2 BC BOOKWORLD SPRING 2011 – ABCBookWorld

2 BC BOOKWORLD SPRING 2011

3 BC BOOKWORLD SPRING 2011awardsSTANDING UPFOR SCIENCEReligion won’t save us. Or politics.Or business.According to David Suzuki, the74-year-old environmentalist who receivedthe 18th annual George WoodcockLifetime Achievement Award inFebruary, it all comes down to science.If politicians had listened to Suzukiand other scientific-minded futuristsabout thirty years ago, Kyoto Protocolstandards would have been achievable.Now Suzuki still clings to a “very slenderthread” of hope. The human racecan still endure, IF we immediately enactrational strategies.“Science is by far the most importantfactor for shaping our lives and societytoday… (but) decisions are made for politicalexpediency,” he says. “What’s happeningnow is absolutely terrifying.”Suzuki recalled the advice of 300 climatologistswho met in Toronto in the1970s and identified global warming asthe greatest threat to human survival,next to atomic bombs. “(But) the fossilfuel industry, the auto sector and neoconservativeslike the Koch brothers inNew York began to invest tens of millionsof dollars in a campaign of deception,”Suzuki said. “You can find the bestevidence of this in Jim Hoggan’s book,Climate Cover-Up, and in NancyOreskes’ Merchants of Doubt.”“Now we have public opinion onthese issues driven by organizations likeThe Fraser Institute, the Heartland Institute,the Competitive Enterprise Institute.You just have to read The NationalPost and you’ll never have to changeyour mind on climate change. You’llknow that it’s baloney...“I began my career in television believingthat through education, throughwriting books, through radio and televisionprograms, we would have a betterinformedpublic. But, in fact, we aregoing backwards.“The level of trust in science, especiallyin the United States, is droppingradically. And if we can’t trust in science,then who do we turn to? The Koran? TheBible? Or all these right-wing pundits?”This year The Writers Trust ofCanada co-sponsored the WoodcockAward, presented by Margaret Atwood.Mayor Gregor Robertson also participatedin the ceremony.Since 1995, the Woodcock LifetimeAchievement Award for an OustandingLiterary Career in B.C. has been supportedby the City of Vancouver, VancouverPublic Library and B.C.BookWorld. Another new co-sponsor, asof 2010, is Yosef Wosk.Born in Vancouver, David Suzuki haswritten more than 50 books.WENDY D PHOTOGRAPHYMargaret Atwoodpresents this year’s GeorgeWoodcock Award toscientist and educatorDavid Suzuki, at the FairmontHotel Vancouver. “We aregoing backwords,” hewarned the audience.Vaillant winswholeheartedlyJOHN VAILLANT’S FIRST BOOK, THEGolden Spruce, about a former loggernamed Grant Hadwin whocut down K’iid K’iyaas, a “Golden”Sitka Spruce on Haida Gwaii, in 1997,received several major book awards andwas shortlisted for British Columbia’s NationalAward for Canadian Non-Fiction.Five years later, at a lavish free luncheonfor invited guests, Vaillant receivedformer Premier Gordan Campbell’sB.C. National Award for CanadianNon-Fiction for his second book,an investigation of events in Siberia regardinga rare tiger that was killing peoplein Russia’s Primorye Territory.Like Golden Spruce, Vaillant’s TheTiger: A True Story of Vengeance andSurvival (Knopf $34.95) uses a newsworthystory as the basis for an expansivelook at conservation and ecology,revealing atavistic links between technologicalman and the wilderness.Vaillant’s face did not register pleasureor surprise when his name was an-TWIGG PHOTOCo-nominees for the BC’s NationalAward for Canadian Non-Fiction,Stevie Cameron and John Vaillantnounced as the winner during the threehourceremony. With sincere humility,he told the audience he had decided inadvance: “I am going to feel wholeheartedfor whoever wins.”The event featured erudite and sophisticateddissertations on each of thefour nominated titles, delivered byDaphne Bramham, DouglasTodd, Michael Levine andWade Davis. Publisher ScottMcIntyre, as one of the administrativeboard members, presented GordanCampbell with a set of leather boundcopies of all the award winners since2003. Campbell received a standingovation from nearly everyone present.This year all four nominated titles forthe $40,000 prize were published byRandom House / Knopf of Toronto, includingStevie Cameron’s courageous,768-page On The Farm: RobertWilliam Pickton and the Tragic Storyof Vancouver’s Missing Women.Tiger 978-0-30739-714-0; Farm 978-0-676-97584-0✍UBC PRESS’ TITLE CANADA, THE CONGOCrisis, and UN Peacekeeping, 1960-64,by Kevin Spooner, has won thisyear’s CP Stacey Prize for the best bookin Military History awarded by the CanadianHistorical Committee for theHistory of the Second World War andfor Military History. 978-0-7748-1637-3✍D&M’ S POLAR IMPERATIVE: A HISTORY OFArctic Sovereignty in North America byShelagh D. Grant has been nominatedfor the 2011 Lionel Gelber Prize,a literary award for the world’s best nonfictionbook in English that seeks todeepen public debate on significant globalissues. 978-1553654186BCBOOKWORLDPublisher/ Writer: Alan TwiggEditor/Production: David LesterSPRING2011Issue,Vol. 25, No. 1Publication Mail Agreement #40010086Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to: BC BookWorld,3516 W. 13th Ave., Vancouver, BC V6R 2S3Produced with the sponsorship of Pacific BookWorld NewsSociety. Publications Mail Registration No. 7800.BC BookWorld ISSN: 1701-5405Advertising & editorial: BC BookWorld, 3516 W. 13th Ave.,Vancouver, B.C., V6R 2S3. Tel/Fax: 604-736-4011Email: bookworld@telus.net. Annual subscription: $25Contributors: Hannah Main-van der Kamp, John Moore,Joan Givner, Sage Birchwater, Grant Shilling,Mark Forsythe, Louise Donnelly, Sheila Munro,Cherie Thiessen, Shane McCune, Joseph Farris.Writing not otherwise credited is by staff.Web consultant: Sharon JacksonPhotographers: Barry Peterson, Laura Sawchuk.Proofreaders: Wendy Atkinson, Betty Twigg.Design: Get-to-the-Point Graphics. Deliveries: Ken ReidAll BC BookWorld reviews are posted online atwww.abcbookworld.comFor this issue, we gratefullyacknowledge the unobtrusiveassistance of Canada Council, acontinuous partner since 1988.In-Kind Supporters:Simon Fraser University Library;Vancouver Public Library.

4 BC BOOKWORLD SPRING 2011lettersTreasure huntI AM EXTREMELYhappy and honouredby your coveragein B.C.BookWorld. Myhusband and I areimpressed by theLouise Jilek-Aall scope of this publication,but it isquite intimidating to see how many goodauthors there are in B.C. What a treasureyou have given to the public to beable to find out about and discover allthese people and their books.Louise Jilek-AallTsawwassenCurtis catchyI’ M A MEMBER OF THE ASSU FAMILY FROMQuadra Island, coming out with a bookabout the Kwakwaka’wakw and potlatchban history, in 2011. I just want to say Ireally enjoyed that Autumn BCBW articleon The Edward Curtis Project. I’vebeen chatting withthe author MarieClements and thephotographerRita Leistnerabout the correlationbetween theGarry Thomas MorseCurtis subjectmatter in our respectivebooks. I was pleased to read thatB.C. BookWorld was already on top ofthis material. I will be posting my chequeand getting a subscription to B.C.BookWorld right away.Garry Thomas MorseVancouverCorrectionsTLEKO (THANK YOU)for the nice reviewof my book, Spiritsof Our WhalingAncestors. The titleis not Spirits of OurAncestors. Also, forthe record, theCharlotte CoteMakah treaty datewas 1855, not 1885. And you misspelledHishuk’ish. There is no “y” at theend of this word. In spirit,Charlotte CoteUniversity of Washington, SeattleEric Nicol (centre) playing a reporter with actress Leslie Caron. Also see p. 17Dick & JohnTHANK YOU VERY MUCH INDEED FOR THEpiece comparing my book Edge of theSound with Fishing with John.I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s goingto be the only mention of my book, becauseI haven’t got a “name” or a degree,I’m not a brightyoung thing, andI live on the WestCoast. What theheck.I’ve never readFishing with JohnJo Hammondbut I’m sure wehave a copy of itsomewhere. I recall my husband Dickmuttering something about it. Now I’mcurious.Jo HammondSunshine CoastUnexpectedJUST CAUGHT THE NEW WINTER ISSUE OFB.C. BookWorld. Terrific exposure forme. Thank you, thank you, thank you.With the cuts to the small presses likeNeWest, the onus of marketing appearsto have fallen on the shoulders of amateurs—theauthors. Ugh.Your support is needed and appreciated.I’ve been waiting for this articleand it was more than I expected.Roy InnesGabriola IslandSexiconoclastTHE GREAT HUMORIST ERIC NICOL WILL BEmissed. It was always a great pleasure forme to drive up to Eric’s house in Dunbarto discuss his manuscript The CasanovaSexicon while we were readying it forpublication. What I most rememberabout those visits was the way in whichEric’s humour derived from his deft handlingof language. I recall his eureka momentin which he playfully defined“aural sex”—as the phenomenon thatoccurs when the French word “oui”buds the lips, inviting a kiss. He was nevermean-spirited.Ronald Hatch, Ronsdale Press,VancouverNicol was shy guyI ADORED ERIC NICOL’ S HUMOUR AND I AMparticularly saddened at the news of hisdeath. I own many editions of his books.Years ago, when I was a muchyounger sales rep, our three-day B.C.Book Fair was held in downtown Vancouver.Often authors were invited to attenda cocktail party. At one particularfair, the social event was held at the VancouverArt Gallery. The guest of honourwas to be Eric Nicol.I so wanted to talk to him, but feltawkward. I didn’t know what I could sayto him that wouldn’t sound foolish. Iwatched as he went outside, away fromeveryone, on the terrace. It was my bigchance to go and talk to him. I was overwhelmedwith shyness and so we neverspoke. I’ve regretted that lost opportunityever since.Just days before the news of his death,I happened upon an article about EricNicol in The Essentials by Alan Twigg.There, in print, was a sentence thatstabbed my heart. “Terribly shy, heavoided parties.”And to think I was only steps away.Nancy WiseSandhill Book Marketing, KelownaNicol was hoaxerextraordinareSHY, WITTY AND VERY GENTLE, ERIC NICOLWAS one of the finest writers I ever encountered.He was a better writer than his shynessallowed the world to see. Few of hisreaders were aware of just how good hewas on the world stage. In his brief spellas a radio scriptwriter in London, longbefore he got a play on Broadway, heworked with the best in the business, thelegendary Frank Muir and DennisNorden.Our first book together was the cityhistory, Vancouver, what you might callan urbane urban history. Other titles includedthe satire Canadide and the seriousLetters To My Son (Eric’s faithfulreaders were forewarned: “CAUTION.Contents May Prove Hazardous To AnyPreconceived Idea Of An Eric NicolBook”).But the crowning glory was Eric’s“discovery” of the letters sent home bythe very real Francis Dickens, son ofCharles, and one of the worst Mountiesin history.Entitled Dickens Of The Mounted,this book was hailed by AndreasSchroeder in The Encyclopedia of Literaturein Canada as one of the country’sbest Literary Hoaxes.The book’s opening line... “It was notthe best of times, it was not the worst oftimes, it was Ottawa” surely gave a hintof Nicol mischief afoot.Yet, to quote Schroeder, “The hoaxbecame a runaway best-seller, appearingon both fiction and non-fiction lists, apparentlyfooling a lot more people thaneither Nicol or the totally unrepentantGibson expected.”Doug GibsonTorontoA natural history of a landscape few have ever seen.MOTHERSTONEBritish Columbia’s Volcanic PlateauCOUNTRY LIGHT PUBLISHINGChris Harris & Harold RhenischScientific Consultant: Dr. Mary Lou BevierISBN 978-0-9865818-1-6 (bound) ISBN 978-0-9865818-0-9 (paper)$69.95 (bound)$39.95 (paper)Promotionaltour datesand orders:chrisharris.comnew series!More titlescoming soon!by Tanya Lloyd Kyi •art by Ross KinnairdFascinating facts and funny illustrations revealeverything you ever wanted to know about poison.“... Tanya Lloyd Kyi has no trouble balancing thesinister and the safe.” —Quill & QuireAges 9+ / 112 pages|annick press | www.annickpress.com | available from your favourite bookseller

New VoicesNew BooksNew IdeasFICTION / SHORT STORIESIn Sadru Jetha’s first collection of beautifully crafted stories, Nuri Does Not Exist,we accompany Nuri on his quest to understand how servitude transcendsslavery; fealty transcends servitude; and community transcends fealty, charmingus with its cathartic vision. • Renee Rodin’s finely wrought autobiographicalpieces in Subject to Change show the reader that the things we usually think ofas too ordinary to talk about or too extraordinary to communicate to others areoften the most formative elements of our social lives.Please join us!RENEE RODINBOOK LAUNCHSubject to ChangeSaturday, March 19in Vancouvertalonbooks spring 2011978-0-88922-655-5 $19.95978-0-88922-644-9 $18.95See www.talonbooks.comfor more information.POETRY978-0-88922-660-9 $17.95 978-0-88922-657-9 $16.95 978-0-88922-662-3 $17.95978-0-88922-659-3 $17.95 978-0-88922-661-6 $24.95In Discovery Passages, Garry Thomas Morse sets out to recover the stolen,appropriated and scattered realm of his Kwakwaka’wakw ancestors, drawingupon written history and oral tradition in poems that scrutinize the bans onNative language and potlatching and the confiscation and sale of Aboriginalartifacts—as well as the effects these actions had on the lives of his people. •In a world where the corporate iron fist clad in the velvet glove of the state hasappropriated all that is authentic and authoritative in language, Triage, the firstbook by community advocate Cecily Nicholson, utilizes the increasinglymarginalized and criminalized language of protest and resistance to present apolyvocal narrative of human communities struggling at the brutal margins ofthe neoliberalized state. • Composed in three sections, Glengarry is a return inwriting to the landscape of rob mclennan’s youth and a headlong rush into thefractures, slippages and buried surfaces of what the text leaves undisclosed tohim, resisting the linguistic lure of nostalgia and romanticism to uncover a livinglanguage with every step. • In Floating Up to Zero, Ken Norris sings the presentmoment, precariously balanced between a frozen past and a fluid future. Thepoet at the centre of this journey inward finds himself trapped in his house inmid-winter, trying to talk his way out toward a world of infinite possibilitiesbeyond a slowly melting history. • Very little critical work exists on the poetry ofbill bissett, and almost no theoretical discourse on his visual work. In textualvishyuns, Carl Peters posits that bissett’s drawings, paintings and collageschallenge artistic conventions of visual language in the same way his poetrychallenges linguistic conventions of syntax and grammar to escape the stricturesof Western modes of thought and perception.DRAMAWith And So It Goes, George F. Walker returns to the stage after a ten-yearhiatus. During that time Canada’s middle-class dream has taken a heavy hit andthe newly unemployed baby boomers in this darkly comic drama seek solacefrom the ghost of Kurt Vonnegut. • Drew Hayden Taylor deploys the literaryconventions of theatre of the absurd and the mystery novel in Dead White Writeron the Floor when he locks six Native literary tropes in a room with the writerwho created them. • Morris Panych brings us a new play that premiered at theSegal Centre last fall; Gordon examines a father and son whose lives are devotedto alcohol and obsession in the first generation and criminal activity in thesecond. Panych’s trademark piercing humour is evident throughout. • InParadise Garden, playwright and actress Lucia Frangione dramatizes, throughthe romantic tale of a Gulf Island hippie and a Turkish immigrant, how paradiseis hard to maintain—and so too a relationship of love in the time of individualityand alienation. • Emerging playwrights Chris Craddock and Nathan Cuckowaddress the topic of gay-bashing with a play that rocks the conventions of hiphopand rap. The Associated Press says about BASH’d: “It’s furious, fast moving,hip-hop entertainment! As one of the lyrics proclaims, ‘It’s Romeo meets Romeo,’complete with an ample supply of scatological language, swaggering attitudeand a keen, often hilarious sense of observation about gay life.” • Finally, GeorgeBoyd’s Governor General’s Award-nominated play about the razing of Africville,Consecrated Ground, has been released in a revised, updated edition.978-0-88922-654-8 $17.95978-0-88922-663-0 $17.95 978-0-88922-664-7 $17.95978-0-88922-658-6 $17.95978-0-88922-656-2 $16.95 978-0-88922-666-1 $16.95Talonbookswww.talonbooks.comFollow Talonbooks on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.5 BC BOOKWORLD SPRING 2011

6 BC BOOKWORLD SPRING 2011Celebrating 43 Years of Publishing in CanadaWorking with WoolA Coast Salish Legacy & the Cowichan SweaterSylvia OlsenCowichan sweaters, with their distinctive bandsof design and untreated, handspun wool, havebeen a British Columbia icon since the early yearsof the twentieth century, but few people knowthe full story behind the garment. Sylvia Olsentells the tale, drawing on her own experience,academic research, and her four-decade friendshipwith some of the Coast Salish women who haveeach knitted hundreds of sweaters.THE LITTLEST MONKEYSarah E. Turner1-55039-174-7 • 9” x 7.5”32 pages • paper • $9.951-55039-177-1 • 8.5 x 9.25 • 328 pages165 photos • cloth • $38.95An Auto-Erotic History of SwingsPatricia YoungPatricia Young’s latest book of poems dances, cavorts and singsthrough the prehistory of our species. Epic in scope, An Auto-Erotic History of Swings is about sex and God and sublimeimagination.This is a dervish of a book whose images in quantity andvariety rival those adorning Indian temples that deify andcelebrate physical human love.Winner of the Bolen BooksChildren’s Book PrizeCOUNTING ON HOPESylvia OlsenISBN 1-55039-173-9 • 6 x 9304 pages • paper • $14.951-55039-178-x • 6 x 9 • 112 pagespaper • $14.95Nobody MoveSusan StensonA celebration of life and its eccentricities, Nobody Move coversa great swath of territory, each page another electric surprise.“Birthed in the feast of the body,” Stenson’s poems fuse emotionand language in ways that often defy examination and transcendlogic, and sometimes break your heart.UPDATED EDITIONLOGGING BY RAILRobert D. TurnerISBN 1-55039-181-x • 8.5” x 11”348 pages • paper • $39.95BC Bestseller1-55039-178-x • 6 x 8.25 • 96 pagespaper • $14.95The Blackbird Must BeDorothy FieldIn the first half of The Blackbird Must Be, Dorothy Field recallsthe ancient story of Genesis. Although not explicitly Biblical,Field’s retelling of the story is hauntingly familiar—it begins withlove, hope and trust on a small Edenic farm on Vancouver Islandand ends in betrayal, regret and sorrow.The second half leaps into the marvellous and surreal worldof the Garry oak tree in Field’s backyard. The Blackbird Must Beis a beautiful and moving poetry collection that reminds us thatthere is power in vulnerability and strength in forgiveness.1-55039-179-8 • 6 x 9 • 96 pagespaper • $14.95MOUNTAIN TIMBERRichard Somerset MacKieISBN 1-55039-171-2 • 8.5 x 11320 pages • paper • $42.95BC BestsellerCOAST DOGS DON’T LIEJack SchofieldISBN 1-55039-169-0 • 8.25 x 8.25144 pages • hardcover • $29.95Sono Nis Press • 1-800-370-5228 • www.sononis.com • books@sononis.com

WHO’SWHOB R I T I S H C O L U M B I A7 BC BOOKWORLD SPRING 2011is for ArnesonBal ArnesonXue Shen andHongbo Zhao ofChina came out ofretirement to win agold medal at the2010 Olympics inVancouver.HOST OF A NEW COOKING SHOW ON THEFood Network in Canada and the CookingChannel in the U.S. called Spice Goddess,Punjabi-born Vancouverite BalArneson has followed her first book,Everyday Indian, with family recipes forclassic Indian meals in Bal’s Quick andHealthy Indian (Whitecap $29.95).978-1-77050-023-5is for BoweringNEVER MIND PLAYBOY. GEORGE BOWering’snew memoir Pinboy (Cormorant$32) recalls his sexual awakeningsat age fifteen in the south Okanagan.He finds himself enamoured of threechoices: his first love, the girl from thewrong side of the tracks, and one of hishigh school teachers. 978-1-897151-93-8is for CzajkowskiCHRIS CZAJKOWSKI’S A WILDERNESSDweller’s Cookbook (Harbour $14.95)is a multi-faceted account of how a wildernessdweller—in a non-growing climate20 km from a road, 60 km from astore and 250 km from a town largeenough to have a supermarket—feedsherself and the clients of her wildernessadventure business. 978-1-55017-518-9Chris Czajkowski holds bread from her stone ovenJohn Furlongis for DavisVANCOUVER MAYOR GREGOR ROBERTSONand his predecessor Sam Sullivanboth watched as Chuck Davis receivedthe George Woodcock LifetimeAchievement Award on October 14,2010. It was Davis’ last public appearance.He died at Surrey General Hospitalof lung cancer on November 20, threedays after his 75th birthday.A Chuck Davis Book Fund has beenset up at Vancity (account #173575) fordonations to hirewriters to compile hismammoth work-inprogress,The Historyof Metropolitan Vancouver.Tax deductionsdonations of $100 ormore can be made outto the Vancouver HistoricalSociety, Box219, Madeira Park,B.C. V0N 2H0.Crawford Kilian has acreated a ChuckDavis blog and theDavis’ WoodcoockAward speech is onYoutube.Chuck Davis receives 2010 WoodcockAward from Mayor Gregor Robertson.is for EnglerALLAN ENGLER WORKED FOR MANY YEARSas a cook on coastal towboats and for adecade as secretary-treasurer and thenpresident of Local 400, Marine Section,International Longshore & WarehouseUnion–Canada. He believes capitalismis based on social labour, private capitalistentitlement and workplace dictatorships,a system that destroysenvironments, widens disparitiesand relies on repression, militarismand war. His new book is EconomicDemocracy: The WorkingClass Alternative to Capitalism(Fernwood $15.95). 978-1-552663-46-2is for FurlongWITH HELP FROM VETERAN GLOBE AND MAILcolumnist Gary Mason, Olympicsboss John Furlong has recountedhis behind-the-scenes version of how hehandled the 2010 Winter Olympic andParalympic Games in Vancouver andWhistler in his immodestly-titled PatriotHearts: Inside the Olympics ThatChanged a Country (D&M $32.95).Furlong’s account of his 14-year-longjourney of shepherding the 2010 Olympicsincludes dealing with the deathof Georgian luger NodarKumaritashvili and unseasonablywarm weather.A dazzling companion volume byformer ice skater and photographerGérard Châtaigneau and WestVancouver skating judge Jean RileySenft is Triumph on Ice: The NewWorld of Figure Skating (Greystone$39.95) is primarily comprisedof dramatic skating momentsfrom the 2010 Olympics, augmentedby shots from the 2010ISU World Figure SkatingChampionships.Furlong 978-1-55365-794-1;Allan EnglerSenft 978-1-55365-657-9continued on next page

8 BC BOOKWORLD SPRING 2011WHO’SWHOBRITISHCOLUMBIABEV DAVIES PHOTOJoe Keithley (right) performing with D.O.A. in 1981. From Talk—Action = Zerois for GGsis for KeithleyRICHMOND’S WENDY PHILLIPS HAS WONthe Governor General’s Award for children’stext with Fishtailing(Coteau $14.95). The lone GovernorGeneral’s Award winnerfrom B.C. publishers was AllanCasey’s memoir and geographicalstudy Lakeland: Journeysinto the Soul of Canada(Greystone $29.95), chosen asthe best English non-fiction title.Fish 9781550504118; Lake 9781553653080is for HumeFEW BRITISH COLUMBIANS HAVE Adeeper and more prodigious appreciationof this western corner of thecontinent than journalist and historianStephen Hume. His latest compilationis A Walk with the Rainy Sisters:In Praise of British Columbia's Places(Harbour $32.95). Hume was raised invarious towns around B.C. 978-1-55017-505-Xis for IsraelHAVING ONCE LIVED NEAR THE APARTMENTof Samuel Beckett in Paris, andenjoying his writing for decades, poetInge Israel has crafted BeckettSoundings (Ronsdale $15.95) to explorehis life, letters, plays and novels. The enigmatic,Irish-raised Protestant wasknown for his gloomy and sometimes existentialworld-view that spawned Waitingfor Godot. 978-1-55380-112-2is for JosephHAVING BEEN NOMINATED FOR THEDorothy Livesay Prize for her first poetrycollection about grief and death,The Startled Heart (Oolichan, 2004),Eve Joseph now evokes and examinesthe process of reaching epiphanieswith The Secret Signature of Things(Brick $19). In a long poem called‘Tracking’ she struggles with the questionof how to remember missing aboriginalwomen on the West Coast.978-1-894078-81-8Wendy PhillipsStephen HumeGODFATHER OF CANADIAN PUNK,Joe Keithley has documented morethan thirty years of rocking in thefree world with the world-renownedband he founded—andstill sings and plays with—D.O.A. Founder of SuddenDeath Records and a Green Partycandidate, Keithley is now a familyman in Burnaby. Keithley’svisual history of the band from1978 to the present is Talk – Action= Zero: An Illustrated Historyof D.O.A. (Arsenal Pulp$24.95). A joint book launch(with David Lester’s graphic novelThe Listener) and a D.O.A. concertJune 4 at The Rickshaw inVancouver is planned with tentativeguests Mecca Normal.978-1-55152-396-5is for LivedNO GLOSS, NO GRANTS, NO INTERNS. NOinternet presence. The nine-years-youngnon-fiction journal Lived Experience($19) is the brainchild of back-to-thelandphilosopher Van Andruss, whoran Macleod’sBooks in Vancouverprior to DonStewart. It issimply one of theVan Andrussmost readableand mature literarypublicationsin Canada. Thejournal comes out once a year fromLillooet. Van Andruss likes to get toknow the people he publishes.Contact: Box 1599, Lillooet, BC,V0K 1V0. van@yalakom.comis for McKnightTO MARK THE 125TH ANNIVERSARY OF THECity of Vancouver on April 6, 2011,Lesley McKnight has researchedand collected stories about the city toldfrom the perspectives of young peoplefor Vancouver Kids (Brindle & Glass$12.95)—from early potlatch ceremoniesand the Great Vancouver Fire tomodern times. 978-1-897142-52-3

WHO’SWHOBRITISHCOLUMBIA9 BC BOOKWORLD SPRING 2011is for Nuttall-SmithBen Nuttall-SmithSHIPWRECKED IN THE HEBRIDES IN THEtenth century, Irish priests, enslaved byNorse traders, manage to cross the Atlantic,via Iceland,and descend NorthAmerica’s plains tothe steamy junglesof Mexico in BenNuttall-Smith’s wideranginghistoricalnovel Blood, Feathersand Holy Men (Libros Libertad$23), a blending of Irish, Norse andpre-Columbian mythology of the indigenouspeoples of the Americas.Having served as a brother in a RomanCatholic teaching order from1956 to 1978, Nuttall-Smith has fashionedhis truth-seeking heroes on Christianclerics who encounter the majestyof Quétzalcoatl, the feathered god of theOlmecs and Toltecs. 978-1-926763-10-1is for Owen“When I became a mother to two sons of Chinese heritage and couldn’t find modern day adventure stories withChinese characters,” says Bonita Sauder, “I wrote one.”CATHERINE OWEN’S SEEING LESSONS(Wolsak & Wynn $17) is about the pioneerB.C. photographer, fierce travelerand visionary Mattie Guntermanand her photos from 1899-1945. “I wasreading The History of Women’s Photography,”says Owen, “and came across asentence on Mattie Gunterman thatread: ‘In 1927, Mattie’s entire body ofwork was destroyed by fire.’ Throughresearch, I found out that, in fact, copiesof most of her photos had been preservedthrough her son whose stash hadbeen preserved before the flooding ofthe High Arrow Dam in 1965 in Beaton.Eventually, I got to meet her greatgrandson Henry Gunterman, Jr.,and he took me on a tour of the Beatonregion, showing me original documentsand prints that chronicle his great grandmother’sdetermined existence.”Seeing Lessons features 12 pages ofGunterman’s photographs. 978-1-894987-48-6is for PartridgeSTEPHEN PARTRIDGE OF THE UBCEnglish department has co-edited TheCambridge Companion to Baseball(Cambridge University Press $26.95),with Leonard Cassuto of FordhamUniversity, New York City. At varioustimes, Partridge has counted himself afan of the Cardinals, Orioles, Red Sox,and Mariners. 978-0-521-14575-6is for QueerREBECCA HASKELL AND BRIANBurtch address harassment experiencedby many queer youth during theirhigh school years in Get That Freak:Homophobia and Transphobia inHigh Schools (Fernwood $17.95). Theydraw on accounts from young adults inB.C. to identify resources used to combathomophobic and transphobic harassmentand strategies for establishingsafe spaces for queer high school youth.is for Reid9781552663783RETIRED ELEMENTARY SCHOOL PRINCIPALDonalda Reid was captured byRwandan Hutu militia in the Congo in1998 while on a gorilla-viewing trek.Proceeds from the sale of her memoir,Captive: A Survival Story (Second StoryPress, 2008) support African grandmothersliving with AIDS through theStephen Lewis Foundation. She has alsovisited Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe,Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda.Reid’s first young adult novel, TheWay It Is (Second Story Press $11.95),is an engaging 1960s-era tale of a gifted,young woman whose advanced educationis interruptedby a family move toSalmon Arm fromVancouver. Eagerto become a medicaldoctor while stillin her teens, theprotagonist EllenDonalda ReidManery befriendsthe outsider Tony Paul, who attends herhigh school but lives on the nearby Indianreserve. Their belief in one anotherenables them to overcome the hurdlesof sexism and racism. 978-1-897187-80-7is for SaudersOME OF US ARE MORE INTERNATIONALthan others. B.L (Bonita) Sauderof West Vancouver has resided in HongKong, Singapore, Cape Town and Bangkokwhere she was Director of Interna-Tanis Helliwell visiting a dolman (home of a leprechaun) in Keel, Ireland,June, 2010. Dolmans are megalithic tombs built between 4000 and 2000 BCfor religious ceremonies including burying the dead.tional Relations at an Internationalschool. She has also been a restaurantmanager, ‘fitting’ model, newspaper subeditor,bartender, flag-girl, Englishteacher, guidance counsellor and a contributorto the Fistula Foundation inEthiopia to support HIV/AIDS. Year ofthe Golden Dragon (Coteau $9.95), thefirst novel for pre-teens in Sauder’s Journeyto the East series, has been awardeda Moonbeam Children’s Book Awardand gained a silver place in the Pre-TeenFiction Fantasy category. 978-1-55050-428-6is for TanisTANIS HELLIWELL OF POWELL RIVER HASworked to bring spirituality into theworkplace since 1976 with corporateclients, resulting in Take Your Soul toWork: Transform Your Life and Work(Random House, 1999). No mentionwas made in publicity materials abouther previous publication about communingwith leprechauns in Ireland, aself-published memoir called Summer ofthe Leprechauns: A True Story (Blue DolphinPublishing, 1997). It was followedby another self-published memoir, Pilgrimagewith the Leprechauns: A TrueStory of a Mystical Tour of Ireland(Wayshower Enterprises $21.95).“Some years ago I lived in an old cottagein the village of Keel on the westcoast of Ireland,” she begins. “I sharedCrumpaun Cottage with a leprechaunand his family who had lived there for avery long time. The leprechaun befriendedme and taught me aboutelementals...”Helliwell describes leading her fourthmystical tour of Ireland, to visit sacredsites, as an unmitigated disaster that simultaneouslyserved as one of the mostsignificant events of her life.978-0-9809033-2-4

10 BC BOOKWORLD SPRING 2011WHO’SWHOBRITISHCOLUMBIAis for eXoticJudy RadulA COLLECTION OF EXPLICITLY SEXUALpoetry from an indigenous perspective,Red Erotic (Ojistah $20), by JanetRogers, a Mohawk/Tuscarora writerborn in Vancouver in 1963, also featuresartwork by eight First Nations artists:Lee Claremont, GeorgeLittlechild, Denesse GreyPaul, Lindsay Delaronde,Chris Bose, Nicholas Galanin,Nadema Agard, and MarcusAmerman. 978-1-77084-020-1is for UnclassifiableBORN IN LILLOOET IN 1962, MIXED MEDIAinstallation and performance artistJudy Radul has been a cutting edgeexperimentalist on the West Coast sincethe early 1980s. To celebrate, explainand catalogue her works, People ThingsEnter Exit (Presentation House $35)contains essays by ChristopherEamon, Helga Pakasaar andMonika Szewczyk, with interviewsby Jeff Derksen, Stan Douglasand Antonia Hirsch.978-0-920293-70-6is for VerdicchioNICHOLAS GALANIN PHOTOFrom Red Erotic by Janet RogersBright Bardopoetry byIlya Tourtidis97 pages$17.00ISBN 9781926763118Opera Bufapoetry byManolis116 pages$17.00ISBN 9781926763095Still Watersnovel byDoris Riedweg233 pages$23.00ISBN 9781926763064RECENT TITLES FROMCanada’s truly independent publisherwww.libroslibertad.ca604.838.8796 • infolibroslibertad@shaw.caBlood,Feathers& Holy Mennovel byBen Nuttall-Smith252 pages$23.00ISBN 9781926763101Yannis RitsosPoemspoems translatedand introducedby Manolis,Apryl Leaf editor546 pages$34.00ISBN 9781926763071Nukeson the 49thnovel byMichael Zrymiak199 pages$23.00ISBN 9781926763057THE ITALIAN CULTURAL CENTRE HAS ANnouncedthe winning authors and worksfor the biennial F.G. Bressani LiteraryPrize. PasqualeVerdicchio has wonthe prize for poetry forThis Nothing’s Place(Guernica Editions$15). The prize is namedafter the Jesuit priest, FatherFrancescoG i u s e p p eBressani (1612-1672) the first Italianmissionary to come toCanada, who wroteBreve Relatione, andwho can be considered the precursor ofItalian-Canadian writing. 978-1550712629is for WoskPasquale VerdicchioONE OF THE UNDER-CITED HEROES OF THEB.C. literary world, philanthropistYosef Wosk was recently describedas “an all-round good guy” by SimonFraser University News, having just completeda 15-year stint with SFU ContinuingStudies during which hepioneered the Philosophers’Café series andthe formation of the CanadianAcademy of IndependentScholars.Although no longerformally associated withSFU, Wosk will continuehis behind-thescenesleadership as anindependent financialsupporter of countlessliterary and scholarlyYosef Woskundertakings.is for Yeadon-JonesTHE SIX DREAMSPEAKERCruising Guides byAnne and LaurenceYeadon-Jones featurehundreds of nauticallyaccurate andinformative hand-drawncharts of marinas andsmall boat anchorages forthe west coast, augmentedby colour photos. The pairhave created a new editionfor Dreamspeaker Volume2: Desolation Sound& the Discovery Islands (Harbour$49.95) which also includes informationon recreational activities suitable foradults and children; the best places toanchor your boat for a romantic sunset,pick blackberries or buy a cappuccino.978-1-55017-524-0is for ZorgamazooWITH AN MFA FROM THE UBC CREATIVEWriting program, Robert PaulWeston was inspired by Dr. Seussand Roald Dahl towrite his first fantasy novelfor young readers,Zorgamazoo (Penguin$17.50), an illustrated talerich in wordplay andmythical creatures.Katrina, a girl, teamsup with Morty, a zorgle,to uncover an intergalacticconspiracy thatthreatens the existence ofevery bizzare creature ontheir planet. 978-1-59514-199-6

11 BC BOOKWORLD SPRING 2011

H12 BC BOOKWORLD SPRING 2011$29.95 | Paperback with flapsISLAND WINERIES OF BRITISH COLUMBIAEdited by Gary HynesDiscover the unique wines produced on VancouverIsland and the Gulf Islands with winery profiles, tastingtours, and seasonal recipes from regional chefs.$26.95 | HardcoverDEADLY FALLSusan CalderPaula Savard’s boring life as an insuranceadjuster takes a swift turn when a closefriend is murdered. Is Paula’s investigationtaking her into dangerous territory?$19.95 | PaperbackTHE CANTERBURY TRAILAngie AbdouOn the last ski weekend of the season,several opposing groups of townsfolkembark on a mountain adventurethat will change their lives.$9.95 | Paperback$24.95 | HardcoverTHE OPPOSITE OF DARKDebra Purdy KongCasey Holland learns her father hasbeen murdered in his pricey West Vanhome. The problem is, Casey buriedhim, open-casket, three years ago.$19.95 | PaperbackTHE TARTARUS HOUSE ON CRABGeorge SzantoA mysterious tale set on the mistyWest Coast, Jack Tartarus returnsto Crab Island to confront his past,and the house that haunts it.$9.95 | Paperback$16.95 | Paperback$26.95 | Hardcover $9.95 | PaperbackSITTING LADY SUTRAKay StewartRCMP Constable Danutia Dranchukreturns to investigate a deathat a tranquil waterfall in thisintricate and gripping mystery.OKANAGAN ODYSSEYDon GaytonIn his unique version of wine pairing,Don Gayton matches up local booksand landscapes with local vintages,giving terroir a whole new meaning.SOLDIER OF THE HORSERobert W. MackayIn 1914 Tom Macrae leaves hissecure life in Winnipeg to fightwith the Canadian Cavalry in thetrenches of the Great War.CYCLING THE KETTLE VALLEY RAILWAYDan & Sandra LangfordThe Kettle Valley Railway and its manyconnectors has something to offer all levelsof cyclist from easy day-riding to multi-dayadventures through the magnificent scenery ofsouthern BC. This edition includes everythingyou need to explore this incredible area.$19.95 | Paperback$21.95 | Paperback$22.95 | PaperbackTHE PIG WARRosemary NeeringWhen an American settler shot a pigbelonging to the Hudson’s Bay Companyon San Juan Island, little did he realize hewould cause what would become one of thestrangest border conflicts between Britainand the United States: the Pig War of 1859.GREAT CAT STORIESRoxanne Willems SnopekFrom cats that heal and console to catsthat survive simply through the loveof their caregivers, these stories willwarm the hearts of all animal lovers.HOAXES AND HEXESBarbara SmithIn Hoaxes and Hexes, Barbara Smith exploresthese intriguing reflections of human naturethat show our curious desire to believe in theimpossible and explain the inexplicable.COWBOY CAVALRYGordon E. ToltonTerrified by the apparent frontier lawlessnessat the time of the Northwest Rebellion of 1885,114 men mustered to form the Rocky MountainRangers, a motley crew of cowboys, ex-Mounties,ex-cons and retired, high-ranking militaryofficials. This is their little-known story.H E R I T A G E G R O U P D I S T R I B U T I O NHGDISTRIBUTION.COM | 1.800.665.3302BRINDLEANDGLASS.COM | HERITAGEHOUSE.CA | RMBOOKS.COM | TOUCHWOODEDITIONS.COM

13 BC BOOKWORLD SPRING 2011coverBY JOHN MOOREPLANET OF THE AGGREGATORSAFEW YEARS AGO THERE WAS A SPATE OF FILMS ABOUT PEOPLE WHO COULDsee just a few minutes into the future. That’s a sensation familiar toreaders of William Gibson’s novels, especially his latest, Zero History(G.P. Putnam’s Sons $31), third in a sequence of novels that began withPattern Recognition (2003), followed by Spook Country (2007).In Zero History, a marketing whiznamed Hubertus Bigend has corralledan eccentric, anti-social, mathematicalgenius, Bobby Chombo, to serve as an‘aggregator.’ His synthetic analysis ofeconomic and social factors has the potentialto provide Hubertus with the ultimatecompetitive edge, literally of alltime.In a world where global markets areelectronically integrated in real time, ahead start of a few minutes, even a fewseconds, would be the ultimate in insider-trading.Chombo’s calculations canafford Hubertus with a lead-time on thepresent of seventeen minutes. As Bigendsays, when asked if that’s enough, “Sevenwould have been entirely adequate.Seven seconds, in most cases.”The Holy Grail of brokers, wheelerdealersand marketing magnates likeHubertus Bigend is that brief myopicmoment of clairvoyance, just a glimpseinto what Gibson calls “the order flow,”or “the aggregate of all the orders in themarket. Everything anyone is about tobuy or sell, all of it.”The aggregate includes even theshadowy grey and black markets indrugs, rare commodities and forbiddentechnologies that thrive in the dark backalleys of capitalism, a subject that hasbeen a signature theme in Gibson’s writing.In Zero History, Chombo’s aggregateof the order flow is what director AlfredHitchcock used to call theMcGuffin—the secret information orobject whose possession drives the plotwithout actually being part of the action.Chombo is a relatively minor character.Gibson is much more interestedin the characters developed in PatternRecognition and Spook Country. Theseinclude Hollis Henry, ex-rock star whoretired to write a book on ‘locative art’and whose modest fortune has since beenerased by the ubiquitous ‘market forces’currently destroying our mutual fundsand RRSPs; Hubertus Bigend cruises theworld’s oceans in his surplus Sovietekranoplan, a ground-effect vehiclewith an interior renovated byHermes; and Milgrim, a youngman whose addiction to anxietysuppressingdrugs has left himwith such sketchy sense ofself. He has become a manwith “zero history.”✍A BLIND PERSON’S OTHERsenses are said to becomesharper in compensationfor the lossof sight. With Milgrim, Gibson offersthe provocative suggestion that a loss ofpersonal history—a sense of one’s self asthe aggregate of personal memory—might be replaced by a heightened affinityfor “pattern recognition,” a talentthat could be more useful in a semicyberworldthat is already part digital.Bigend has paid to have Milgrim detoxified,weaned off his anti-anxietydrugs, in order to exploit his gift for patternrecognition in industrial/commercialespionage. Milgrim’s assignment isto track down and recognize a distinctiveand highly desirable blend of denimclothing produced as a “secret brand”only obtainable by those in the knowfrom containers that appear briefly andmysteriously at outdoor flea markets andother ad hoc souks of the post-modernworld.Bigend wants to penetrate the anticorporateculture of the secret brandand gain control of the covetedcloth in order to securecontracts for supplyingmilitaryclothingthat willinevitablyspin off into civilian fashions. Inevitably,assorted thugs and goons from theunderworld of global capitalism havedesigns on both the denim and on thepredictive services of Chombo.Have you got all that?As in his earlier novels, Neuromancer,Burning Chrome, Mona Lisa Overdrive,Virtual Light etc., Gibson excels at evokingbaroquely detailed visions of a nottoo-distant-future,a world enriched byco-existence with its own avatar, Cyberworld.(Apparently he’s even appearedas himself as an avatar in the cyber-worldgame, Second Life, to publicize his books,which makes him the Hubertus Bigendof authors.)Though Gibson has been describedas a writer of science fiction, his novelsare actually less fantastic than most ofKurt Vonnegut’s and mercifullynot marred by the smug self-congratulatoryand patronizing humour that getstedious in Vonnegut’s work. The Dadaistcollage that is Hollis Henry’s hotel roomin an exclusive London club, for instance,isn’t one iota weirder than a designer’sapartment I saw on one of thosereal estate shows on the Home & GardenTV channel the other night.Back in 1978, in an essay aboutWalter Benjamin entitled“Under the Sign of Saturn,”SusanSontagobserved,“The genius of surrealism was to generalizewith ebullient candour the baroquecult of ruins; to perceive that the nihilisticenergies of the modern era make everythinga ruin or fragment—andtherefore collectible. A world whose pasthas become (by definition) obsolete, andwhose present churns out instant antiques,invites custodians, decoders andcollectors.” The juxtaposition of culturallycoded ‘collectibles’ from the recentpast with technologies only imagined onStar Trek forty years ago isn’t a vision ofthe future; it’s your living room rightnow.(I took a break from writing this articleto watch an IBM computer named‘Watson’ compete on Jeopardy against theTV game-show’s two all-time champs.Watson beat them like a pair of borrowedmules and I went back to using a 500-year-old technology, the mechanicallyprintedbook. It didn’t seem like a terriblyradical juxtaposition until I thoughtabout it.)Some critics have taken shots atGibson’s novels for being too strong ontechnology at the expense of character.Admittedly, his fondness for caricatureand whimsical names is somewhat Dickensian,but so is the scope of his work.He’s been quoted as saying he believeswe’re entering a new Victorian Age ofpolarization between the Haves andHave-Nots in the Global Village. So it isa not-so-brave (and not always so new)world he describes.Despite the mock-thriller plot, ZeroHistory is very much a character-drivennovel whose real story is the gradual reemergenceof Milgrim’s personality.From a detoxed vacant near-cipher, aman whose past has become obsolete, hegrows through his attachment to Fiona,a rebel-girl motorcycle courier, and beginsto make ethical decisions that areno longer subject to the agendas ofHubertus Bigend and favour the shadowysubversive culture of “secret brands”and alternative capitalism.Maybe it’s just us, with our personaland professional websites, blogs,Facebook pages, Second Life avatars,talking and texting constantly on Blackberriesand iPhones, who have becometoo strong on technology at the expenseof what used to be calledcharacter. And WilliamGibson is just the guy holdingthe mirror. 978-0399156823Novelist and criticJohn Moore lives inGaribaldi Highlands.SHEA PHOTOMICHAEL O’

14 BC BOOKWORLD SPRING 2011politicsCARMEN AGUIRRE WASsix years old whenher family fled toVancouver after a CIA-inspiredcoup in Chile ousted the democraticallyelected socialist governmentof Salvador Allende andbrought army general AugustoPinochet to power in 1973.Five years later, her mother and stepfatherreturned to South America tospend the next decade working for theChilean leftist resistance. Her mother refusedto be separated from her twodaughters, choosing closeness and dangerfor them over distance and safety.As her oldest daughter, Carmen Aguirrehas now written Something Fierce,Memoir of a Revolutionary Daughter(D&M $32.95), a riveting testimonialof bravery and fear.The family’s activities over the nextdecade span Bolivia, Peru, Argentinaand Chile, interspersed with return tripsto Canada. Blacklisted, they were unableto re-enter Chile by train or plane. Journeyswere made circuitously with detoursand doublings back to throw offthe secret police.In order to operate safe houses,Aguirre’s parents maintained a middleclassdisguise, doing conventional jobs.The girls were conditioned to secrecy,trained to never confide in anyone orreveal details of family life.This life of unremitting drama andconcealment would prove excellenttraining for Aguirre’s later work as a performanceartist and actor in Vancouver,where she has also gained considerableacceptance as a playwright [See BCBWcover story, Autumn 2008,abcbookworld.com].Parental absences were sudden andunexplained. The sisters were told: Neveranswer a knock at the door. If you hearnothing for twenty-four hours, you will calla secret phone number, and say you’re withthe Tall One and Raquel. Within an hour,someone will knock at the door. Go withthat person. The phone number will be revealedwhen you hold this blank page overa flame. Memorize it, burn the paper, flushthe ashes away.✍THE STORY LINE FOR SOMETHING FIERCE ISlinear, the writing rough-edged, withabrupt changes of scene and occasionallapses into cliché, but this serves the contentwell, since anything polished or contrivedwould diminish its force andauthenticity.The evocation of danger from thepoint of view of a young girl is sostrong—and maintained so steadily, vividlydescribing the terrors that surroundher—that when Aguirre finally spills outeverything to a lover, in her late teens,the reader feels a wave of alarm. (Fortunately,her confidante is a truecompanero).Details of historical events and theexact nature of the resistance organizationand hierarchy of the resistance aremostly blurred. Only later, for instance,does Aguirre realize that an intimatefamily friend was a superior in the move-CARMENIn hermemoirSomethingFierce, CarmenAguirre boldly describesher upbringingin the long shadow ofthe Chilean dictatorAugusto José RamónPinochet Ugarte. For10 years, from 1979 to1989, she takes thereader inside Chile,war-ridden Peru, theBolivian dictatorshipof Luis Garcia Meza,strife-ridden Argentinaand naive Canada.ment. Such vagueness is entirely appropriatesince Aguirre was deliberatelykept in the dark, and direct knowledgeof her full situation was suppressed, presumablyfor her own protection.But Something Fierce ismore than a journeyinto the shadows ofpolitical repression.What couldhave been anarrative ofunremittinghorror is relievedbyjoyous occasions—anidyllic holidaywith Chileangrandparents,several adolescentlove affairs—andbypoetic descriptionsof surroundings,suchas Aguirre’sfirst view ofLAURA SAWCHUK PHOTOA YOUTH OFOPERATIC PROPORTIONSt h eBoliviancapital city,La Paz, a placeshe comes to love:“We drove for hours, until the landbroke like a Greek plate and there was adrop in the road. I looked out to seenothing but sky. The universe. Then, Ilooked down, and there below us was acity in a bowl. A bowl like the deepestcrater on the moon, with a little housestuck to every last square inchof it. The bus drove over theedge of the bowl and down.”At one point Aguirre collapsesunder the strain. Shecandidly describes her emotionalmeltdown, wrought bythe pressure of fear, her stepfather’sstress-induced angerJOANand a long period of isolation in a housewith a diminishing food supply. “I wasan agoraphobic fifteen-year-old skeletonwith an obsessive-compulsive disorder,”she writes.It comes as a revelation when an acquaintancetells her, “Girls, always knowthis: it’s your human right to be happy.”She wonders what that meansfor someone like her. “Didthat mean childrenshouldn’t have tothink about revolutions,or safehouses, or beingtortured todeath?” sheasks.Distraught,she slashes awrist and issent to a psychiatristtowhom shecan confide nothing. The suicidal episoderesults in her return to Vancouver,where she completes her first year ofhigh school. Shortly after her arrivalthere, she is joined by her mother andstep-father who have barely escaped capture.Broken and defeated, they go theirseparate ways.Aguirre returns to SouthAmerica. At eighteen, she takes theresistance oath in a cafe in Lima,vowing to reveal no information,even if she is tortured to death, andunderstanding that if she gives away hercomrades during the first twenty-fourhours of capture, she will be executedby the organization.The contrast between her twin livesin North America and South Americais, obviously, extreme. She worries thather convictions aren’t strong enough toovercome her fears. Nevertheless, withher companero, she carries out cross-bordermissions into Chile. The life-expectancyof those who undertake such workis two years.Even though she is twentypounds underweight and suffersfrom dizzy spells, Aguirrestill pushes herself “to masterthe skill of killing my heartwhenever I crossed the border.”GIVNERPowerful impressions are leftby determined women.Dr. Vergara Emerson, a Bolivianpediatrician and professor, walks tothe front of a movie theatre to denouncethe dictator, Luis Garcia Meza.“You will remember her,” Carmen’s stepfathertells her, “because what thatwoman did is the definition of courage.”Salvador Allende’s sister, LauraAllende, stays with Aguirre’s family inVancouver during her cross-Canadatour, while dying of cancer. Carmenhears her weeping in the night, grievingfor the lost of her country, not her life.Carmen’s grandmother is a rolemodel who risks banging pots and pansduring the blackouts in Chile. “I’ve seenfear turn people into informers, monsters,”she says, “turning in their ownfriends and neighbors. You’re dealingwith a country, sick with fear.”Trinidad, a family friend, has givenher life to the underground, at the expenseof her husband and children.After a decade of struggle, she tellsAguirre, “The resistance has dissolved...we tried hard, but it’s time to state theobvious, we lost. Maybe in ten, twenty,a hundred or a thousand years, the societywe dreamed of will come to be, butwe lost this round.”And we meet Carmen’s mother, avaliant spirit who can draw a knife toface down a band of human predatorswhen they threaten her daughters. Forher, motherhood and family life are notincompatible with revolutionary work.These are hard acts to follow. ButCarmen Aguirre, now a respected playwright,has found the courage to revisither terrors. She has inherited the heartof a revolutionary, so the struggles forjustice and freedom will continue, onthe page, or on the stage. 978-1-55365-462-9Biographer and novelist Joan Givner, fromMill Bay, writes frequently about bookspertaining to women’s lives.

new from ANVIL PRESSExit by Nelly Arcantrans. by David HamiltonAfflictions & Departuresby Madeline SonikISBN: 978-1-897535-66-0 • $20224 pps. • Novel • MarchISBN: 978-1-897535-69-1 • $20240 pps. • Novel • MarchExit is the final novelfrom Quebec literarysensation Nelly Arcan.It is a hymn to life.“A work of originalitypushed to the limit.”–LeDevoirHard Hedby Charles TidlerHard Hed is a contemporaryretelling of theJohnny Appleseedstory, an unabashedlyoriginal work of fictionthat roams in and outof time and place andpoint of view.ISBN: 978-1-897535-67-7 • $20224 pps. • Essays/Memoir • AprilISBN: 978-1-897535-68-4 • $16 80pps. • Poetry • AprilFirst-person experientialessays that probe theturbulent and changingnature of the world inthe late 1950s and early’60s.The Song Collidesby Calvin WhartonA highly personal andinternal metaphysicalinvestigation into thestate of the natural world.“Wharton’s mastery of hisart never fails to bring hiswords to resonant life inthe ear and mind.”—Tom Wayman“Here is a poetry of gentlesurprises.”—David Zierothwww.anvilpress.com • info@anvilpress.comavailable to the trade from utp | repped by the lpgThe First BookCompetition was held tocelebrate the 10thanniversary of theWriter’s Studio at SimonFraser University,Harbour Centre. Thecompetition identifiedthree fine new writerswho will see their bookspublished this spring.Watch for event info!The winners are: TheHouse with the Broken Two(Creative Nonfiction) byMyrl Coulter ofEdmonton; NondescriptRambunctious (Fiction) byJackie Bateman ofVancouver; and Galaxy(Poetry) by RachelThompson, also fromVancouver.Spring TitlesFICTIONThe BoyBy Betty Jane HegeratISBN 978-088982-275-7$21.95 • Fiction • 280 ppIn 1959 Ray and Daisy Cook and theirfive children were brutally slain in thecentral Alberta town of Stettler. TheBoy is part memoir, part investigation,part novella, part writer’s journal tellingthe story with all of the troublesomequestions unanswered.The GateBy Michael ElcockISBN 978-088982-272-6$18.95 • Fiction • 224 pp“Meticulous research and a cinematicsensibility have endowed The Gate withauthentic power. Elcock realizes his aim– to make us remember a period that isnearly forgotten, and must be recalledso that it never happens again.”Isabel HugganMade That WayBy Susan KetchenISBN 978-088982-270-2• $12.95 • Fiction • 176 ppIn Ketchen’s stand-alone sequelto Born That Way, the dauntlessSylvia continues to explore theebb and flow of herd dynamics.A funny continuation of Sylvia’smisadventures in which shefinally gets her horse, a horse asunique and spirited as she is.POETRYGulfBy Leslie VryenhoekISBN 978-088982-274-0$17.95 • Poetry • 80 ppMoving from solemn and meditative tosaucy and irreverent, Gulf is a collision ofnatural elements and technology, nativespecies and newcomers, the inevitablerending of families and the connectivetissue of memory that ties us to place.Sweet DevilryBy Yi-Mei TsiangISBN 978-088982-273-3$17.95 • Poetry • 104 ppYi-Mei Tsiang’s debut collection ofpoetry, Sweet Devilry, exploresthe tenderness of loss that informsmotherhood as well as the power andthe conflict that come with being awoman.Win books from OolichanVisit www.oolichan.comand enter our contestto win a selection of our titles,a set for yourself andone for your local library.Fernie, BC • (250) 423-6113 • www.oolichan.com15 BC BOOKWORLD SPRING 2011

16 BC BOOKWORLD SPRING 2011SFU SUMMER PUBLISHING WORKSHOPSJUNE 5, 2011 TO AUGUST 8, 2011Trying to get a foot in the door ofpublishing?Need to get up to speed with thelatest digital trends?Work with some of the top publishingminds from across Canada and theUS to sharpen your publishing skillsand step to the head of the linefor the latest publishing positions.Over 35 workshops in all areas of books,magazines, editing, design, new mediaand writing can give you anything froma one-day workshop on creating Ebooksto a two-week book publishing immersionexperience.Contact: pubworks@sfu.ca / 778 782 5241www.sfu.ca/pubworkstJuly 16 The Symposium on the BookTrue AccountsYou think you know.But you don’t know it all.Featuring Terry Gould, Barbara Mintzes,Ted Fontaine, Jerry Langton and Stevie Cameron.Spit Delaney’sIslandJack HodginsThis collection of short stories — winner of theEaton’s Book Prize and a finalist for the GovernorGeneral’s Award — started Jack Hodgins off onhis award-studded literary career.“Jack Hodgins’ stories do one of the best things fictioncan do — they reveal the extra dimension of the realplace, they light up the crazy necessities of real life.”— ALICE MUNRO978-1-55380-111-5 6 x 9 200 pp $18.95Ronsdale PressThe Opening ActCanadian Theatre History, 1945–1953 Susan McNicollDrawing on interviews with actors of the period, McNicollexplores such companies as Everyman in Vancouver, New PlaySociety in Toronto, and Théâtre du Nouveau Monde in Montreal.978-1-55380-113-9 7-1/2 x 10 280 pp 55 b&w images $24.95Beckett Soundings Inge IsraelIn these poems, Inge Israel slips into the mind of Samuel Beckettto explore the sources of his novels, plays and poems, especiallyhis belief that language (mis)informs all that we know.978-1-55380-112-2 6 x 9 100 pp $15.95Torn from Troy Patrick BowmanIn this rewriting of Homer’s Odyssey, Alexi, a young Trojan boy,is captured by the hated Greeks and encounters the uncannydomains of the Lotus Eaters and the Cyclops.978-1-55380-110-8 5-1/4 x 7-5/8 200 pp $11.95Broken Trail Jean Rae BaxterJean Rae Baxter explores the world of a young white boy duringthe American Revolution who is adopted by the Oneida and whomust decide whether he will become native or remain white.Or is there a third and better way?978-1-55380109-2 5-1/4 x 7-5/8 246 pp $11.95Available from your favourite bookstore or order from LitDistCoVisit our website at www.ronsdalepress.com

17 BC BOOKWORLD SPRING 2011tributeTHE TURNOUT FOR A MEmorialmass in honourof Eric Nicol on February6, just four days after hisdeath at age 91, was embarrassinglysmall for someone who hadsignificant stature as a writer forsix decades.It was held in a modest Catholicchurch in the Dunbar neighbourhoodof Vancouver, presided over by aFranciscan who deemed that anyonewho is a writer is necessarily a contemplative,and all contemplatives arewithin the realm of God.Nicol was a self-avowed agnostic.Precious little in the service referredto Nicol as a person and the importanceof his literary career was barely mentionedbeyond a letter from his Albertabasedillustrator.Laymen who knew Eric were only invitedto speak at a tea ’n’ sandwiches receptionafterwards.Despite severe back pain, veteransportswriter Jim Taylor attendedfrom West Vancouver to give some appreciationof Eric as a writer, and NormanYoung (a retired UBC professor)was also present as someone who knewthe bigger picture, but by then the humourlessmass had unintentionally servedas a sobering reminder of how fleeting“literary fame” can be.JACK✍KNOX’S COLUMN IN THETimes Colonist on February 6 was a welcomeantidote.“Nicol wasn’t just good,” he wrote.“He was good for a long time, likeGordie Howe… He was a smartwriter with an Everyman quality, findinghumour in mundane life. Witty withoutbeing mean, he always seemed tohave a cheerful sense of the absurd.✍IN SHORT, ERIC NICOL CRANKED OUT6,000 columns for The Province between1951 and 1986; as well as 39 books,countless radio scripts, stageplays andmagazine articles. One of his plays wasproduced on Broadway. He wrote twosuccessful radio series for the BBC andhe became the first living Canadianwriter to be included in The Oxford Bookof Humorous Prose.He won the Leacock Medal for Humourthree times. In 1995, he becamethe first recipient of the George WoodcockLifetime Achievement Award torecognize an outstanding literary careerin British Columbia.Eric Nicol wrote prodigiously andchronically. His last book, Scriptease(2010), was written while he had Alzheimer’s.He was good for a long time.✍ACCORDING TO ERIC PATRICK NICOL—born on December 28, 1919 in Kingston,Ontario, the son of WilliamNicol and Amelia MannockNicol—in 1921 he “almost immediatelypersuaded his parents to flee afierce winter in favour of a farmhouseDEATH BENOT LOUDRemembering Eric Nicol,the Gordie Howe of Canadian humourGRAPHIC COURTESY OF ERIC NICOLon Kingsway,” in British Columbia. Hewould later describe the province as “abody of land surrounded by envy.”After a brief period in Nelson, the familyrelocated to Point Grey where Nicolbegan writing stories at Lord Byng HighSchool. While pursuing an arts degreeat UBC in 1941, Nicol wrote for the TheUbyssey newspaper under the pen nameof Jabez.Nicol served with the RCAF in W.W.II, during which he started writing occasionalcolumns for the Vancouver NewsHerald and The Province. As Jabez, hepublished his first book, Says We (1943),a collection of columns by himself andthe once-legendary Vancouver journalistJack Scott.While he was in the RCAF, Nicolwrote comedy skits that were performedto entertain the armed forces. At war’send, he returned to UBC for his M.A.in French Studies (’48), then spent oneyear in doctoral studies at the Sorbonne.He moved to London, England, to writea radio comedy series for BernardBraden and Barbara Kelly of theBBC from 1950-51.During this period, while writingalongside Frank Muir and DenisNorden, Nicol bought a car and livedit up a little, renting a swanky apartment.Naively, he had not understood that hemust pay taxes on his earnings.And so he skedaddled back to Vancouver,where he became a regular columnistwith The Province in 1951.✍DURING 40 YEARS OF WRITING FORThe Province, Nicol claimed he neverhad a contract, he never took a holidayand he never missed a deadline. Hefeared that if he went on vacation, hemight lose his job.For most of his life, Nicol lived in thesame house he purchased in 1957, nearUBC. After being at any gathering forabout fifteen or twenty minutes, he invariablywhispered to his companion,“Let’s get out of here.”Avoidance of parties was akin toavoidance of embarrassment. “I’m eithersitting there like a frog full of shot,” hetold the Georgia Straight in 1989, “or Irun off at the neck and then hate myselfthe next morning.”It was easier to let his charactersspeak. Nicol was the first Vancouverplaywright to have his work successfullyproduced by the Vancouver Playhouse.His best-known play, Like Father, LikeFun (1966), concerned a crass lumberbaron’s attempt to contrive his son’s initiationto sex. After it was unsuccessfullystaged in New York under the title AMinor Adjustment (1967), Nicol reboundedwith The Fourth Monkey(1968) about a failed playwright whotakes refuge on the Gulf Islands.Nicol’s play for the National Theatrein Ottawa, Pillar of Sand (1973), was setin fifth century Constantinople and examinedcivilization’s decline. “The reviewswere mixed,” he said, “bad andterrible.” Other plays are Regulus; Bewarethe Quickly Who; The Clam Madea Face; a Joy Coghill vehicle, Ma!(1981), about once-legendary B.C.continued on page 18

18 BC BOOKWORLD SPRING 2011The Separation Guideby David Greig• For married, common-law,and same-sex couples• Covers key divorce andseparation topics• Deal with assets, finances,legal processes, and postseparationlife planning$19.95 / bookEric Nicol cartoon by Roy Peterson, 1968British Columbia Probate Kitby Mary-Jane Wilson• Learn to legally probateor administer an estate byyourself• Easy, step-by-step instructionsguide you through the process• No need to consult a lawyer!Save thousands of dollars inlegal fees$39.95 / book + forms on CD-ROMBuying Real Estate in the USby Dale Walters• Make informed investmentssouth of the border• Navigate daunting legal andtax issues• Understand all of your options$22.95 / bookDirect Mail in the Digital Ageby Lin Grensing-Pophal• Learn the secrets of successfuldirect mail campaigns• Integrate direct mail effectivelywith other marketing efforts• Weigh the pros and cons ofdirect mail versus othermethods available today$20.95 / bookStart & Run aHome Staging Businessby Dana J. Smithers• Understand the opportunitiesin this fast-growing industry• Insider home staging tipsfrom a seasoned expert• Learn to launch, market,and grow your business$23.95 / book + CD-ROMStart & Run a Tattoo &Body Piercing Studioby Kurtis Mueller and Tanya Lee Howe• Written for anyone interestedin this lucrative business• Learn safe, ethical, andsound business practices• Understand everything youneed to know about runningyour own studio$23.95 / book + CD-ROMwww.self-counsel.com1-800-663-3007continued from page 17newspaperwoman Margaret ‘Ma’Murray; and his cryptic Free At Last.One of Nicol’s more audacious workswas Dickens of the Mounted: The AstoundingLong-Lost Letters of Inspector F.Dickens NWMP 1874–1886 (1989), inwhich he devilishly invented correspondencefrom the son of CharlesDickens.This fictional work was takenfor fact by many readers and some mediaoutlets.In his amusing but shrewd memoirAnything for a Laugh (1998), Nicol’sviewpoints are invariably witty, unfailinglyoriginal and occasionally downrightodd. “I can take pride in nothing,”he writes. “It’s a sort of low-grade humility.”✍ALTHOUGH HE WAS AN INVETERATEpunster, Eric Nicol did not wish to bepegged as simply a humourist. Seldomcited among Nicol’s best books is the stillserviceablehistory of his city, Vancouver(1970).Apolitical but wary of authority, hewas proud that his column on the assassinationof John F. Kennedy wasread into The Congressional Record. Ifprodded, he liked to recall that one ofhis Province columns against capital punishmentresulted in a citation for contemptand a trial that attracted nationalinterest.Beset by family troubles, Nicolshocked his readership by producingsomething serious, Letters to My Son, abook based on Lord Chesterfield’sfamous tome to his wayward son. “Althoughlife is a box of chocolates accordingto Forrest Gump,” Nicol wrote,“what they expected to get from me wasa soft centre. Instead they bit into asourball. I felt badly about this. I hadviolated one of the first rules of survivingas a writer: continue to give your readerswhat they have learned to expect fromyou. If you are Stephen King, yougive them horror, book after book.Margaret Atwood, feminist turmoil.Farley Mowat, a torrid loveaffair with wolves, whales, whatever theMaritimers are slaughtering as a surrogatefor having a team in the NationalHockey League.”A self-avowed commercial writer,Nicol frequently described his politics as“anarchist in theory, liberal in practice.”In public, he seemed downright conservative,even prudish. In 1962, Nicolquipped that he did not smoke, drink,play cards or run around with women—but he hoped to do so if royalties camepouring in.As a self-avowed ‘devout determinist,’an agnostic ‘hooked on antique principles,’Nicol was determined not tochange with the times. After 35 years,the droll punster was retired by PacificPress at age 65. After that he wrote onecolumn per week, reduced to one columnper month, then zilch.“The print humourist is an endangeredspecies,” he wrote. “Every year Iexpect to receive a Canadian Wildlife Federationcalendar with my picture on it.”Eric Nicol had three children fromhis first wife Myrl Mary HelenHeselton. In 1986 he married authorMary Razzell, with whom helived in the same Point Grey home hehad purchased in 1957. Although heonce described himself as “pretty wellretired from everything except breathing,”Nicol teamed with cartoonist PeterWhalley for Canadian PoliticsUnplugged in 2003 and released a “palsiedopus” about aging in 2005. But hecouldn’t stop joking.Self-deprecating to a fault (“In thefeast of life, I have been a digestive biscuit”)and not prone to selfmythololgizing,Nicol accumulated thewisdom of the jester.Just before he died, he joked oncemore to Mary, his steadfast supporter,“Let’s get out of here.”Eric Nicol died at 9:19 a.m. on February2, 2011, at the Louis Brier Homeand Hospital in Vancouver.✍SOMEWHERE NEAR THE MIDDLE OFFrank Davey’s new book on the originsof the TISH writing movement atUBC, When TISH Happens (ECW),Davey states that when he was growingup in Abbotsford in the 1950s, therewere only three living B.C. writers thatanyone knew existed: RoderickHaig-Brown, Earle Birney andEric Nicol. That held true for theearly sixties, too.But from the Age of Pun to the Ageof Rap, tastes in humour radicallychanged. Nicol’s gentlemanly wit beganto seem anachronistic.By the time Nicol was forced into retirementfrom the newspaper game, hewas given a laptop computer as a presentfrom Pacific Press.Nicol, according to Jim Taylor, alwayswrote using a pencil.For a complete bibliography of EricNicol’s work see abcbookworld.com

LOOKOUT3516 W.THE PASSIONATECOLLECTORAs books are digitized by libraries and Google, “real books”have become increasingly attractive to literary adventurerssuch as Andrew Irvine who search for precious objects.a forum for & about writers # 4213th Ave., Vancouver, BC V6R 2S3 • bookworld@telus.netFROM MONDAY TO FRIDAY, ANDREW IRVINE, Apast president of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association,works as a philosophy professor at UBC.But on the weekends he can be found huntingthrough Canada’s used bookstores.Irvine’s particular passion is collecting first-editioncopies of all the books that have ever won Canada’s GovernorGeneral’s Literary Awards. Between 1936 and2010, 610 books have received awards. Of these, 357have been in English.Irvine has succeeded in finding all but three of the357 English books in their award-winning editions, andseven are still without their original dust jackets.The three books Irvine is especially eager to find arefirst-edition copies of Arthur Bourinot’s 1939 bookof poetry, Under the Sun (The Macmillan Company ofCanada) and two novels: Bertram Brooker’s 1936Think of the Earth (Thomas Nelson & Sons / JonathanCape), and Gwethalyn Graham’s 1938 Swiss Sonata(Jonathan Cape).“It’s especially hard to find some of the older bookswith dust jackets in good condition,” he says, “becausethe first thing libraries do is throw away a book’s dustjacket. This means that for anyone wanting to consultthe original book, part of the experience is lost.”✍FINDING BOOKS PUBLISHED DURING THE DEPRESSION IS Achallenge because print runs were small. Then, duringthe Second World War, paper was often rationed, especiallyin Britain, but also in Canada.“It’s not unusual to find dust jackets from the 1940sprinted on backs of old military maps,” Irvine says.Some of his favourite titles in his collection are:• Anne Chislett’s Quiet in the Land• Leonard Cohen’s Selected Poems• Roméo Dallaire’s Shake Hands with the Devil• Hugh MacLennan’s Two Solitudes• Emily Carr’s Klee Wyck• Robert Ford’s Window on the North• Marshall McLuhan’s The Gutenberg Galaxy• John Gray’s Billy Bishop Goes to War• Stephen Leacock’s My Discovery of the West• Michael Ondaatje’s English Patient“So many of these books are worthreading more than once,” he says.“Recently I re-read KarolynFrost’s book about the undergroundrailroad [I’ve Got a Home inGlory Land]. “And for a long time,Marie-Louise Gay’s children’sbook Rainy Day Magic [from 1987]was a favorite at bedtime in ourhouse.“Of course, in addition to all thefamous books, it’s also easy to find titlesthat over the years have been forgotten.It’s hard to readJosephine Phelan’s account ofthe assassination of DarcyMcGee [The Ardent Exile, from 1951] without thinkingthat it’s a book that it would be good for more Canadiansto read.”Some award-winning G.G. books were originally issuedin such small press runs that finding first-edition copiesis just a matter of luck.“In 1947, Robert MacGregor Dawson wonthe prize for Academic Non-fiction for his book The Governmentof Canada. What’s not widely known is that, inaddition to the 1947 hard copy of the book, a 1946 paperbackstudent edition was also issued. The 1946 editiondoesn’t appear on WorldCat, the online cataloguethat lists the holdings of some 71,000 libraries from over100 countries around the world.”It’s very unusual for anyone to find an earlier 1946copy, but Irvine has one.✍IN THE PROCESS OF BECOMING AN AMATEUR BOOK SLEUTH,Andrew Irvine has become an expert in Canadian literaryhistory by default. Having published numerous booksof philosophy, Irvine is considering compiling a bookabout the awards, something that would not just introducereaders to the wide variety of Canadian literaturethat has been honoured by the Governor General’s LiteraryAwards since their inception in 1936, but thatwould also give Canadians the opportunity to fall in lovewith forgotten titles all over again.1972 Fiction winner1969 Poetry winnerCan you help Andrew Irvinefind dust jackets for thesefirst editions?1945 Fiction winner 1995 Fiction winner 1954 Fiction winner• The Fable of the Goats & OtherPoems by E.J. Pratt (Macmillan, 1937) — poetry• By Stubborn Stars & Other Poemsby Kenneth Leslie (Ryerson, 1938) — poetry• The Dark Weaverby Laura G. Salverson (Ryerson, 1937) — novel• Three Came to Ville Marieby Alan Sullivan (Oxford, 1941) — novel• The Pied Piper of Dipper Creek &Other Tales by Thomas H. Raddall(Blackwood, 1939) — novel• The Governmentof Canada by RobertMacGregor Dawson (UTP,1947) — non-fiction• DemocraticGovernment inCanada by RobertMacGregor Dawson (UTP,1949) — non-fiction Andrew Irvine19 BOOKWORLD • LOOKOUT • SPRING • 2011

HistoristoryGina McMurchy-Barberhas crafted a fictional memoir by someone who“growed up in Woodloods” with Down syndrome afterher mother took her there one day—and never cameback.The narrator is Ruby Jean Sharp, a character notbased on the author’s own sister, who also had Downsyndrome but was raised by loving parents.Opened in 1878 and once known as the ProvincialLunatic Asylum, Woodlands was a so-called schoolthat was more like a prison. Abuse was rampant. Threethousand people are buried in the Woodlands cemetery.In her afterword to Free as a Bird (Dundurn$12.99), McMurchy-Barber provides the following historicalsummary, having once worked at Woodlandsfor six months as a young adult. 978-1-55488-447-6WHEN I WAS A KID, THERE WAS ONE WORD THAT GRATED ON MYnerves like fingernails on a chalkboard: retard. That’sbecause my older sister, who was born with Downsyndrome, was often stared at, made fun of, and callednames like retard by others who didn’t know any better.When I was thirteen, I looked up the word in adictionary and found that one definition simply read:“slow or delayed learning.” I didn’t think thatsounded so bad — after all, everyone has somethingthey find difficult to learn or master — and that took the sting out of the word for me.At the time of Jane’s birth in 1954 the attending doctor told my parents therewas a good chance she would be blind, would never learn to walk, and wouldn’tlikely live beyond the age of five. He also explained there was no support available tohelp care for her and that she would be a burden to the family. His recommendationwas to have her placed in an institution for the “mentally retarded” — a termused back then. The doctor’s limited knowledge and attitude were quite typical forthose days.I’m grateful my parents weren’t influenced by the dark predictions for Jane’sfuture and instead brought her home from the hospital. As she grew, she had perfectvision. And she not only learned to walk, but to run, skip, and jump, too.Jane lived into her mid-thirties. By the time of her death, she had a job and aboyfriend and lived in her own apartment. She had a full life and was loved bymany. What more could one ask for from their time here on earth?When I was younger, I had a fierce desire to defend my sister against the ridiculeof others. Then, as a young adult, I enrolled in a college training program respondingto special needs children and others with learning disabilities. One of my firstjobs was working at Woodlands School. My employment in that bleak institution inNew Westminster, British Columbia, lasted six long months.While I was there, I realized what my sister’s life might have been like if myparents had taken the doctor’s advice. I’m certain she would never have reached herfull potential had she been one of those fifteen hundred people who spent their liveshidden out of sight and locked behind doors.I left Woodlands to work for the Community Living Society, an organizationstarted by parents and caring staff who fought to get residents out of WoodlandsSchool and into group homes in the community. The CommunityLiving Society and other associations like it were instrumental in bringingan end to the institutionalization of disabled people in British Columbiaand seeing to it that Woodlands closed forever.The characters and events in this novel are fictitious. However, WoodlandsSchool, as mentioned earlier, actually did exist. There were many similar government-runinstitutions throughout Canada and the United States, but likeWoodlands, many of them have been closed. Unfortunately, there are still suchplaces to be found both north and south of the border.✍WOODLANDS BEGAN IN 1878 AS THE PROVINCIAL LUNATIC ASYLUM. SOON AFTER ITGina McMurchy-Barberopened, a report was written with the following description of the facility:“The place is gloomy in the extreme, the corridors narrow and sombre, the windows high and unnecessarilybarred…. The establishment exceedingly overcrowded…. The patients being herded togethermore like cattle than human beings” (Commission of Enquiry Report of the Provincial Asylum for theInsane, 1878).The name of the place was changed in 1950 to Woodlands School, though at best there were onlytwelve teachers for more than fifteen hundred “students.”The residents of Woodlands were labelled as “severely or profoundly retarded,” or as “morons.”Some weren’t mentally disabled at all but had physical disabilities or behaviour problems that were onlymade worse by the isolation, monotonous environment, and lack of normal human interactions. Whilesome came to Woodlands as older children or even adults, others were abandoned as babies and knewno other home. Many lived out their lives behind its walls, locked metal doors, and jail-like windows.Woodlands, as one resident chose to describe it,was “a garbage can for society’s garbage kids.”DARKNESSAT THE EDGE OF THE ’BURBSGina McMurchy-Barber’sheart-wrenching young adult novel,Free as a Bird, takes the reader insideWoodlands, a now-defunct provincialfacility for the mentally challenged.Ironically, some could even look out from thiscastle-like fortress to the B.C. Penitentiary nextdoor, a maximum-security prison for society’sworst criminals.Some of the residents had visits from relatives,but most had no contact with the outside community.Those residents who were able to buildfriendships with other residents, then cried eachnight when they had to be separated. More oftenthan not, the ones who needed the most attentionand love got the least. Woodlands, likemany such institutions, was self-sufficient. It wasstaffed by medical and dental professionals, therapists,cooks, teachers, ward staff, and child-careworkers. As a result, there was little contact withoutside services such as public health, victim support,or police. In essence, it was a self-contained“city” with citizens who had no say in the runningof their day-to-day life.After Woodlands closed in 1996, the provincialgovernment asked Ombudsman DulcieMcCallum to investigate the many complaintsof abuse directed at the institution. Her report,The Need to Know: Administrative Review ofWoodlands School, brought to light many of theproblems inherent in institutions of this kind. Sherecounted that most residents had little if anycontact with family or friends outside the institution.They had no control over any aspect oftheir lives. Even those who were capable wereconsidered medically and legally incompetent as“retardates” and therefore treated as if they wereunable to speak for themselves or had any intellectualinsight whatsoever. Some children wereused for drug experiments and genetic research— some of which are known today to be quitepainful. And it wasn’t uncommon for unclaimedbodies to be regularly donated to the Universityof British Columbia for research.McCallum stated that Woodlands “was a perfectplace for perpetrators seeking an opportunityto physically and sexually abuse children andadults who were silent, unable to complain, notknowing how or to whom to report or whoThe sculpture in the Woodlands Memorial Gardenentitled “The Window Too High.”MICHAEL DE COURCY PHOTOwould, in many instances, not be believed. Severepunishment and threats were used to dissuadechildren from reporting abuse.” Her reportalso stated that the cruel behaviour modificationtechniques were rationalized by staff who felt residents“didn’t understand or feel pain, and in anyevent, required a strict disciplinary approach inorder to learn.” Little consideration was given tothe fact that “bad behaviour was a response toconfinement, only spending time with people ofsimilar disabilities, absence of effort to socializeor integrate residents into normal life, boring,bland, sterile environment.” One former residentof Woodlands described the place as “a garbagecan for society’s garbage kids.”Throughout the years there were many reportedcases of physical and sexual abuse thatleaked out. But according to reports, they werealways handled internally. In most cases the investigationinto the reported abuses was stalledby an apparent “code of silence” among the staff.Stories surfaced that staff who did report abusesMICHAEL DE COURCY PHOTOwere punished by some of their peers, threatened,transferred, and in one case drugged and institutionalized.As a result of peer expectations, abusewas usually brought to light by people visiting theward, such as student nurses or family members.In 1977 the B.C. government ordered allheadstones to be removed from the institution’scemetery. The reasons aren’t completely clear whythis action was taken. Some speculate it was toappease the directors of the new Queen’s ParkHospital next door, who felt it was disturbing forpatients to gaze out their windows at a cemetery.Between 1977 and 1980 some eighteen hundredheadstones were removed and recycled forsuch purposes as lining walkways and making abarbecue for staff. Many headstones were simplydiscarded in the creek or sold off as buildingsupplies. The cemetery itself was made into a park.At its height the population of Woodlandsreached an estimated fifteen hundred residents.In the past there were no support groups or organizationsfor parents whose children had mental,behavioural, or physical disabilities. Althoughsome thought institutionalization was the kindesttreatment for these children, the very existenceof facilities such as Woodlands testified to the generalopinion that these people should be keptlocked away and isolated from society.McCallum’s report paints a bleak picture ofthis infamous institution. However, in fairness itshould be added that there were some staff memberswho did their best to care for the residentsin a respectful and nurturing manner. And thereare a few parents who felt their sons or daughtersbenefited from being placed there.✍AFTER WOODLANDS CLOSED, IT REMAINED EMPTYfor many years, though the buildings were occasionallyused by the film industry. Eventually, theprovincial government sold the land to developerswho began to erase all evidence of the institution’sexistence. During a period of public debateover what was to happen to the few remainingbuildings, a terrible fire broke out on July 10,2008. In a few short hours the flames destroyedall but the facade of the centre block and tower,the oldest part of the institution. Two days afterthe fire, developers were given permission to demolishand remove the debris, but no in-depthinvestigation has so far been conducted. Todaythe cemetery has become the Woodlands MemorialGarden and honours the more than threethousand deceased individuals who were buriedat the former Woodlands cemetery. To date onlyabout nine hundred grave markers have been recovered.Officials say no more graves will be removedor dismantled.The valuable real estate overlooking the FraserRiver and the mountains beyond continues to bemolded into modern townhouses and apartmenttowers. Only the black monoliths covered inheadstones at the back of the property are left toremind us all that for more than a century undervaluedpeople once lived and died there.“For the needs of the needy shall not be ignoredforever; the hopes of the poor shall not always becrushed.”—Psalms 9:18To read the report on Woodlands writtenby Dulcie McCallum:www.bcacl.org/documents/Woodlands_Abuse/The_Need_to_Know.pdf•To view Asylum: A Long Last Look atWoodlands by Michael de Courcy, go towww.michaeldecourcy.com/asylum•A teacher’s guide for Free as a Bird:www.dundurn.com/teachers20 BC BOOKWORLD • LOOKOUT • SPRING • 2011 21 BC BOOKWORLD • LOOKOUT • SPRING • 2011

22 BC BOOKWORLD SPRING 2011

23 BC BOOKWORLD SPRING 2011kidlitJohn Wilson was born in Edinburgh,Scotland in 1951, of parents whohad recently returned from a life in India.He grew up on the Isle of Skye andin Paisley, near Glasgow, and earned anHonours B.Sc. in geology from St. AndrewsUniversity. In 1975, he went towork for the Geological Survey of Rhodesia(now Zimbabwe) but, unwillingto consider military service there, heeventually resettled in Calgary, workingin gas and oil exploration.In 1986, as a geologist in Edmonton,he decided he wasn’t travellingenough, so he sold his sports car, took aleave of absence and set off west. Hisgrand tour took him to Japan, Thailand,the India of his parents, Nepal, Egypt,Zimbabwe and much of Europe. Returninghome, he had difficulty adjustingback into a regular work schedule.A feature article, sold to the Globe andMail, pointed him in a new direction,so he quit his job and became a fulltimefreelancer before moving on tonovels and non-fiction books.“As a teen growing up in the west ofScotland in the 1960s,” Wilson says, “myprimary concerns were staying out oftrouble at school (not always successfully)and avoiding the gangs that hungaround downtown on Saturday nights.I was a good sprinter!“I had no intention of trying to emulatethe boring dead people we wereforced to read in English class.”Wilson has now been a full-timewriter for twenty years and boasts a bibliographythat includes hundreds of articles,essays, photo essays, poetry, reviews,22 novels and eight non-fiction booksfor teens and adults. His most recentbook is Shot at Dawn (ScholasticCanada $14.99).BC BOOKWORLD: How did the metamorphosis from troubledteen to writer come about?JOHN WILSON: History. I had a history teacher in grade11 who told stories about the past. My favourite lesson wasabout the day Franz Ferdinand was shot in 1914. I lay awakehalf that night imagining I was one of the characters inSarajevo that day. What would I have done? How would Ihave felt, either pointing the gun at Franz or seeing the assassinpoint the gun at me?I never wrote anything down but I was already a writer.That’s all I do now. Instead of lying in the dark making upstories, I sit at my computer, but I’m still a small boy trying totravel in time.BCBW: Do you do a lot of research for your novels?WILSON: Occasionally, I’ve been lucky enough to receivea grant from the Canada Council to go to archives and readold letters and documents, but mostly I use my holidays. Forthe trilogy I’m working on, called The Heretic’s Secret, I wentto France to see the castles and medieval towns where I setthe story.Also, the internet can be a great resource for details. Forexample, in Written in Blood, I needed to know about handguns in the American southwest in 1877. There are websitesthat specialize in exactly that.For my most recent book, Shot at Dawn, set in the FirstWorld War, I realize I’ve been reading books on WWI eversince my history teacher told me about Franz Ferdinand.I’ve spent the last forty years researching that book.BCBW: There’s violence in your books, I’m thinking of theprisoner having his toes cut off with rusty shears in Deathon the River. Is it necessary?WILSON: There is violence in some of my books, but noneof it is made up or gratuitous. The guy in Death on the Riveris based on a man who really did have his toes cut off thatway. The history of our species is violent and we have to acknowledgethat. To paint the past as a pleasant, peaceful progressiontowards the present, hardly prepares a kid for livingin the real world.BCBW: What about the argument that gross or violent bookssimply pander to the baser side of the reader’s nature andthat boys should be encouraged to read better literature?Would you say boys need different kinds of books from girls?WILSON: Absolutely. There are countless definitions ofwhat makes a good kids’ book. The only definition that reallymatters where boys are concerned is: a good book fora boy is any book he will read.When people question me about violence in my books, Isay: If a boy gets bored with one of my books, he’s not goingto put it down and read Anne of Green Gables. Oddsare he’s going to go and play a video game where he canmake people’s heads explode. Call of Duty’s my competition.I have to hold my reader’s interest before I can eventhink about doing anything else, such as putting the violencein a moral context.BCBW: Shot at Dawn is part of Scholastic’s new series forboys, I Am Canada. Do you think enough is being done inCanada to interest boys in reading?WILSON: The situation’s improving. There are a lot of authorswriting books for boys, such as Eric Walters, ArtSlade and Iain Lawrence, but go into any Chaptersstore and stand a metre or two away from the Teen Fictionshelves. The predominant colour is pink. I have a seventeen-year-oldson who would have his fingernails pulledbefore he took a pink book off a shelf, regardless of howgood that book might be.BCBW: So there’s a marketing problem for boys?WILSON: Partly. After all, it makes sense from a marketingperspective to target the easiest demographic, but notif it’s at the expense of the readers who are a tougher sell.Anyone involved in children’s literature—authors, editors,publishers, booksellers, marketers—has a responsibility toall readers, even the ones who would rather be playing videogames.BCBW: Did you read violent books when you were a teen,and if so, what?WILSON: As a kid I read horror stories, H.P. Lovecraft,science fiction, Asimov, Bradbury, Wyndham, and alot of historical non-fiction. At that time, the stories from theSecond World War—fighter pilots in the Battle of Britain,prisoners escaping from Colditz—were coming out and Idevoured them.I didn’t actually need a graphic description of mayhem. Asuggestion was often enough to feed the part of me that layawake at night making up stories. And the stories I madeup were way more violent that anything I write now.I would read any book that took me to a different place,anywhere that was more exciting than the real world I wasstuck in. Essentially, now I’m writing the stories that I wantedto read as a teen, and hoping that they will help today’s teensto escape. Shot at Dawn: 9780545985956SAVED BY HISTORYJohn Wilsondoing research forWritten in Bloodat White SandsNational Monument,New Mexico.IAIN WILSON PHOTOWith his 30th bookappearing on bookstore shelves,John Wilson still wakes up everymorning surprised thathe is a writer.

24 BC BOOKWORLD SPRING 2011ARTHUR ELLIS AWARDSBANQUETJune 2, Victoria, BCFOR MORE INFORMATION: crimewriterscanada.comShuswapẀriters’FestivalMay 27 - 29Salmon Arm, BCSaturday: Prestige HarbourfrontSunday: Okanagan College,Salmon Arm• Workshops and interactivesessions• Keynote address• Blue pencil sessions• Author readings• Storytellers Party withfood, drink, and rousinggreat stories• Author book sales table• Readings by KidsWriteContest winnersOther events:Coffee House atSalmon Arm ArtGallerysponsors:Presenters• Angie Abdou• WilliamDeverell• Deanna Kawatski• Theresa Kishkan• Evelyn Lau• Annabel Lyon• John Pass• Wendy Phillips• Michael Slade• Richard Wagamese• Nancy WarrenFor registration and more info:www.saow.caTHEWRITERS’UNION OFCANADATHE ANNUALLUSHFICTIONMAXIMUM 3,000 WORDSPOETRYA SUITE OF 5 RELATED POEMS(MAXIMUM 15 PAGES)CREATIVE NON-FICTIONMAXIMUM 4,000 WORDSENTRY FEE: $25 PER ENTRYINCLUDES A ONE-YEARSUBTERRAIN SUBSCRIPTION!(You may submit as many entriesin as many categories as you like)SEND ENTRIES TO:...........................DEADLINEFOR ENTRIES:MAY 15, 2011............................$3,000 IN CASH PRIZES............................Lush Triumphant c/o subTerrain Magazine, PO Box 3008, MPO, Vancouver, BC V6B 3X5Annual Non-Fiction Contest*3 CATEGORIES3 CASH PRIZES1 DEADLINEwww.subterrain.caThree winners will receive $500 each plus publication!$29.95 entry fee includes 1 year of EVENT5,000 word limitDeadline April 15Visit http://event.douglas.bc.ca for more informationphoto by Mark MushetOffering the Perennial Beauty of theWorld’s Spiritual & Healing Traditionsin Kitsilano, Vancouver for over 40 yearscommunity-minded but globally connectedSee www.banyen.com forall our books, reviews &AUTHOR EVENTSBanyenBooks &since 19703608 West 4th Ave.at Dunbar, 1 block E. of Almabooks 604-732-7912music/gifts/tkts 604-737-8858out-of-town orders 1-800-663-8442Soundwww.banyen.com to sign up for our monthly e-letter, BlossomingMon.-Fri. 10-9 Sat. 10-8 Sun. 11-7Open year-round with over 25,000 titles plus a great selectionof Canadian authors, used books, art supplies, and gifts.isit us at www.galianoislandbooks.comV250.539.3340 info@galianoislandbooks.com76 Madrona Drive Galiano Island BC V0N 1P0

25 BC BOOKWORLD SPRING 2011theatreIt is about a fifteen-year-old boycaught between his born-again Christianmother and his rambunctiousgranddad, an anarchist and gambler,who arranges for his grandson’s sexualinitiation.The boy comes to the attention ofthe police when they investigate a mysteriousmurder in an abandoned peachorchard. His grandfather advises,“There’s something in between lying andnot lying. It’s called a story.”The following interview excerpts arefrom a longer interview conducted withMorris Panych by MK Piatkowski forOne Big Umbrella.How do you write, pen orkeyboard?I hate to admit it, but I have almost nopenmanship left. I lack the coordinationeven to write my own name. I believe thatwriting will move more and more to thekeyboard, and that the work itself willmore and more reflect this mutable, tangentialform; no less true, but less rooted.Committing to pen and paper is verydifferent than committing to computer,which is not so much a commitment asa first date. I can change my writing oncomputer and nobody has to ever knowjust how shitty it was.When I was first in creative writingat UBC, we copied our scripts ongestetner machines, which were like akind of printing press. There were a lotmore steps so I thought more carefullyabout what I was writing.I wish I were the kind of person whocould carry around a little notebook.Writing to me needs discipline. I get up,I get coffee, I go to my attic room, I turnon my computer, I fall asleep, I wake up,I write.As a writer, what scares you?I am scared to write non-comedic materialbecause I fear it will come across asmelodramatic. But I have to try. Lately Ihave been working to take away the comedysomewhat from my writing, deal withdifferent themes. I cannot write aboutcontemporary politics. I think I’ve beenaround long enough to know that somethings don’t last, trends change, philosophyevolves; what matters to me is humaninteraction; things that don’t change,ever—fear, anger, love, death, suspicion.I can’t write about the war in Iraq becauseI don’t know what to say about it. Ican say ‘war is bad’ but that’s not very interesting,and not necessarily even true. Iadmire people who can find somethingORRISM OREMorris Panych’s poignant drama The Trespassers(Talonbooks $16.95) runs from March 26 to April16 at the Vancouver Playhouse, having played at theBelfry Theatre in Victoria in October.to talk about in everyday politics, who canaddress current issues; I can’t. I am scaredof success, and failure in equal measure,but what scares me the most is writingthat’s irrelevant. It’s a terrible contradictionto want to be relevant but not writeabout things that are current; I ampretty much doomed to failure. SometimesI think I should write about beinggay but I have nothing to say about that,either. ‘I’m gay’ is not a play; althoughsome people seem to have made a careerof it.Where would you like your workto be produced?It’s a nice feeling to have a play makeyou some money, so anywhere is fine.That said, one of my favorite recentexperiences was going to see Lawrenceand Holloman at a little holein-the-wallplace in KensingtonMarket. I felt that the play had legitimatelyreached its second life; alife away from the main theatre constituency.I love to have my playsachieve this second life, anywhere; inlittle out-of-the-way places, in bighouses. It’s important to me that mywork is produced in places other thanjust where it originated. It makes me feellike my children are finally leaving homeand going out into the world to maketheir mark.What do you drink onopening night?I like to start in the morning, to be honest.I like to drink enough by show timethat I appear relaxed, funny, easygoingand generally feeling great about mywork, when in actual fact I’m really justa little hammered.At the Tarragon [Theatre], whenUrjo Kareda was alive, we used to drinkscotch all through the show; he wouldlisten on the tanoy and I would venture,drunk, into the theatre, through the littleback door. This I call the barf door,for two reasons. Immediately after anyshow, the obligatory cheap champagneI sip then dump into somebody else’sglass; if somebody buys me a nice bottleI hide in a washroom and drink it, ifsomebody else gets a nice bottle I hidein the washroom and drink it with them;as for the ‘gala’ after party, usually I havered wine because I get a free couple ofplastic glasses worth.What inspires you?To say what inspires me, sort of impliesthat I’m inspired, which I’m often not.But I am often moved, particularly byacts of kindness; even somebody openinga door for me and smiling can bringme to tears, of late. I feel pretty emotionalwhen somebody displays their humanity,even in passing.The thing that most deeply moves meis music; say, for instance, Prokofiev’scello concerto. To think how somebodycould be such a genius to construct andinterweave those harmonies, and to doit with such apparent ease and wit, butmore than that, how this man hasreached out a hundred years and somehowknown what was in my heart.How his music speaks to me; that ismoving. For art to reverberate throughspace is wonderful, but through time itis awe-inspiring.What do youwant to writeabout that youhaven’t yet?Sin. What it is. I don’tknow, but when I figureit out, I want to writeabout it. And love; Iwould like to write a lovestory—it would be sad, Ithink, and a little bitfunny. I want to writemore about lost children;since my parentsboth died,I feel I havebecome one.9780889226289Morris Panychmade his playwriting debut with amusical, Last Call: A Post-NuclearCabaret, in 1982, producedby Tamahnous Theatre in Vancouver.He has since written twentyplays, adapted others, and directedeighty plays, as well as filmand opera. Usually featuringquirky characters, in semi-realsituations, Panych’s works suchas Vigil, The Overcoat and 7 Storieshave been mounted in manycountries. The Trespassers mightbe described as typical Panych,fuelled by pathos and humour,while slightly perplexing to the audience,with shades of SamuelBeckett.“I am scared to writenon-comedic materialbecause I fear it will comeacross as melodramatic.”—Morris Panych, two-time winner ofGovernor General's Award for Drama

UNSETTLING THESETTLER WITHINIndian ResidentialSchools, Truth Telling, andReconciliation in CanadaPaulette ReganA compassionate call to actionthat points the way towardan honest and meaningfulexploration of the legacyof the Indian residentialschool system and itsimpact on all CanadiansThis book is significant notonly as it concerns relationsbetween indigenous peoples and Canadians; it will be ofinterest to those working in multicultural settings of manykinds where power imbalances have affected relations.Paulette Regan manages to combine scholarly discourse withpersonal accounts in ways that buttress its credibility andmake it a must-read for anyone interested in reconciliationbetween peoples.– L. Michelle LeBaron, Professor of Law and Director,UBC Program on Dispute ResolutionJan. 2011, 978-0-7748-1778-3PB $34.95, 316 pp.CANADA AND BALLISTICMISSILE DEFENCE, 1954–2009Déjà Vu All Over AgainJames G. FergussonBased on newly declassifiedinformation, this insightful bookoffers the first full account of Canada’suncertain response to US ballisticmissile defence initiatives and revealsthe implications of this indecision.Nov. 2010, 978-0-7748-1751-6PB $34.95, 352 pp., 18 b&w photos,3 mapsStudies in Canadian Military History Series /Published in association with the CanadianWar MuseumGATHERING PLACESAboriginal and Fur Trade HistoriesEdited by Carolyn Podruchny and LauraPeersGathering Places presents some of themost innovative and interdisciplinaryapproaches to metis, fur trade, and FirstNations history being practised today.Jan. 2011, 978-0-7748-1844-5PB $34.95, 344 pp., 17 photos,3 paintings, 1 map, 4 tablesAWFULLY DEVOTED WOMENLesbian Lives in Canada, 1900–65Cameron DuderThis intimate study of the lives ofmiddle-class lesbians who came ofage before the gay rights movementunveils a previously unknownworld of private relationships,discreet social networks, and love.January 2011, 978-0-7748-1739-4PB $32.95, 328 pp., 5 b&w illustrationsSexuality Studies SeriesFROM VICTORIA TOVLADIVOSTOKCanada’s Siberian Expedition, 1917–19Benjamin IsittA highly readable and provocativebook that brings to life a forgottenchapter in the history of Canada andRussia – the journey of 4,200 Canadiansoldiers from Victoria to Vladivostokin the wake of the Russian Revolution.Nov. 2010, 978-0-7748-1802-5PB $29.95, 352 pp., 37 b&w photos,5 mapsStudies in Canadian Military HistorySeries / Published in association with theCanadian War MuseumNew from UBC PressSPIRITS OF OUR WHALINGANCESTORSRevitalizing Makah andNuu-chah-nulth TraditionsCharlotte CotéForeword by Micah McCartyA member of the Nuu-chah-nulthFirst Nation, Charlotte Coté offersa valuable perspective on theissues surrounding indigenouswhaling, past and present.August 2010, 978-0-7748-2053-0PB $24.95, 328 pp., 22 b&willustrations, 3 mapsMILITIA MYTHSIdeas of the Canadian CitizenSoldier, 1896–1921James WoodThis compelling cultural historyexplores the citizen soldier as an idealand symbol, tracing its evolution inCanadian society from the latenineteenth century to the end ofthe First World War.Nov. 2010, 978-0-7748-1766-0PB $32.95, 368 pp., 29 b&w photos,6 tablesStudies in Canadian Military HistorySeries / Published in association withthe Canadian War MuseumAvailable from fine bookstores near you.Order online @ www.ubcpress.caOrder by phone 1.800.565.9523 (UTP Distribution) PUBLISHING LIMITEDTHE UNHERALDED ARTISTS OF BC SERIESThe Life and Art ofMildred Valley ThorntonSheryl Salloum 100 colour/b&w plates. June 9th, 2011 8 pmHeritage Hall, VancouverEverything Was Good-ByeGurjinder Basran978-1-896949-07-9 $21.95Singing from the DarktimeA Childhood Memoir in Poetry and ProseS. Weilbach tA voice of innocence and resilience in a cruel andfrightening world with an afterword by renownedHolocaust scholar Doris Bergen.McGILL-QUEEN’SUNIVERSITY PRESSwww.mqup.caFollow us on Facebook.com/McGillQueens and Twitter.com/Scholarmqupthe art of breathing underwaterCathy Ford1st full-length book of poetry in 21 years MOTHER TONGUE PUBLISHING250.537.4155 mothertonguepublishing.comOrder from your favourite bookstore or through LitDistCo.Represented in Canada by the Literary Press Group26 BC BOOKWORLD SPRING 2011

27 BC BOOKWORLD SPRING 2011theatreThespianrootsHow a daughter’s curiosityunearthed the rise of stageprofessionals such as BrunoGerussi and William Shatner.WHEN STRATFORD OPENED ITSinaugural theatre season in1953, seventy-six of its eightyactors were Canadian by birth or training.So where did they all come from?Inspired by yellowed press clippings of about fiveplays her father Floyd Caza (standing far left inphoto at right) had appeared in with the EverymanTheatre in B.C. and the Ottawa Stage Society,Susan McNicoll has illuminated the littleknownorigins of Canadian professional theatre inThe Opening Act: Canadian Theatre History,1945-1953 (Ronsdale $24.95).“I was vaguely aware Dad was an actor but neverknew he was a professional for six years followingWorld War Two,” she says. “Dad never seemed tothink it was a big deal. It took his death for me todiscover it was.”After spending a year in the Toronto Public Libraryreading every major newspaper in the countrypublished from 1945 to 1953, McNicoll setabout conducting almost fifty interviews with actorsand directors from an era that producedRobertson Davies, Timothy Findley,Elwy Yost, Arthur Hill, WilliamShatner and Christopher Plummer.“I did it with no internet,” she recalls, “which,looking back, I have to admit may not have been abad thing. It forced me to interview the actors fromthat time—most of whom have died since then—and to go to all the source documents.”When the war ended in 1945, no professionaltheatre companies existed in Canada. Only actor/director John Holden had been courageousenough to establish a professional company duringthe Depression, in 1935, and he had somehow keptit going until he left to fight overseas in 1941.The Opening Act is an amply illustrated, cross-Canada panorama of pre-Stratford theatre, fromwest to east. The B.C.-related chapters highlightEveryman Theatre, Theatre Under the Stars inStanley Park, Totem Theatre, Island Theatre (BowenIsland), York Theatre and the Vancouver Stage Society.978-1-55380-113-9Counterclockwise, bottom left: BrunoGerussi (as Stanley) and Muriel Ontkean(as Blanche) in Totem Theatre’s productionof Tennessee Williams’ StreetcarNamed Desire in 1952. Bottom middle:Thor Arngrim and Norma MacMillan ina comedy staged by Totem Theatre inVancouver. Bottom right: Thor Arngrimand Norma MacMillan in Totem Theatre’s1953 production of No Time forComedy. The theatre operated in Vancouverand Victoria from 1952 to1954.Left: Thor Arngrim (left) and Stuart Bakerpose with the elephant they had walkdown the aisle as a gag for a TotemTheatre production of The Man WhoCame to Dinner in the summer of 1954in Vancouver. Top: Floyd Caza, Ted Follows,Ed McNamara, Murray Westgateand David Major deliberately posinggloomily in front of the scenery truck forVancouver’s Everyman Theatre in thefall of 1946.

28 BC BOOKWORLD SPRING 2011K A L A M A L K A P R E S SIs excited to announce the release ofTHE UNSETTLED, new poemsBy Mona Fertig“I have always been struck by three qualitiesin Mona Fertig’s poetry: a sensuousness,an honoring of the sometimes beautiful,sometimes awkwardly real world at thepoet’s feet, and a spiritual density thatcracks through anywhere.” John LentISBN 978-0-9867655-0-6, Fall 2011in bookstores or order online throughwww.kalwriters.comThe Vikings ReturnIcelandic Immigration to Canada, 1870-1920Marian McKennaThis volume takes a new look from a Canadianperspective at the so-called “Great Emigration”.The chapters narrate their dramatic story, tracingthe roots of discontent in the homeland, theorigins of the first tentative immigrating groups,and the beginnings of a mass emigration. This modern saga deserves a re-tellingfor not only those of Icelandic descent, but for all those interested in the humancondition and in these pioneering immigrants whose labors have helped to buildthe Canada we know today.BCBOOKWORLDSUBSCRIBETo receive the next 3 issues by mail, send a cheque for $20or visit www.bcbookworld.com and use PayPal.Pacific BookWorld News Society,3516 West 13th Ave., Vancouver, B.C. V6R 2S3.Name ........................................................................................................................................Apt/Box #.......................Street................................................................................................City..........................................................Prov/Code...............................................................Juvenile FictionA Girl Called Tennysonby Joan GivnerThis classic fantasy quest takes readers on an adventure written in theBritish tradition, fused with a contemporary voice. Givner alludes to thework of Tennyson, as “Tenn” loves poetry, story and rhyme; in fact it will be herlove of great writers that helps her in her quest and leads her to success.Thistledown Press • www.thistledownpress.comISBN 978-1-897235-83 • $12.95

29 BC BOOKWORLD SPRING 2011adventureAccompanying Don Quixote withA GLASS OF CHAMPAGNEPrior to the onset of the bush plane, Frank Swannell mapped and photographed much of the province,travelling by foot, horse and canoe, including a stint with the eccentric Charles Bedaux.CHARLES BEDAUX WASonce famous in B.C. asa wealthy French businessmanwho proposed drivingfive Citroens (equipped with caterpillartracks) from Edmontonto Fort St. John, across the wilderness,to Telegraph Creek andthe Stikine River, supposedly tobenefit science, in 1934.Bedaux was based out of the ChryslerBuilding in New York, but he had visitednorthern B.C. on hunting trips in1926 and 1932. When Bedaux wantedto hire a surveyor to map his progressalong the mostly roadless route of discovery,B.C.’s surveyor-general wastedno time in recommending FrankSwannell.As described in Jay Sherwood’sReturn to Northern British Columbia(Royal BC Museum $39.95), that’s howveteran photographer and topographerSwannell joined the Bedaux-Canadian1934 Explorations of Sub-Arctic Regionsdescribed in a press release as “oneof the most elaborately equipped privatescientific ventures ever undertaken inNorth America.”The press soon dubbed it “the champagnesafari.” The 30-person cavalcadeincluded Bedaux’s wife, Fern, and hismistress, Madame Chiesa, a Spanishmaid, a Scottish gamekeeper whodoubled as a valet, 60 horses and FloydCrosby, a well-known Hollywoodfilmmaker who was hired to record theheroics.After Swannell and his assistant AlPhipps left Victoria on July 1 and metthe Bedaux Expedition in Edmonton, itsoon struck Swannell that Bedaux wasnot primarily motivated by science somuch as his need to do something unprecedented.Departing from Edmontonon July 6, the caravan madea promising start, reaching FortSt. John only eleven day later,after 550 miles.Movie-making took precedence.By August 9, forced toabandon the Citroens (theywere only getting two miles toa gallon, and they required raftsto be built each time they crossed ariver), Bedaux admitted defeat and decidedto destroy the vehicles in order tomake dramatic footage for his movie.Bedaux found “a darling place fordestruction.” His car No. 4 was to godown the Halfway River on a raft. “Abeautiful descent down the rapids. Thecar looks like a toy.” But the planned dynamiteexplosions fizzled. Al Phippsnoted, “the car sailed gaily on to landundamaged on a sand bar.”Two remaining Citroens were simplyabandoned. Reaching Fort Ware in earlySeptember, Frank Swannell noted theexpedition had taken 54 days to travel356 miles, averaging only 6 ½ miles perday. Remarkably, Bedaux persisted,reaching the Finlay River on October16—and reaching Hudson’s Hope soonafterwards, returning to Edmonton onOctober 24. The five Citroens hadonly covered about one-fifth of theplanned route.✍CHARLES BEDAUX’S QUIXOTICescapades are just one of the adventuresoutlined in Return toNorthern British Columbia,subtitled A PhotojournalFrank Swannellof Frank Swannell, 1929-39,marking the close of Swannell’scareer. It’s Jay Sherwood’s thirdbook derived from Swannell’sarchive of over 4,000 images,taken between 1900 and 1940.Some of Swannell’s imagesconnect with classic books writtenabout the northern BC wildernessand are doorways to fascinatingpeople who appear in these works, suchas the famous packer SkookDavidson, bush-pilot GrantMcConachie and the shady miningspeculator One-Armed Brown.Shown in a 1931 photo with his partner,Loveseth, and Skook Davidson,One-Armed Brown met Swannell in thegold mining area of McConnell Creekon September 18. Swannell describesOne-Armed Brown as a “typical Americanblowhard… Says they have 10-12lb. gold, but only produces two nuggetswhich certainly never came from here.”Swannell could be a shrewd judge ofcharacter, as well as landscape. In theback of his 1931 diary Swannell pasteda newspaper article from the spring of1932 with the headline: Rich Gold FieldLikely to Draw Rush of Miners: M.J.Brown predicts discoveries in northernBritish Columbia that will rivalKlondike finds.One-Armed Brown also appears inthe classic memoir of life in the northernB.C. wilderness, Driftwood Valley, byTheodora Stanwell-Fletcher.Swannell, a World War I veteran,also met and photographed KarlHanawald, a veteran of the GermanAir Force, in 1931. Hanawald’s tradingpost at Bear Lake was about a day’s journeyfrom the Stanwell-Fletchers’ cabinin Driftwood Valley and their closestsource for supplies.As in his previous two books, JaySherwood peppers his narrative with excerptsfrom Swannell’s journals. The resultis another treasure trove of life inthe remote areas of the central andnorthern part of the province. Returnto Northern British Columbia also includesSwannell’s surveys of the ColumbiaRiver and Vancouver Island.978-0-7726-6283-5LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA PHOTOSCharles Bedaux easinga Citroen down to theCameron River. All fiveof his vehicles wereditched along the way.

30 BC BOOKWORLD SPRING 2011Shop ’til you’re droppedMannequin Risingby ROY MIKIGG-winning poet Roy Miki peers into theshoppers’ aquariums of Kitsilano, GranvilleIsland, and Tokyo. Miki’s own collages illustratehis reports on modern consumer culture.Available herePeople’s Co-op Bookstore on The DriveBlackberry Books, Granville IslandArdea Books on West 4thand of course amazon.comwww.NewStarBooks.comStranger on a Strange IslandTransmontanus 19From Main Street To Mayne Islandby GRANT BUDAYFor a starving East Van writer, with a newbride and a child on the way, the opportunity torent a house — cheap! — on Mayne Islandproves too much temptation.Available herePeople’s Co-op Bookstore on The DriveBlackberry Books, Granville IslandArdea Books & Art on West 4thMiners Bay Booksand of course amazon.comwww.NewStarBooks.comAll you can eat!Buffet Worldby DONATO MANCINIWatch in awe as a force of nature clashes withthe Forces of Fast Food in a spectacular andcolourful death match.Served up herePeople’s Co-op Bookstore on The DriveBlackberry Books, Granville IslandArdea Books on West 4thPulpfiction, Main and W. Broadway shopsand of course amazon.comwww.NewStarBooks.comARSENAL PULP PRESSpersistenceall ways butchand femmeIvan E. Coyote &Zena Sharman, eds.A powerful and movinganthology of writing onbutch/femme experience.language is notthe only thingthat breaksProma TagorePoetry on the junctionsbetween migration, race,the body and desire.978-1-55152-397-2; $21.95978-1-55152-399-6; $16.95talk-action=0an illustratedhistory of d.o.a.Joe KeithleyA full-colour illustratedhistory of Vancouver’sseminal punk bandD.O.A.venus withbicepsDavid L. Chapman& Patricia VertinskyA pictorial historyof muscular womenover the last100 years.anticipatedresultsDennis E. BolenWry, adrenalinefilledstories aboutthe lost souls of theBoomer Generation.978-1-55152-396-5; $24.95978-1-55152-370-5; $29.95978-1-55152-400-9; $18.95arsenalpulp.com | blog: arsenalia.com

31 BC BOOKWORLD SPRING 2011reviewsGLORY BETO GODFORBROKENTHINGSThe travelingmendicantPatrick Lane hasbecome a gardenBuddhaPOETRYWitness by Patrick Lane (Harbour $16.95)SOME YEARS AGO, WHEN ASKEDhow long it took him tobuild his garden, PatrickLane replied, “Sixty-two years.”He could well now answer, “Seventy-oneyears” to the samequestion about his new collectionof selected poems.Lane made the selectionshimself. Readers who are familiarwith his work will be happyto see old favourites showcasedagain. (Yes, for anyone who alreadyknows Lane’s work, the severed-hand-tossed-over-thebridge poem is included, as wellas the doomed ptarmigans twinsand the castrated ram.)There is nothing that was previouslypublished from the years2004 to 2010, and there are nopoems from some of his previoustitles including A Linen Crow(1985) and No Longer Two People(1979).But we do find some earlypoems from the sixties, the oddstories from Old Mother (1982),the tough, tight-lipped father/son poems from Mortal Remains(1991) and seven pages of previouslyunpublished poems.✫PATRICK LANE WAS TWENTY-THREEyears old when his first poemswere published. Witnessbegins with excerptsfrom Separations(1969). His first identitieswere nomad,brawler, working classtough. His writing oftendetours into hishardscrabble childhood.Subsequent public personaswere the traveler, the championof the Third World poor, thelover. The arc reveals that Lanedid not get stuck in any oneidentity. Nor were previous identitiesjettisoned. They’re all stillhere but altered in emphasis.Out of the confused tangleof stories and passions, somethreads begin to suggest a patternedlife tapestry. There is ashift in the psycho/spiritualitythat is not just about aging. Thetraveling mendicant has becomea garden Buddha, frombrawleresque to Mertonesque.In 1980 the garden wasscreaming in “an irrevocableflood of rage.” Thirty years later,the poet on his knees, caressesrare mosses and remembers howHANNAH MAIN-VAN DER KAMPBeth Kope’s motherDISMAY, ANGER & LOVEFalling Season by Beth Kope (Leaf Press $15.95)Beth Kope’s first book, Falling Season, recalls heart-wrenchingattempts to cope with the onset of a devastating form ofAlzheimers called Lewy Body, as experienced by her mother.“This disease pared her down,” she recalls. “It shredded herto the most basic. Unrestrained anger. Unrestrained love.”Kope portrays her mother’s three years of rapid decline.Poignantly included are two photos of her mother as a stunningyoung woman.afraid he was once. The chaosand helplessness of Wild Birds(1987) has given way to “the crazingtime makes. How precious thebroken.”Looking closer at the earlierpoems, the reader can detectthere were contemplative momentsthroughout. As in theequilibrium of the Taoist yin/yang symbol, the active andthe contemplative liecurled side by side,each one seeing withthe eye of the other.Lane’s recent 2010poems are stunning.He was always a tellerof powerful stories butnow, in the later poems,the narratives becomemore covert, morediscreet, as in the exquisite stilllife, The Green Dress (2010) abouta woman’s choice of dressin which to face a family tragedy.What My Father Told Me(2010) is not just like some ofthe painful material Lane hasshared before. It belongs at theend of this book because it is different.There was always somegentleness under his bravado.Now it is more open, a compassionfor the father who failedhim, for the son who failed thefather.What does an accomplishedand no-longer-young poet dowith his own apparent Lost andFound? As the book’s title suggests,he takes on the role of awitness, makes a history of hispeople and of himself, “whetherin pain or in ecstasy.”“Rest, reflect, prepare, listen.” Recollectioncan be a monkishtask. Lane has paid his dues as ahuman and a poet. Let him reflect!That is why he is on his kneescleaning the garden…It is what the old know,a slight turning, somethingnot seen, and reaching backfor what was left behindBroken up, scattered lines on the page reflect the fracture ofthe mother’s personality, memory and health. This is not a genericAlzheimers mother; she is particular and unique as thedaughter/poet stands by, “helpless, knowing no rescue,” bearingwitness.These poems of honest dismay and almost unbearable sadnesswill surely resonate with any readers who have lost a lovedone to dementia.Kope is now collaborating with Maureen Ulrich on a theatricalwork to be based on Falling Season. 978-1-926655-11-6Patrick Laneon the moss, something fallen,under the rain.A new Collected is now slatedfor the fall. If it contains morenew poems such as these in Witness,it will be worth buying evenfor readers who already ownLane’s previous titles.978-1-55017-550008-0Poet and teacher, Hannah Main–van der Kamp meditates in her gardenat Black Point, on the UpperSunshine Coast.HIROSHIMA,MOTHERS,TORONTO &STALKERSThe Art of Breathing Underwater byCathy Ford (Mother Tongue $19.95)CATHY FORD’S FIRST COLLECtionin twenty-one yearsis dense on the page,dense in associations and references.The many subjects includethe disappearance ofwomen and of species, fertility,Hiroshima, mothers, grandmothers,northern rivers, MaryMagdalene, Toronto, facial reconstruction,the Carmanah,and stalkers.It’s only a slight exaggerationto say that many of these topicsmight occur on one thicklyworded page. In short, this isserious stuff. The middle sectionis a long poem in forty-fivesections loosely centered on thehighly original textile art ofKubota’s kimonos. Perhaps anillustration of these textured silkworks of art would have beenhelpful for some readers to betterrelate to the poems.This volume will reward thereader who takes time to readslowly. Its general tone is one ofelegiac reverence suggested byparticulars. At 114 pages, it containsmore depth than somepoets manage in a dozen books.978-1-896949-09-3

32 BC BOOKWORLD SPRING 2011reviewsTO BEG, GIVE, STEALOR DUMPSTERThe many ways to survive inthe Beggar’s GardenBeggar’s Garden by Michael Christie(HarperCollins $24.99)Michael Christie’s literarydebut of nine storiestakes you whereyou’ve never been before—most likely—inside dumpstersand rat-infested backyard sheds.Or outside to steal acar, or buy crack inOppenheimer Park.In this collectionwe encounter a poorsod who gets stompedin an alley for the sakeof his crack pipe anda 14-year-old car thief CHERIEwho takes off toKelowna with the woman whopicked him up at a gas station—to mention just three ofChristie’s all-too-real characters.An MFA graduate of the Universityof British Columbia’screative writing program in2010, Christie has respected theadage, “Write about what youknow.” He has worked in aDowntown Eastside emergencyhomeless shelter and has alsoprovided outreach to thosewith severe mental disorders.This work experience explainswhy the mentally-challengedprotagonist of his storyThe Extra comes off so believably.But it doesn’t explain howChristie has skillfully presentedthe reincarnation of J. RobertOppenheimer, now a nattilydressed gentleman ina porkpie hat.Oppenheimer, a scientist,meets up withone of the local denizens,Henry, who, inthe spirit of scholarlyinquiry, requires assistancein the “procurementand consumptionof crack cocaine.”Henry in Goodbye Porkpie Hathelps his neighbour out by calling911 whenever the neighbourODs. Henry has one sleazybasement room in an Eastsidetenement, but even then thievesbreak in to take his old TV anda can of butts. Henry’s proud possessionis a Grade 10 science texthe ‘dumpstered’ two years ago.That’s how he was able to recognizeOppenheimer when heTHIESSENTWIGG PHOTOMichael Christie of Galiano Island is a former skateboardingathlete who is flying high with his compassionate views of so-calledlow-life in Beggar’s Garden. In January, he was one of three authorswho launched Incite, the new series of free readings coordinatedby Vancouver International Writers Festival at the VancouverPublic Library, every second Wednesday.appeared at the window.The world as seen from theinside of a dumpster, or frombehind the eyes of a crack addict,is a view worth seeing becauseit is often surprising. Thepeople we meet in Beggar’s Gardenare surprisingly gentle, somevictimized time and time againby those worse off then them-selves, or simply much more intelligent.A nameless waif on disability,in The Extra, thinks he’s teamedup with a real hero, Rick, whoreally helps him out, while the‘landlord’ above him, rents himan unserviced slab of his basement.But both men prey on thementally challenged guy for hisFICTIONdisability pension. In earlier,kinder times, she would havebeen securely living in a supervisedhome. Now she’s out onthe streets.Not all stories in this collectionare going to resonate equally. Ienjoyed Christie’s ‘grimy-side’stories much more than his talesof a condo-owning website designerwho gets a dog and findshimself a new friend (An IdealCompanion) or the kindly retiredwoman who used to work in theshoe department of Woodwardsbut now runs a thrift shop (TheQueen of Cans and Jars).Similarly, I much preferredthe grandfather in Discard to thebank manager of the title story(Beggar’s Garden). Somehow awidower stricken with memoriesof the grandson he and his deceasedwife brought up andthen discarded rings muchtruer to me than a bank managerwho moves into his shed,stops going to work, creates amarketing and financial plan fora beggar, and then ultimatelykicks in his front door.But I, for one, was happy tobe given the opportunity to godumpstering without risk. I nowknow that dumpster has becomea 21st century verb: to look orcrawl into a large trash containerfor the sake of finding food, objects,or shelter.978-1554688296Cherie Thiessen reviews fromPender Island.Evolution challengescreationists andintelligent design.A philosophical andpractical appeal toinspire change in ourlives and the world.A call to action andpractical solutions tomake our planethealthy again.Murder and justice onthe Cariboo GoldRush trail.A Japanese-Canadianpioneer and hislifetime crusade forjustice and equality.Hair-raising exploitsand colourfulcharacters in TedBurton’s last memoir.Gold, gambling andriverboat adventuresin the northwest.Extinction:The Future ofHumanityRonald E. Seavoy978-0-88839-691-45.5 x 8.5, sc, 152 pp$17.95The Soul Solution:The need for atheology of the EarthR. Harrington/L. Harrington978-0-88839-648-85.5 x 8.5, sc, 256 pp$19.95Testimony for Earth:A Wordview to Savethe Planet andOurselvesR. Harrington/L. Harrington978-0-88839-645-75.5 x 8.5, sc, 240 pp$19.95Remember Me:The CharlesMorgan BlessingStoryMervyn Dykes978-0-88839-627-35.5 x 8.5, sc, 104 pp$11.95Tomekichi Homma:The Story of aCanadianK.T. Homma/C.G. Isaksson978-0-88839-660-05.5 x 8.5, sc, 72 pp$14.95Shaking theFeather Boa:Risky Business &Other AdventuresE.C. (Ted) Burton978-0-88839-609-95.5 x 8.5, sc, 192 pp$19.95White Water Skippersof the North:The BarringtonsNancy Ferrell978-0-88839-616-75.5 x 8.5, sc, 216 pp$19.95Hancock House Publishers www.hancockhouse.com | sales@hancockhouse.com | 604-538-1114 | 1-800-938-1114Jude Neale Only the Fallen Can SeeThe compellingjourney of a motherstruggling withbipolar illness. JudeNeal is puttinga face to bipolardisorder.A lively read forarmchair travellers andserious Okanagan explorersest. 1945WildernessWritingRetreatsKirsty Elliot True“Finding the balance-points ofhumour and heartbreak, whimsyand depth, light-heartedness anddark twists.”Kim Barlowwith author Paula Wild onVancouver Island’sWest CoastMay 27 - 31June 17 - 21Sept 16 - 20www.leafpress.capublishing poetry onlyColour photos & maps, 272ppISBN 978-0-9812451-0-2littlewhitepublishing.com1391 Commercial DriveVancouver, BC V5L 3X5(604) 253-6442Get away - get inspiredWrite - hike - kayakwww.paulawild.cawww.nuchatlitz.ca

33 BC BOOKWORLD SPRING 2011for Vladivostok to fight the Bolsheviks.Its first skirmish tookplace in the streets of Victoriawhen some of the men mutinied.“Officers ordered other soldiersto remove their belts andwhip the recalcitrants back intoline,” Francis writes. “Urgedalong at gunpoint, the mutineerseventually boarded theship and the expeditionaryforce sailed forSiberia.”✫THE CLIMAX OF SEEING REDSis, of course, the WinnipegGeneral Strike.Francis’ narrative hereis almost cinematic inits pacing, its rapid switchesamong geographic and personalviewpoints and its sheer tension.Even though the reader knowshow it will turn out—or perhapsbecause of that—each vignetteadds to that tension.The organizing council drawsup last-minute plans, unawarethan one of their number is anRNWMP plant. Women on bothsides of the dispute pump gas,drive vehicles and generallykeep essential services going.Sensationalist newspapers pubfeatureviewNON-FICTIONSeeing Reds: The Red Scare of 1918-1919,Canada’s First War on Terror by DanielFrancis (Arsenal Pulp Press $27.95)MOST PEOPLE KNOW THEstory of the Red Scare:After the war an irrationalfear of communism led towitch hunts, censorship andpurges. Police infiltrated unionsand spied on civilians, due processwas suspended and liveswere ruined or even lost.Those crazy Americans, eh?Actually, the events describedabove happened in Canada duringand immediately after theFirst World War, 30 years beforethe McCarthy era. The years1918 and 1919 were arguablythe most chaotic, fearful andpolitically significant in Canada’shistory, yet few of us know muchabout them beyond referencesto the Spanish flu and the WinnipegGeneral Strike.Into that breach steps NorthVancouverite Daniel Francis,B.C.’s best popular historian. HisSeeing Reds: The Red Scare of 1918-1919, Canada’s First War on Terror,is not only a solidly researchedreview of a neglected corner ofour past but a gripping—andcautionary—tale.For one thing, he reminds usthat protecting civil liberties hasnever been a priority of theRCMP. Spying on civilians wasnot a dirty job foisted on thehorsemen by politicians duringthe 1950s Cold War. It was partof its inheritance from the RoyalNorthwest Mounted Police,which embraced the task enthusiastically.“(I)n the case of theRNWMP, it is probable that theforce would not have survived ifthe Scare had not come alongto give it a new reason for existing,”Francis writes.So it’s no surprise that, whenasked to investigate the growingunrest and militancy amongunions, the RNWMP ascribed itto leaders with unpronounceablenames and suspicious accents,rather than to shrinkingincomes, wretched working conditions,widespread unemploymentand a very unpopular war.That was also what the coalitiongovernment headed byConservative Robert Bordenwanted to hear. Under siegeover conscription and a stalledeconomy, Borden was only tooeager to redirect public angertoward the dreaded Reds (althoughFrancis indicates the PMwas not as hysterical about thethreat as some of his ministers).And many labour leaders, especiallyin Western Canada, werein fact Bolshevik sympathizers,while others endorsed the IndustrialWorkers of the World(Wobblies) or the One Big Union.This radicalization of unionistssprang largely from theiropposition to the war, a view notshared by mainstream labourgroups back east, some of whicheven supported conscription.It was also due to the widerpolitical upheavals shaking thestatus quo around the world—the Russian Revolution, waves ofimmigration, militant unionismin Britain, anarchist violence inBCBOOKWORLDSTAFF PICKIn 1919, red scaremongering was common in Canadian newspapers, as demonstratedin this Montreal Star cartoon equating the Russian Bolshevik as a cave man.SCARY REDSDaniel Francis’ Seeing Reds has Shane McCunewondering “Why didn’t we learn this in school?”Germany and even the growthof left-wing movements in theU.S. (Seattle’s general strikepreceded Winnipeg’s by threemonths).✫HAVING SET THE STAGE IN HIS OPENingchapter, Dan Francis zoomsin on the cast of characters,bringing them to life in quick,vivid sketches. On the left arebold and outspoken men andwomen excited to be part of amovement they believe willchange the world for the better.On the right are employers,politicians, police and war veteransdetermined to crush thatmovement by any means. Someare gripped by foolish fears,some are cynically exploitingsuch fears, and a few, such asnational censor Ernest Chambers,are almost comical in theirpomposity.Conflicts began to boil over inearly 1918 as soldiers returningfrom the war demanded priorityin the search for work overnon-combatants, especially “enemyaliens.” They were incensedby the anti-war campaigns of radicalunionists, and there were violentclashes from one end of thecountry to the other.Francis recaps the shootingof Albert “Ginger” Goodwin inthe hills above Cumberland inthe Comox Valley. That sparkedCanada’s first general strike inVancouver on Aug. 2, 1918,which in turn provoked mobs ofveterans to attack labour hallsand assault union leaders.(Goodwin is still a figure ofcontroversy inCumberland. In 1996a nearby section of theInland Island Highwaywas renamed GingerGoodwin Way.The sign was repeatedlyvandalized andeventually disappeared.)Tory alarmists made wildclaims about Bolshevik cells fomentingrevolution in Canadaunder the direct control of puppeteersin Russia. Apart fromthe utter lack of evidence toback such claims, they weremore than a little hypocritical inlight of Canada’s participation inefforts to undo the RussianRevolution.A month after the Great Warended, the Canadian SiberianExpeditionary Force—includingan RNWMP squadron—sailedSHANE McCUNElish the vaguest of rumours, eachone scarier than the last. Police“specials” find themselves surroundedby a hostile mob andhave to be rescued. A wild stormhits the city, toppling trees andsnapping trolley poles in anomen of the violence to come.Of course, the strike collapsed.It was followed by showtrials of the leaders. The prosecutiongained access to namesof potential jurors and was ableto stack the jury.At the trial of strike leaderBob Russell, RCMP officerFrank Zaneth, who had infiltratedthe strike committee asorganizer “Harry Blask,” gavesensational testimony about conspiraciesand ominous referencesto weapons—but nothingdirectly damning of Russell,whom he had never met. Evenso, Russell was convicted, as werethe other leaders.(Zaneth retired in 1951 as anassistant commissioner of theRCMP.)On Boxing Day 1919, Russellwas taken to Stony MountainPenitentiary, where he served ayear. Upon his release, accordingto one account cited byFrancis, the presiding judge,then on his deathbed, asked tospeak with Russell. He refused,saying: “Let him die with hisguilty conscience.”✫DAN FRANCIS NOTES ONE MAJOR DIFferencebetween the first andsecond Red Scares: WhileMcCarthy was chasing ghosts,the radical unionists of the firstScare “did pose a threat to theestablishment.” Not the churchburning,maiden-defiling,home-seizing threat cited by theshrillest of newspapers, but adetermination to obtain betterpay and working conditions anda say in the management of theeconomy—much scarier threatsto employers and government.“In this sense the threat wasreal, and the Red Scare was lessan illogical outbreak of paranoiathan it was a response by thepower elite to a challenge to itshegemony.”It’s a cliché to say of a historicalbook that it is relevant today,but there’s a reason why the subtitlerefers to our “first war onterror.” The parallels betweenRobert Borden’s Canada andStephen Harper’s are inescapable:fear and hatred of alienimmigrants (Bolsheviks then,Muslims now), ill-defined militaryoperations overseas (Siberia,Afghanistan) andsuppression of due process athome (War Measures Act, secrettrials).At less than 300 pages, SeeingReds manages to cover itssubject with surprising thoroughnesswhile remaining abrisk read. Every chapter offersdetails and insights that mademe wonder, “Why didn’t I learnthis in school?”Well, many of Dan Francis’previous works have becometextbooks, so perhaps there’shope. 9781551523736Shane McCune writes from Comox.

34 BC BOOKWORLD SPRING 2011Canada’s Only BooktownSparkyBY WENDY SHYMANSKIThe World'sMost Lovableand MischievousBear CubThis heartwarming novel about a first-year cub is based upon factualinformation and stories recorded by the author over a ten-year period ofstudying and photographing the Khutzeymateen Valley grizzly bears innorthern British Columbia. Sparky: The World's Most Lovable andMischievous Bear Cub is a beautiful tale of the mystical KhutzeymateenValley and the grizzly bears, who, if they could speak, might have toldthe story themselves.FOR AGES 7-12, AND UP.PAT BAY HIGHWAY NO.17The MilitaryBookshop Period FineBindings BEACON AVENUE Beacon BooksFIFTH STREET Dragon HorseTanner’sBargain BooksFOURTH STREET Tanner’s Books The Children’sBookshopTHIRD STREET The Haunted BookshopGalleon Books and AntiquesSECOND STREET“I hope to drawattention to the importanceof the preservationof the fragile grizzlyspecies,and our planet.”—Wendy ShymanskiTo order a signed copy, email:wildlight77@yahoo.com$15.95 (paperback, ISBN: 9781440187544) • $25.95 (hardcover, ISBN: 9781440187568)228 pages • BOOK ORDERS: Ingram’s Books in Print Database, orwww.iuniverse.com, or via your local bookstore.

35 BC BOOKWORLD SPRING 2011reviewsBIG VICTORY ATLITTLE STALINGRADMark Zuehlke’s Rapid Read chroniclerecalls how the 1st Canadian InfantryDivision liberated Ortona, Italy, in 1943.Ortona Street Fight by Mark Zuehlke(Orca $9.95)LIEUTENANT JOHN DOUGANfigured he’d be dead injust a few moments.Since dawn, over forty of hiscomrades had been killed orwounded by enemy fire in twovaliant, yet foolhardy charges.Beyond the hundredyards of abandonedvegetablegardens and olivetrees, “so torn by shellfirethat they lookedlike twisted fenceposts,” a row of twoandthree-storeybuildings concealedGerman snipers.The snipers hid behind brokenwindows and on rooftops.More were dug in at the base ofthe buildings. And still moreparatroopers crouched behindmachine guns, waiting for yetanother futile rush from the Canadians.Dougan and the companycommander agreed a thirdcharge across open ground wasmadness but the battalion commanderat the other end of theradio handset ordered them “toget on with it.” Even if theyblinded the enemy with smokebombs, Dougan knew he and thesix men going with him wouldbe cut down in seconds.Then he noticed the ditch.Across from a much deeperditch where he and his menwere huddled, there was a shallowerditch, barely three feetdeep. It ran straight through thedeadly hundred yards to anapartment building.The Germans expected alogical assault from the Alliedtroops. A rifle company shouldpredictably advance across openground “in sections spread outover a wide front” creating toomany individual targets for theLOUISE DONNELLYdefender to effectively eliminate.Some men were bound tosurvive and continue onwards tostorm the defensive positions.That predictable tactic haddevastated the company already,slicing them down to a mere 17men. And so Dougan gambled.He decided his Canadianswould attack by scuttlingthrough a narrowditch like field mice.“Hell, we’re all goingto die anyway,” hesaid to himself. “Mightas well give it a go.”Minute by minute,yard by yard. This ishow Ortona StreetFight by military historianMark Zuehlke chroniclesthe bloody week of December21 to December 28, 1943 whenthe 1st Canadian Infantry Divisionwrested the port town ofOrtona, Italy, defeating crackGerman paratroopers who hadbeen ordered to hold the “pearlof the Adriatic” at all costs.Ortona’s location, on the easterncoast of Italy, directly parallelto Rome, and protected bycliffs on the north and east, andby a deep ravine on the west,had forced the Canadians to attackfrom the south.Under heavy and constantshelling, infantrymen from theLoyal Edmonton Regiment andthe Seaforth Highlanders, withtank support from the ThreeRivers Regiment, fought theirway across gullies, mud-chokedvineyards, decimated olivegroves and, finally, into the narrow,medieval streets.Ortona was nicknamed “LittleStalingrad.”Gleaned from hundreds ofinterview hours with an everdwindlingnumber of survivingWW II veterans, Zuehlke uses histrademark soldier’s-eye view tobring men like the daring andresourceful Dougan back to life.Many of the soldiers couldhave been mistaken for boys,such as 26-year-old PrivateGordon Currie-Smith, whosesmall stature (he was under fivefeet tall and barely weighed ahundred pounds) saved himwhen a booby-trapped Ortonaschool exploded and buriedhim up to his neck in rubble.Sergeant Harry Rankin wasa “tough little guy from thewrong side of the Vancouvertracks.” His forte was “destructionon demand.” Armed with arecovered stash of GermanTeller mines, devices shaped likea covered frying pan, andpacked with enough explosivesto disable a tank, Rankin devisedan effective strategy for mouseholing,the practice of blastinga route through the interiorwalls of closely packed housesand buildings to avoid movementthrough the even moredangerous and exposed streets.Jabbing the wall with a bayonet,with a Teller mine danglingfrom it, Rankin would slip a shortEDUCATIONGerman paratroopers surrender to the 1st Canadian Infantry Division in Ortona, ItalyCivil rights lawyer andVancouver alderman HarryRankin also distinguishedhimself as a soldier at Ortona.fuse to the built-in detonator,light it, and run “like hell.” It’sthe same Harry Rankin (1920-2002) who notoriously gave hellto right-wing Vancouver citycouncillors and mayors for morethan 25 years as an alder-man and councillor who frequentlytopped the polls.✫ORTONA STREET FIGHT DIFFERS FROMZuehlke’s more extensiveOrtona (D&M) because it is thelatest in the Raven Books RapidReads series for adult readers.Building on Orca Books’ Soundingsand Currents series of highinterest/low reading skill booksfor reluctant young readers, thenew Rapid Reads series featuresboth compelling non-fictionand contemporary fiction witha straight-forward narrative.These titles, such as Ortona StreetFight, target adult literacy as wellas offering a condensed one-sittingread of lengthier tomes.Other Rapid Reads includeGeneration Us: The Challenge ofGlobal Warming by University ofVictoria climatologist AndrewWeaver and mysteries such asThe Spider Bites by Medora Saleand Love You to Death by GailBowen. 978-1554693986Louise Donnelly writes from Vernon.

36 BC BOOKWORLD SPRING 2011BCBOOKWORLDQUICKIESA COMMUNITY BULLETIN BOARDINDEPENDENT PUBLISHERSQUICKIES is an affordable advertising feature exclusively for writers, artistsand events. For info on how to be included, just email bookworld@telus.netreviewsRACISMREVISITEDwww.gracespringscollective.orgMEMOIRhttp://www.BrotherXII.comBIO-GRAPHYwww.wildhorsecreekpress.comLiving in the Shadowof Fisher Peakby Keith G. PowellThe story of BC's "forgotten"BC Kootenay goldrush of 1864.HISTORY ISBN 78-0-9812146-1-0 • $21.95www.ubcpress.caA Raven in My HeartReflections of a Booksellerby Kay McCrackenISBN 978-0-9809608-2-2 • $27.95Brother XIIby John OliphantThe strange odyssey of a 20th-centuryprophet & his quest for a new worldISBN 978-0978097202 • $24.95The Empress andMrs. Congerby Grant Hayter-MenziesThe untold story of twowomen who joined handsand made history.HISTORY ISBN 9789888083008 • $35www.islandbookshoppe.caBIRDSwww.ekstasiseditions.comPOETRYwww.diamondthought.comTAXPREPwww.libroslibertad.caUp Close & Personal:Confessions of aBackyard Birderby Sharon McInnesISBN 9780986745300 • $21.95Three Blocks Westof Wonderlandby Heather Susan Haley“Fierce, racy, full of stilettoirony, verve—yet rife withsensitivity-Haley's new book isa highly fuelled poetic ride.”ISBN 978-1-897430-47-7 • $18.95Taxes becoming too complicatedfor you now? Need to hand it overto someone who understands?has specialized in tax preparationfor writers, artists & small businessowners for over 15 years.Call today to set up yourappointment: 604.779.2670Opera Bufaby Manolis“A delight to read, these poems,filled with rage and passionatedesire... unforgettable...”POETRY ISBN 978-1-926763-09-5 • $17www.carollynehaynes.comNOVELwww.captainjoesteachingresources.comKIDLITwww.diamondthought.comwww.stephenbett.comRaised by CommitteeCan a committee raise a child,or replace a mother's love?by Carollyne Haynes978-1-4269-2144-5 [sc $24.95]978-1-4269-2234-3 [hc $34.95]The Captain Joe Seriesby Emily MadillLife lessons for children.ISBN 978-1-926626-08-6 • $39.95pearls & forbidden fruitby Angela HryniukPoems of passion, lust andunrequited love.POETRY ISBN 9781894692205 • $18.95Track This:A Book of Relationshipby Stephen BettPublished by BlazeVOX Books(Buffalo, N.Y)POETRY ISBN 978-1-60964-033-0 • $16www.salmovapress.comwww.amazon.comTRAVELwww.friesenpress.comWho Killed AbrahamLincoln by Paul SerupAn investigation of NorthAmerica’s most famous expriest’sassertion that theRoman Catholic Church wasbehind the assassination ofAmerica’s greatest president.HISTORY ISBN 978-0-9811685-0-0 • $29.95http://louishan.wordpress.comThe Doctor Who WasFollowed by GhostsThe Family Saga of a ChineseWoman Doctorby Dr. Li Qunying & Louis HanMEMOIRISBN 9781550227819 • $26.95Birds, Beastsand a Bikeby David StirlingUnder the Southern CrossISBN 978-1-897435-19-9 (PB)978-1-897435-20-5 (electronic)$14.95Dusk to DuskPoetic Reflections of theSeasons of Love and Life.by Michael B. PoyntzAKA “Irish”POETRY ISBN 978-1-77067-024-2 • $15.95Tariq Malik’s novel commemoratesthe exclusion of south Asians by B.C.immigration authorities in 1914.Tariq MalikTARIQ MALIK’S FIRST NOVEL CHANTING DENIED SHORES(Bayeaux Arts $17.95) was fittingly launchedat Joy Kogawa House, a facility that commemoratesthe internment of Japanese Canadians duringWorld War II.Chanting Denied Shores spans seven years (1914–1921)in the lives of four characters involved in the so-calledKomagata Maru Incident. The story takes a complexlook at events that are now generally simplified as aracist refusal of white Canada to admit would-be immigrants—mostlySikhs—who arrived in the Vancouverharbour from India on a charteredJapanese vessel called the KomagataMaru.The ship and its passengers remainedstranded in Burrard Inletwhile immigration officials enforcedan exclusionary law that forbade arrivalof British subjects from Indiaunless they had sailed directly fromIndia. Only 22 of the 376 passengers were permittedto go ashore.The Komagata Maru embarked from Hong Kong.The ship could have landed in Port Alberni withouthindrance but the man who had chartered the shipwas intent upon directly challenging the British Empireand exposing its racist policies. This man was laterhailed by Gandhi as a hero in the movement to gainliberation and independence for India.The ship was sent back to India with most of its passengers,with some disastrous consequences. The standoffis now marked by a plaque in Vancouver harbour.Malik’s story is strong on research but somewhatdisjointed in structure. It features some first-personnarration from a fugitive Punjabi schoolteacher, BashirAli Lopoke, who is a Muslim escaping his past as a revolutionaryfirebrand.The conflicted, six-foot-six Canadian Immigrationinspector William Hopkinson, who is of Anglo-Indiandescent, understands there are revolutionary elementsin India who are spreading their dissent into Canada.He speaks Punjabi and understands the politics of thesituation better than the racist Vancouver MP HarryStevens and the director of the Vancouver port, whoare both bigots in keeping with the times.Also profiled are Mewa Singh, a disgruntled Vancouverfarmhand who is witnessing his people’s dailyhumiliation; and Jean Fryer, Hopkinson’s seven-yearolddaughter, whose recollections shed fresh light onthe unfolding traumatic events.This novel provides an excellent refraction of thesocial climate of Vancouver near one hundred yearsago. It also includes many fascinating details that willmake this novel engaging for anyone who is alreadyknowledgeable about the Komagata Maru.Chanting Denied Shores will be a great deal more formidablefor anyone who lacks previous knowledge ofthe story. This is an admirable work, from a discriminatingand compassionate writer, but its cumbersomeconstruction makes for the opposite of light reading.978-1-897411-16-2www.newwestminsterfrasersbaseballclub.blogspot.comThe Frasersby Ken McIntosh &Rod DrownHow young pro baseball dreamscame to New Westminster in 1974.Fifteen of the 31 players tell ofdays which, though not alwaysglorious, were memorable.SPORTS ISBN 978-0-9865564-0-1 • $19.95www.worldscibooks.com/eastasianstudies/7622.htmlChinese CommunityLeadershipCase Study of Victoria in Canadaby David Chuenyan LaiBC (University of Victoria, Canada)HISTORY ISBN 978-981-4295-17-8 • US$58www.mywonderfulnightmare.comHEALTHMy WonderfulNightmareSpiritual Journals Inspired by Cancerby Erin Higgins &Alma LightbodyISBN 978-1-4251-8725-5 • $18.95www.choosingtosmile.comSELFHELPChoosing to SmileInspirational life stories of threefriends who happen to have cancerby Glenda Standeven,Julie Houlker,Michelle RickabyISBN 978-0-9865227-0-3 • $19.95Complacency, artand murder collidein Hitler's rise topower in 1933, andin an artists searchfor meaning in theart of Europe afterthe death of apolitical activist.Graphic NovelHistorical FictionArt & PoliticsArbeiter Ring Publishingarbeiterring.comLitDistco/Fraser Direct97818940374881894037480

37 BC BOOKWORLD SPRING 2011featureviewNON-FICTIONMountaingoat photo byChris HarrisIt looks like Tibet.Or maybe the upper reaches ofBolivia. But, no,the stunningtopography inMotherstone istucked away withina day’s drive of WesternCanada’s biggest city.Chris Harris:“I’m a mountainperson. Mountainsturn me on.”LOOKING . .UPBY SAGE BIRCHWATERMotherstone: British Columbia’s VolcanicPlateau by Chris Harris and HaroldRhenisch (Country Light $39.95)TWO YEARS AGO, PHOTOGRApherChris Harris andwriter Harold Rhenischset the bar high with their firsthigh-altitude collaboration, Spiritin the Grass: The Cariboo Chilcotin’sForgotten Landscape, nominatedfor two BC Book Prizes.Now, according to self-publisherHarris, they have surpassedthat effort withMotherstone: British Columbia’sVolcanic Plateau, a coffeetable book that portrays themajesty of the Central Interiorand invites the reader to take anexpedition into time; to peekinto our geographical beginnings,and wonder how thelandform we call the CaribooChilcotin was formed.Motherstone covers a vast regionof volcanic activity from theedge of the Chilcotin Plateau,where it buttresses up againstthe Coast Mountains in the west,to the sub-glacial volcanoes ofWells Gray Park to the east.“I’m a mountain person,”Harris explains. “Mountainsturn me on. I’ve ridden throughthese mountain ranges before,but this time I walked throughevery inch of it.“When you walk you feel likeyou’re touching the earth. Youfeel the energy coming upthrough the earth.“I found I was in tears outthere. The volcanic landscape isso untouched; so powerful.”As with most Chris Harrisprojects, Motherstone began withthe germ of an idea years earlierthat took on a life of its own.When Harris was on horsebackin the 1990s, photographing inthe Ilgachuz Mountains withoutfitters, Roger and WandaWilliams, he and fellow photographer,Kris Andrews, decidedto take a side hike over a ridgeto see what was on the otherside. Harris came back with animage of a crater lake nestledin an undisturbed volcaniccone. In fact, it was a tarn in acirque.This became theseed for the Motherstoneproject. “I vowed to goback there,” he says. “Itwas the heart of theIlgachuz volcano. Howmany people gothrough there in a year?It was a masterpiece ofnature. I virtually don’tthink anyone has everbeen there.”When he began theactual work of photographingfor Motherstone,Harris wasn’t sure what theproject was going to look like.“All my books are total exploration,”he says. “I’ve learned totrust the process. Doors start toopen. I just like being out therehiking, physical and free, exploringwith the camera.”Harris decided he wanted towalk the ground he intended tophotograph rather than travelby horseback. He hired guideoutfitters Dave and JoyceDorsey, and Roger and WandaWilliams to pack his camp gearand equipment two days intothe wilderness. They venturedto three west Chilcotin shield volcanoes,the Rainbows, theIlgachuz and the Itcha mountainranges, while he and hiswife, Rita Giesbrecht, andfriend, Mike Duffy, went by foot.As a hiker, Harris returnedto the tarn that inspired theproject years earlier, and notedonly slight changes to the landscape,caused by gravity and erosionover a fifteen-year span. Forthe most part, the natural vistawas totally undisturbed exceptfor a possible goat or two.Pipe Organ Mountain, heart ofthe Ilgachuz volcano“No one has walked here,” hesays. “And with every drop ofrain or snow flake, or with everyfreeze and thaw, the Ilgachuzvolcano gallery is re-hung. Naturehas not finished creatingthis masterpiece of art yet.“It was totally an amazing experienceto be up there and feelthat energy coming up throughmy feet and legs.”Over a two-year period Harrisphotographed hundreds ofmagnificent images, then hehanded the project over toRhenisch who came up with theterm “motherstone” as he wasdriving home to Campbell Riverfrom the Cariboo.“It jumped into my head. Thered rock south of SpencesBridge talked to me. It’s nice tofeel in this vast, empty universewe’ve got a home. I’m of thisplace. I am this place speakingof itself. We are this place.”Going back three billionyears, Rhenisch says British Columbiawas formed by the driftingof continental plates. Chainsof volcanoes formedalong stress lines in thewestern Pacific, driftedeast, and smashed intoNorth America.”Very little researchhas been done on thisregion,” he says. “I spentthree months researchingto find out what thestory was. Everything wehave in British Columbiais caused by continentalplate movement. Rock isa record of a dance thathappens in time.”Motherstone, according toRhenisch, is essentially the storyof going out to the mountainsand walking. “We wanted thebook to be the art of the mountains,where the mountains arecreating the art. The earth is anexpression of itself where youcan walk across ground no onehas ever walked on before. Theearth is seeing itself for the firsttime through your eyes.”Both Harris and Rhenischare adept at pulling back the veilof every-day perception to revealthe essence of what makesthe Central Interior unique.Rhenisch uses the scientific expertiseof UBC professor Dr.Mary Lou Bevier to augmentgut-felt romantic impressions totell the story of this remarkableplace.“It’s an interesting balance—the scientific and the mythological,”Rhenisch says. “We had tohave the science right, but at thesame time it’s not a scientificbook. We had to tell the story ofbeing there. Science couldn’tdo that.”With his tenth book,Motherstone, Harris hopes to oncemore create an awareness of thevalue of the natural world andthe biodiversity of the CaribooChilcotin region. Awareness affectspublic opinion aboutplaces,” he says, “and only publicopinion affects change.”The amalgam of art, scienceand adventure makes for onemessage. “The natural world isnot something we must set outto conquer and subdue,”says Harris. “On the contrary,in fact it is our only hopefor survival.”✫SINCE LAUNCHING MOTHERSTONE AT Agala reception in 100 MileHouse in October, the duo hascommenced an extensive, province-widetour and slide show.Seven hundred signed, hardcovercopies of Motherstone($69.95) are also available. Forinfo visit chrisharris.comSc 978-0-9865818-0-9; hc 978-0-9865818-1-6Sage Birchwater is BC BookWorld’sCariboo correspondent, fromWilliams Lake.

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