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Book Reviews in November 1992 Issue

The Colour of Canada
by Hugh MacLennan,

Little, Brown & Company
pages $8.95 TC
ISBN: 0316542547
Images of Flight
by Clive Hart,

University of California Press
pages $55 TC
ISBN: 0520061365
Canada, 1892 Portrait of a Promised Land
by Peter C. Newman,

pages $12.98 TC
ISBN: 0670845752
Toronto Places Elements of Urban Design
by Marc Baraness, Larry Richards, Geoffrey James, Steven Evans,

108 pages $50 TC
ISBN: 0802028349
Treasures of the National Archives
by National Archives of Canada Staf,

368 pages $50 TC
ISBN: 0802050220
Homage to Heaven, Homage to Earth Chinese Treasures of the Royal Ontario Museum
by Royal Ontario Museum Staff,

256 pages $95 TC
ISBN: 0802058760
The Spirit of Africville
by Africville Genealogical Society, Africville Genealogical Society,

128 pages $19.95 TP
ISBN: 088780084X
Morrice Un Don a la Patrie: La Collection G. Blair Laing
by Charles C. Hill,

192 pages $39.95 TP
ISBN: 0888846193
Islands of Hope Ontario's Parks & Wilderness
by Bruce Littlejohn, Lori Labatt,

288 pages $35 TC
ISBN: 1895565103
Book Review
States of the Nation
by John Oughton
Whatever Canada's political future, our past and present have sparked some seasonal successes.
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Lion in the Streets
by Judith Thompson,

64 pages $10.95 PT
ISBN: 0887545157
Making Out Plays by Gay Men
250 pages $19.95
ISBN: 0889104344
Escape From Happiness
127 pages $12.95
ISBN: 0889104409
The Hungry Spirit Selected Plays & Prose
by Elsie P. Gowan, Diane Bessai,

pages $14.95 PT
ISBN: 0920897193
Writing with Our Feel
61 pages $10.95
ISBN: 0921368208
Mirror Game
by Dennis Foon,

pages $10.95 PT
ISBN: 0921368240
Book Review
Convincing Performances
by Malcolm Page
Past accomplishments and present ambitions highlight an exciting batch of new drama titles.
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The English Patient
by Michael Ondaatje,

452 pages $0 TC
ISBN: 0679416781
The Cinnamon Peeler
by Michael Ondaatje,

196 pages $15.99 TP
ISBN: 0771068816
Book Review
Perfect Pitch
by Gary Draper
Reviewers like to hedge their bets. After all, you might be wrong, in which case it's better to err on the side of being too critical rather than too generous in your estimate, or at least covering your assessments with a caveat or two.
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The Mysterium A Novel of Deconstructionism
by Eric McCormack,

Saint Martin's Press, Incorporated
272 pages $20.95 TC
ISBN: 031211320X
Book Review
Plague Journal
by Allan Casey
No sooner have we digested the pat conclusiveness at the end of the story than the narrator drops an epilogue in our laps that disintegrates all our knowing. Mastery is transformed into mystery.
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For Art's Sake
by W. O. Mitchell,

McClelland & Stewart/Tundra Books
pages $27.99 TC
ISBN: 0771060505
Book Review
Messy Method
by Pat Barclay
Studded with material culled from Mitchell's own "unique, stored past" and moving to a rhythm all its own, 'For Art's Sake' could have been produced by no other writer.
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Tapestry of War
by Sandra Gwyn,

pages $26.95 TC
ISBN: 000215787X
Book Review
First Casualties
by Heather Robertson
In spite of its portentous title, 'Tapestry of War' focuses on the often tawdry private lives of a tiny group of essentially irrelevant people.
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Rest Harrow
by Janice K. Keefer,

pages $24.95 TC
ISBN: 0002239930
Book Review
Lovers of Sorts
by Helen Porter
As I finished 'Rest Harrow', I was happy that this rich, complex story had, finally, satisfied my expectations. But what of those readers who won't make it past the first 100 pages?
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Money on the Run Canada & How the World's Dirty Profits Are Laundered
by Mario Possamai,

pages $15.99 TP
ISBN: 0140149287
The Golden Fleece Why the Stock Market Costs You Money
320 pages $29.99
ISBN: 0771083033
Book Review
Cash Crunch
by Ellen Roseman
Today's money markets are sophisticated, complex, fast-moving, and increasingly intertwined. These books try to explain how the markets break down and why the regulators can't fix them.
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Constitutional Odyssey Can Canadians Be a Sovereign People?
by Peter H. Russell,

250 pages $19.95 TP
ISBN: 0802069975
Book Review
Accepting Diversity
by Desmond Morton
Canadian constitutions, Russell argues, have been inherently anti-democratic, designed to bind future generations to respect the wisdom of the drafters and to protect rights or privileges that a heedless democratic majority might be inclined to override.
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The Pitch
by Richard Truhlar,

pages $9.95 PT
ISBN: 092054486X
Book Review
Fact Similes
by Eileen Manion
Richard Truhlar writes unsettling prose. Everything in these pieces moves around with manic intensity: characters dissolve into one another; grotesque fantasies interrupt quotidian anxieties; time expands and contracts.
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On Stormy Seas
by B. Gillespie,

pages $18.95 PT
ISBN: 0920663125
The Solitary Slocum Captain Joshua Slocum
by Robert Blondin, Hedley King,

Chelsea Green Publishing
196 pages $19.95 TC
ISBN: 1551090023
Book Review
Fictional Fakes
by Donald Swainson
Books like these raise an important question of ethics. Both Vancouver and Slocum were real people who led real lives, and presumably even dead people should retain some rights. Is it fair to invent, without any evidence, their ambitions and torments?
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Interviews
Voyages Between Worlds
Janette Turner Hospital traverses time as well as space while exploring the outer limits of contemporary sensibility.
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Letters to Editor
Letters to Editor
I just wish that someone (whether the reviewer or the writers themselves) would clear up that most irritating question of false-face masks. Are they cut from live trees or not? And does it really matter how old the trees are?
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Prose/Poetry
Line Screw
by Michael Yates
I picked up in lower peripheral vision fiesh flashing quick as a fish out between the bars. I grabbed the wrist and rolled forward with it.
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Profiles
Heritage Under Siege
by Heather Kirk
Leacock's legacy lives on, but the places associated with him are definitely at risk.
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Profiles
Sorting Through Stories
by David Homel
George Szanto's larger-than-life writings 'Want to entertain the reader variously'.
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Brud
by K. J. Harvey, Kenneth J. Harvey, Kenneth Harvey,

pages $24.95 TC
ISBN: 0316349771
The Pagan Wall
by David Arnason,

304 pages $19.95 TP
ISBN: 0889223122
Paper, Scissors, Rock
by Ann Decter,

pages $12.95 TP
ISBN: 0889740402
Cairo's Power
by Michael Gripp,

236 pages $5.5 TP
ISBN: 0969623801
First Novels
First Novels - Lives on the Page
by Douglas Hill
HELEN TURNER's A Fragile Respectability (Nimbus, 442 pages, $16.95 paper) is a lengthy fictionalized memoir and the sort of novel you pray will be good -because if it isn't it's bound to be excruciatingly slow. Turner's heroine, Philippa Jerrold, looks back over many intrinsically interesting experiences, but unfortunately none of her memories really comes alive on the page. The author hasn't discovered the knack of converting life as lived into fiction. Instead the first-person narrative, relyi
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Field Notes
Field Notes - Turning East
by Lynne Luven
During our current national fractiousness, it seems unwise to lapse into "pathetic fallacy," even if it is merely the botanical sort.
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Field Notes
Field Notes - Coren Comes Out
by Anonymous Aesthete
There are several reasons why I threw wide the doors of the journalistic closet. The first is simple ego - I enjoy recognition, am proud of the writings and rantings in the 'Frank' diary, and wanted people to know who was writing it.
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George Fetherling
Last Words - Drawing and Quartering
by Alec McEwen
Shakespeare, for example, can be understood by today's intelligent reader without heavy dependence on a glossary. Meanings and spellings do change over time, but the process should not be forced or indiscriminate.
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Under the Bridge
by F. G. Paci,

206 pages $34.95 TC
ISBN: 0887508804
Brief Reviews
Brief Reviews - Fiction
by Pat Barclay
Paci's own urgency and flashes of genuine originality make a strong impression. 'Under the Bridge' reveals a large talent, confined within the boundaries of a familiar story.
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Patriots & Traitors
by Jean-Guy Carrier, Jean Guy Carrier,

pages $25.95 TC
ISBN: 0887508782
Brief Reviews
Brief Reviews - Fiction
by Virginia Beaton
Carrier's minute observations of behaviour and scenery are a pleasure to read, but it's hard to escape the feeling that his depiction of Montreal's social classes is too simplistic to be completely believable.
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The Bonus Deal
by Archie Crail,

136 pages $24.95 TC
ISBN: 1550500325
Brief Reviews
Brief Reviews - Fiction
by Roger Mason
The human spirit can flower under the basest repression, and Crail's people are human spirits. He shows the small triumphs of their subtle subversions, the moral temper of their courage and indomitability.
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Raised by the River
by Jake MacDonald,

275 pages $14.95 TP
ISBN: 0888011660
Brief Reviews
Brief Reviews - Fiction
by Virginia Beaton
While there are moments of charm and humour, the characterizations remain sketchy. Though MacDonald writes splendidly about the wilderness country of northwest Ontario, his book is at best only mildly entertaining.
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Life Skills
by Marlis Wesseler,

pages $12.95 PF
ISBN: 1550500406
Brief Reviews
Brief Reviews - Fiction
by Roger Mason
Wesseler brings her protagonists vividly to life in the imagined and real worlds they inhabit. Women will read 'Life Skills' with recognition and empathy; many men will be surprised to find that they do, too.
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Domains of Fear & Desire
by U. Memon,

pages $15.95 PT
ISBN: 0920661211
Brief Reviews
Brief Reviews - Fiction
by Joyce Marshall
My memory caught up with me as I read, and by the time I reached the tragic ending all mysteries and uncertainties had been solved, a tribute to the force of the writing.
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The Loneliness of Angels
by Valmai Howe,

272 pages $24.95 CT
ISBN: 092183327X
Brief Reviews
Brief Reviews - Fiction
by Louise Fabiani
This is an immensely satisfying conclusion to a thought-provoking book: only through healing others - on their terms - can we hope to be healed ourselves.
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Pursued by Shadows
by Medora Sale,

256 pages $25.95 CT
ISBN: 0684195054
Brief Reviews
Brief Reviews - Fiction
by Laurel Boone
The story of the stolen document is interesting and original, but the lacklustre romance between Harriet and John mutes the excitement, as do all the subplots and secondary characters.
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The Land of Feast & Famine
by Helge Ingstad, Eugene Gay-Tifft,

pages $60 TC
ISBN: 0773509119
Brief Reviews
Brief Reviews - Non-fiction
by Martin Dowding
The seasons and activities Ingstad describes, if limited in variety, are so microscopically detailed that 'In the Land of Feast and Famine' impresses as a fascinating and very readable volume.
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Brief Reviews
Brief Reviews - Non-fiction
by Helen Porter
The stories are presented in the original Cree with English translations on facing pages, and also in Cree syllabics. The result is a valuable addition to Canadian literature.
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Brief Reviews
Brief Revewis - Non-fiction
by Becky Liddell
Mowbray is skeptical, though usually polite, in assessing the claims of various health reformers, some of which, admittedly, are flakier than pie-crust.
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Collected Poems
by Miriam Waddington,

384 pages $24.95 TP
ISBN: 0195405358
Treading Water
by Kenneth Radu,

pages $21.95 TC
ISBN: 0887508731
Urban Snow
by George Bowering,

112 pages $14.95 TP
ISBN: 088922305X
The Way to Come Home
by Carolyn Smart,

pages $10.95 TP
ISBN: 0919626564
Memories Have Tongue Poetry
by Afua Cooper,

L P C/InBook
128 pages $8.95 PF
ISBN: 092081350X
How to Be Born Again
by Colin Morton,

96 pages $12.95 TP
ISBN: 1550820362
Brief Reviews
Brief Reviews - Poetry
by Phil Hall
There are many complicated ways for a book to cause its reader problems, and perhaps books of poetry are particularly problematic because of their generally smaller, more personal, more intense, enigmatic, tighter natures.
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The Dragon's Pearl
by Julie Lawson, Paul Morin,

32 pages $17.95 TC
ISBN: 0195408438
Finster Frets
by Kent Baker, H. Werner Zimmermann, H. Werner Zimmermann, H. Werner Zimmermann,

32 pages $7.95 TP
ISBN: 0195408993
The Snowcat
by Dayal K. Khalsa,

pages $5.98 TC
ISBN: 0517176467
Something from Nothing
by Phoebe Gilman,

Scholastic, Incorporated
32 pages $15.95 TC
ISBN: 0590472801
Two by Two
by Barbara Reid,

Scholastic, Incorporated
pages $4.95 PT
ISBN: 0590649426
A Prairie Alphabet
by Jo Bannatyne-Cugnet, Yvette Moore,

32 pages $19.95 TC
ISBN: 0887762921
My Grandfather Loved the Stars
by Julie Lawson, Judy McLaren,

32 pages $12.95 TC
ISBN: 0888783043
When Jeremiah Found Mrs. Ming
by Sharon Jennings, Mireille Levert,

24 pages $15.95 LB
ISBN: 1550372378
The Potter
by Jacolyn Caton,

pages $12.95 TC
ISBN: 1550500376
Story of Canada
by Janet Lunn, Christopher Moore, Alan Daniel,

320 pages $29.95 PT
ISBN: 1895555884
Children's Books
Children's Books - Refrains and Recitals
by Marie Pfohl
Soon I'll have the pleasure of selecting some holiday gifts for my niece and nephew, the only children in my immediate family right now.
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Margy
by Margaret Smith,

pages $14.95 CT
ISBN: 0029540968
Ellen/Elena/Luna
by Paul Kropp,

pages $12.35 PT
ISBN: 0029541379
Anna Veryha
by Kupchenko-Fr,

pages $12.35 PT
ISBN: 0029541387
In Such a Place
by Lynne Fairbridge,

144 pages $13.5 TP
ISBN: 0385253745
There Will Be Wolves
by Karleen Bradford,

Dutton Children's Books
208 pages $15.99 TP
ISBN: 0525675396
Jack's Back
by Norah McClintock,

pages $4.5 MM
ISBN: 0590743503
Fish House Secrets
by Kathy Stinson,

160 pages $16 TP
ISBN: 0920633919
Justice for Julie A Story of the Sueprnatural
by Barbara A. Lane,

154 pages $10.95 TP
ISBN: 0921692315
My Mother's Ghost
by Margaret Buffie,

224 pages $4.95 MM
ISBN: 1550740911
Children's Books
Children's Books - Live and Learn
by Pat Barclay
All nine novels are competently written. Attention has been paid to the development of reasonably rounded characters. Inner and outer conflicts abound and each novel has some distinguishing features that make it special.
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