “As Bis-ma+ used to say, politics‘ ls the art ofthe possible? arid 1 did everythingpossible to help my old friends, andtheieby - nobody can deny.it - Ihelped America.”

The book’s humour resides in localmom&s like thls but falls on thebroader plane. The fault doesn’t lie inKoch’s subject matter, wblch is cm-trrdly relevant. but in the overallstructure. One senses in his choice of afuture tie-slot a deliberate avoidanceof the kind of historical analogy heused to such good effect lo TheFrend~ Kiss. In that book the 8~stained parallel between the SecondEmpire under Napoleon IlI andde Gaulle’s Fifth Republic provided asharp focus for ti_ narrator’s satiricanalysis of political history.

In the present novel much of thecomic potential is diissipatcd becausethe action lacks any similar ill--ting reference. l%e L&we Riots is

:

almid not at satiiMng specific abusesor people wlthin the system, but atmore general tendencies within Middle -America. While Bierbaum is clearly ln-tended to function as a shabby carica- \ture of G&a the hnplied.parsllelbetween Hitl&‘s Germany and late1970s America is too vague to be real-ly supportive of the theme in any per-vasive manner. And surely tbls rathershop-worn parallel is much morelimiting as * mine of comic explom-tlon and characterization than Koch’sprevious choice.

Bierbaum is proud of his cla&aleducation and much given to Latin-dropping. At one humiliating pointwhen he is in bed with his mistress anddiscovers his “toggle-switch” to belnoperative,.Otid rises to the occasion:Ut desint v&s, tamest est laudandawhuatcrr: meaning that even if there.isa lack of potency, the wlll ls laud-able.” A painM commentary on thedistance between Koch’s own comicconception and its (for the most psrt)unfunny execution. 0 _

Elizabeth Brady writes Jrequently forCBC Radio.

CANADA: ISSUES AND OPTIONSEditors: R. P. Bowles, J. L.‘Hanlqt, B. W. Hodgins W. N. MacKenzie, 0. A. Rawlyk

k?ANADA AND THE U.8: CONTINENTAL PARTNERS OR CANADIENS. CANADIANS AND DlJERECOlSNARY NEIGHSOURS?This volume treats the vital issue of CansdbUS relallons In a way

A wide variety of lnterastlng and pmvocatiYe source matedaLrelating to French-English relations are contained in this volume.

that combines interest and sub”-. It contains a wldevaristy of Thsy provide the reader with an opponunlw to probe fmm both ai~wce materials which enmunge the reader v probe the mn- cantemporary and historIcal perspective. the economic, cultumltemporary and hlslorical events, clash of opinions and attitudesas and political issuer existing between th two groups.dell as the coapemtion that havs influenced and will likely can-iinus m shaps relationsbaween Canada and the U.S. =fiwprr 6x9.156p.fgas 6x9 s&s GctoLw 1973 _

I%tbl&hed ForthcomrhpTitles?ROTEST, VIOLENCE ANDSOCIAL CHANGE THE CANADIAN IDENTITY: FALLACY OR FAC,,THE INDIAN: ASSIMILATION: INTEGRATlON CANADA IN THE WORLD: WHAT’S OirR ROLE?DR SEPARATION7 REGIONALISM IN CANADA: FLEXIBLE UNION OR FRACTURED NATION?

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- Th~homss C. Haliburtcn, The ClockrnrrKerIN THB overheated. amamy spirit ofthe Christmas mason, Reader, I profferas a gift the pair of comical passagesthat squat over this review like suffer-ing trenchermen after a feast of greasyroast goose, mulled cranberry juice,and several wide wedges of mince meatpie. In return, I ask for nothing but amodicum of attention to the matterunderfoot. i

64”

The Gmadan Settler’s Guide,Catherine Parr Trail&Introduction: Ciem Thomas:247 pages, $2.15.

Winter Studies and &mmerRambles in Gma&.Anna Brownell Jameson,hti0aOcti00: ch Thomas;173 pages, 31.73.McClelland A Stawvart should con-sider issuing in a single volume a sale0tion of the NC&% intmductosy essays,themselves introduced, one wouldhope, by. the general editor of the

series, Malcolm Boss. A few of the in-troductions am a delight to mad, mostoffer intelligent insights, axplauations,perspectives and perceptions con-cerning the literature they describe.For anyone wishing to check on thereceived opinion about Martha Osten-so’s Wild Geese, for instance, withouthaving to mot around the shelves iusearch of the NCL edition, such areference work would be extremelyvaluable.

‘Two of the most readable selectionsin’ this “New Canadian Fryebra@’would be Clam Thomas’ introductionsto the volumes presently under review.Ms. Thomas, who also wrote intro-ductory material for the NCL editionof Catherine Parr Tdl’s The Em&iwoods of Canada, contrives always tobe pleasantly informative and neverpedantic. Her sympathetic treatmentof the characters and accomplislnn&sof Catherine WIT Traill and AnnaBmwnell Jameson effectively dispelsany prejudice the reader might haveagainst encountering authors decidedlynot of our time.

Catheiine Trailli who Ms. Thomasiaemifiies as ‘a cls~gi~ figure in 6~background, one of the most eom-petent and attractlw of those whoendured and prevailed”. compiled TheCmcdimr Settler’s Guide in 1854 Inorder to prOtide a sorely needed“Manual of Canadian housewifery” forthe wives and daughters of smallfanners, laboumrs and mechanics.

Anna Jameson’s Winter Studies endSutimer RanzbIeJ in Gmeda ia a per-sonal account of the author’s stay inUpper Canada from Deeember 1834to late August OI early September1837, before her return to the morecongenial civgiaation atTonied by thesalons of Europe. Though she has noneof Tmill’s compassion. Jameson’sknack for locating the grotesque pan

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teviewd bq Nigel Spencer

IN THE PAST few years, Toronto hasbecome a sort of penny arcade of hewteaching techniques. Novel forms ofaudio-visual bombardment and evennew taste sensations (uh, no . . . that’sa coffee commercial), abound. A fewam successful. many are not: but most

One of the most ambitious (yet un.certain) and powerful (though flawed)is Canadiatts and i’kir Sociely byAlan Skeoch and Tony Smith. Insteadof try@ to dazzle us with the short-term effect of clever art work, theymake effective use of the book formatby choosing literate and challengingtexts by, about, and for Canadians,and then placing them side-by-side forperspective, cnntr@ and ey~n pro-vocation.

The emphasis is on a fresh appmach :to the social sciences, and one has theimpression that its main audience arehi school students -although muchof the material aims far over theirheads. However, despite a sometimesawkward lack of focus, it is a stimulat-ing and exciting book for almost anyone who wants to flex his brain.

Three limitations should bementioned. First, the adventurous and ,playful note on which the book beansis not really sustained. Instead of

‘developing into a mosaic of creative

into conventional anthology. This lsdisappolntlng, because the authorsthemselves suggest a far more fearlessand expansive approach that could,and should; have been taken. Second,‘nearly all the. texts cited are printed in.Toronto; whether this is a malady ofthe book or of Can’adian publishing ingeneral. I leave to you. ,Third, its out-look is predominantly WASP-SouthernOntario. Texts on Qbebec and Mari-time culture, for example, are pedektrian and shallow compared with therest of the book.. The Quebec selec-tions take an u&lightening look at“the family”, rural communities,Duplessls, Vallieres, a n d GagnonGiven the material available,. theauthors seem tc have scraped thebottom of the barrel on purpose.

Pmvided you overlook the book’sgeographic and cultural bias, it is still alively experience and a source thatkeeps tugging you back.

Quite different but even morevague in its wnception is Quebec, acollection of photographs by veteransJordan “Chic” Harris and Arthur

fall into a f&nat& and ~mblguous and t&s&l texts, it lapses too often Tardif.

ULTl&Ub’TUM‘: by Richard Rohmer $125

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’ important novel] of 1973,.

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Ijfc’mliiir”./- - “Lrecommend it. . . ” John Belanaer. CFRB. Toronto_

“One of those books that are hard to put down.. . ” The Toronto Sun

“The ultimate outcome of Canada’s reluctance to respond to America’svoracious appetite for energy.. ” Financial Post.

Clarke Irwin ThQ Ndiondl Publishgrs

The photos range from tbe impres.sive to the thoroughly banal; but mostsucceed in revealing the zdmost unrealbeauty and humour that surroundspeople in tbeir day-today lives. Whatis more, they do it unobtrusively andwith respect for the subject. The samecannot be said for John RobertC&&o’s bilingual captions, whichare thoroughly unnaccessary andannoying. They serve no functionexcept to give distracting and irrele-vent detail and spell out exactly whatwe have seen for ourselves.

At $6.95 the book is worthwhile.It’s far less pretentious then moreexorbitant collections, and quitepowerful in a special way - if youignore the captions. 0

VERY LIKEAWHALE

SUBLIMINALSEDUCTION

WILSON BRYAN h-EY; Introductionby AMRS~ALL McLWL4N

Prentice-Hall&tl1$7.95; 206 pages

review-d by Richard Lubbock

THB MOST SUBTLE and diabolicalplot ever conceived against humanityis working away this moment to car-rupt and enslave your mind, accordingto Professor Wilson Bryan Key in hisbookSublitninalSeducrion:

Ewry person readit this book hasbeen victimized and manipulated bythe use of subliminal stimuli dttcledinto his unconscious mind by themae’mcrchsndiis of media.

These nulignant stimuli are to befeared all the more because they areinvisible: one chapter in the book isheaded ‘It’s what you don’t see thatsells you”.

Luckily for the fate of civllhatlon,Dr. Key is one of those rare beingsblessed with the talent for seeingthings that aren’t there, and he’s wil-ling to share his gift with the reader.Trahring be&s with. a Gilbey’sLondon Dry CBn ad:

Them is . ..isrmont0theginadthan meets the conscious cyo . . . Letypur eyes concentmtc mome.ntarilyup011 tbc tbii icwube from tbc top.Without rtmtchiy your imnginrtionbeyond rcasonablc limits. can you reeM E formed in tbc cubs?

Well, to be quite frank, no.Some inteIpnt the letter at first as aaF . B u t hypotbcttcally for tbsmoment consider tbc letter an E. Donot read ffirthcr until tbc E is crhb-lishcd clearly in your hind.

Sorry Professor, but we’ve only got topage four, and my imagination is al-ready stretched beyond reasonablelhnlts. Unless I’m excused fmm seeingyaw E, I’ll never ftish the book.’

Ignoring all protests, Pmf. Key‘plods doggedly fotiard with hisdemonstration, until he has convincedhimself (and presumably some readers)that there is SEX in the gin glass:

,YOU have just can.scialuly perceivadYOM tial subliminal SEX. There willbc many others.

Naturally. As Hamlet showed Polo-nius, once you start seeing camels inthe clouds you can see anytlihrg, I,,-eluding whales and weasels. Thus it iswith Prof. Key. why, he even sees theword SEX hidden in Playboy centte-.folds. What!? SEX in Playboy?!?!.Unthinkaljle!!

But these examples am typical ofKey’s brand of evidence and “‘proof’,which Is that of the stage hypirotist:bold assertions of contrafactual sen-sory proposItions. Once a suggestiblereader assents to seeing SBK in the ghrglass, he becomes as .putty in themaster-halluclnator’s hands.

Come to think of it, Key’s portraiton the dust-jacket does remind me of a

- stage hypnotist, and this surely en-plains how Marshsll McLuhan was in-duced to write an Introduction to thebook.

With his zonked-out readers safelyunder the ‘fhrenca, Key leads themthrough a tbrl&g cloud-cuckoo-land

of delusions and fantasy. By page 193he is so sure of his powers that he canconfidently suggest that schlzo-phrerdcs may be right after ally “Those‘Voices’ May Really Exist,” he intones.

Unlike Nader, who has contacts inindustry with outraged employees wll-llng to produce hard evidence. Keyseems to have avoided advertisingpeople, -and relies hrstead on informa-tion leaked by his own imrer muse. ’

One good reason to bother wlththis drivel is that Key Is suffeiing from

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a classic case of “Reinforced Dogma-tlsm”, a serious plasophlcal disorderErst IdentItled by sir Karl Popper.Reinforced dogmatism are systems ofbelief so constructed that they per-fectly resist ail rational”or experl-mental criticism.

Subliminal Seduction is exactlythat sort of impregnable nonsense. Ifyou share Key’s MIItlc visions, then hemust be right. If you deny them theneither (a) you’ve been brainweshed. or@) you’re an agent of the dastardlyadvert&log conspiracy. Thus, thesubliminal seduction hypothesis cannever be refuted, and that way liesmadness, as Key hbnseIf concedes:

For centuries throughout most ofWastera civik.Aion, t h e generalcriterion 01 dotinition of sanity hasbeen WI individud’r ability to dts-uiminate between reality and illu-ttonThe Professor himself says it, and

any reader of this.ludicrous book whohappens upon that deftition \vill feelhudioed to suspect the author of self-confessed InsanIty. 0

Richard Lubbock is (1 Toronto writer,broadcaster. and dedicated anti-dogmatist.

GRANDEPRAIRIE

ILLUSIONTHE VANISHING POINT

W.O. MrTtxELLMacmillan of Gumda

cloth $9.95: 393 pages

remend by Tony Kilgullitt

LONG’BEFORE Brook Taylor coined“vanishing point” in 1715, therepresentation of threedIIensionalobjects In spatial recession on. a two-diienslonel surface created illusionsof verlslmgitude. Art Bed to achievevisual truth. Mitchell’s novel employsthe vanishing point (VP) to fakespatial and temporal recessions lo themirrored reflections of Carlyle_. _ _ _

\\;ith characterization as two-dimensional as the Page, the novel’s .real accomplishment .is a series ofstichomythic incidents each stuffedwith fresh visceral sensations, andthree-dimensional ’ objectivity. Theolfactory, acoustic, visual and tactileparts far er&l the excremental whole:“They accompanied birth, love, age,death. A per&m& art maybe. Haveto be.” .Evocative pointillism tenderssuperfluous a theme as dated as Gil-bert Parker’s Dnnslatfons of a Savageor Fred Bodsworth’s The Stmnge One.Like Allen Fry’s How A People Die,Come A Long Journey, and Ryga’sEcstasy of Rita Joe, the interface ofIndian and white is so stereotypicailytrue as to become cllchd. whitesresemble their Methodist Glass, mh-ror* for catching “Vanishhrg Savages”111 Archie Nicotine, Gloria Catface,Esau Rider and WrlfrId Tail-feather. ’They’re a long way from CatherineTekakwitha, but Mitchell’s excellentear for dialogue does populate acredible radloplay inside the oversizedframe of the novel.

ror with the psychological vanishingpoint in the viewer. In ?7re VanihbtgPoint central perspective succeeds onlywhen the viewer-reader realizes thatiiluslon is the best that could bemanaged. 0

In M&dtan~s i%tv&h the Vat&h-ing Point the painting becomes a ntir-

(Christmas Eve, 1900); a list of 234 ofhis own forebears whose importantdistinction was that they lived to be80 or older; a lit of 304 surnames “ofmy blood relations”;a separate list, 94names long, “of my blood relationswho have made something a little

Smallwood is a great one for lists.He fattens his book with a list of wars;a list of revolutions; a list of revolu-tionary leadee, and their ag& at thehistoric moment of his own birth

Sinclair, 36-year-old widower , ’“teacher: agent-judge-nurse-pollce-

Tony Kilgapin is the mttbor of Lowry. mote than usual,of their llves”;a final(I critical study of Malcolm Lowry re- list of world-famous people Small-

agrIculturali&’ to 25 Indian families cently published by Rests Porekpic. wood has met, just in case there were12

ly, VR says so little site seems scarcelymore than a Beatriclan VP awaiting anali too mathematlly predictableCOtlChtsiOtt.

wife GraCe and theh stillborn daugh-ter, both dll so abruptly as to

. JOSEPiiR “JoEy”SM.4LLWOODMactttilhm of Gmada

dismiss credibnity completely. Similar- cloth $13.95: illustmted: 666 pnges

viewed by .Harry Bruce

;;;;~;y~;;&~;~ MORE TH,A,N !Rockies. TIIe present seems to be1959, but time passed stretclies fromCarlyle’s .infant consciousness of YOU EVER j.magnifying his penis IO times with amagic lantern up to flnai concentricity WANTEDTO iwith Victoria Rider (VR), the Indllnstudent he hss nurtured through ado- KNOWABOUT ilescence, yet not prevented frompregnancy through prostitution. VR isthe predominant VP, and VIP in PV, , J O E Ya n d Carlyle’s controilhtg goal, b u tshe’s hardly more real than hls.dead I CHOSE CANADA

TO PARAPHRASE one of Joey Small-wood’s own dear and distant fridnds,Richard M. Nixon, I want to make onethii perfectly clear to the people ofCanada. 1 did read this book. Yes, Iwant to make that one thing perfectlyclear; first, because a lot of peoplesuspect book reviewers really don’tread the books they’re so keen to diceup in print; second, because anyoneeke who’s tried to march through all600 pages of -I Chose Cmtoda willknow that the temptation to skipwhole chapters must have been trulystupendous; and,, third, I guess, be-cause reading it all was a major per-sonal triumph of duty over inclination.Among what must be hundreds ofwonderful sod even awe-struck thlogsthat Smallwood has to say about him-self in I (;7cxe Curada there’s thisstatement: “I was perhaps the firsthog-miser in Newfoundland to put in asystem for boiling ail swill.” The bookneeds the same system.

_ ._ __ --- -. --.--- -.---.-..

names he forgot to drop in the bodyof the book; a list of 110 companiesthat Joey tried to inspire to settle inNewfoundland; and, in Chapter 12(*Dreams That Didn’t Come True”), acoy Ust of 23 “failures of which I ammost conscious”. The lists of surnamesalone should guarantee terrific salesamong everyone whd loves to see hisname in print.

The “faih~res” list reads as though,near the last moment, somebody’atMacmillan of Canada, had said: “Mr.Smallwood. we’re aware of your trulyremarkable achievements of courseand, as you know, that’s why we’re soanxious to publish your book; butdon’t you think that perhaps thewhole thing would be more, weIll,cred.%le, if you were to acknowledgesomewhere that, once in a while, youmade what some pebple anyway mightregard as the teensiest little mistake?”

Maybe this did not happen but. if itdid, Smallwood would instantly haveunderstood the reasoning. Admittingyour mistakes prons you’re onlyhuman, and no one ever understood itspolitic+ value better than Smallwooddid. Sure, he’d say, to the people ofNewfoundland, I’ve just made a terri-ble mistake, and I’m bound to makemore. A terrible, terrible mistake. Butjust remember, I made that mistakefor you. You were on my mind when Imade that terrible mistake.

So, we fiid these 23 “failures”; dutyou cannot avoid. beliwing that, deepdown, Smallwood knows that, besidethe grandeur of his achievement, theyare insignificant. They’re scarcelyfailures at all. They’re just loveablelittle plans.he never managed to pulloff. Such endearing failures: th9 fail-ure to build “the longest lover’s lane inthe world”; the failure to duplicate inNewfoundland the German town ofRothenburg. which is “q&mt beyondwords”; the failure to recreate a400-year-old Newfoundland fishingsettlement; the fsihqe of assorted ef-forts to lure industry to Newfound-land. And so on. Good failures of aman whose heart was invariably fn theright place. I

Anyway, I thought I’d provide, inSmallwood style, a List of the what’swrong with his book:

1. Its method of composition wasarrogant. SmaUwood’s amazing orato-rical talents are as powerful today as

__ _.

‘they ever were - I know, because hecaptivated me for hours during aprivate interview last summer-but heseems to have assumed that goodbooks are little more than dictationin print. He tells us in I chose Gmdathat’ since childhood he has had “anunqualified, unwavering, unquestiomd‘confdenee in myself, my potentialand my destiny, at all times andseasons, whether I should be rich orpoor,, high or low, pragmatically sue-cessful or a failure . . . I iiave noticedthroughout my life that I hive nevereven momentarily lost faith In my-self....”

,

I ihink it was exactly this con-fidence that inspired him to thinkthat, in tive months of steady dicta-tion to a couple of secretaries in Clear-water, Florida, he could “write” a ter-rific book. The trbuble is, good writersdo lose faith in themselves from timeto time. Maybe they even learn some-thing that’s related to humility.

.

2. It is excessively egocentric. Itmay well be the most egocentric booksince The Autobibgmphy of KwameNk-runurh (1957). It would, of course,

be absurd to expect from Smallwood amodat book; and, in places, I C?w~eCotrada is so blatant in its expressionof Smallwood’s satisfaction with him-self that it comes close to having anaive charm. But not very close. Theearliest parts of the book, about hischildhood, are an interesting contribu-tion to the social history of impover-ished Newfoundland a generation ortwo ago but, even here, Smallwood’sfatal assumption that virtually every-thing that ever crossed his mind must‘automatically fascinate the wholeworld be&s to betray him:

. . -.--.~ I_ ~.____.~__.___.__. i ;

As he stood watching me w&k oneday, he enquire.3 tf I would ttke tohave B piece of blueberry pie. Themwasn’t anything in the world at that’moment that I wanted more,. butsmne pervert instinct - perhaps akind of foolish prido - pmmpted meto my no that&sand to persist in my,refusal as hc preraed the invitation. Iw’as d&Wed with myself and amdhgrrsted to this day for refudng theslice of bluebsuy pie.

In the end, this apparent assump-tion that no detail of Smallwood’s lifeand thought is too insignificant toleave out, and the relentlessneJs of theself-admiration. become morenumbing than irrit#ing. ’

3. 14 preoixupation with family isboring. The book cannot make up itsmind whether it’s a family tree. or aself-serving political history of thetimes in Newfoundland. Smallwoodhas long been rightly proud of his’ .amazing physical energy and, in thisbook, he’s poured so much of it intoresearching his forebears for centuriesinto the past that even lie suggests“some ‘readers” might want to skipright by the entire 19pge chapterentitled “The Part That’s Under-ground”. They certainly will. Hi pointin listing forebears who lived 80 yearsor longer seems to be a part of hisopen and slightly morbid interest inhis own chances of living, if not ior-eqr, at least for a great many years to ,come. The book is dedicated to Small-woods from h@ two greatgrand-children all the way back to his great-great-great-great grandfathers, “aU ofthem covering a, span of 213 years”.The dedication is a clear tip-off about .just ‘how much Smallwoodiana thedetermined’ reader will scan have toendure.

4. It’s too polite. Smallwood livedthrough some of the dirtiest. most in-genious, hilarious and Byzantineelection campaigns, political dog&Wand backroom intrigues in the modemhistory of the country and, though hegives tedious documentation of hisown public skills and triumphs in as-sorted battles, the reader keeps waitingfor him to dump all over his enemieswith juicy inside information andanecdbtes that ‘he !lone might be wil-ling to tell. This stuff never reallycomes out, or not much of it anyway,and you wish he bad half the instinctto settle old scores of, say, JudyLaMarsh. He fails, in an uncharacter-

I3

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istic way, to make news. This mayvery well be because, as Smallwood isfond of saying himself, he has never Iheld grudges. That’s probably to hiscredit as a man and politician; for hisreaders, however, it’s a dissappoint-meut. Political books of this lengthshould break more dirty secrets than IChose Canada does.

SmaUwdod pbms to write morebooks, a book a year for the rest ofwhat promises to be a jong life, adefinitive history of Nbvfoundland.that will. in some way. guarantee his

immortal fame more surely than anyof his polItica achievements could.Since it il almost impossible to spendtime with him and not wish him wellin everything he undertakes, the con-trast between his literary ambitions

and his literary style is curiously sad.A lot of history students will have

to read I Chose Canoda,!and maybe it’sno worse than some of the otherstuffthey must absorb. A lot of Newfound-landers will gobble it up because,despite its flaws, it is about them; it isJoey’s ahount of everything im-portant that’s been go@ on in theirintjmate society for several decades.Joey may have chosen Canada but hewrote a book for Newfoundlanders;and this is appropriate. There’s no realreason to doubt that, in his own mindand in his own ways, just about everypublic action he’s taken over the pastquarter-centmywas for them. 0

Hany Bruce, 0 contributing editor toMaclean’s, is based in Halifax.

DANCE OF THE DIALECTICLARRY ZOLF: James Lewis & Samuel

cloth $9. paper $2.95; I20 tiw

rwiewd by Peter Reilly

LARRY ZOLP is a baffling and com-plex man and it is, therefore, no sur-prise to fmd his book baffling at sometimes and complex always.

And it is fascinating to conclude,after at least two readings of the book- a third is necessary for anyone otherthan veteran papamzzi - that he’sfound the handle to the TrudeauLyceum door in the depression-nurtured theorizing of Leibel Basman,onetime. heighbourhood philosopher-in-residence at North Winnipeg, Man.

Mr. Basman, a Marxist and a closefriend of Z&s fa+er, was once over-lieard by Z$f to say that Marx hasstood &gal upon his head, by whichhe apparently meant that the Iiegeliantheory that ideas shaped man’s en-vimmneut wcle precisely opposite tofact, that is, that events foredestiuedideas.

Trudeau. says Zolf, was, in 1968 atleast, Iiagelian, and he had a lot ofgood background to justify attach-’mant to that school. Ha believed, infull accord with Ihe fat, middle-agedand horny cartoon hem seen recentlyiu Pb7yboy chasing his rmbile secre

my, that there is no escaping an ideawhose time has come.Now, haviog identifmd the Prime

Mintster of Canada with a Germanphilosopher, Zolf really goes into hisnumber: he ties him up 1~4th a Greek.Trudeau was Platonic in his politicalapproach; he yearned for dominanceof the Just Man and the Just Society.He also believed (in fact, he wastruly wedded to Platonic theory) thattrue justice lay more secure in thebosom of the State that! in the iden-tity of individuals, which might helpto explain October, 1970.

However, the author, having led usinto this trap, is kind enough to tieus out again. It’s all a load of crap, iswhat he really says. There is no way ofknowing what is going to happen,there is little certainty that we canknow what is now happening, andthere is a terrifying certainty that wewill never know why what. doeshappen ever happened at all.

But he leads us in on page one anddoesn’t take us out again until page112, and in between is what it reallysays on the cover: a personal tour de

CHARLIE FAROUHARSON’S1974 HISTERICAL CALENDARby Don Hanon

..- ._......... -.. ..-. _ .___ ..-_. ..- ~_

j&e. You don’t define a tour de forcein tern of good, indifferent or bad,and partIculerly not a psrsonlrl tour deforce, so I will not attempt to evahrate.the book, except to say that if you’know Zolf, and you like zolf, you willlike the book. If you don’t know himor your don’t like. hlm, you will hatethe book.

zolf, give.n the.proper quality ofcompany, the mffident eupply ofliquid refreshment and a breath-pausein anyone eke’s conwxaatio~ willusually be persuaded to tell about howhe, aa a lad, nsed to be cheeed homeevery afternoon by a gang of rough-necks whose chief motivation appeared to be juvenile anti-semltiam.One particularly bad day, when bdaadmnalin supply hadn’t been enoughto put him more than a couple ofyards ahead of his young Cossack pur-suers, he burst through his front door,ehcmned it In their faces, turned TV hismother and panted, “Say, Ma, whowas this guy Christ and what dld wedo to him, anyway?”

That anecdote probably explainswhy hie fght-or-illght inetincte are ec

well developed, and why he leftOttawa In such precipitate fashion,without even biddii goodbye to me.one of his oldest colleagues: he knewhe couldn’t hang around after publica-tion day.

It would &o go a long way towardan explanation of his truly racisttheories about hie fallow French Cana-dians: the chief among them, in ironicterms at least. being the idea that theyweren’t to be blamed if they co-operated with an undemocratic(Duplesais) government; the simplecreatures just didn’t understand themeaningof d e m o c r a c y .

And that, of course, takes you evenfurther along the road to under-standing October 1970. Hundreds ofimmcent people were slung into thepokey without the protection ofhabeas coleus; without the right tocall a lawyer or their familiar; withouteven the dignity of knowing that acharge had been laid against them andwhat it was; and it was all for theirown gbod. As long as we’re on thiederivative couree, give a little attentionto what Socrates, Plato’s teacher, has

to say ubout vibes lrr Book 2 of TheRepublic:

we must ssl up a CensOrshIp wer thefable-makers, and approve any podfable they make, and dtsappnwe tbobad; thosa whtch arc approved wewitl pcrruade the mothers aid nosesto tell the children, and to mould thewnkof the cbitkn by the fablereven more carefidly than the bodiesby’ their hands. Most OI those FeyteU now must be tbmwn away.

Is the rationale behind Informa-tion Caneda lurking in Plato’sRepublic? Did our Prime Riniaterreally become addled by too mucheducation, and is Platonic theory thereason he hates the press gallery? It’sall heady stuff, and the impulee tcfind justification behind everyancient philoeophlc maxim for the in-compreheneible worklnge o f ’ theCanadian government in the 1970sgrows a little etronger with everypage of Dance of the Diekctic. Zolfis fairly hypnotic.

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Dance of .the Dialectic la alto-gether too knowing, not only aboutthe’politiclane but about the pressgallery, snd if there is one thing Zolfhae learned tn hie young life, it & that

_

BIBLIOPHILESCOLLECTORS III

DEALER%_“THE ARROW OF AFGLLYON”

by LLEWDEVINE

Why have copies of this book (subject of a S2,000,000lawsuit brought by author against McGraw-Hill Ryersonand .The United Church of Canada) been purchased @ $50by individuals; Parliamentary Library, Ottawa; ForeignEmbassies, etc? Dwindling number of ftrst (only) printedand bound edition, autographed by author, available at ourprice of 850, $75, $100 investment. Much h&her prices infuture predicted. For free literature write to E. G. DesQnirtS&Developing Limited. Box 154, Mlsslssauga, Ont. LSA 227.

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nobody likes a smartsss. If he hadn’tflown out of Ottawa, he’d have hadtonm.O

Peter Reilly. journalist and formerCBC producer. is the Progressive Con-wwtire Member of Parltament forotta ,w west.

OLD ANDNEW TRIPS

COPPERMINEDON GfJl7E~DGE

Oberon Respope? 329% dotb $195; 128wger

FOUR MONTREALPOETS

PETER VAN TOORh!IIIARCPLOURDE, ARTY GOLDand

RICHARD SOMMERFiddlehead Poetty Books

,redmd by Migel Spencer

COPPERMINE? YES, of course. . . . Ariver. In B.C., I think. That is is muchas 1. or ‘for that matter most EasternCanadians, know about it; but DonCutterldge understands. All that Isgrand and important about the word,name,rlver,experlence and country,hecommunicates with amazing skill andfeeling.

There is no self-doubting “introdwtion”, “preface” or “appendix”; just afew spare entries from a diary to serveas a skeleton for this near-epic poem.Mr. Hearne, Chief Matonabbee andsome others set out on the third andsuccessful attempt to reach the mouthof the Coppermlne io 1768. That’s it.The rest ts 3 poetry of freshness, com-pation, toughness and detail - as coldand stark as snow, as warm andxich asthe coppery flesh of the invaded land.

The book, like the country, spreadsout with ease and defmnce:

spuce is Sri//,nouling cue p1 Ifno* f?wn

movbzgBewildered by excess of space, lightand cold, the mind seeks refuge ioparadox:

On rbr whiteeye of dlC specbwntke mind nfnren

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k become themueic of bdlef

It ls Gutteridge’s clear con&ionof what he sees a@ feels, and hissometimes matter-of-fact reporting

’ that lends such power to his story:YOUn&? SqlJmvin kabour, haulinga9Qaund de&e(nofwdfo?&ya]barnerr creasesher sbarkiu with welts,n$th bmcea ofpe?*nen* blcwd;below. Ike fochrshungwing for birrirtmces sennr ofpertnment painon hw bdly.They abmnion herto :he blizzard.

The richness, conIidence and drive ofCoppermine are a sign of Gutteridge’sfreedom, a part of the “survival”theme that few Canadian writers arewilling to explore.

Peter Van Toom reflects some ofthe same feelings and love of paradoxabout the countryside - this time,north of Superior. Here, however, thepoet intrudes a little more, allowinghis city background to filter things

slightly. In fact, the more introvertedand minute of Van Toom’s pieces arethe weakest, because he speaks fir11

$., subjects, rather than through them.Nevertheless, he shows a subtlety offe@ng and clarity of style that makesall his work worth reading.

One can only wish that editprDavid Solway had given as much spaceto his remaining three writers - MarcPlourde, Arty Gold and RichardSommer. FourMonbeal Poets remindsus once again that English-languagepoetry in the city did not end withA.M. Klein, +eonard Cohen and IrvingLayton. Thet.younger men have, infact, an extroverted and ‘dramaticviewpoint that $lltioguishes themfrom their counterparts in Toronto orVancouver.

Marc Plourde in give us affectingportraits that don’t need to be lardedwith imposed “slgniticanee”:

First contactrcveral tinier

ke?JGge?sp!iss overrben setde gentlyalong the wkite cupa if a burteq7yresring on eggsbell

lbd m&bt suddenriy breaklenbzg warm coffeedown ber dressArt Gold is also at his best when

focussed on a single image:The Space Around the Poem

I WIU to make Ihe rprrec around thepoem

maI. SolId OS the air nbout kilos ofCOflO”

or dale olr dd~fill. betwm.biy m”se nwgst be LI neighbow withD sweet address. o!bers may see

enoughrllhouette sexily bendbag by a drawn

curtain.It is late for them though, I may vidt

her

‘lo me k opprrrrnt for others to see.Thae ca” be nojedousy with amxrn so well dqined. Not (Iskoky idm I have picked up I nota coincidence that I dwell there,not a thing easily undone. So red in

facta rent Is paid.Probably the best of these poets is

Richard Sommer, who moves freelyfrom playful irony and %ell-timedrepetitlbn (“Honey”, “The Comers ofthe Mputh”, “‘Sex” and “The Man

Canadian Native ArtHockey .Beddoe; Piihler !nd Gitler

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Canadian Art4;~,ts=-Hi&tory

. Collier-Macmillan Canad&, Limited18

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Who Calls HimselP’) to laconic

1

NIGEL SPENCER

MORE CANLITTER

WRITERS OF T H EPRAIRIES

Ed&d by DONALD G. SfephensCanedien Litemlwe Seriis

Univ~~~ of British Colwnbie Pm=mper$s.sg zileplges

IN ACADEMIC circles, tbe irreverentand disreputable short form “Can. lit.”has two different, but interconnectedmeanings. I” general &e argot, Can.lit. refers to the larger body of Cana-dian literature, More speciticaily theterm refers to the U&e&y of BritishColumbia-based journal CanedienLileraiure.

When Cunedien Litemtwe first SW-faced in 1958 under George Wmd-cock’s continuing competent editorialscrutiny, tbe journal was welcome asthe only periodical that exclusivelyconsidered Canadian literature as aserious national literature. Gmadia”

! .

.

Litemfom wes, after all, the first andthen the only critical literary journalin which academic critics could ex-change their views abd tights with anaudience of their colleagues.

But 15 years later, even with theencouraging revival of interest in Cana-dii studies, one wonders whethe; therequirements of university teachingwarrant the issuii of tbis anthologyof reprints of critical articles cm thesubject of Prairie fiction. Though theeditor Donald Stephens cunninglyjustifKs Writers of the Rairies with theinclusion of foui previously unpub-lished articles by Clara Thomas,Hdl&ne. Rosenthal,. hlorton L Rosesthal and Marguerite Prbnau, thevolume remains a coume textbookcomposed of articles already availableand only sparingly emended. Evim ifone agrees with the suggestion madeby Reginald Watters at this year’sLearned Societies Conference in Kinpton that anthologies are often neces-sitated by the fact that a body ofliterature has’not previously apiearedunder one cover,.one would be stretch-ing the point in defending writerr ofrhel’mtis.

The format of ihe book is that ofthe journal from whii the majority ofselections have been drawn; it is large,and one fears it is a ccwtly indulgenceexecuted at the expense of students.The volume contains no index, cnxs-referenced 01 otherwise, and does notinclude a bibliography of &inmry orsecondary material - a grievous failingif the book is to be seriously ccm-sidered as a valuable teaching instru-ment. Missing alto is any attempt todescribe just what constitutes Prairiefiction 01 sets it apart, saving a” ap-plied regional rehash of A.J.M. Smith’sremark that nature sev+y impingesupon the sensibilities of Canada’sauthors.

Heavily influenced’ by A.J.M.Smith’s critical theory that Canadianlitfiature he benefitted historically byadapting the cultural influences towhich Canada has been subject, Gmu-dim2 Lik?mhoe has consistently 16fleeted liberal ideology and advocatedSmith’s notion of detached eclecticismin itJ selection of articles. I” generalw&m of the Pmiries reflects this in-flw”c+ and the endendc inability ofcrItica of Canadian literature to come

MAYORHOmANIThe CitizensCandidate

DESMOND MORTON

ALSONEWFROM HAKKERT

HAKKERT554 SPADINA CRRSCENT, ’TORONTO CANADA MS 2J9

:19

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to grips with their subject in a com- painfuLand tedious, but it is necessaryprehensive way. And if the subject is . before any further excursions into theto be known outside the .small aca- Cloudcuckooland of critical theorydemic circles of affEionados, then ef- can prove truly profit~ble..Clforts in the areas historical and bibJio-graphical comprehensiveness will haveto be made in order to broaden the J&chael S&n. ivho has taught UT-

base of knowledge of Canadian litem- tension courses in Canadian literature,

turn. Such processing of the rawis n gmduate student at the Untversitybf Tomnto. H& field: Medteval

material of the profession may be Sludies.

FILLING IN FOR PEARSON mnfinrredfrompwone

nary was the untque amalgam of the still provided an unusually penetratingauthor’s spritely style, his self-effacing personal Insight into tha structure andhumour and his strong feeling fortimely anecdote. One never learns

functioning of Canada’s internationalrelations. In short, Pearson’s obvious

much of public events from memoirs. talent was a superior ability to giveFrequently, by the time they are faeeles bureaucracy more of a humanwritten, the record has become well countenance.known; mo*e frequently, fresh mate- Mike II deals with the years fromrial when it is presented is too much of September; 1948, to June, 1957, whenan apologia or a distortion to be of Pearson was Secretary of State for Ex-interest. Pearson’s earlier temi- temel Affairs. The transition fromnkcences suffered’ slightly in this re- diplomat to politician was for him agard but since they dealt with a public happy and exciting one &d shaped (aservant. rather thao a poli$cian, they Brst for Canada) that rmified entity,

the international statesman. During histenure at External, Canada reached theapogee of her influence as an inter-national peacemaker and tt seemed,for a time, that the country mighthave a new destiny as a global go-between. Pearson did much to fashionand maintain th& impression and hispersonal analysis of the political back:ground, espscialy as it modified Caoa-dian relations with Britain and theUnited States, would have proved in-valuable. The theme is touched uponhem but no amount of cul8ng fromdiaries, letten, or scripts can ever at-tempt to challenge the.iosights and m-fleetions stored io Pearson’s memory.Memoirs without the memorialist haveobvious limitations.

The divisions io Mike II - delineat-ing Pearson’s presence - are obviousones. His hand is most evidentthroughout the fmt chapter, a candidappr+sal of his r&tionship withpolitics ‘and politicians. It emerges thatPemcm was at best an uncertainstudent of political te&oique but hesoon learned ‘the role. both in his

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.

Le livre wdeau id&d pour No61. $39.75..*

Canadadutirnps qui passe#B

Copp Clark Publishing

constituency (Algoma But) and in theCabinet. In chapters two. three andfour. dealing with inttinatfonalsecurity and NATO, his personality.when it show itself, seems muted. Asthe discussion turns to the New Com-monwealth in chapter five. and inother chapters dealing with the UnitedNations, Korea, Soviet affairs andtinally Palestine, Suez and the NobelP&e, he is seen s&g only *s a stiffand awkward bridge uniting one offi-cial document with another. Winston

. CJtttrchiU wrote much of his accountof the World War Two by bridgingletters and documents, but thmughdutit one felt the un@ing push of his par-sona8ty.fifikeIIhasnosuchsalvation.

The vohune might have beenrescued had the memoirs containedgenerous amounts of new knowledge.True, some fresh materials do emerge(espedally concerning Canadlan involve-ment in Korea) but most of the in-formation about the Commonwealthand particularly Canada’s mle at theUnited Nations and in Suez is con-ventional. And Pearson’s enwunterwith Khrushchev and Bulganin is notof much s&nifkanca except lo the‘measurement of personality, when itmust be admitted that the portrait ofCrimean eating and drinlring bouts ishikUiOUS.

One cannot fault the effort, sin-eeriiy and attention to accuracydemonstrated by the editors and ad-visors in the production of thisvolume. Doubtless it is true that amom sober, harder-working Mike Pear-son is suggested than emerged fromthe fmt volume.Mike III, dealing withhis years as Leader of the Oppositionand then Prima Mtnistar (1958~1968),appears an hwitability.~Thera is muchmerit in the notion of Gshing an im-portant task once it has been begun.Nevertheless when tha ftishingprocess renders the achievementcolourless and fails to provide substan-tlal new information or re-work Be-cepted opinion, than one questions thewhole vahie of the exercise. Perhap amore satisfactoiy plan for Mike IIIwould be to publish Pearson’s diary,extensively editad and footnoted topmtia this greater dbnahdou. 0A /orme? archivict with the Ontariog0Vemment. Roger Hall has written onCanadian tristotica! “&‘erx ,%r a widerang.2 of publicQtions.

I& PIC+ORIAL HISTORYOF THE DO~KH’OBORS

KOOZMA J. TARASOFFMm than 700 me Photos. 13 drawing% Poetry

and M 8 pale color s&on, tram the hhry dthe Doukbobor people Room tbs farlv day8 InRunta through to modem times. It Is a CrltLxthistory, an indepth study. of B pcoplo whore ~NCachievements hnve too often been obsctm?d by thescnsattondicm of a few. An *nportant ad$tton tot h e home 01 clarrroom ttbmty. and certalnly&ltemsttnp rc&,bl3 fox wery Cawdtan.280 pp., hnrdcover S9.95

MEN /iGAlNSTTHE DESERT

JAMES Ii. ORBYTke grsat dm@bt of tke 3Orhft behind acres ofdusty land.. . and it wm only tbrou~b tbc mutualeffom of farmers, &ttlstr and olhcr dcdiutedpeople that tbo prti land was mtumed to pro- .,ductlviiy. Thh is their rtery, one of triumph ovwtbo rdwnttia OsNatn~~.256 pp., ittustmted. hardwver $5.95

STEAMBOATS

ON THE

S&KATCHEWAN km.~.The fust book we taow of on zi subject atdom menttoned in western hisbxybooks. There realty were a number of umvletdy steamboats ptyiig the shaltowSaskatchervan River tn the bt decades of tbe 19th century.. . cmy& suppliesand settlers, eve” tmopr for tbo Rttl Rebettton. Author B~ce Feel has researchedhis subJect with dedication and the payolK is a fssciiating history. ilhrstrated witbcareiilly-reproduced old maps and photo& A valuable addition to any Canadbnbookshelf.240 PP. hardcover S7.95

FIFPi’ MIGHTY. MENGRANT Mact%‘AN

1Vlw.n them is new land to be explored and tamed,there nrq nhvays mS3e.d indlviduatr to do iL And w.stern Canada in the early days attracted a vti~ty OFthwn: missionaries, polili&ns, cowboys, cbtefs . . . aUhad a sham in building tbe West. Grant MacEwan di+cusses them in entertslIdnS styte.F[FTY YIGHTY MEN quattfter as a Canadian beasetter.352 pp., hardcover 5595

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tlcuhr and her Bertoneaque passionfor research together result In a tmve-logue jam-packed with delightful&tall:

wkilc I was readin& tic m~il-coachbctwcen H~nitton md Torontodrove up to ika door; and becauseyou shall utiatasd what sort of athins B Canadian mait ts, Md themupon sympaiktze in my tnepretibtowonder and ~nucmcnt,..l mustsketch it for you. It was II heavywooden ediin. about the she nndform of an old-lashtoned lord mcyor’s coack, placed on runners, andraised about P foot from the gound;the whole was painted of a brtshtred, and long tctcler hung from themof. This monrhour machine diigqcd from its por&zi @ht men-cmahrrser, alI enveloped in bearskinsand skqgy &cadooughts, and per,-.jxkets. and fur-ups down upon theirsass, looking like B processton ofbeYr on tkeir hind-legs, tumbliqoutofa showma’s caraw~ They proved,howxr, when undiiuised, to b egentlemen, most of fhem piq up toTmonto to attend th*r dutkr hi theHow of Assembly.

Peace Shall Destroy Many,Rudy Henry mbe,Introduction: J. M. Robinson;240 pages, $2.35.

The Rich Man.Hemy I&III,Introductfon: Joho Stedinond;208 paged, g2.35.The Betrayal,Henry Kreisel,Introduotiox 8. Warhs~,219 pages, $2.50.

J.M. Robin’s introduction to PeaceShall D&my Many, Rudy WIebe’sfmt novel, concludes with the hen-tence: “It is' to be expected that tbIsauthor will gain increasing attention.”An identical tone of ennui and aca-demic fastidiousness informs the restof the introduction as well, so thatyou are almost persuaded not tobother with Wiebe’s novel at all.Fortunately for the “New CaoadianFryebrary”, a selection (rather than acollection) of NCL critical iotro-ductions, Robinson’s can be omitted.Wiebe’s story of a smsll group of Men-nonites in Saskatchewan durlug WorldWar II and of the struggles of con-science suffered by Thorn Wiens, theyouthful pmtagonist, does have theoccasional awkward passags. Never-

thelesi, the novel Is certainly interest-ing enough to make me want to readhfs bubsequent works, First and vitalCandle (19$6), The Blue Moantafnr ofG&a (1970), and a fourth novelwhich I beUeve is to appear shortly.

Henry KreIsel’s l7ze Rich Men,snothkr first novel, is one of’the NCL’sbest offerings. In it, Jnmb Grmsmao, imiddle-aged Jewish tailor, travels fmmhis modest home in Totinto back toVienna in order to visit h&elderlymothcr. It Is 1935. Fascism and fecarwnltz sphitedly slang the banks oftheblue Danube and Grossman, no hero.cuts a forlorn figure in his rich man’swhite suit when his relatives discoverthat he has no wherewithal with which 1to alleviate their poverty or stave offthei?doom.

Rreisel’s second novel, 7% Betmyal, fmt published io 1964, is, quitesimply, entirely disappointing.

204

ZBe Seats of the Mighty,.Gilbert Parker.Introduction: EIIzabeth Wat&ston;211 pages, g2.95.

THE ‘ASIXNT OF MANby Dr. Jacob Bronowski

This is the magnificent and massi\ie book of the CBC - BBC hit televisionseries. Lavishly illustrated. Each chapter’ covers. a one-hour TV show.THE ASCENT OF MAN, comparable to the great’ CIVILISATION seriesin its vast educational and public impact, sums up Dr. Bronowski’s life-work: a philosophy of natural hlstory within the most recent finding inbiology.

%zo.oo - Full trade and library discounts.

CONSUMER PROTECTION .I N A M E R I C A

By Peter Strathy

A selective btbliogrophy of ~legislatlonond information on this vital issue Inthe U.S.A. The author Is o Unlverrltyof Toronto Iibrorian. - 55.00

Recently Published

THE WAR OF 1812: By Gilbert AuchinleckReprlnt of well-documented classic. - sIi.95

THE ARTHURlAD. By John Badger.6nfy 120 copies of first edttlon left. A beoutlfulhardcover which applies the ethic of Arthur tomodern problems. - $6.95

CAPdAUlAPd LIBRARIES. By Harry Campbell.2nd. revised edttlon by Toronto’s top librarian.s5.00

Pendragon House 69 Bofhurd Sfreet, Toronto A&V 2P7, Onfario.

22

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Delight,Maze de la Roche,Introduction: Deimond Pacey;174 pages, $1.95.The Harbormaster,Theodore Goodridge Roberta,Introduction: Desmond Pacey;165 pages, $1.9!.As the introductions to the%. threepot-boilers demonstrate, your averageacademic, still under the ,@n of “pub-lish or perish”, ls not above applyingthe same critical methods (thou& notthe same cdtical standards) to Hackleberry Hound that he applies toHacklebeny Finn

The Seats of the Mighty, a histori-cal novel set in Quebec City during thestige of 1757-59; Delight, in whichsaucy Delight Mainprize succeeds inpreventing her precious tea set frombeing broken and the author demon-strates how, even iu 1925, a variety ofsexual acts cqn be depicted as if in-nocently: and Ihe Harbonnarfcr, asalty tale of blackgwrd piracy andhigh mmance set in lgth-century New-

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foundland; none of the three can berecommended wlth any real en-thusiasm, even for casualreading.

‘” * *

The Stepsure Letters,Thomss McCulloch,Introduction: H. Northrop Frye;159 pages, $1.75. .

l7ze Clockmaker,Thomas C. Hallburton,Introduction: Robert L.. McDougall;165, pages. $1.50 _McCuIloch’s llze Stephe Letters. fmtpublished in 1821 in the pages of theAcadh R&&r, and Halibutton’sThe clockmoker, ‘or The Sayings andDoings of Samuel Slick of Slickville”,which fllst appeared between hard-covers in 1836 (and by 1971 was in itseighth NCL reprint). sre bofh satiresof .the very highest (aud d&gust&lylowest) order. As Northrop Pryesuggests: ‘It was, of course, inevitablethat Heburton’S more brilliant andbighIy coloured sat&c should havepushed McCulloch’s ainto obscurity.”

However, as Frye also imists: “YetMcCulloch grows on one, ln a way thatHaliburton does not.”

Obviously, the only answer is toread both as a huge dose of cynicaltonic a&at the most distastefulpractices of the festive season. 0

.

AUTHOR’S AGENTS

Manuscripts Invited

For further Information

contact:.

DOUGLAS FISHERASSOCIATES ,

92 Madison AvenueToronto, OntarioM5R 2S4(416) 961-7151

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adaforChristmas. ,

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23

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fTop row. lefwightl Mind’s I. Jack Shadbolt I Wake of tie Great Sealers, Farley Mowat with David Blackwood / Pellan. GemainLeiebvre I Painters in a New Land, Michael Bell 1 Canof Canada, Hugh Durnford and Glenn Baechler (Middle row1 Bloomsday,Saul Field&MononP. Levitt/ Contemporary Canadian Painterr. William Withmw IThe Barn: A Vanishing Landmark in NorthAmerica. Eric Arthur and Dudley Witney IBottom rowl A Time to Dream, National Film Board of Canada for Information CanadaThe Colour of Canada, Hugh MacLennanl Sculpture of the Eskimo, George Swinton.

from vg~y good Canadian bookstores,and

McClelland G%ekt/TheCanadian Publishers8,

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