Spring 2008 Volume 22 - No. 1 - BC BookWorld

DAMP: ContemporaryVancouver Media ArtsEdited by Oliver Hockenhull& Alex MacKenzieDAMP is a long overdue criticalengagement regarding the specificitiesof the contemporary Vancouvermedia arts scene. DAMP includesover 25 contributions from suchartists as Laiwan, Fiona Bowie, AnnMarie Fleming, David Rimmer, WarrenArcan, Randy Lee Cutler, ClintBurnham, Jayce Salloum, and others.DAMP is a visually exuberant, artinfused,full-colour statement.isbn: 1-895636-89-2 | $40 | Aprilanvil pressImagining BC: Land, Memory & PlaceEdited by Daniel FrancisSome of Canada’s best-known writers, all membersof the Federation of BC Writers, are featured in thisanthology, including Pauline Holdstock, HaroldRhenisch, George Fetherling, Howie White, KatherineGordon, and, M.A.C. Farrant. The book features anintroduction by editor and historian Daniel Francis.isbn: 1-895636-90-6 | $18 | Marchrecent titles — in stores now!health cultural studies dramaisbn: 1-895636-86-8 | $18 isbn: 1-895636-85-7 | $20 isbn: 1-895636-87-6 | $1510 BC BOOKWORLD SPRING 2008

13 BC BOOKWORLD SPRING 2008reviewsNON-FICTIONA HUNK, A HUNK OF BURNS LOVEJack Whyte, author of books on the Knights Templar shares his passion for balladsForty Years in Canada by Jack Whyte(Heritage $29.95)In his foreword to a recentbiography of Robert Service,the successful and prolificnovelist and former actorJack Whyte described the magicalday in his childhood whenhe heard a recitation of TheShooting of Dan McGrew. Fromthat moment on his literary tastewas set, and his heroes wereRobert Service, RudyardKipling, and later his fellowcountryman,Robert Burns.Now Whyte has detouredfrom his two series of novelsbased on the Arthurian legendsand the Knights Templar for anupbeat memoir of “personal, oftentrivial reminiscences” toshowcase his prolific talent forversifying. This is not a compellingtell-all confessional work;Jack Whyte’s Forty Years inCanada is much lighter fare togive rein to his life-long passionfor popular ballads, folk-songsand story poems with their satisfyingrhyme schemes, repetitionsand refrains that are easyto memorize and fun to perform.“If a song strikes me immediatelyas being wonderful,”he writes, “I can learn it withinminutes—the lyrics and melodypractically burn themselves intomy mind.”✫We learn that when Whyteimmigrated to Canada in 1967,his luggage contained a multivolumeset of Child’s ballads, andhe eventually launched a onemancrusade “to rescue narrativeverse from postmodernoblivion.” In fact, some ofthe few lapses in hisunshakable good humouroccur when he isreminded that “literarypretentiousness” hasconsigned his favouriteverse form “to the garbagecan of history” andcaused it to be excommunicatedfrom the literarycanon.Whyte’s own exercises in thegenre include pieces for publicperformance before largecrowds, and for private occasionsamong friends. One of his mostpopular works resulted from a1973 invitation to propose thetoast To the Immortal Memoryat the annual Robbie Burns Supperof the Royal Canadian Legionin Lethbridge. It was adaunting assignment becausethe year before Tommy Douglashad proposed the toast.Whyte decided to adaptthe bard’s own verse fromTam O’ Shanter and intwo 45-minute sessionsproduced A Toast toCanada—Our AdoptedLand, a fifteen stanzapoem, of which this isthe tenth stanza:Oh, Robert Burns, couldyou but seeThis mighty and superbcountry,I think your Musewould hide her heid,So great would beyour bardic needJOANGIVNERTo capture, with animage terse,A different scene inevery verse,For here’s a countrythat demandsFair play, Rob, at thepoet’s hands.A friend who witnessedthe enthusiastic responseof the audience created an illuminatedscroll of the poem, and20,000 copies of it were eventuallysold. Whyte was called on torecite the piece on many occasions.The most memorable ofthese was at the Canadian NationalExhibition’s ScottishWorld Festival, where he stoodalone on a field before thousandsof people.The forty-five narrative poems,which form the core of thismemoir, are linked by sectionsof prose that describe their genesisand place them in the contextof Whyte’s career inCanada. For a wedding anniversaryparty he wrote Thank Godfor John and Betty Stein,Most men today, they will snidely say,On a scale of one to ten,Are as prone to cheat as to eat red meatAnd reduce their wives to tears...So thank God for John and BettySteinAnd their forty years...For his stepson’scomingof age, hewrote, ForMitch, atTwenty-One:Congratulations,Mitch, yourfirst lap’srun;You’ve left boyhoodbehind,you’re twenty one;A formal, legaladult, fully grownAnd from this day forth,son, you’re on yourown...After visiting his wife’snative province, he wroteSaskatchewan:Only a few, a loyal fewEndured and stayed to learn and grewTo love Saskatchewan and knewThe beauties of her face;For, when she smiles, her countenanceIs open, loving, and her glanceWill melt your heart andbrace your stanceWith pride, andstrength, and grace.✫Along the way, Whyte describeshis arrival at the Edmontonairport to take up a teachingpost in the town of Athabasca,ninety miles north of the city.His disillusionment with the educationalsystem is specific to Albertawhere the response to hisUniversite de Poitiers diplomawas “we don’t talk French in cattle-country.”Nevertheless it willresonate with every teacher whoimmigrated to North Americafrom Britain, Europe, and Australiaonly to find their qualificationsfrom major universitiescalled into question and foundwanting. Some made up the perceiveddeficiencies with coursesfrom departments of Education;many simply found other work.Whyte, who was clearly agifted and inspirational teacher,was one of the latter. He turnedfirst to singing and entertainingin such venues as the CalgaryStampede show and theTradewinds Hotel in Calgary.Then, benefiting from that experience,he moved on to a successfulcross-country tour with aone-man show Rantin,’ Rovin’Robin—A Night With Robert Burns,that he wrote and performedhimself. He became a televisionscriptwriter, had a successful careerin communications and,more recently, wrote a dozen internationallybest-selling novels.The many fans who have witnessedWhyte’s skill as an entertainerwill, no doubt, relishevery last rhyming couplet of hisnarrative verse, but, in the opinionof this reviewer, the prosesections are the strongest partof this memoir. Details of his privatelife and his career as a novelistare not forthcoming, but it’sclear Whyte has a lively intelligenceto go with his exuberantbehavior on stage. 978-1-894974-22-6Joan Givner writes regularly on biographiesand autobiographies. Shelives in Mill Bay.From bar chord to bard: JackWhyte’s first promo photo taken inCalgary in 1968, a year after hisarrival in Canada.Whyte plans to complete his currentKnights Templar trilogy with aforthcoming novel, Order in Chaos(Penguin). It will be followed by atrilogy set in 14th century Scotland.

LOOKOUT #30a forum for & about writers:3516 W. 13th Ave., Vancouver, BC V6R 2S3 • bookworld@telus.netLOOKOUTJaneRuleWhen Hunter S.Thompsondied, RollingStone publisherJann Wenner devoted an entire issueto the gonzo journalist, recognizinghis importance to the publication. Wefeel much the same way about JaneRule, so we’ve prepared this 4-pagesupplement as a pull-out section.Cartoon byRand Holmes, 1978.Reprinted bypermission ofHolmes estate.21 BOOKWORLD • LOOKOUT • SPRING • 2008

REMEMBERING JANE RULEISLAND OF THEHEARTlearned to swim in her backyard pool where sheand her partner Helen Sonthoff were dotinglifeguards with a great supply of pop-up books.✍Jane Rule was also one of the first writers I everor six decades, interviewed. I first met her thirty years ago whenTalonbooks publishers David Robinson andJane Vance “Jinx” Rule wasKarl Siegler reprinted her non-erotic loveone of the most mature, story, Desert of the Heart. She was the funniest andsanest person I had ever met.humourous and responsible Nine years later, after we started BCBookWorld, Rule agreed to be one of three writerson the board of directors for Pacific BookWorldvoices in Canadian letters, and forftotwenty years she was a close friend News Society. [The others were Howardthis publication.White and George Woodcock.]Jane Rule received the second Terasen LifetimeAchievement Award for an Outstanding LiteraryAlthough she is admired for her Career in British Columbia in 1996. She wasJane Rule groundbreaking 1964 novel Desert of the Heart, awarded the Order of British Columbia in 1998BIBLIOGRAPHY: in which two women fall in love in Reno, Nevada, and the Order of Canada in 2006.Jane Rule was long concerned with issues of truth Her reputation continues to grow.and freedom beyond the realms of sexuality. Profiles✍invariably begin by mentioning her six-foot-Born in New Jersey on March 28, 1931, Janeframe and her husky voice, but she was much more Rule was the middle child and oldest daughter ofthan a human lighthouse signalling the way for Carlotta Jane (Hink) and Arthurincreased tolerance and self-acceptance.Richards Rule, a free-thinker who graduatedA vibrant conversationalist who loved to laugh, from the naval academy at Annapolis and rose todrink and smoke, she was revered in the Gulf Islandsthe rank of lieutenant-commander during Worldas ‘the Bank of Galiano’ because she pro-War II. His favourite expression was, “I’d rathervided low interest loans to the disadvantaged. be right than president.”Equally important, literally dozens of youngsters She passed her first four years at Wynchwood,FICTION:Desert of the Heart(Macmillan, 1964)This Is Not For You(Naiad Press, 1970)Against the Season(Doubleday, 1971)Theme for DiverseInstruments(Talonbooks, 1975)The Young In OneAnother's Arms(Naiad, 1977)Contract With The World(Naiad, 1980)Middle Children,Short stories (Naiad, 1981)Outlander, Stories andessays (Naiad, 1981).Inland Passage(Lester & Orpen Dennys, 1985)Memory Board(Macmillan, 1987)After the Fire(Naiad, 1989)NON-FICTION:Lesbian Images(Doubleday, 1975)A Hot-Eyed Moderate(Lester & Orpen Dennys, 1985)Detained at Customs:Jane Rule Testifies at theLittle Sister's Trial(Lazara Press, 1995)NEW:Jane Rule’s essaycollection,Loving the Difficult(Hedgerow Press $21.95)will be launched at Heritage Hallin Vancouver on April 26 andon May 3 at the communityhall on Galiano Island.978-0-9736882-6-9DAVID ROBINSON PHOTOJane Rule with Alan Twigg at Montague Harbour, Galiano Island, 1978a family farm in New Jersey where her paternalgrandfather built a replica of Robbie Burns’cottage and filled it with children’s books. Afterthe family moved to California, she spent summerson a remote, 240-acre ranch among the redwoodsthat belonged to her mother’s parents. InCalifornia, her best friends were Chinese and JapaneseAmerican children, and she was baffled bythe concept of racism.From a tender age, Jane Rule was notoriouslyrebellious against authority figures, particularlyteachers. She and her beloved older brother Artchanged schools constantly, as much as three timesper year. In one class of 14 girls, there were fiveJanes so she willingly adopted her nickname Jinxand it stuck ever after. At age ten, her myopia wascorrected by glasses but her family moved frequentlyand she was hampered by dyslexia. Sixfeettall at age 12 and unaccomplished atschoolwork, Rule was strongly supported by herparents who accepted her non-conformist tendencies.If her teacher complained that she hadfallen asleep in German class again, her motherwould calmly reply, “Well, you're boring heragain.” By age 15 Jane Rule decided she ought tobe a writer. “I felt that most of the books I wasreading were lies,” she later recalled. “I was morallysuperior and quite obnoxious. That set meagainst the monstrous patriotic stupidity that waseverywhere, the lack of trust, the sense of hatredand the false discipline.”That same year she was expelled, five monthsshort of graduation, for an article she wrote inher school paper protesting the allocation ofschool funds for ‘charm school’ classes. In particular,Rule took objection to beingshown how to walk.When the instructortold the class toimitate her, Ruledid—cheekily—and was tossed fromthe class. Consequentlyshe wrote an article expressingher opinionthat girls should betaught how to walk to thenearest college. The principalexpelled her for insubordination.Her reputation asa ‘moral hazard’ would make it difficultfor her to gain acceptance tocollege.Also at age 15, Jane Rule’s outsiderismincreased when she read Radclyffe Hall'sThe Well of Loneliness. Although she began to recognizeher own lesbian nature, her enthusiasmfor the once-banned novel was hesitant, at best.“It was a polemic by a famous English lesbianpleading for an understanding of homosexualsand lesbians, whom it described as men trappedin women’s bodies!” Rule recalled. “It was a verybrave book but also a very bad book. The maincharacter was six feet tall and had a deepvoice. I thought, ‘That can’t be who I am!Will I have to live in some ghetto in Parisand be a freak?’ It was such a scarything.” Rule later describedRadclyffe as “about the biggestmale chauvinist pig you couldfind. Gradually Rule developeda theory that one chiefly makesprogress by learning from thebad examples of others. “I wasfive before I discovered thatbeing a girl had seriousdrawbacks, six before I discoveredbeing left-handedwas unacceptable andnineteen and travelling inEurope for the first timebefore I had to apologizefor being an American,”she later wrote. In the1960s she became “proud and relieved to claimthe label Canadian.”At 16, her first sexual experience was a lesbianrelationship, but given her moralistic upbringingand the forbidding climate forhomosexuality in the early 1950s, she says she remainedcelibate during her attendance at MillsCollege, a posh women’s school in Oakland. Shehad wanted to study English at Stanford but shewas repeatedly rejected by numerous schools untila trustee at Mills College enabled her to be enrolledon a probationary basis. Because her testresults were higher in science and math, she wasinitially not allowed to major in English. Eventuallyshe got her way,but the head ofthe Englishdepartment warned her about pursuing a literarycareer, telling her she could either become afirst-rate scholar or a third-rate writer. Rule repliedthat she much preferred the latter. Rule subsequentlysent that discouraging professor everybook she published and dedicated a book to her.“I guess I'm still not a very nice person,” she oncenoted.After she received a bachelor’s degree in Englishfrom Mills in 1952, Rule began working onher first novel when she was living in Englandand taking some classes at University College, London.Having gone to England to pursue a relationshipwith a female lover, she nonethelessbecame friends with JohnHulcoop, a doctoral candidateat UC who later accepted ateaching job with the Englishfaculty at the Universityof BritishColumbia. Returningtothe UnitedStates, Jane Rule was soon disenchanted with thecompetitive and demeaning atmosphere of writingclasses at Stanford University. When she optedfor a teaching job with a private school for girlsin Massachusetts, Concord Academy, she fell inlove with Helen Sonthoff, a creative writing instructorwho was married to HerbertSonthoff, a German who had fled the Naziregime during World War II.McCarthyism was rampantin the United States and extramaritallesbian relationshipswere simply not to be tolerated,so Jane Rule moved to Vancouverin the fall of 1956, takingrefuge in a four-room flatrented by John Hulcoop. Accordingto Sandra Martin’sobituary of Rule for TheGlobe & Mail, Hulcoop andRule briefly became lovers. Atage 40, Helen Sonthoff cameto Vancouver to visit Rule, atJane Ruleage 25, and they resumed theirintimate relationship. Theywould remain living as a coupleuntil Helen Sonthoff died in 2000, at age83. Rule was deeply disheartened by her partner'sdeath, as she had been when her father diedat age 88 in 1994.While Helen Sonthoff gained a foothold inthe UBC English department as a teaching assistant,Rule pursued her fledgling writing career,read scripts and became the assistant directorat the university’s new International House forforeign students. Even though Rule had only abachelor’s degree, she also intermittently taughtlower-level English courses at UBC until 1976when she and Sonthoff relocated to Galiano Islandon a permanent basis. “I arranged my lifeso that I taught every other year at UBC,” Rulesaid. “It took 25 years to get there as a full-timewriter.” She stopped teaching at age 43. Shesometimes said she came out as a lesbian long beforeshe came out as a writer.continued on next page“I am not awriter who sitsdown to discoverwhat I think.”— JANE RULE, 200422 BC BOOKWORLD • LOOKOUT • SPRING • 2008 23 BC BOOKWORLD • LOOKOUT • SPRING • 2008

24 BOOKWORLD • LOOKOUT • SPRING • 2008REMEMBERING JANE RULEcontinued from previous pageIn 1964, Macmillan in Englandpublished Desert of the Heart after it wasrejected 22 times in the United States.Jane Rule immediately became “Canada'sonly visible lesbian” and risked losingher job at the university. She oftennoted that one argument made in herdefence at the time was that not everyauthor of a murder mystery novel is necessarilya murderer. Canada’s laws werechanged to no longer prohibit homosexualacts between consenting adultsthat same year but prior to the appearanceof Desert of the Heart, in her words,“we were jailable.”The novel had been completed by1961, just prior to Rule’s 30th birthday.Although Macmillan was concernedabout the possibility of an adverse reactionby Nevada casino employees, verylittle substantive editing was done on themanuscript. Rule never resided in Reno,Nevada, but her parents did, enablingher to get to know the city during severalvisits during which her younger sistertook her to various sites. Rule onlyworked in a casino for six nights as achange girl, from 7 p.m. to 3 a.m., andshe had little interest in gambling.Jane Rule moved to Galiano Islandin 1976, coincidental with her first attackof chronic and crippling arthritisin her spine. As a senior member of aclosely-knit community, she soon becamean integral, supportive figure,lending money, providing guidance,etc., and gaining the nickname “thebank of Galiano.”A resolve to forge community andgroup connections was reflected in herfiction, dating back to This Is Not ForYou, a novel about college friendships.Memory Board and After the Fire are primarilyconcerned with divergent personalitieswho accept communitybonds, incorporating the elderly as centralcharacters. The Young In One Another’sArms and Contract with the Worldare similarly concerned with mutualcompassion and love born of strength,not weakness. The latter concerns thedifficulties faced by a variety of artistsas they approach middle age withouthaving gained much outward success.Admired and befriended by the likesof Kate Millet and MargaretAtwood, Rule became knownthroughout the world as one of Canada’smost articulate spokeswomen on issuespertaining to personal freedom andsocial responsibility, but she never clamouredfor the limelight.“Politics really are to clean up thehouse,” she says. “You have to do itevery week. I don't find it interesting,just as I don’t find sweeping the floorevery week interesting. I do it. I vote...I prefer to work wherever there’s a possibilityof changing things... I really believethrough the counter-movementsin society change can be made. We’reliving witnesses of it.”As someone who views marriage asproblematic because individuals shouldnot require permission from the statein order to cohabit, Rule lookedaskance at the eagerness of gay colleaguesto gain the legal right to marry.“A lot of us old guard feel very dubiousabout it,” she said.Jane Rule with David Robinson and Audrey ThomasHelen Sonthoff and Jane RuleJane Rule’s testimony in the SupremeCourt of B.C. on behalf of Little Sister’sBook and Art Emporium on October24, 1994, during a constitutionalchallenge to Canada Customs’ practiceof seizing materials destined specificallyfor a gay and lesbian bookstore, was publishedas Detained at Customs: Jane RuleTestifies at the Little Sister's Trial (LazaraPress, 1995). Specifically, Rule was respondingto the seizure by Canada Customsofficials of her novels The Young InOne Another’s Arms and Contract Withthe World, as well as the movie version ofDesert of the Heart—a 1985 feature filmdirected by Donna Deitch and starringHelen Shaver, PatriciaCharbonneau and AudraLindley.Interviewed by Xtra West magazine,Little Sister’s co-owner Jim Deva recalledthe importance of Rule’s galvanizingtestimony that day: “She was in awheelchair at that time and I got the honourof wheeling her up to the stand. As Iwas rolling her up and looking at thejudge it was like, ‘You know this is a veryimportant person. You listen to this person.’That’s what I was trying to project.‘This is the best we have. If you cannotunderstand our community, listen to thiswoman and she’ll explain our communityto you.’ She spoke very quietly, veryeloquently. I think her testimony reallydid help make that judge realize that wereally were talking about our communityand how censorship is so offensive, sodeeply offensive. Before that, I don'tthink he really understood it.”Jane Rule:“I also think that a relationshipbased on sexual fidelityis silly. I don’t haveanything against sexual fidelity,but... making sexualitythe one commitmentthat you give to the otherperson seems archaicand goes back to menowning women andwanting to know that theirchildren are their own.”— from an interview conductedby Joanne Bealy, July, 14, 2006.Having written for mainstreammagazines such as Chatelaine andRedbook, as well as the lesbian journalThe Ladder back in the 1960s, Rule beganwriting a column called So’s YourGrandmother for the Toronto-based gaynewspaper The Body Politic after its officeswere raided in December of 1977by Operation P, an anti-pornographyunit that charged the publication forits series on intergenerational relationships,specifically a piece called MenLoving Boys Loving Men. During her tenyears of contributing to the paper, shemaintained a lively correspondencewith editor Rick Bebout.Still widely known for her groundbreakingnovel Desert of the Heart, Ruleis the subject of a Genie-awarding winningdocumentary, Fiction and OtherTruths; A Film about Jane Rule, made byAerlyn Weissman and LynneFerney in 1995. She has also receivedthe Canadian Authors Association bestnovel and best short story awards, theAmerican Gay Academic LiteratureAward, the U.S. Fund for Human DignityAward of Merit, the CNIB’s TalkingBook of the Year Award and anhonorary doctorate from U.B.C.Rule consistently encouraged andsupported other artists and would-beartists, including students from thenearby Galiano Island Film and TelevisionSchool. During her illness, Rule offeredher final collection of short essays,Loving the Difficult, to Hedgerow Press,the imprint of neophyte publisherJoan Coldwell.A heavy smoker and avid drinker,Jane Rule died, with strength and dignity,of liver cancer complications onNovember 27, 2007, in the same roomin which she and Helen Sonthoff hadfirst slept when they came to Galianoin the mid-1970s. Initially she hadwanted to leave the island for palliativecare in Vancouver, alleviating others ofthe task of caring for her, but she waspersuaded to remain on Galiano wherelocal physician Dr. David Beaveroversaw the round-the-clock care thatwas provided by Rule’s niece and hergay partner—both named Allison—who inherited the house.“I have no ambition to live to a greatage,” she told Douglas Todd in1994. “I think old age is for the pits. I’veseen it. To outlive your usefulness is notto me a great thing.”Many of her comments during herfinal illness were typically funny. Shestaunchly avoided all malarkey about lifeafter death. “Don't say I ‘passed away’ or‘passed on,’” she joked, “or I'll come backand haunt you.”A jam-packed memorial gatheringwas held at the Galiano CommunityHall on Sunday, December 9, 2007during which friends, relatives and admirersrecalled her personality. Her literaryexecutor and close friendShelagh Day praised her “enormoussocial appetite.” SvendRobinson sent condolences fromFrance; former Lieutenant GovernorIona Campagnolo, whose grandfatherhad helped build the hall, sent amessage praising Rule as “a remarkablycourageous role model.” Other commentsincluded:• “Jinx was the most generous,wise, quick-witted and loving personI’ve ever met.”—Libby Walker,Jane Rule's younger sister• “What a wonderful, wonderfulwoman. Wow.”—The Reverend Margaret Edgar• “Jane made an excellent boss. Shemade me feel important and respected.To clean the pool, she paid $10 an hourfor 15 minutes of work at age 11.”—Zack Morrison, local youth• “She taught me how to live a life thatmattered. Jane Rule is the tallest tree onGaliano Island.”— Judy Baca, artist• “What she most believed in wasfreedom—freedom of speech andfreedom to love who you liked.Jane is a beacon in dark times.She was generous. She had quite aninsight into human nature. I would liketo thank you, Jane, for all the laughter.—Margaret Griffiths• “She asked the important questionsand let people hear their own answers.”Ken Bebout, Body Politic editor• “There’s dinosaurs. There’s theRomans. And there’s Jane and Helen.The times we shared are priceless.”—Eli, Jane Rule’s nephew• “Jane’s gift was her enormous humancuriosity. Jane loved many people. Sheloved each of us freely and uniquely.”—Shelagh DayAbove the stage for the memorialgathering, Rule’s own words wereposted for all to see: “I hope I’m rememberedfor being lusty and feisty and fullof life.”

eviewsTHEM THARHILLSof 1858The Trail of 1858: British Columbia’s GoldRush Past by Mark Forsythe and GregDickson (Harbour $26.95)Mark Forsythe and GregDickson of CBC Radio’sBC Almanac buildbooks like folks in Saskatchewanused to raise their barns. It’s acommunity affair and everyoneis invited to pitch in.To recognize the province’s150th anniversary as a modernpolitical state, former LieutenantGovernor Iona Campagnolo,herself a history enthusiast, hasprovided the foreword for theirlatest illustrated omnibus, TheTrail of 1858: British Columbia’sGold Rush Past, with contributionsfrom dozens of experts andso-called ordinary citizens.There were indeed strangethings done in the midnightsun, and in the Cariboo goldrush. Even though John“Cariboo” Cameron hadhelped establish the first cemeteryfor Barkerville, he offered$12 per day and a bonus of$2,000 (approximately $33,000today) to any man who wouldhelp carry his deceased wifeSophia’s coffin from WilliamsCreek to Victoria.The blizzard-ridden, 36-dayordeal enabled Cameron totemporarily bury his beloved inVictoria. After amassing his fortuneat Cameronton in theCariboo, he returned to Victoriawith $300,000 worth of gold($7.5 million today) and tookSophia’s body by ship, aroundSouth America, to be buried inher hometown of Glengarry,Ontario, thereby honouring herdying request.✫Hurdy-Gurdy Girls. The OldDouglas Trail. The arrival of theCommodore, bringing Blackresidents from California. TheChilcotin War. Cataline, theCariboo’s best-known packer.Judge Matthew Baillie Begbie.Those infamous camels, importedbut never used. The paternalisticautocrat JamesDouglas. Stagecoach driverStephen Tingley. Joseph Trutch,who constructed the firstAlexandra suspension bridge in1863. Herman Otto Bowe andthe Alkali Lake ranch.It’s all packed into onemotherlode. Some of the historynuggets uncovered include aphoto of Nam Sing, the first Chineseminer in the Cariboo, thepeacemaking Chief Spintlum ofPetticoat conjunction:Miss Brown and Miss Irvingwere the only two unmarriednon-Aboriginal women ofNew Westminster in 1868.the Nlaka’pamux(Thompson), the‘miner’s angel,’IrishwomanNellie Cashman, alifelong prospectorand spinster whotravelled by dogslednorth of the Arctic Circle,as well as RichardWright’s introduction tothe ‘poet/scout’ JackCrawford.After JackCrawford’s WildWest showtouredBarkerville andVictoria in theearly 1870s, hisdescendants settledin the Kootenays.NON-FICTIONIt turns out thatScotsman JamesAnderson, oftendescribed as theRobert Serviceof theCaribooGold Rush,had somecompetition from another stageperformer, Jack Crawford, along-haired U.S. army scout whowas a theatrical partner of BuffaloBill Cody and Wild BillHickok.After Buffalo Bill drunkenlyshot Crawford during one oftheir shows, Crawford took hisown Wild West show north toBarkerville and Victoria. In2004, Richard Wright and AmyNewman revived Crawford’sreputation with a stage showcalled Campfire Tales of CaptainJack Crawford at Barkerville’sTheatre Royal.Statistically, it was easier to findgold than a non-Aboriginal wife.The two “brides’ ships” sent fromEngland in 1862-63 did little toadjust the gender imbalance. JeanBarman’s contributions include ashort essay on the shortage of European-bornwomen in theCariboo gold fields.“I never saw diggers so desirousof marrying as those of BritishColumbia,” commented oneobserver.Given that few miners couldafford to send money to bringover an English girl or a Scotchlassie, they invariably appraisedpotential Aboriginal partners interms of White notions of beautyand dress. Barman has retrievedsome stanzas from “The Maid ofLillooet,” written in 1862, tomake her point.Her elastic bust no staysconfined,Her raven tresses flowedfree as wind;Whilst her waist, herneck and her ankles smallWere encircled by bandlets,beadwrought all.Her head as the wild deer’s,erect and proud,To superior beauty neverowed;Like the diamond sparklingin the night,Her glistening black eyesbeamed with light…Net proceeds from the saleof The Trail of 1858 are beingdirected to the British ColumbiaHistorical Federation.1-55017-424-XETHNOGRAPHER & LINGUISTTeit captioned thisphoto: “Matilda Quokor Reid, tci tca,‘berries’, aged abt 40.Raven phratry.Tlapan clan.”TEIT & THE TAHLTANRecording Their History: James Teitand the Tahltan by Judy Thompson(D&M $55)Known primarily as an ethnographerand linguistamong the Nlaka’pamux andother Interior Salish peoples,Scottish-born James Teit alsotwice conducted research inthe Cassiar district of northernBritish Columbia, for sevenweeks in 1912 and for twelveand-a-halfweeks in 1915, undertakingfieldwork among theTahltan people at the instigationof Edward Sapir who hadinvited him to join the staff ofthe new Anthropology Divisionof the Geological Survey ofCanada in 1911.Teit named more than seventyTahltan adults (aboutone-third of the population atthat time) and managed toamass 191 artifacts, 196 songrecordings, 167 photographsand 130 mythological tales.This enduring legacy forthe appreciation of the Tahltanculture is the subject for JudyThompson’s Recording TheirHistory: James Teit and theTahltan, from the annals of theCanadian Museum of Civilizationwhere she has been Curatorof Western SubarcticEthnology since 1990.978-1-55365-232-8As shown in this above photo, taken by Marius Barbeau, ofFrank Bolton (Tralahaet) and Sarah Wilson recording a Nisga’asong along the Nass River in 1927, ethnologists such as Barbeauand James Teit made wax cylinder recordings. Teit used a devicesimilar to Barbeau’s hand-cranked Edison Fireside Phonograph.27 BC BOOKWORLD SPRING 2008

29 BC BOOKWORLD SPRING 2008reviewsFICTIONCrusty attorneymakes anothercomebackBY JAMES TYLER IRVINEKill All The Judges by William Deverell(M&S $34.99)Having won the 2006Arthur Ellis Award forhis novel April Fool,William Deverell has againbrought his lawyer protagonistArthur Beauchamp out of retirementfor Kill All The Judges,a title that harkens back toDeverell’s Kill All The Lawyers,published in 2001.Deverell’s 15th book openswith a deranged court clerk whofires a pistol at a presiding judgebut the intended bullet is takenin the heart by a police officerwho heroically jumps in its way.This incident is creative nonfiction,a story within the novel,written by one of its main characters.As the title suggests,there are several judges whomeet their demise in the story.One succumbs to food poisoningfrom eating a portion oftainted duck a l’orange, anothervanishes off a wharf, anda third’s curiosity mysteriouslyends his life.Arthur Beauchamp is askedto step into the main trial in thenovel at the last moment (aftermuch resistance on his part) toact for the accused in the murdercase of a judge who may havesuspicious ties to the federalgovernment in Ottawa.In typical Deverell fashionthere is plenty of humour thatthreads its way through thisnovel. Felicity, who desperatelywants to be a poet, speaks innearly perfect verse tones. “Justlike a greeting card!”Beauchamp says.Some butter ends up on thefly of a man’s pants as result of alittle under the table accident,and poor Arthur discovers incriminatingevidence in hisgrandson’s possessions. Otherhot evidence is found in the localcommunity centre.✫The novel has its tense moments,too, particularly duringthe trial of the accused. A nearsightedretired theatre diva isasked to identify a suspect fromthe witness box. She is not ableto see past the end of her noseand must make her way slowlyaround the silent room. Everycharacter who has raised suspicionsthroughout the novel is sittingin the courtroom followingor avoiding her gaze.Many of the memorable charactersthat joined Beauchamp inApril Fool return here andDeverell presents his charactersas if they were old acquaintancesor new friends. Beauchamp fanswill remember lawyer BrianPomeroy, Margaret Blake (thelove of Arthur’s life), crabby centenarianWinnie Gillicuddy andNelson Forbish, the ever-pryingfor-detailseditor of The Bleat, toname just a few.Margaret has moved from savingeagles to wanting to stretchher political aspirations nationwide.Poor Brian Pomeroy hasbecome tired of his professionand the trials of his everyday lifeand sets off on a different path.Wentworth Chance, whoworks with Arthur, is a new characterto Beauchamp mysteries—young, green and keen. Headores the legal professionand aspires to follow inCOUPLAND‘S BOX STORE BLUESThe Gum Thief by Douglas Coupland(Random House $32)Sometimes you just can’t improveupon the hype. The jacket for DouglasCoupland’s new novel aboutthe angst-ridden lives of employees in aStaples outlet, The Gum Thief (RandomHouse $32), offers an excerpt that neatlycaptures the interplay between pathosand humour in Coupland’s ongoing critiquesof modern North American society.Once again, Coupland and his charactershave melded into one narrative voice:“I work in a Staples. I’m in charge of restockingaisles 2-North and 2-South: SheetProtectors, Indexes & Dividers, Notebooks,Post-it Products, Paper Pads, Specialty Papersand ‘Social Stationery.’ Do I hate thisjob? Are you nuts? Of course I hate it. Howcould you not hate it? Everyone who workswith me is either already damaged or elsethey’re embryos waiting to be damaged,fresh out of school and slow as a 1999 mo-MOREKILLFROM BILLWilliamDeverellDouglas Couplanddem. Just because you’ve been born andmade it through high school doesn’t meansociety still can’t abort you. Wake up. Letme try to say something positive here. Forbalance. Staples allows me to wear blacklipstick to work.—Bethany” 978-0-307-35628-4Beauchamp’s footsteps.Chance plays abig part in this novel,and this reviewerhopes to read more storiesabout him again.Arthur remainscrusty but compassionate.Like many of us,he does not know howto say “No” and frequentlywishes hehad. He would ratherbe relaxing, fishing,spending time with hisgrandson or readingfrom Virgil’s Aeneid. Ishe really WilliamDeverell in disguise?The question is part ofthe appeal for this series.✫Figuring prominentlyin the story isthe intersection ofMain and Keefer inVancouver’sChinatown and a poshcondominium in whatappears to be FalseCreek. Glimpses ofGastown, Maple LeafSquare and GaribaldiIsland, where much of the noveloccurs (or is it really NorthPender Island where Deverellmakes his home?) also form partof the landscape of the novel.Kill All the Judges provides adelightful, witty and satisfyingread. And the culprit…well sorry,that’s a secret that must be kept.✫Deverell was born in Reginain 1937 and by 1964 he waspracticing law in British Columbiaand continues to do so. Thetelevision series Street Legalwhich ran for eight seasons onCBC-TV was co-created byDeverell, who also wrote its pilotepisode. 0-7710-2721-4James Tyler Irvine is a booksellerin Vancouver.Incidental Music by Carol Matthews (Oolican $18.95)Carol Matthews’ debut collection of fiction,Incidental Music, consists of seven linked storiesabout several couples, mainly Tannis andher husband Stephen. Before she wed, Tannis’s fatherhad told her “There has to be give and take in amarriage. You’ll find the lasting value of a marriageappears not at the beginning but later, towards theend. It is a journey, not a destination.” The couplego on to cope with aging and abandonment, buoyedby the consolations of maturity and a lasting union.Music also connects the lives of Matthews’ characters.Born in Vancouver, Carol Matthews was an instructorand dean at Malaspina University-College, whereshe has continued as an Honorary Research Associate.Her first book, The First Three Years of a Grandmother’sLife (Ryerson, 2006), is a collection of herquarterly columns from Relational Child and YouthCare Practice, written from her perspective as agrandmother, and self-illustrated. She lives on ProtectionIsland, along with her husband, Mike, andVictor, their “poet dog.” 978-088982-234-4S HORTIESSpook Country by William Gibson(Penguin $32.50)William Gibson’s follow-up to hislast novel Pattern Recognition (2003)is Spook Country, which takes place inthe present day and primarily involvesa journalist, a junkie and a troubleshooterfor manufacturers of militarynavigation equipment. 9780399154300Conceit by Mary Novik(Doubleday $29.95)Mary Novik’s first published novelConceit is about Pegge Donne, thedaughter of the poet John Donne, whoaudaciously rebels against her father’splans for her arranged marriage. Thenovel’s backdrop is London in the 17thcentury. 978-0-385-66205-5The Book of Beasts by Bernice Friesen(Coteau $21)The Book of Beasts by BerniceFriesen of Hornby Island is the comingof age story of Seamus (James)Wilberforce Young, a half-English andhalf-Irish boy who is taken to his mother’sIrish village in 1965 after her mother’slengthy alienation from his family.Recently Seamus’ sister was killed in acar accident and his mother soon decidesto leave her husband. At hisgrandmother’s bidding, James pursuesthe priesthood only to undergo a lossof faith. 978-1-55050-387-1Bernice FriesenThe Silent Raga by Ameen Merchant(D&M $32.95)The Silent Raga, the first novel fromBombay-born Ameen Merchant isabout a Brahmin musical prodigy whoflees an arranged marriage to be witha Muslim Bollywood star. Merchant nowlives in Vancouver. 1-55365-309-2Radiance by Shaena Lambert(Random House $19.95)Shaena Lambert’s first novel Radianceconcerns the relationship betweenan 18-year-old survivor of theHiroshima atomic bomb blast, KeikoKitigawa, who is brought to the UnitedStates in 1952 for charitablereconstructive surgery, and her suburbanhostess, Daisy Lawrence, who hasbeen assigned the task to pry the girl’straumatic story from her to serve thepropaganda needs of the committeethat has sponsored her visit. WithMcCarthyism on the rise and experimentsto develop the hydrogen bombunderway in the U.S., the complex intimacythat arises between the “Hiroshimamaiden” and her host motherhas its own frission born of whisperedconfessions and wrenching betrayals.978-0-769-31150-8Shaena Lambert

31 BC BOOKWORLD SPRING 2008reviewsFICTIONTHUMPING JACKSChris F. Needham plays Lucy with the truth to unravel congenital violenceBY CHERIE THIESSENFalling from Heights by Chris F. Needham(Now or Never Publishing $21.95)You don’t want to messwith the three Jacks boys,Jonathan, Robert andJeremy. In Falling from Heights,none of them can sustain lastingrelationships.Jonathan, the elder by sixteenyears, is a sexual predator.Jailed earlier for his attacks onyoung girls, he has done his timeand now lives in a heritage homein a respectable Langley community;closely monitored 24/7by four full-time employees.Robert has left his secondwife, and a three-year olddaughter he has no interest in,in favour of impregnating oneof his high school students,whom he subsequently may haveassisted off the Knight StreetBridge. The partying studentSukhvinder, and her unbornchild, unsurprisingly didn’t survivethe plunge—or fall.Although he doesn’t drink,Robert loves to beat the hell outof guys in bars, he loves to watchhis twin brother, Jeremy, getplastered, and he doesn’t say noto a good toke. Jeremy, thedrunk, is the best of the three,although he’s a failure at work,relationships and life.Both university-educatedbrothers, Robert and Jeremy, are“temporarily” doing menial jobsin a smelly Delta fish feed plant.Unfortunately, Robert can nolonger teach school, not becauseof Sukhvinder—nobody knowsabout that yet—but because hepunched out the principal infront of his students. One wonderswhy this pugilistic charmerwould have ever chosen teachingchildren in the first place.Jeremy has reluctantly returnedto Vancouver from easternCanada where he has hadone largely unread, misogynistbook published. His return isprompted by a phone call fromhis father, with whom he has hada dicey relationship, telling himthat Robert, who is an army reservist,has been killed in a jumpwhile on a weekend trainingmission.The father tells him Robert’sparachute must have becomeentangled with that of a fellowjumper, one Corporal Sidhu,but when Jeremy returns andaccompanies his ailing father tothe airport, expecting to pickup a very small coffin, hisbrother limps off the plane.Turns out that Robert has miraculouslysustained only minorinjuries, as Sidhu cushioned hisfall.Unlike Sukhvinder, Roberthas survived his fall from heights.Both younger brothers, nowclose to 30, return to the familyhome with their Dad, ahome that is constantly losingground to a rapaciousravine. There has neverbeen a mother in the picture.Jon Sr. has told hisboys she died while on ahoneymoon with her secondhusband.The present-day storyof the Jacks family isposted as blog entrieson the Internet bysomeone with the penname of Lucy. Giventhat the only Lucy wemeet in the story is a catat the eldest son’sguarded residence, weare intrigued to learnmore.✫The twins and their relationshipfeel very credible,and the plot is engaging,so with all of this excitementgoingon, youwould think itwould be easyto get yankedquickly intothis novel. Infact, it’s astruggle atfirst, mostly becauseof theauthor’s stylisticchoice of intruding into thestory and because of his use ofconvoluted and lengthy paragraph-longsentences. Here’s anexample:Together Jeremy and his fathertried to get limping Robert into hisnow vacant, incessantly leaky condo—as mentioned, Robert’s wife hadtaken a recent leave of absence fromtheir relationship, taking with hertheir three year-old daughter—butwith his various minor injuries, togetherwith everything else presentlyfalling apart in his life, they thoughtbetter of it and decided to install himin his old room at his father’s house,Chris F.Needham:Delving intoviolence in thesuburbs ofVancouverthe very house Robert and Jeremy hadgrown up in.Later the author’s intrusivenesslargely disappears, especiallyonce the story ricochets tothe most overtly deviant son,Jonathan. But only about half ofthis novel is about this scary familyof four.✫Right from the beginning,interspersed with the Jacks family,we have another intriguingstoryline: A mysterious but fascinatingyoung woman, Birdie, iswriting letters and diary entriesfrom a voluntary “prison,” partof a well-paid controlled experimenton the effects of marijuanausage, a trial that tookplace in the early 1970s.It’s this half of Falling fromHeights that was evidently inspiredby real letters and eventsthat occurred at a governmentsanctioneddrug experiment inToronto in 1972.The letters from Birdie, someof which Jeremy finds in the familyhome, are 30 years old. Articulate,funny and insightful,Birdie’s writing pulls us in rightfrom the start and fortifies us forthe frequent ‘trips’ back andforth to the Jacks brothers. Wewant to know who Birdie is, andwhat she has got to do with thechaos and carnage in the livesof the Jacks twins.Needham’s combination of“Lucy’s” modern communicationmethod of blogging withthe somewhat passé action of letterwriting by Birdie makes fora welcome juxtaposition.Plots can sometimes benefitfrom being convoluted, as longas the author leaves us crumbsto find our way out of the maze,but there’s a great deal aboutFalling from Heights that is perplexing.Why has Needhamgone to so much trouble to caricatureJeremy’s drinking buddy,a well-known alcoholic actorwho played in a long-running televisionseries? And why is he includingreal events and peoplefrom Greenpeace?And what about those environmentalconflicts he introduces?Whoever would haveguessed that Jon Jacks, the onetime alcoholic and aimless fatherwe meet at the beginning,would also have been involvedin Greenpeace and environmentalactivism?And, of course, who really isthe mother of these twins andwhere the heck is she?Flashes of a Lexus, a missinggirl, and her no-good boyfriend,also keep flicking throughoutthe novel, piquing our curiosityand further knitting togetherthis dark story.Symbolism is everywhere,from the ravine’s encroachmenton the family yard, to the crackingcement in the fishpond, tothe unfinished treehouse forRobert’s daughter. PossiblyNeedham began writing as apoet before he wrote An InvertedSort of Prayer, his other novel,about an ex-hockey enforcer,that was published shortly beforethis one. 978-0-9739558-1-1Cherie Thiessen regularly reviewsfiction from Pender Island.fernie writers conference 0807.15 - 07.27Intensive workshops. 07.15 - 07.27. SCREENWRITING | FILM EDITING | SHORT STORY | POETRY | NOVELProfessional Writing Seminar. 07.25 - 07.27Previous participant registration and scholarship applications open early January 08. General registration February 01.08.ELK VALLEY REALTYwww.ferniewriters.org | keith@ferniewriters.org | 250.423.6132

32 BC BOOKWORLD SPRING 2008reviewsSHORT LISTAGES 8+Dangerous Crossings by AntoniaBanyard (Annick $9.95)Born in South Africa, AntoniaBanyard emigrated from Zambia whenshe was four. She grew up mainly inNelson and now lives in Vancouver.Dangerous Crossings is her collection often true stories of harrowing journeysand escapes from an 18th century upper-classPeruvian woman who getsstranded on the Amazon River to a teenagerwho crosses war-torn Germany insearch of his family. 978-1554510863AGES 10+Rebel’s Tag by In K.L. Denman(Orca $9.95)In K.L. Denman’s Rebel’s Tag, the storyrevolves around Sam, an angry youthwho expresses his feelings by spray paintingthe sign of Aquarius, his tag, whileclimbing on rooftops. Sam is disturbed bythe disappearance of his grandfathersoon after Sam’s father is buried. Whenthis grandfather starts writing to Sam, andleads him on a frustrating scavengerhunt, Sam’s distress bubbles to the surfaceand he is nabbed for spray painting.Sam must make the leap from rebellionto forgiveness. 978-1-55143-740-8AGES 9-12Becca at Sea by Deidre Baker(Groundwood $18.95)Children’s book reviewer DeidreBaker, a teacher of English at Universityof Toronto, has used her summers atHornby Island as the basis for Becca atSea (Groundwood $18.95), a YA novelabout a girl named Becca who visits hergrandmother’s rustic cabin on the GulfIsland during her mother’s pregnancyand comes to enjoy her outdoor adventures.Baker is also the co-author ofA Guide to Canadian Children’s Bookswith Ken Settington. 978-0-88899-737-1ALSO NOTED-----------------------------------------------Diane Tullson, Lockdown(Orca $9.95) 978-1-55143-676-0--------------------------------------------------Robin Stevenson, Dead in the Water(Orca $9.95) 978-1-55143-962-4--------------------------------------------------Polly Horvath, The Corps of theBare-Boned Plane (Groundwood $9.95)978-0-88899-851-4--------------------------------------------------Julie White, High Fences(Sono Nis $9.95) 978-1-55039-063-3--------------------------------------------------Duane Lawrence, Sammy Squirrel& Rodney Raccoon (Granville Island$12.95 ) 978-1-894694-54-4--------------------------------------------------Nan Gregory, Pink (Groundwood$17.95) 978-0-88899-781-4--------------------------------------------------Sylvia Olsen & Ron Martin,Which Way Should I Go? (Sono Nis$19.95) 978-1-55039-161-9--------------------------------------------------Pam Adams, From Blossom toBlondie (Self-published $15.75) 978-0-9684415-6-5--------------------------------------------------Penny Draper, Peril at Pier Nine(Coteau $8.95) 978-1-55050-376-0--------------------------------------------------Iain Lawrence, Gemini Summer(Random House $21) 978-0385-73089-1A DANISH IN WARTIMEChocolate éclairs, the Resistance &fleeing the Nazis in 1943AGES 8 TO 10Honey Cake by Joan Betty Stuchner(Tradewind $16.95)David Nathan lives abovethe family bakery, rightnext door to his bestfriend Elsa and her family’s toystore. David’s Papa still does thebest baking in the city and Mamais making her special honey cakefor Rosh Hashanah to welcomethe Jewish New Year but very littleis sweet or rosy in Copenhagenin 1943. Three yearsearlier, just before Passover,the Nazis had invadedDenmark.Now the grownupsare always anxious and secretive,and even David’solder sister Rachel is evasiveabout her mysteriouscomings and goings.Then David is asked to make adelivery of chocolate éclairs—arare treat with cream and butterso scarce—and learns his sister isin the Resistance, blowing upbuildings and railway tracks. Rumoursare circulating. Bad thingsare happening all over occupiedEurope. People are disappearing.Especially Jews. Every dayKing Christian X defiantly rideshis horse through Copenhagen’sstreets but as Rachel says, “Thingshappen that even kings can’tstop.”Yet Mama still bakes thehoney cake and the morning beforeRosh Hashanah David sitswith Papa in the synagogue.Soon, though, Rabbi Melchiormakes a terrifying announcement.“The Nazis plan to roundup Denmark’s Jews tonight. Wemust go home and prepare forour escape.” David’s bundled inlayers of clothing and Mamasnatches up her cake—she’s notabout to leave it behind for theNazis—and the Nathan familyhurries to the train station. Ifthey head to the coast, if theyescape detection on a fishingboat, if they make it to Sweden,they might just be safe. If…Inspired by a friend’s story,Honey Cake is the fourth children’sbook for Vancouver storytellerand librarian’s assistantJoan Betty Stuchner. Stuchner,who also wrote The Kugel ValleyKlezmer Band and teaches parttime at a Jewish school, providesa recipe for the spicy, coffee-flavouredhoney cake and anafterword relating an intriguinghistory of the Danish Jews.Artist Cynthia Nugent, whotaught herself to paint and drawfrom library books, traveled toCopenhagen to research and flavourher illustrations. Visitingthe city, she says, “made historycome alive.” 978-1-896580-371AGES 4 TO 8I, Bruno by Caroline Adderson(Orca $6.95)Caroline Adderson,known for her muchlaudedadult fiction includingA History of Forgettingwhich addressed the malignantlegacy of Hitler’s madnessthrough a gay hairdresser andhis female apprentice and SittingPractice which delved into thesexual life of a wheelchairboundwoman with spinal cordinjury, has written her first bookfor young children. In six shorttales I, Bruno relates the adventuresof Adderson’s son Patrick,the “boy inspiration.” Energeticillustrations by Helen Flook reveala stalwart defenderof dragonsdisguised-as-fire-hydrants,the Queenin all his white-gloveand red-velvet-capeglory and a reluctantprimary-gradeprinter who cleverlycomes up with aone-letter moniker for himself.LOUISE DONNELLY978-1-55143-501-5AGES 12+In Pain & Wastings by Carrie Mac(Orca $9.95)In Pain & Wastings, CarrieMac, a paramedic who’sworked Vancouver’s darkerside, continues the trademarkgrit and grind of Charmed, Crush,and The Beckoners. In this latestbook for reluctant teen-readersfifteen-year-old Ethan isstunned to discover the ambulancestation is right in the middleof the Downtown Eastside.He’d willingly agreed to theride-along in the ambulance butsuddenly the alternative to goingto court for breaking into anamusement park isn’t looking socushy. It’s not the area’s notorietyfor “drugs and prostitutesand poverty and violence” that’sgot him spooked. It’s that Mainand Hastings, or Pain andWastings as it’s more accuratelycalled, is only a few blocks away.He doesn’t want to rememberwhat happened there, all thoseyears ago, but as the twelve-hourshifts drag on and Holly, theparamedic, lets on she knew hismother, the demons descend.978-1-55143-904-4AGES 4 TO 8Mush and the Big Blue Flowerby Laurie Payne (Oolichan $21.95)Born and raised in England,Laurie Payne settledin the Shuswap Valleyin the 1960s. A widely exhibitedartist, sculptor and painter,he has writtenhis firstchildren’sbook, Mushand the BigBlue Flower,about a boywho is persuadedheLaurie Paynehas lost hisvoice. Thisallegorical fantasy, illustrated byRuth Campbell, also features amagic flying teapot that transportshim as he searches for hismissing voice. 978-088982-242-5Louise Donnelly writes from Vernon.KIDLITCynthia Nugent illustration from Joan Betty Stuchner’s Honey CakeCover art for Carrie Mac’s Pain & WastingsHelen Flookillustration fromI, Bruno byCaroline Adderson

33 BC BOOKWORLD SPRING 2008reviewsIT SHOULD BECHEWASSENChewassen, Tsawwassen or Chiltinm:The Land Facing the Sea by GwenSzychter ( tel:604-946-4890; $35 )Having self-publishedtwo books on Ladner,Gwen Szychter is backwith Chewassen, Tsawwassen orChiltinm: The Land Facing the Sea,an illustrated guide to buildingsand early settlers of Tsawwassen,excluding Point Roberts.Szychter explains her oddchoice of title: “I would havemuch preferred to be using theolder and more pleasing‘Chewassen’ to refer to this area.However, it has been known verballyand popularly since 1946by the spelling ‘Tsawwassen,’with no standard pronunciation,a situation that was dumped onus by a nameless, faceless bureaucratat the GeographicBoard of Canada, to be appliedto ‘the beach near PointRoberts.’ I have, therefore,opted for the name and spellingof modern usage, eventhough I like it not at all. Thefinal variation, Chiltinm, is whatthe Corboulds perceived as theIndian name for the area. Foryour own personal enjoyment,I’d like you to know that theworking title of this book was‘Tsawwassen: From Picnics toPotatoes to Palm Trees.’ I am notsure why I chose to go with amore formal title in the end, butI certainly acknowledge that I’vechosen to convey a Euro-Canadianview of the land.”FREE REIN TOFREE SPEECH978-0-9680951-4-0The Host and the Parasite: How Israel’sFifth Column Consumed America byGreg Felton (Dandelion/The Author $40)Dedicated to the WorldWide Web, “the lasthope for a free press,”Greg Felton’s The Host and theParasite: How Israel’s Fifth ColumnConsumed America is ostensibly anattempt to provide the impartialreader—folks who remainperplexed by petropolitics andnew & established writersongoing hatreds withinthe so-called HolyLand—with a livelyprimer on how theworld has gone to hellin a handbasket in theMiddle East. Abouthalfway through his vituperativebut compellingbarrage ofpro-Palestinian historicalanalysis—in whichhe pummels the allegedcollusion betweenthe Bush/Cheney “oilochracy”and the state of Israel—Felton sets out to debunkthe “demonized”image of Osama binLaden. For that reasonalone, some Jews, andmany non-Jews, will preferto dismiss Felton’sprolonged screedas hate literature,as unforgivable anti-Semitism. But it should be notedthat Felton’s disdain for so-calledmainstream media is equally intense.The vast sweep of Felton’soverview is not dissimilar toNaomi Klein’s one-size-fits-allanalytic approach to debunkingneo-liberalism and its collusionwith the World Bank. If you canscrape together enough facts tosuit your argument, youcan hold the courtroomof public opinion spellboundwith your zeal. Togive both sides of an argument,on the otherhand, runs the risk ofbeing dismissed as wishywashy.Felton, an inveterateletter-to-the-editor guy,does dish out a host ofintriguing details that neverseem to get aired on CBS orCNN and all those other newsoutlets that run the gamut ofopinion from A to B. For instance,Felton points out thatCondoleeza Rice, Bush’s Secretaryof State, was a director ofChevron from 1991 to 2001. Sowho knew that Chevron, as aparting gesture, named a$1,500Creative Non-FictionContestThree winners will each receive $500 plus payment for publication in Event 37/3. Other manuscripts may be published.Final Judge: Timothy Taylor is an award-winning journalist and bestselling author. He is a columnistwith The Globe and Mail and the recipient of three National Magazine Awards.Writers are invited to submit manuscripts exploring the creative non-fiction form. Back issues of Eventwith previous winning entries and judges’ comments are available for $7.35 (inc. GST and postage).Note: Previously published material cannot be considered. Maximum entry length is 5000words, typed, double-spaced. Include a separate cover sheet with the writer’s name, address,phone number / email, and the title(s) of the story (stories) enclosed. Enclose a SASE (Canadianpostage / IRCs / US$1). Douglas College employees are not eligible to enter.Entry Fee: Each entry must be accompanied by a $29.95 entry fee (includes GST and a one-yearsubscription or extension; make cheque or international money order payable to Event). Americanand overseas entrants please pay in US dollars.Deadline for Entries: Postmarked by April 15, 2008.P.O. Box 2503, New Westminster, BCCanada V3L 5B2Phone: (604) 527-5293 Fax: (604) 527-5095Email: event@douglas.bc.caVisit our website at http://event.douglas.bc.ca136,000-ton tanker CondoleezaRice? Upon her ascension to theWhite House, Chevron changedthe name to the less noticeableAltair Voyager.Felton traces how someChristians in the U.S. have cometo view Israel’s ascendancy as theillumination of biblical prophecy—God’swill in action—tothe continuing detrimentof Palestinians.Felton writes forthe Arabic/EnglishCanadian Arab News.A falling-out with hisArizona-based bookpublisher has resultedin him sellinghis own book directlyfrom his home.“Real power doesnot lie with the White House orCongress,” he pronounces, “itlies with the Jewish, Christianand Straussian pressure groupsthat tell the president and Congresswhat to do.”It’s up to each reader to decidewhether or not Felton’s filibusterof fury is usefulcommentary or a missile from acrackpot. 978-1-893302-97-6GOALIANISLA NDINDIESClearingland in WestVancouver,1915While serving on the West Vancouver Heritage Advisory Committee, ElspethBradbury has produced a coffee table book on the forestry of that area asa fundraiser for the Lighthouse Park Preservation Society, West Vancouver:A View Through the Trees (District of West Vancouver $40). The collaborativeeffort, that includes extensive historical information, was edited by Valerie Frith.Bradbury credits the help of publishing insiders Don and Barbara Atkins, JimDouglas, Rob Sanders, Mark Stanton, historian Doreen Armitage, projectcoordinator Hugh Johnston and dozens of others. 978-0-9784147-0-2Greg FeltonA ROUBLE FORHIS THOUGHTSLooking Through Glasnost by Gil Parker(Victoria: Aware Publishing $21.95)After 1991, when the communisthierarchy of 74years collapsed throwingthe Soviet Union into turmoil,the market economy failed tomaterialize and western moneydisappeared into the hands ofthe oligarchs. The expectationsof the people were dashed, theirpersonal savings erased by successivedevaluations of the rouble.Gil Parker’s Looking ThroughGlasnost describes a dozen personalvisits by the former engineerand mountain climber,prompted by a Rotary Club ‘sister-city’initiative in 1988. Overa 15-year period, Parker exploredGeorgia, Lithuania,Uzbekistan, and Russia east towest, befriended many Sovietcitizens, learned Russian andcame to understand the crumblingCommunist model and thefaltering democracy that replacedit.978-0-9736906-1-3We areelebratingC10thAourREX & NAPOLEONCurious Little World: A Self-Imposed Exileon St. Helena Island by Rex Bartlett(Gabriola Island: Toppermost Books$21.95)Rex Bartlett’s Curious Little World: ASelf-Imposed Exile on St. Helena Islandmainly recounts how he andhis partner Cynthia Barefoot went to liveon the tiny island where Napoleon died,halfway between Africa and SouthAmerica. They bought an abandonedhouse sight unseen, lacking plumbing,electricity and telephone.As an ex-musician, Bartlett’s self-deprecatingcharm is as appealing as theexotic locale of his memoir. He recallsbeing Neil Young’spaperboy in Winnipegand travellingto buy guitarstrings in Hibbing,Minnesota, BobDylan’s birthplace,hoping the stringswould bring themNapoleon luck in their newband.“But just outside of Hibbing, werounded a curve in the highway and approacheda huge banner strung acrossthe road. The sign didn’t say, ‘Welcometo Hibbing, Bob Dylan’s Hometown’ likeit should. Instead it said, ‘Welcome toHibbing, World’s Largest Open Pit IronMine.’ I knew right then that I had beenwrong. The sign was a sign. Well, obviouslythe sign was a sign. Anyone couldsee that the sign was a sign, but I couldsee that the sign was an omen.“The silver strings would not bring usfame. They would hold no magic. I staredat the vast obscene open pit iron mineand realized that my piercing Joan-of-Arc-sy vision had been nothing more thana post-Klik hallucination. Chastened andhumiliated, we returned to the Winnie-The-Pooh Capital of the World.”978-0-978-3927-0-3[P.O Box 319 Gabriola Island, BC V0R 1X0]ALSO RECEIVEDColleen O’Connor, Cry of the Phoenix(Cat’s Eye Enterprises $19.95)978-0-9783988-0-4---------------------------------------------------Terry Julian, The Seduction of SurveysIn Canada’s Federal Elections (SignaturePublishing $14.95) 978-1-4251355-4-6--------------------------------------------------Bruce Batchelor, Book Marketing Demystified(Agio $14.95)978-1-897435-00-7---------------------------------------------------Eleanor Millard, Journeys Outside andIn (Self-published $24.95) 0-9782817-0-5---------------------------------------------------Anne Brevig, Years on the 7 Seas (SevenSeas Press, $36.95) 0973758201---------------------------------------------------Glen Lovett, The Adventures of Jasper:Lost in Skookum Valley (Lovett Pictures$18.95) 978-0-9783116-1-2nniversaryOpen year-round with over 25,000 titlesplus a great selection of Canadian authors,art supplies and gifts.Join us for readings and book launches.76 Madrona Drive Galiano Island BC V0N 1P0250 539-3340 ltrent@uniserve.com

34 BC BOOKWORLD SPRING 2008Find it hereHas media concentration gone too far? Marc Edge’s hard-hittingcritique of Canada’s dominant media conglomerate asks the questionsthey don’t want you to think about.Asper NationCanada’s Most DangerousMedia CompanyDuthie Books, West 4th Av. • People’s Co-op Bookstore32 Books, North Vancouver • Magpie Books & MagsBlackberry Books • Munro’s Books, VictoriaTanners Books • Sorensen Books • Abraxas BooksChapters • Indigo Books + Musicchapters.indigo.ca • amazon.comPublished by New Star BooksShort storiesA Heart in Portby Emily Givner“There is awonderful shock —a real charge in these stories.”— ALICE MUNROAvailable fromThistledown PressISBN 978-1-897235-32-4 • $16.95LETTERSTHE PERFECT BOOKWe visited family in Victoria for theChristmas holidays. I picked up the Winteredition of your publication on theferry from Vancouver. The article aboutDerek Evans, and the excerpt from hisbook, were so compelling that Ipurchased Dispatches from theGlobal Village at Munro’s in Victoriaon Christmas eve and readit from cover to cover that afternoon.It was the perfect book forthe season, as Evans writes eloquentlyabout the goals we espouse,but rarely achieve, evenin a time when we proclaimpeace and goodwill to others. By the way,I obtained the last copy that Munro’shad in stock, so I hope the publisher replenishesthe supply for 2008.Philip E. CarrCalgary, ABWHITEHORSE CALLINGI always read your newspaper wheneverI am on the ferries going to visit mygrandchildren. I enjoy it so much that Iknow my friend Carol would like a giftsubscription. We are both avid readersand book buyers but living inWhitehorse, Yukon, so we don’t havemany bookstores to choose from. A Coleshas opened in the city and I fear it isundermining the only independentbookseller in town. Might I suggest youapproach Mac’s Fireweed Books onMain Street about carrying the paper? Ithink making your paper available toreaders in Whitehorse would be goodfor authors and for sales at Mac’s FirewoodBooks. Keep up the good work.Spence HillWhitehorseMALASPINA REPLIESDerek EvansAs an admirer of Anne Cameron, Iwas sorry to see in your last issue thatshe had somehow got the idea thatMalaspina University-College is anythingother than a major supporter ofwriters and writing in British Columbia.Even before the creation of the Departmentof Creative Writing and Journalismin 1990, Malaspina regularly hostedreadings by myriad writers, includingEarle Birney, Michael Ondaatje, bpnichol, Jack Hodgins, Gary Geddes,Alice Munro, and, yes, Anne Cameron.As Randy Fred noted at your recentReckoning 07 conference, Malaspinafaculty assisted with the creation ofTheytus Books, the first aboriginal pressin Canada. Malaspina has presentedhonorary doctorates to Jack Hodginsand Carol Shields, and administers theRalph Gustafson Distinguished Chair ofPoetry, which in recent years hasbrought BC poets PatriciaYoung, Susan Musgrave, GaryGeddes, Patrick Lane, RobertBringhurst and Tom Wayman toour community, among others.Each year, at the launch ofPortal, our annual literary magazine,we welcome a guest reader;these have included ChristianBök, Wayde Compton, Sheri-d Wilson,and bill bissett. And then, of course,there’s the fact that Malaspina currentlyhas 15 BC writers on its staff, deliveringone of the most comprehensive, fouryearundergraduate creative writing programsin Canada. In addition to thework they do with the most importantwriters we support — our students —Malaspina’s Creative Writing and Journalismfaculty supervise the Poets onCampus reading series in Nanaimo, theCowichan Campus Reading Series inDuncan, the New Waves Festival of newplays, the Institute for Coastal Researchchapbook series, and Incline, an onlinemagazine written by our journalism students,among other ongoing projects.I’d like to invite Anne Cameron toattend the launch of the 2008 editionof Portal on April 8, at which Vancouverpoet and MC Baba Brinkman willperform his Rap Canterbury Tales. Iexpect that event alone might give herreason to reconsider her remarks.Frank MoherChair, Department of CreativeWriting and Journalism,Malaspina University-CollegeIT’S A KEEPERI loved your editorial about the name“British Columbia” so much that I amcompelled to fire off a response!I think we should keep the name.Like British Columbia my name also hasdubious connotations. My late fatherwas a career criminal from Alabama whowent under several aliases, one of thembeing Jay Anthony Christopher.This was the name he used when Iwas born; I inherited it by default. Thiswas not always a good thing.Dirtbagsa novel by Teresa McWhirterDirtbags is a novel about reckoning—with one’spast, one’s choices, and one’s expectations for thefuture. This noveldeals with the bondsbetween women, thecycle of poverty, selfdestruction,loss offamily, the outlawcode, and the fragilebeauty of the humancondition.IN BETTERBOOKSTORESACROSS THENATION!“Dirtbags is an easyand addictive read . . .honest dialogue andgrungy dream-likedetails”— The Globe & MailISBN: 1-895636-88-4 • $20

35 BC BOOKWORLD SPRING 2008He went through 31 arrests andabout nine marriages before dying in anIndiana prison. My mother’s family frequentlyreminded me that I was “just likehim,” and refused to call me by my firstname, Jay, opting instead for my middlename Nathaniel. “It’s just like namingyour kid after Clifford Olson,” said oneaunt.I never knew him, he was in prisonbefore I was born. I only met him oncewhen I was 21. When I was a teenager Iresented any connection to him and almostwent through a legalname change.At the age of 26 I don’tfeel any closer to my fatherbut I do feel a deep affinitywith the name he chosefor himself. The nameChristopher is no longersomething that I inheritedfrom him. It’s the name onmy diplomas and degree.It’s my byline as a journalist.It’s a name I’ve mademy own. It’s an inseparablepart of my identity thatI’m not about to change. Sir Francis DrakeBritish Columbia is alsoa part of my identity. I’m a fifth-generationBritish Columbian on my mother’sside. We’ve had this name for 150 yearsand it’s known around the world. WhenI travel abroad nearly everyone I encounterhas either been to British Columbiaor has a family member who has. Theyassociate the name “British Columbia”with the people, land and history wechoose to present.Nathaniel ChristopherBurnabyNEW ALBION?Generating discussion about renamingBritish Columbia is an excellent idea.I happen to think that the name “BritishColumbia,” which Queen Victoriachose a century-and-a-half ago, hasserved us well, all things considered, butagree that it now sounds ‘veddy colonial’and old hat.It’s all very well for the provincial capital,Victoria, to have a newspaperquaintly called The Colonist, but let’s rememberthat Vancouver, besides beingthe only Canadian city mentioned inJames Joyce’s still futuristic Finnegan’sWake, is also the westernmost metropolisin the Western Hemisphere, hence apivotal point in the greater scheme ofthings.With these thoughts in mind I dohave a suggestion for a new name. Wecould do a lot worse than go back to thefirst recorded name possibly applied bya European to this territory (or, rather,its southwestern corner)—New Albion.After spending some six weeks duringthe summer of 1579 careening hisship, the Golden Hinde (which had itselfundergone a name-change uponentering the Pacific) preparatory to continuingon his epic voyage around theworld, which, unlike his predecessorMagellan, he was able to complete inperson, master-mariner Francis Drakebestowed the name New Albion on Pacificcoastal territory.Exactly where Drake applied thename remains open to dispute, but weknow from the Diary of the GoldenHinde’s chaplain, Francis Fletcher, thatDrake chose the name New Albion fortwo reasons: “the one in respect of thewhite bancks and cliffs which lie towardsthe sea; the other, that it might have someaffinity even in name also with or ownecountry, which was sometimes so called.”Drake’s men nailed a brass plate ontoa wooden post with an inscription mentioningNew Albion incised thereon anda round hole with an English sixpenceshowing through from the other side,to which it was soldered. (Albion, theeponymous name of a giantin ancient British mythology,comes from theLatin albus, meaningwhite.)Following two recentbooks—the second anaugmentation of thefirst—by Sam Bawlf concerningDrake’s “secretvoyage,” I am one of thosewho choose to believe thatNew Albion was, in allprobability, hereabouts.The Drake-Hondius mapof New Albion, in myopinion, matches BoundaryBay better than anywhere else alongthe Northwest Coast, and (to cite a lesswell-known piece of evidence that hasrecently come my way) since the fort “atthe foot of a hill” which Fletcher aversDrake and his men built upon their arrivalwould have to have been near freshwater,it was probably in the region ofwhat is now Crescent Beach at themouth of the Nicomekl River.The site might have impinged onnative fishing rights, and nearby hillyOcean Park has a street named IndianFort Road to commemorate the locationof a palisaded Indian fort, perhaps astructural descendant of Drake’s fort,and leaving ruins known to have beenthere within living memory.Albion eventually became a poeticalname for England found in the worksof (among others) Spenser, Shakespeareand William Blake. There is an ancillaryScottish legend about a giant named‘Albyn’ which may go back to the Albanians,who seem to have shared with theirCeltic counterparts a love of ruggedmountains, kilts and bagpipes, if not ofoatmeal. Myth tends to be timeless aswell as inclusive, at least this one does,and in Blake’s illuminated epic poem Jerusalem,Albion symbolized the fall andregeneration of mankind.Of course my new name suggestion,if adopted, would entail other changes.BC BookWorld would have to becomeNA BookWorld. And ICBC would becomeICNA—short for “I see NewAlbion,” another way of saying, “I seethe Promised Land.”Warren StevensonWhite RockLetters or emails contact:BC BookWorld,3516 W. 13th Ave.,Vancouver, BC V6R 2S3email: bookworld@telus.netLetters may be edited forclarity & length.STILLCOUNTINGTHE RINGSAn Autobiographyby W.G. “Gerry” BurchThis biography will amuse, educate, enlighten and even mildlyshock you.Still Counting the Rings provides a history of the growth ofthe forest industry in BC and views the development of forestpolicies through the eyes of one of Canada’s most recognizedforesters.Gerry’s recollections, antidotes, and descriptions of earlycruising in the late 1940’s is a must read and his opinions onsome notable characters in the industry are valuable reading.Special Price: $29.95 (plus $9.00 shipping)Available through Bjork PublishingTo order e-mail: bertosanderson@hotmail.comRECENT TITLES FROMcanada’s new independent publisherPetros SpathisFiction by ManolisA gripping story set in a country steepedin history, in an era when Greece wasgoverned by a military tyranny. This isan era that few outsiders knew muchabout, but that bore down hard on thosewho lived, loved and cared for theirprecious land.Prairie RootsMemoir by Michael ZrymiakIliarjukAn Inuit Memoir by Dracc DrequeWe pay double royalties to the year’sbest-selling author. To find out more visitA passionate accounting of the childhoodand teen years of one son of EasternEuropean immigrants who settled andbroke land in Saskatchewan. This life,like so many lives of the children of theGreat Plains, reveals a profound love offamily, of nature and of the prairies.This first-hand account of contemporarylife in a small Inuit community on BaffinIsland paints a raw, painful, disturbing,hilarious, lyrical, provocative andeye-opening picture that is a testimonyto the courage and sheer determinationof its author.

36 BC BOOKWORLD SPRING 2008roughened in undercurrentleafpress.cashauna paullcritical books for critical thinkersLIQUID GOLDEnergy Privatization in British ColumbiaJohn Calvertavailable from your local independent bookstoreor contact 902.857.1388 / info@fernpub.ca“John Calvertdebunks theclaims of theprivate energyindustry’sequivalentof snake-oilsalesmen, whileably defendingB.C.’s publicpower heritagethat serves usso well.”- BILL TIELEMAN,columnist andpolitical commentatorwww.fernwoodpublishing.caNew from Black Rose BooksCONCISE GUIDE TO GLOBAL HUMAN RIGHTSDaniel Fischlin, Martha NandorfyThis book is an urgently needed and sophisticated reflection on thevital nature of human rights in the 21st century.“In a world facing the growing challenges of globalized apartheid andpandemic poverty, human rights will determine the future...thisbook allows us to reclaim our hope in that future.”—Roger Clark, Amnesty International288 pages, 1-55164-294-8 $24.99MARVELLOUS CENTURY: Archaic Man and theAwakening of ReasonGeorge WoodcockFilled with characters, events, romance, and intrigue, here is a fascinatingjourney through the 6th century B.C. that allows us to experiencethe beauty, savagery and all-encompassing impact of acentury characterized by a cluster of events that changed irrevocablythe way humans looked upon the universe and even upon themselves.256 pages, 1-55164-266-2 $24.99OBSESSION, WITH INTENT: Violence Against WomenLee LakemanObsession, With Intent is an investigative report into one hundredcases of violence against women; in all cases the women tried to gethelp from the system. It reviews 911 procedure, from how the emergencyoperator evaluates the call, to the police, to prosecuting attorney,to court, to sentencing. It is a harrowing account of individualwomen’s stories and the dangers they faced.224 pages, 1-55164-262-X $24.99THE RAGING GRANNIES: Wild Hats, Cheeky Songs,and Witty Actions for a Better WorldCarole RoyThis is the tale of the Raging Grannies: their beginning and growth,the invention of their identity, the bold potential of their activism,the values expressed in their actions and songs, and their impact onissues, stereotypes, media, and people—bursting with adventures,protest songs, photographs, Granny profiles, and Granny wisdom.Available at your local bookstore, or by calling 1-800-565-9523Visit our booth during the Congress Book FairUniversity of British Columbia, May 31st to June 7thFor more great reads check out our website athttp://www.blackrosebooks.netWreck Beachby Carellin BrooksFind it hereTRANSMONTANUS 16Duthie Books on W. 4th AvenuePulpfiction on Main StreetPeople’s Co-op BookstoreMagpie Book & Magazine GalleryBlackberry Books • Black BondUBC Bookstore • Book WarehouseChapters • Indigo Books + Musicchapters.indigo.ca • amazon.comPublished by New Star BooksOUTSIDE THE BOXProud MaryHow the annals of Mary Rice have been resurrectedRaised in theShawnigan areaof Vancouver Island,at Chemainus, byher very English parentsMr. and Mrs. RichmondBeauchamp Halhed,Beryl Mildred Cryer wasborn Beryl MildredHalhed in Auckland,New Zealand in 1889.Having arrived atShawnigan Lake in 1892, shelater maintained the area receivedits name from a hybridword commemorating twoearly Anglo settlers, Shawand Finnegan. She marriedlocal businessman WilliamClaude Cryer and they hadone child.During the Depression, atthe request of the managing editor of theDaily Colonist newspaper in Victoria, shecollected Coast Salish stories fromHul’q’umi’num’ elders, mainly her nextdoor neighbour Mary Rice fromKuper Island, as well as Joe andJennie Wyse, for a series of 60 articlesthat appeared in the Sunday Magazinesupplement.For instance, also co-wrote an articlewith Jennie Wyse (Tstass-Aya) for theDaily Colonist about a battle between theSnunéymuxw of Gabriola Island and theLekwiltok from a century before.Although she was not trained as a journalistor anthropologist, Cryer was carefulto keep track of the sources of thenarratives, enabling ethnographers whocame afterwards to trace their origins andbetter understand their meanings.Her associations with the Coast Salishled to the publication of her book slantedtowards children called The Flying Canoe:Legends of the Cowichans (Victoria:J. Parker Buckle Printing, 1949). Shedied in Welland, Ontario, in 1980.Cryer’s contributions to coastal ethnologywere subsequently edited byChris Arnett for Two Houses Half-Buried in Sand: Oral Traditions of theHul’q’umi’num’ Coast Salish of KuperIsland and Vancouver Island(Talonbooks $24.95). 978-0-88922-555-8✍In his memoir Alone Against the Arctic(Heritage $19.95), AnthonyDalton recalls making a near-fatal solovoyage by small open boataround the west and northcoasts of Arctic Alaska in thesummer of 1984.The narrative records his attemptto make a solo transit ofthe Northwest Passage in orderto appreciate the struggles of anarduous Arctic rescue missionundertaken by three U.S. officersfrom the cutter Bear in1897-98. The threesome set offHul’q’umi’num’ storyteller Mary RiceAnthony Daltonfrom below the Arctic Circle in an effortto drive a herd of 300 reindeer over 1,500miles of frozen tundra and ice to Point Barrow,Alaska.As he undergoes his own ordeal, Daltonrecalls the heroic efforts of the three menwho tried to bring the reindeer herd tothe crews of eight whaling ships strandedin the ice, on the verge of starvation.978-1-894974-33-2✍Rick Antonson’s To Timbuktufor a Haircut (Dundurn $26.95) is anamusing memoir about his intrepid journeyto Mali, via Senegal, to visit the fabledcity, and his resulting determinationto help preserve Timbuktu’s approximately700,000 endangered ancientmanuscripts. The title is derived from afavoured expression of his father wheneverhis two young sons pestered him asto where he was going. Antonson’s fatherwould reply, “I’m going to Timbuktu toget my haircut.”Some fifty years later, Antonson’s longimaginedjourney was undertaken in thewake of his participation in the successfulbid to procure the 2010 Winter Olympicsfor Vancouver/Whistler. “We werestuck. Everyone in the Land Cruiserjumped to the ground to lighten the load.Two weeks earlier I had used my handsto scuff snow from under the wheels of afriend’s Jeep that had got stuck in Canadianmountains. Now, I carved armfulsof sand from behind the Land Cruiser’swheels to achieve the same effect. Wepushed and the vehiclelurched forward. We continuedtoward Essakane. Our vehicle’sshocks abdicated. Itwas an atrocious experience,and I loved it. These hours,as we bore north, wereamong my most memorableexperiences of the land—vast,faraway, uncertain. It waswhat I’d long envisioned Timbuktuto be.” 978-1-55002-805-8

37 BC BOOKWORLD SPRING 2008WHO’SWHO BCis for ArdenIncluding images of the hockey riotsof 1994 in downtown Vancouver andthe occupation of the Post Office by theunemployed in the Depression, with textby Dieter Roelstraete andRussell Ferguson, Roy Arden,Against the Day (D&M $60) documentsand celebrates Roy Arden’scontributions to the rise of “post-conceptualphotography” from the West Coastin conjunction with a Vancouver ArtGallery exhibit. 978-1-55365-333-2is for BenjaminFormerlypublisher ofPolestar Books,MichelleBenjaminhas been volunteeringin adevelopmentMichelle Benjaminproject inMáncora, a small village on the northcoast of Peru, accompanied by her partnerMaggie Mooney and daughterCaitlin Mooney-Fu. RecentlyUBC Press contributed funds for a newwater pump for the village. Benjamin hasalso edited a new collection of environmentalessays by 20 writers, scientists andactivists, A Passion for the Earth(Greystone $21) in conjunction with theDavid Suzuki Foundation. 978-1-55365-375-2is for ChudleyTWIGG PHOTOWritten before an English couplemade world headlines following themysterious disappearance of theirdaughter in Portugal, Ron Chudley’sthird novel Stolen (Touchwood $12.95)explores the frightening scenario of afather desperately hoping to find hisRon ChudleyRoy Arden’s Self-Portrait #1 (1981) from Against the Dayyoung son who has inexplicably disappearedduring an overnight stop in theFraser Canyon. After a coroner’s verdictdetermines death occurred by drowning,even though nobody is recovered, JohnQuarry continues tosearch for his son,Nate, fuelled by a blindfaith that his son isalive. The father is arrestedand nearly murderedas he struggles toabsolve his guilt andwrestle with his fears.Think HarrisonFord in The Fugitive,set in the Fraser Canyonand the Albertabadlands.978-1-894898-59-1is for DumontA former creative writing teacher atSFU and Kwantlen College, MarilynDumont, a descendant of the RedRiver freedom fighter GabrielDumont, continues to assert the legitimacyof her Cree/Métis ancestry.Dumont’s third poetry title, thattongued belonging(Kegedonce Press $15),has won Poetry Book ofthe Year and theMcNally RobinsonAboriginal Book of theYear Award at the mostrecent Aboriginal BookAwards.Marilyn Dumont0-9731396-9-2BARRY PETERSON / BLAISE ENRIGHT PHOTOis for EvansStanley Evans’s three novels featurea Coast Salish detective named SilasSeaweed, formerly employed by Victoria’sSerious Crimes Unit. The first, Seaweedon the Street (2005), involved the disappearanceof a billionaire’s daughter. In Seaweedon Ice (2006), Seaweed investigatedthe sale in Victoria of Nazi loot thatwas confiscated from Jews duringWorld War II. Seaweed under Water(Touchwood $12.95) involvesan underwater vision quest afterparty girl Jane Colby is founddrowned, with strangulation markson her neck. 978-1-894898-57-7continued on page 38

WHO’SWHOLeonard Frank’s photo “Roundup of Japanese Fishing Vessels at Annieville, 1942,”from Nikkei Fishermen on the BC Coastcontinued from page 37is for FukawaMasako Fukawa served as themain writer and managing editor forNikkei Fishermen on the BC Coast:Their Biographies and Photographs(Harbour $39.95). To ensure the sacrificesand hardships endured by olderfishermen are never forgotten, alongwith the confiscation of their boats andthe forced dispersal of Japanese Canadiansfrom the B.C. Coast in 1942, theNikkei Fishermen Reunion Committeegathered and edited 3,524 names and750 biographies and photographs forthis memorial volume. 978-1-55017-436-6is for HarropGraham Harrop of North Vancouverhas contributed the“BackBench” panel cartoon for TheGlobe and Mail since 1988. Also an editorialcartoonist for The Vancouver Sunand a past winner of a British ColumbiaNewspaper Award for editorialcartooning, Harrop has gathered someof his best work for The BackBench Collection(Ronsdale $14.95).Jade Bell978-1-55380-053-8Carole Gersonis for GoldbergHaving explored Taoism andpracticed a 66-move sequence of a martialart form called Liuhebafa, KimGoldberg has written Ride Backwardson Dragon: A Poet’s Journeythrough Liuhebafa (Leaf Press $18.95).“I am naught buta beginner in allthings and hope tostay that way—open,” she writes.Liuhebafa arosefrom a philosopherand mathematicianinKim Goldbergnorth-central China, in approximately900 A.D., whose ideas were developedby a scholar and martial artist named LiDongfeng some 300 years later.Kim Goldberg’s frank narratives frequentlydetour towards humour. “DearOvaries, It was great seeing you guys lastweek! And that trans-vaginal ultrasoundwas quite the thrill ride. Thanks. Butwhat were you thinking going all cystylike that on the right? You two are a reallaugh riot. Have I not been good to you?Shown you respect? Attended everystitch-n-bitch session? Vowed to steerclear of Hormone Replacement Therapyno matter how sweaty I get? / You’re notstill mad about that no-kids thing areyou? Like dudes, get over it already!”978-0-9783879-1-4From The Backbench Collectionis for IrvineAndrew Irvine of UBC is the authorof Socrates on Trial (UTP $17.95),a new stage play that combines views ofSocrates for both theatrical and educationalpurposes. It’s one of his “lighter”works. Irvine, a former president of BCCivil Liberties, has also edited BertrandRussell: Critical Assessments and Mistakesof Reason: Essays in Honour of John Woods.is for Jack978-0-8020-9538-1For a community healing project,Agnes Jack of the Shuswap First Nationedited testimonials from 32 individualsabout their experiences withinthe Kamloops Indian Residential School(1893 to 1979). A new edition of BehindClosed Doors: Stories from theKamloops Indian Residential School(Theytus $26.95) has brought thosememories of the school back into print.978-1-894778-41-138 BC BOOKWORLD SPRING 2008

WHO’SWHO39 BC BOOKWORLD SPRING 2008is for KishkanWistful reminiscences of romantictimes in Ireland during her 20s, as wellas a memoir of returning there 23 yearslater with her son, in 2001, are the highlightsin Theresa Kishkan’s PhantomLimb (Thistledown $15.95), acollection of self-reflective essays and poeticnarratives. It also includes a lovelypiece about searching for Granite Creek,an interior community founded in 1885.978-1-897235-31-7“At what point is a placesimply erased from a map inits literal sense? All overBritish Columbia there aresignificant town sites whichhold only ghosts of theirformer selves.”–— THERESA KISHKANis for LorimerThis year’s recipient of the GrayCampbell Award recognizing an outstandingcontribution to the literary communityis Rowly Lorimer,co-founder of the Canadian Centre forStudies in Publishing at SFU and mainstayof its Master inPublishing program.As well, theHeritage Houseconsortium, led byRodger andPat Touchie,will receive theRowland Lorimer annual Jim DouglasAward to recognize outstanding publishingachievements. In recent yearsHeritage has added several imprints tobecome one of the major publishers ofbooks specifically for and about B.C. Theaward is named for the founder of J.J.Douglas Ltd., the company that evolvedinto Douglas & McIntyre.is for McPhailAccounts of 81 fish species are providedfor biologists, naturalists and conservationistsin J.D. McPhail’s696-page The Freshwater Fishes of BritishColumbia (University of Alberta $90)which details the scientific and commonnames of each fish, distinguishing characteristics,origins, geographic distribution,life-history, habitat-use, taxonomicand conservation comments. 978-0-88864-467-1is for NewEver prolific, recent Order ofCanada inductee W.H. (Bill) Newhas added two more titles to his resumethat includes some 46 titles. His latestcollection of poetry is Along a SnakeKEITH SHAW PHOTOFence Riding (Oolichan $16.95) and hehas co-edited Tropes and Territories(McGill-Queen’s $80) with MartaDvorak, a collection of short fictionand postcolonial readings featuring essayson writers such as RohintonMistry, David Malouf, and WitiIhimaera.Fence 978-0-88982-236-8; Tropes 978-0-77353-289-2is for OutramBorn in 1864, English clergymanJames Outram was a militia officer(in Afghanistan), zoologist and worldtraveller who made numerous mountaineeringascents in the Rockies andColumbias in 1900, 1901 and 1902. Inthe Heart of the Rockies (Rocky Mountain$22.95) is a re-issued 1905 classicthat records his adventures in B.C. andAlberta. He lived in Calgary prior to hisdeath in Victoria on March 12, 1925.is for Page978-1-894765-96-1P.K. Page has crafted an enticingchildren’s tale about a baker who learnsthat money can’t buy happiness in Jake,The Baker, Makes A Cake (Oolichan$19.95). As he tries to marry the beautifuldaughter of his cranky boss, Jakeconsents to literally sell his own happinessto Mr. Jeremiah, only to becomemiserable in the process. Illustrated byRuth Campbell, this tales has plentyof plot twists, culminating in a very specialwedding cake. 978-088982-245-0is for QuadraAt long last, At the Far Reaches ofEmpire (UBC Press $85) by FreemanM. Tovell provides an in-depthcareer profile of the pre-eminent Spanishsea captain who explored the PacificNorthwest prior to 1800, Peruvian-bornJuan Francisco de la Bodegay Quadra. Quadra’s reputation suffersbecause there is no genuine portraitof him, a fate that has also befallen theremarkable pathfinder DavidThompson.Tovell, a former diplomat who servedin Peru, points out that his subject is morecommonly known as Bodega or elseBodega y Quadra in Spain, UnitedStates, Mexico and Peru. 9780774813662is for RossDespite the demise of Raincoast’spublishing program, Jesse Ross’two latest titles, All-Star Sports Puzzles—Basketball (Raincoast $9.95) andAll-Star SportsPuzzles—Hockey(Raincoast $9.95)will still be availablefrom theHarry Potter folks.Basketball 978-1-55192-822-7;Hockey 978-1-55192-810-4Jesse Rosscontinued on next page

WHO’SWHO40 BC BOOKWORLD SPRING 2008continued from previous pageis for ShawChris Shaw’s Five Ring Circus:Myths and Realities of the OlympicGames (New Society $19.95) promisesto be a scathing indictment of the processof acquiring the Olympics and alsothe motives of guys in suits who, Drapeaulike,have reassured everyone things can’tgo wrong, or over-budget. UBC professorShaw is a spokesperson for the NoGames 2010 Coalition and 2010 Watch.978-0-86571-592-9is for TsimshianVictoria’s Allan Hoover is one offive co-authors of Tsimshian Treasures:The Remarkable Journey of theDundas Collection (D&M $55), aboutthe 80 Tsimshian ceremonial objectsbought from missionary WilliamDuncan by Reverend Robert J.Dundas of Scotland in 1863. This socalledDundas Collection was recentlyauctioned in New York for the Dundasfamily, reaping more than $7 million.978-1-55365-332-5is for UnbalancedAnna Jean Mallinson's TerraInfirma: A Life Unbalanced (WindshiftPress $17.95) provides a personal accountof the author's experience with aCover art forFive Ring Circustoxic reaction to the antibiotic Gentamicin,which destroyed the hair folliclesin her inner ear, eliminating herbody's equilibrium. Mallinson lives inWest Vancouver and contributes essaysto the Vocabula Review. 0-9736560-2-6is for Vuong-RiddickBorn in Hanoi in 1940 and educatedin Saigon andParis, multi-lingualThuongV u o n g -Riddick sharesher VietnameseThuong Vuong-Riddick , age 4,Hanoi, 1944roots, her girlhood experiencesand her affinityfor life inCanada in The EvergreenCountry: AMemoir of Vietnam(Hagios $19.95).In this upliftingand articulate story ofpreserving dignity inthe face of hardship,the retired French literatureprofessor revealshow Vietnam is ablend of indigenous,Chinese, French andAmerican influences.978-0-9783440-0-9is for WatadaTen years ago Terry Watada’sstories in Daruma Days (Ronsdale$14.95) recalled life in the internmentcamps of World War II in the B.C.interior, focussing on the Issei, the firstgeneration of Japanese-Canadian immigrants.The Issei are again his subject inthe novel Kuroshio (Arsenal $21.95),the name given to the tide that broughtJapanese immigrants to North America.This time Watada follows the fate ofa woman who is brought to Vancouverto marry a man she has never seen. Escapingfrom her loveless marriage andpoverty, she becomes embroiled in theunderground gang of a ruthless crimeboss. 978-1-155152-233-3is for XtraordinaryThat’s the decision of author KarenX Tulchinsky, UBC English professorGlenn Deer and booksellerMarc Fournier who have selectedMichael Kluckner’s Vancouver Remembered(Whitecap) for this year’s Cityof Vancouver Book Award.is for YatesJ. Michael Yates has resurfacedas Senior Editor of Libros Libertad, anambitious new literary imprint ownedby Manolis Aligizakis of WhiteRock. The press has issued Yates’ 548-page collection of his stage, radio andtelevision plays, The Passage of SonoNis: Collected Plays by J. Michael Yates(Libros Libertad $34.95). 978-0-9781865-3-1is for ZuehlkeCanada’s liberation of western Hollandand the crucial estuary was itsbloodiest campaign in World War II butits blow-by-blow progress has been hithertounder-appreciated. Now MarkZuehlke has extensively documentedthe 55-day, mud-soaked struggle of theFirst Canadian Army in 1944 to openthe Antwerp coast for Allied shippingin Terrible Victory: First CanadianArmy and the Scheldt Estuary Campaign(D&M $37.95). 978-01-55365-227-4The Wacky Ways We NameYoung Animalsby Diane Swansonillustrated by Mariko Ando SpencerIn a book that’s sure to grab young animal enthusiasts andlanguage lovers alike, B.C. author Diane Swanson describes11 animals and the words we use for their young.“... a fun read ... also an excellent way to increase youngchildren’s vocabulary and to introduce them to the richnessof language. Highly Recommended.”—CM Reviewswww.annickpress.comexcellence & innovation in children’s literatureAvailable from your favourite bookstoreAlso availablePart memoir, part analysis, andpart manifesto! Governor General’sAward winner Joe Rosenblattdeftly links poetry to thepersonalities of Milton Acorn,Gwendolyn MacEwen, John Clare,Christopher Smart, Sylvia Plath,and other troubled poets whoscholars have termedPoets of the Asylum.Available at bookstoresand direct from the publisherat www.ExileEditions.comISBN 978-1-55096-098-3$22.95Banyen Books presentsNEALEDONALD WALSCH WMARION WOODMAN& ROBERT BLYAGING & THEUNLIVED LIFE—The Soul’s Quest forWholeness• Sat., April 5 $25 7:30pmChrist Church Cathedral• Sun., April 6 $140 10–5First Nation’s Longhouse, UBC• POETRY w/ ROBERT BLY April 47:30pm $18 Unitarian Church, 49th & Oak–Conversations with God authorHAPPIER THAN GOD—Turn Ordinary Life into anExtraordinary Experience• TALK & BOOKSIGNING—Wed., March 197:30pm $15Canadian Memorial Church,1806 W. 15th at BurrardBanyen BOoks3608 West 4th AvenueBooks 604-732-7912 Music/Gifts/Tickets 604-737-8858Out-of-town orders 1-800-663-8442 Open Mon-Fri 10-9, Sat 10-8, Sun 11-7www.banyen.com for reviews, author events & our entire inventory

LAST WORDS42 BC BOOKWORLD SPRING 2008A TIMELY BOOK$14.95ISBN 142513554-4Order online at:www.trafford.com/07-1386oremail@trafford.comorPhone: 604-521-0378 (author)DON’T CALL ME—ISHMAELTruth of boy soldier story called into questionThe authenticity of IshmaelBeah’s boy soldier memoir ALong Way Gone—which toppedthe BC Bestseller List for much of 2007and was featured on the cover of BCBookWorld’s summer issue—has beenfound lacking by Australianmedia.In January, TheAustralian reportedBeah likely fought foronly a few months inthe Sierra Leone army,not two years as describedin his book,and he seemingly haslied about being victimizedat age 12.These revelationscame to light after oneof Ishmael Beah’s relativesread the bookand tried to contacthim via his New York publisher. Representativesof Beah have since rebuffedefforts to validate claims made in thebook.The Australian noted: “If confirmed,the revelations do not mean Beah’s taleisn’t truly terrible. They don’t mean thathe hasn’t been through experiences thatmost of us in the developed world willnever have to face even in our nightmares....But this does raise questionsabout the way Ishmael Beah’s book cameabout and how thoroughly his story waschecked out.”Coverage of Beah’s book in BCBookWorld expressed some scepticismabout the impressiveand worthwhilememoir: “Can we reallytrust him as ourguide? Is he telling useverything that happenedto him. We arebeing escortedthrough a nightmareby someone we stillIshmael Beah:Lost ‘n’ found‘n’ lost againLAURA SAWCHUK / TRIPPLE AAA PHOTOdon’t reallyknow…This is a veryimportant book. But itdoesn’t tell the truth,the whole truth, andnothing but the truth.”A Long Way Gonedebuted at #2 on The New York Timesbestseller list and Time made it Number3 on its Top Ten list of non-fiction booksof 2007. Starbucks chose it for its bookclub and donates $2 to UNICEF forevery book they sell. In November, Beahwas appointed UNICEF Advocate forChildren Affected by War.Life expectancy in Sierra Leone inthe year 2000 was 25.9. It is now 41.OBITSJeani Read (1947-2007)Daughter of author Elfreida Read,Jeani Read was born in Shanghai andmoved to Vancouver when she was veryyoung. Read started writing for TheProvince newspaper in 1973 and becameits first rock music critic. She laterbecame a columnist for the newspaper,writing on contemporary manners andmorality. These articles were collectedand published as Endless Summers andOther Shared Hallucinations (FlightPress) in 1985. She also collaboratedwith her husband, the screenwriter andplaywright Michael Mercer, on anumber of short TV dramas, one ofwhich was nominated for a Geminiaward. She died from complicationsarising from esophageal cancer, on December21, 2007.Leila Vennewitz(1912-2007)Born in Hampshire, England in1912, Leila Vennewitz, the English languagetranslator of Heinrich Boll, livedquietly and largely unheralded in Vancouverfor more than 50 years, primarilyin the West End, near Lost Lagoon.She pioneered the ability of translatorsto gain copyright for their own translations.Leila Vennewitz died on August8, 2007.INDEX to AdvertisersAnnick Press...40Anvil Press...10, 26, 34, 40Arsenal Pulp Press...12Banyen Books...40Bjork Publishing...35Black Rose Books...36Bolen Books...28Book Warehouse...38Boswell, David...10Crown Publications...28Douglas College/EVENT...33Douglas College...10Ekstasis Editions...12Ellis, David...41Exile Editions...40Federation of BC Writers...30Fernie Writers Conference...31Fernwood Publishing...36Friesens Printers...41Galiano Island Books...33George Ryga Award...41Granville Island Publishing...41Harbour Publishing...44Heritage House...7Herzog, S.M....34Hignell Printing...41Island Mountain Arts...30LAMMAR Printing...43Leaf Press...36Libros Libertad Publishing...35Locke, Steve...42Lovett Pictures...42New Society...8New Star Books...26, 34, 36Now or Never Publishing...17Oolichan Books...17Orca Books...25Penguin Books...20, 39People’s Co-Op Books...41Playwrights Canada Press...26Positive Connections...26Printorium...41Raven Publishing...26REAL Society...30Ronsdale Press...16Royal BC Museum...5Save-On Foods...28SFU Pubworks...30SFU Writing & Publishing...18Sidney Booktown...34Signature Editions...42Shuswap Lake Writers’ Festival...30Sono Nis Press...14Talonbooks...2, 3Temeron/Detselig...26Thistledown Press...34Thomson, Ann...42Toppermost Books...42UBC Press...18Vancouver Desktop...41Wilfrid Laurier Press...17Wolsak & Wynn...26Yoka’s Coffee...28TO ADVERTISE and reach100,000 readers just CALL604-736-4011