\s mYevtew KALEIDOSCOPE - University of British Columbia

BOOKS IN REVIEWgranted them, are not glossed over. Butthere is little of the drama here by whichthe biographer and, through him, thereader feel the emotions of the subject.We can, for example, identify Deacon'senthusiasms in this account, but little ofthe excitement, perhaps even the sentimentof power, which surely accompaniedand may even have motivated his "discoveries,"comes through. Nor is thereany of that drama in which the biographerstruggles to come to terms withthe subject and to shape a coherent andcompelling life from the evidence available.Instead we find everywhere thetrace of the researchers' index cards, ofdata unformed into that dynamic coherencethat we think of as a "life." PerhapsDeacon himself was not a man sufficientlycompelling in the magnitude of hisachievement, in the depth or complexityof his character, or in the drama of hislife to make a compelling biography; atany rate he does not become so inThomas' and Lennox's affectionate, butlimited, relation to him.He is made even less compelling by thebanalities of their style. The sheer accumulationof data often overwhelms thereader's sense of narrative development.But then there is no narrative developmentbeyond that predictably providedby the passing years; the "Community ofLetters" chapters, for example, are largelystructured as a list of Deacon's literaryacquaintances. Thomas and Lennox alsowrite with an evenness of tone that deniesdrama to any circumstance and recordslarge and small events with equal blandness.And they cannot recognize clichéseven when they are embracing them:"the path to the realization of his ambitionseemed a smooth, broad highway";Zena Cherry could have written theacount of the banquet at which Deaconwas installed as president of the CanadianAuthors' Association, "a galaxy of themost distinguished authors in the land[the literary social register follows] . . .mingled with the hundred-odd memberswho were present"; Saturday Night advertisingin the 2o's (anticipating theslick mag of the 70's?) reflected "thecultural conflicts inherent in the massivelife-style changes that were rapidly takingplace."Much in William Arthur Deacon willbe useful to Canadian literary historiansfor Thomas and Lennox have done us aservice in their extensive quotations fromthe Deacon papers, and in the informationthey have provided us about theliterary journalism of the period. Buttheir work is notes toward a biographyrather than a successful example of thegenre; it gives us only research data,supplemented by sketchy accounts of motivesand brief literary judgements, unskilfullytacked each to each in a semblanceof narrative. William Arthur Deaconis seldom touched by the shapingpower that makes the great biographiesworks of art, nor by the best biographers'capacity for subtle discrimination andprofound discoveries about their characters,a capacity that can make their subjectsas well as their works great.BAD BATCHSHIRLEY NEU MANERIC NicoL, Canadide: A Patriotic Satire.Macmillan, $16.95.KENNETH DYBA, The Long (And Glorious)¡Weekend of Raymond (And Bingo) Oblongh.November House, $8.95.OPENING A NEW BOOK or a new bottle ofwine should be attended by anticipation,and ritual, followed by the pleasure offulfilment. If neither reaches a standardof taste or interest, the consumer presumablyhas the option of sending themback, to oblivion. Neither of these booksdeserves the attention of a review. Neitheris worth buying, borrowing, or steal-179