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Book Reviews in February 1994 Issue

Book Review
Nfthelif
by Laura Byrne Pacquet
JOHANNA BRAND`s The Lifeand Death of Anna Mae Aquash (James Lorimer, 176 pages, $14.95 paper) points afinger at extremely Suspicious FBI actions surrounding the death of a CanadianNative-rights activist on an Indian reserve in South Dakota in 1976.Originally published in 1978, the book has been reissued with a new foreword bythe Liberal MP Warren Allmand and a new afterword by Anna Mae Aquash`s sisterBecky. Frustratingly, none of the main text has been updated.
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Book Review
Right Up To Date
by Joel Yanofsky
IN THE LAST few years, change in Eastern Europe is really the only thing anyone Call count (11. Which is probably why I assumed that Myrna Kostash`s new hook,Bloodlines: A Journey into Eastern Europe, wouldbe by now completely out of date, particularly since it is based, in largepart, on two separate trips the Edmonton author made to Czechoslovakia,Yugoslavia, Poland, and Ukraine in 1984 and then again in 1988. Instead, theopposite is true Bloodlines is allforeshadowing.
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Book Review
Fqueerie
by Daniel Jones
IN I HIS INTRODUCTION to Queeries (Arsenal Pulp, 205 pages, $16.95 paper), Dennis Denisoff never once uses the word "fiction" todescribe the 27 texts included in this first Canadian anthology of prose by gaymate writers. Indeed, if there is a single, unifying element in thiscollection, other than the gender and Sexual preference of the contributors, itis the rejection of traditional prose forms such as story and essay.
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Memoirs
by Pierre Trudeau,

360 pages TP
ISBN: 0771085877
Book Review
Among My Souvenirs
by George Galt
IS IT A book? Is it a paean? Nope, it`sthe transcribed -- and much massaged - tapes of Super-Pierre, theastonishing pol who spent 16 years governing Canada without once making amistake. If you have any doubts about the flawlessness of his tenure in Ottawa,he explains precisely why he was right and his critics were wrong in everynotable instance, much as he did in all those testy year-end interviewswith Barbara Frum. There`s a large amount of television inthis "book.
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Book Review
To Rearrange The Past
by Helen Fogwill Porter
Asense of `the permanence of things and the impermanence of people` fuelsBernice Morgan`s literary energies BERNICE MORGAN and I haveknown each other as writing colleagues and friends for more than 30 years.Today we`re sitting opposite each other at the kitchen table in a cabin that`spart of the White Sails Inn Complex in Eastport, Bonavista Bay. Now 58, Bernicewas born in St. Johns, Newfoundland, and still lives there, on a quiet suburbanstreet with her husband, George.
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Book Review
Fthelone
by Louise Fabiani
AFTER OVERCOMING a fewinitial misgivings, I found Herb Curtis`s The Lone Angler (Goose Lane, 262 pages, $14.95 paper) an old-style page turner full of engagingcharacters caught in interesting predicaments. The Lone Angler continues the story of brothers Dryfly and Palidin Ramsey,and Dryfly`s friend, Shadrack Nash, last seen in Curtis`s previous two novelsset in Brennen Siding, in the Miramichi region of New Brunswick.
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Book Review
Fatreefo
by Jot Oughton
EARLY BOOKS by authors who later win renown are oftenrepublished for the sake of fans, students of I literature -- and afew dollars for the publisher. But there is another reason for ECW Press, incooperation with McMaster University, to Put Margaret Laurence`s A Tree for Poverty (xxx, 145 pages, $16 paper) back on bookstore shelves: it is apparently thefirst English translation of Somali oral literature.
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Book Review
Where Crisis Iscommonplace
by Janice Keefer
BUSINESS," I declare tothe man at Customs. For one does not Come to Kiev these days, and at thisseason, for pleasure. He doesn`t ask me what kind of business, and for that Iam grateful.
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Book Review
Nfcanadi
by George Kaufman
THE TITLE of Canadian Stories of the Sea (Oxford University Press, 288 pages, $17.95 paper) may beslightly misleading. It conjures up images of Moby Dick and captainscourageous, but what the editor Victor Suthren delivers is a fascinating mini-lessonin Canadian history. The stories of the first European explorers --such as Cartier, Frobisher, and Cook -- sometimes have little to dowith the sea, but provide a valuable resource for history buffs.
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Not One of the Boys
by Sharon Carstairs

Macmillan
272 pages $24.95 cloth
ISBN: 0771590164
Book Review
Nfnotone
by Allan Levine
YOU COULD NEVER accuse Sharon Carstairs of not being frank and honest. As leader of the ManitobaLiberal Party from 1984 to 1993, she played politics according to her own rulesand refused to be bullied by anyone, especially the male politicalestablishment that so often confronted her. In Not One of the Boys (Macmillan, 272 pages, $24.
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Book Review
Documentary Drama
by Heather Robertson
WAR ON WORD,,: The Terror and the Tedium"; a truecourtroom drama based on the controversial manuscript: Statement of Claim:Donald A. Elliott et al., Plaintiffs, vs the Canadian Broadcasting Corporationet al., Defendants, published under the imprint of Ian W. Outerbridge, Q.C.,Outerbridge and Miller, Barristers and Solicitors, 241 pages, paper. TIME: December 14 to 21, 1993. PLACE:Courtroom 2/5, Ontario Court(General Division), 361 University Ave., Toronto
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Book Review
Fdickie
by Daniel Jones
SET IN 1957, in an iron-miningtown in Northern Ontario, Wayne Tefs`s fourth novel, Dickie (Anansi, 163 pages,$14.95 paper), is the story of one very fucked-up family. When HansiFrudel`s hardware store faces bankruptcy, he turns to alcohol and, eventually,suicide. His wife, Tina, is convinced that she was responsible for the death oftheir third child, while she herself is stricken with cancer.
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Book Review
Nfsniffi
by George Kaufman
SILVER DONALD CAMERON`S Sniffing The Coast: An Acadian Voyage (Macmillan, 288 pages, $27.95 cloth) is atravel book with a difference -- actually two big differences. Thefirst is the author himself, an entertainingly thoughtful writer whoseaddictive narrative style deftly combines keen observation and personalinsight. The second is the perspective: he gives us a view of Atlantic Canadathat few of us know -- the boater`s angle.
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Surviving as Indians The Challenge of Self-Government
by Menno Boldt,

384 pages TP
ISBN: 0802077676
People of Terra Nullius
by Richardson,

pages TC
ISBN: 1550541188
Book Review
Native Images
by John Ayre
IT", A DISMAYING fact that theaverage Canadian will likely meet more Natives in a week`s vacation in SouthernMexico than in an entire lifetime in Canada. The reasons are obvious. OurNative population is small and lives in areas that, with a few exceptions, suchas northern Winnipeg, are largely inaccessible. As a result, even today we seeNatives almost entirely in polarized TV images.
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The Walled Garden
by Michael Dean

Black Moss
10 pages $14.9
ISBN: 0887532705
The Last Sigh
by Jacqueline Dumas

Filth House
248 pages $14.95
ISBN: 1895618215
Book Review
History Won`T Absolve Them
by Kathleen Byrne
WHO SHAPES history? The victors, of Course, "the rapists, the hackers ... theslashers, the thieves" in whose image official chronicles are fashioned,and butchery transformed to heroism overnight. But there is another history,the narrator of TheLast Sigh tells us: not officialbut personal. This is the history ofthe survivors, and Eva Bonilla, thecuriously passive protagonist of Jacqueline Dumas`s second novel, is clearlymeant to be seen as a survivor.
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Canadian Exploration Literature: Ananthology Edited
by Germainewarkentin

Oxford University Press
464 pages $34.95
ISBN: 019I409892
Letter from the Khyber Pass
by Woodcock,

pages TP
ISBN: 1550540831
Book Review
On And Off The Track
by Michael Darting
ALTHOUGH very few of the writers includedin Canadian Exploration Literature were actually born onthis side of the Atlantic, it is quite possible to argue, as Germaine Warkentindoes in her introduction, that the writings of these European explorers and furtraders represent "the first body of a literature which can in any calledCanadian.
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Too Big to Fail Olympia & York - The Story Behind the Headlines
by Walter Stewart,

368 pages TC
ISBN: 0771001770
K. C. The Biography of K. C. Irving
by Douglas How, Ralph Costello,

384 pages TC
ISBN: 1550134930
Book Review
Business In The Family
by Ellen Roseman
THE REICHMANNS and the Irvings are two ofCanada`s best-known business families. Both built worldwide financialempires. One collapsed, the other thrives. These books try to get inside the privatelyheld, secretive companies and find out why they succeeded or failed. They alsoattempt to give readers a feel for the personalities behind the businesstransactions.
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Sitting Opposite My Brother
by David Bergen,

96 pages TP
ISBN: 0888011725
The Better to See You
by Alfonso Urias Quijada,

pages PF
ISBN: 092095359X
Book Review
Something In Common
by John Oughton
THESE two short-story collections are concerned with both the ties and thegaps between people. The differences between the two books lie both inexperience -- this is David Bergen`s first book, Alfonso QuijadaUrias`s 10th -- and in setting.
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Cerberus
by Rai Berzins,

191 pages TP
ISBN: 0864921667
Bad Imaginings
by Caroline Adderson,

160 pages TP
ISBN: 0889841721
Book Review
Senses Of An Ending
by Daniel Jones
IN HIS RECENT book Talents andTechnicians: Literary Chic and the New Assembly-Line Fiction, John W.Aldridge argues that "a surprising number" of young American writershave established prominent reputations based on fiction that is technicallyconservative, stylistically bland, and often extremely modest in intention,with little about it that could possibly be offensive or provocative orstimulating to anyone.
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Girl Wants To
by Lynn Crosbie,

Consortium Book Sales & Distribution
pages PT
ISBN: 088910462X
Book Review
Low Connections
by Beveriey Daurio
IN I HIS BRIFF prefance - to Hearts Wild, the editor Wayne Tefs promises -thered hot flush of lust mid the ",hire hot scald of pain," the"betrayal...[and] ecstasy... that plague and Vitalize love andlovers," leading the reader to expect a passionate, sensual collection of the sort one might wrap in paper embossed with pink heartsand give as a present oil Valentine`s Day.
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When Things Get Worst
pages TC
ISBN: 0316124648
Book Review
States Of Disgrace
by Ann Diamond
I READ When Things Get Worst with the Overwhelmingfeeling that it was not about what it claimed to be: a first-personaccount of the life in hard times of a young woman living in southwesternOntario. This is a novel that, whatever other criticisms may he levelled at it,leaves a strange residue in the mind. It put me in mind of a hitchhiking trip Itook to Niagara Falls, Ontario, with my boyfriend back in 1972.
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Book Review
Nfbeyond
by Allan Levine
IF YOU WANT to delvedeeper into the real meaning behind the Reform Party`s recent success at thepolls, then turn to George Melnyk`s Beyond Alienation: Political Essays on theWest (Detselig, 125 pages, $13.95 paper). In six interesting and often thought-provokingessays, MeInyk, part historianand part philosopher, examines the social, economic, and political structure ofWestern Canada. In his view, PrestonManning`s achievement can be explained in two ways.
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Book Review
The Company They Keep
by Marlene Cookshaw
JUDITH FITZGERALD has published at the rate of almost a book ayear since 1975; walkin` wounded (Black Moss, 63 pages, $10.95 paper) is her 17th. She is apoet of great range -- in form, mood, and vocabulary --and her use of language is often scintillating, the faint narrative nearlyoverwhelmed by musicality and an electric intellect, as in this excerpt fromthe collection`s title poem: And itssource, lacunae emptying echo, inarticulate abyss.
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Book Review
V
by Marlene Cookshaw
JUDITH FITZGERALD has published at the rate of almost a book ayear since 1975; walkin` wounded (Black Moss, 63 pages, $10.95 paper) is her 17th. She is apoet of great range -- in form, mood, and vocabulary --and her use of language is often scintillating, the faint narrative nearlyoverwhelmed by musicality and an electric intellect, as in this excerpt fromthe collection`s title poem: And itssource, lacunae emptying echo, inarticulate abyss.
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Book Review
Finally Joyous
by Gary Draper
DON DICKINSON does so many things so wellthat a reader might be forgiven for thinking that the things he does are easy.They aren`t. It isn`t easy to tell a story that moves forward with as muchenergy and sheer readability as The Crew (Coteau, 193 pages, $14.95 paper). Thecrew in question is a gang of part-time landscapers who are trying toSurvive a strike by doing a private deal on the side.
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Book Review
Winning Prose
by Camie Kim
In 1993,in celebration of its 20th anniversary, the Writers` Unionof Canada initiated a Short ProseCompetition for New Writers, to encourage emerging writers of fiction and non-fiction.The judges awarded the first-place prize of $2, 000 to"Travelling," a short-fictionpiece by Camie Kim. Booksin Canada is pleased to publish thewinning entry. Camie Kim was born in Seoul, SouthKorea, and grew up in Vancouver. She now lives in Montreal, where she ispursuing an M.A
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George Grant A Biography
by William Christian,

495 pages TC
ISBN: 0802059228
Book Review
An Engaged Intellectual
by I. M. Owen
GEORGE GRANT (1918-88) is remembered as the most original Christianphilosopher in this country, and as the self- described conservative whowas a hero to the dissident students and cultural nationalists of the 1960s and 1970s. His life story and his personality were in manyways as surprising and individual as his thought, and it`s good that WilliamChristian has been able to produce this well-documented biography so soonafter Grants death.
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Book Review
Opinion
by Victoria Branden
Get That Grin Off Your Face! Dismalsex only, please, we`re Canadian SEX AND GLOOM: can there be a connection? "Forall her brilliance, Margaret Laurence was a downbeat writer," complainsBonnie Malleck, in a review of the Atlantis film based on The Diviners, and I recall feeling morose and drained after reading most of herbooks. The film affected me much the same way.
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Interviews
A Feeling For History
by Joel Yanofsky
For`wandering Canadian` Douglas Glover, marginality is a metaphor for self in themodern age DOUGLAS GLOVER is theauthor of three collections of short stories, including A Guide to AnimalBehavior (Goose Lane, 199 1), which was short-listed for a Governor General`sAward. He has won a National Magazine Award for his fiction and his storieshave appeared in the Journey Prize Anthology, Best Canadian Stories, and Best American Short Stories.Glover has also written three novels
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