To All Appearances A Lady - University of British Columbia
To All Appearances A Lady - University of British Columbia
To All Appearances A Lady - University of British Columbia
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
Books in Review<br />
nation, yes, but singing a siren song <strong>of</strong><br />
empathy I cannot resist."<br />
The siren song <strong>of</strong> Ondaatje's texts is one<br />
point at which Barbour's method fails—he<br />
cannot convincingly account for Ondaatje's<br />
appeal and success. Because Barbour is<br />
using dialogism as the measure <strong>of</strong> excellence<br />
he surrenders the sensual appeal <strong>of</strong><br />
Ondaatje's images. It may be true, as<br />
Barbour claims, that violently paradoxical<br />
images "argue the end <strong>of</strong> metaphor" in<br />
foregrounding writing and textual structure.<br />
And it may be true that there is emotional<br />
appeal in the collapse <strong>of</strong> metaphor, or in<br />
the failure <strong>of</strong> coherence. But I don't agree<br />
that Ondaatje's appeal lies there; I think it<br />
is in the images themselves. And I think<br />
Barbour recognized this problem when The<br />
English Patient, in many ways less disjunctive<br />
than Ondaatje's earlier works, got raves; he<br />
praises its poetic sensuality and treats it<br />
merely as an afterword, since it was hot <strong>of</strong>f<br />
the press as his book was going to press.<br />
Typically Twayne, the volume is well produced<br />
and reads smoothly, despite American<br />
spelling and a few typos. The bibliography <strong>of</strong><br />
primary works is useful; the secondary bibliography<br />
covers only selected articles and<br />
book chapters, but is perceptively annotated<br />
and scrupulously fair. The tone is scholarly<br />
if bland, but heats up a bit in the footnotes<br />
where critics like Mundwiler, Lee and<br />
Nodelman are faulted for their blindness in<br />
reading Ondaatje's texts as monologic. So<br />
this book is an interesting and valuable<br />
study <strong>of</strong> Ondaatje's work up to The English<br />
Patient. Barbour hasn't convinced me that<br />
Bakhtin is the key to Ondaatje's work, but<br />
his own reflections and insights are truly<br />
helpful and engaging.<br />
Saints Alive<br />
bplMichol, with Howard Gerhard<br />
Ad Sanctos: The Martyrology Book 9. Coach<br />
House Press $14.95<br />
bpNichol, ed. Irene Niechoda<br />
Truth: a book <strong>of</strong> fictions. Mercury Press $14.95<br />
Reviewed by Stephen Scobie<br />
Ad Sanctos, the Latin phrase used as the<br />
title for Book 9 <strong>of</strong> bpNichol's The<br />
Martyrology, may roughly be translated as<br />
"<strong>To</strong> the Saints." But that English phrase<br />
contains an ambiguity which the original<br />
Latin doesn't allow for. "Ad" sanctos means<br />
towards the saints, in the direction <strong>of</strong> the<br />
saints; if one wanted "to the saints" in the<br />
sense <strong>of</strong> an attribution ("This book is dedicated<br />
to the saints"), strict Latin grammar<br />
would require the dative case with no<br />
preposition: simply, "sanctis."<br />
Nichol's text in fact encompasses both<br />
meanings. It takes the form <strong>of</strong> a libretto for<br />
a one-act opera, featuring an assortment <strong>of</strong><br />
characters. Some <strong>of</strong> them are named functionally<br />
("a writer," "a reader"), some<br />
pronominally ("i," "she," "we"), and some<br />
by names which have already appeared in<br />
Nichol's linguistic hagiography ("st. orm,"<br />
"st. ranglehold"). These characters are moving,<br />
literally, ad sanctos, towards the saints:<br />
they are seeking out a saint's tomb, at which<br />
they propose to sit in contemplation until<br />
they die. Since they are a quarrelsome lot<br />
(somewhat reminiscent <strong>of</strong> the Players in <strong>To</strong>m<br />
Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern<br />
Are Dead), this meditative outlook never<br />
seems likely, and it finally collapses when<br />
they find not one but two possible sites for<br />
the tomb <strong>of</strong> St. Valentine (ad sanctos, to the<br />
saints). Some choose one tomb, some<br />
another, and the final three (i, agnes, and<br />
ranglehold) choose neither. As Nichol's<br />
Preface puts it, "If the heart is divided even<br />
here, then this is a sign. There is no peace<br />
in escaping into death. The three turn and<br />
head <strong>of</strong>f, back into the world."<br />
146