\s mYevtew KALEIDOSCOPE - University of British Columbia
\s mYevtew KALEIDOSCOPE - University of British Columbia
\s mYevtew KALEIDOSCOPE - University of British Columbia
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BOOKS IN REVIEWleroy suit with frilled collars. In thiswork Purdy invites us to return to thepast where "all directions are possible."He asks us "Is this the way it was or isthis the way you wanted it to be?" andreplies for us, "This is the way it waswhen nothing moved or changed."The first part, a series <strong>of</strong> untitled prosesketches, recreates the days <strong>of</strong> boyhood,the town <strong>of</strong> Trenton and its familiarcharacters. We see the Trent River, themain streets, Front and Dundas, the localbakery, mill, factories and coal sheds, thehorse-drawn buggies and Model T's.Purdy vividly recalls the activities <strong>of</strong>Everyboy: swimming by the railwaybridge, fishing for mudcats, stealing magazinesfrom junkyards, or watching movieserials at Weiler's Theatre. With the poetwe watch the faces around us dissolveinto those <strong>of</strong> the past: "for a momentyou think you are living backwards. 1 'With Purdy we are both present and detached.He sees himself at six as a strangerin a land <strong>of</strong> giants, an outsider "tryingto get used to being alive."The poems, entitled "Some <strong>of</strong> thePeople," pick up many <strong>of</strong> these characters<strong>of</strong> the past described already inprose. Highway 62 leads out <strong>of</strong> town towardsthe present; we see the cemetery insummer "evergreen" or watch the poetat the funeral <strong>of</strong> his mother: "naked /on the needle point <strong>of</strong> now." Otherpoems evoke the days <strong>of</strong> childhood, thecolour words <strong>of</strong> preschool, the friendJack who becomes "The Boy Accused <strong>of</strong>Cheating." Purdy mourns the father whodied when he was two, the stillbornbrother whom he calls the "dead Poet,"and Cousin Don who returned from thewar with shell-shock and "something lost/ the Loss remained with him always."One <strong>of</strong> the most compassionate portraitsis <strong>of</strong> Joe Barr, the village idiot whoroamed the garbage dump and waschased and stoned by the children. Unableto express himself, he is described byPurdy: "the doors <strong>of</strong> his prison opening/ into rooms he couldn't remember /places he couldn't stay." Two poemssuggest the impact <strong>of</strong> his grandfather onthe child. The dominating old man withhis "260 pounds <strong>of</strong> scarred slag," undauntedat 90 and "too much for anyman to be," haunts the poet with hisvitality. Purdy remarks: "the veritableflesh and bone <strong>of</strong> my Grandfather risesfrom the dust, flashes in my mind, livesagain inside the flesh and bone that ismyself." In these poems the tone <strong>of</strong> elegyis strong, a sense <strong>of</strong> place lost. As Purdyacknowledges in one poem "What havewe to do with childhood ? / — no onelives there any more."Of the two portraits, Purdy's is themore vital, and intense. Both the proseand the poems have memorable passagesand moments <strong>of</strong> brilliance. But to someextent the book seems contrived, designedto fill a space on our shelves <strong>of</strong> Purdy.The poems, many <strong>of</strong> them well-known,appear in other collections. For would-bebiographers, both this and Susan Stromberg-Stein'sstudy <strong>of</strong> Dudek are fascinatingsources <strong>of</strong> information on the formationand development <strong>of</strong> genius. Forordinary readers, however, they demandtoo much; in a sense we must write ourown biographies <strong>of</strong> these complex poets.G. MC LAYPOETRY & PAINTINGANDRE-G. BOURASSA, Surrealism and QuebecLiterature : History <strong>of</strong> a cultural revolution.Trans. Mark Czarnecki, Univ. <strong>of</strong> Toronto,$20.00.BOURASSA'S DETAILED STUDY <strong>of</strong> the surrealistmovement in Quebec literaturehad a mixed reception when first publishedin French in 1977. The author wasaccused <strong>of</strong> over-extending the definition<strong>of</strong> surrealism, and hiding his lack <strong>of</strong>theoretical method behind a mass <strong>of</strong>146