Spring 2008 Volume 22 - No. 1 - BC BookWorld

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.