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Book Reviews in February 1992 Issue

Note from Editor
Note from Editor
by Paul Stuewe
What's in store for 'Books in Canada' readers during the coming year? Two theme issues on Atlantic Provinces and Prairies writing, for starters.
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Living in a Dark Age
by Rick Salutin,

pages $14.95 TP
ISBN: 0006471463
Book Review
Biting the Hand
by Larry Scanlan
Often humourless, often funny, and full of contradictions, Salutin makes little attempt to charm his reader, to write about himself, or even to be liked - the secret ambition of many columnists.
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When Justice Fails The David Milgaard Story
by Carl Karp,

pages $8.99 MM
ISBN: 0771045913
Book Review
A Polemic for hte Defence
by Heather Robertson
At 8:30 A.M. on January 31, 1969, the bloody, frozen body of 20-year-old Gail Miller was found in a Saskatoon alley by a child on her way to school.
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Our Future Selves Love, Life, Sex, & Aging
by Merrily Weisbord,

pages $18.25 TP
ISBN: 1556431457
Book Review
Getting Better
by Ruth Sky
Merrily Weisbord is approaching her 50th birthday soon, and is becoming anxious about aging. She looks about and is distressed by the stereotypes of the elderly.
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Who Has Seen the Wind
by W. O. Mitchell,

331 pages $39.95 TC
ISBN: 0771060785
Book Review
A Classic Restored
by Rupert Schieder
Fortunately, with the publication of the complete, original text, the betrayal of W. O. Mitchell and Brian O'Connal has come to an end.
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Selected Poems
by Margaret Avison,

192 pages $21.95 TP
ISBN: 0195408594
Book Review
The Ciphering Heart
by Bruce Whiteman
MARGARET AVISON has a unique reputation in Canadian poetry. Though she will turn 74 this year, she has been slow to publish, and 'Selected Poems' is only her fifth book.
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Crime & Punishment in Canada
by Owen Carrigan,

pages $29.95 PT
ISBN: 0771018924
Book Review
The Facts of the Case
by Royce MacGillivray
As of the date of writing, I have never been mugged. Apart from petty thefts, mainly of school equipment and personal objects in my high school days, I have never been the victim of crime in any way.
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The Secret Ring Freud's Inner Circle & the Politics of Psychoanalysis
by Phyllis Grosskurth,

304 pages $26.95 TC
ISBN: 0921912242
Book Review
Psychodrama
by Elizabeth Anthony
The preservation of a legacy of thought can be problematic. Publication may only be an embalming procedure for a body of theory if there is no coterie of believers to animate it with living breath, to exercise and safeguard its interpretations.
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Quick & the Dead Brian Mulroney & the Seduction of Canada
by Linda McQuaig,

pages $7.99 MM
ISBN: 0140132929
A Long & Terrible Shadow White Values, Native Rights in the Americas, 1492-1992
by Thomas R. Berger,

University of Washington Press
196 pages $16.95 TP
ISBN: 029597222X
Merchant Princes
by Peter C. Newman,

Viking Penguin
448 pages $25 TP
ISBN: 067084098X
Fourth Morningside Papers
by Peter Gzowski,

McClelland & Stewart/Tundra Books
pages $19.95 TC
ISBN: 0771037317
Money Has No Country
by Ann Shortell,

pages $29.95 TC
ISBN: 0771591446
Book Review
What Needs to be Read
by Brian Fawcett
A retrospective look at 1991's most culturally significant titles.
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Where Is Kabuki?
by Don Druick,

pages $10.95 TP
ISBN: 0887545041
Sisters
by Wendy Lill,

pages $13.95 TP
ISBN: 0889222894
Joe Beef
by David Fennario,

pages $14.95 TC
ISBN: 0889222916
La Maison Suspendue
by Michel Tremblay, John Van Burek,

0 pages $14.95 TP
ISBN: 0889222959
Hosanna
by Michel Tremblay,

0 pages $12.95 TP
ISBN: 0889222967
The Dunsmuirs Alone at the Edge
by Rod Langley,

pages $14.95 TP
ISBN: 0889222975
The Bootlegger Blues
by Drew H. Taylor,

pages $10.95 TP
ISBN: 0920079792
Book Review
Dramatic Histories
by Ann Jansen
Past times and resonant places assume leading roles in these recent examples of the playwright's art.
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Waiting for the Whales
by Sheryl McFarlane, Ron Lightburn,

Putnam Publishing Group, The
32 pages $14.95 LB
ISBN: 0399225153
A Happy New Year's Day
by Roch Carrier, Gilles Pelletier,

24 pages $14.95 TC
ISBN: 0887762670
My Mother Is Weird
by Rachna Gilmore, Brenda Jones,

24 pages $6.95 TP
ISBN: 0920304834
Mr. Sweetums Wears Pink
by Charlotte Hutchinson, Brenda Jones,

L P C/InBook
24 pages $5.95 TP
ISBN: 0921556187
Melinda's No's Gold
by Gail Chislett, Helene Desputeaux,

32 pages $14.95 LB
ISBN: 1550371967
Travels for Two Stories & Lies from My Childhood
by Stephane Poulin, Stephane Poulin,

32 pages $15.95 LB
ISBN: 155037205X
What Do the Fairies Do with All Those Teeth
by Michel Luppens, Phillipe Beha,

24 pages $12.95 TC
ISBN: 1552090019
Book Review
Children's Books - An Antidote to Grey
by Carole Corbeil
I don't know what it says about me, but out of all of the beautiful, glossy, radiant children's books I got for reviewing purposes, my six-year-old daughter has picked ...
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More than a Rose Prime Ministers, Wives and Other Women
404 pages $29.5
ISBN: 0770424600
Book Review
Espousing Politics
by Arlene Rae
The interplay between the personal and the political is at the heart of Heather Robertson's lively foray into a neglected corner of Canadian History.
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The Tangible Word
by France Theoret, Barbara Godard,

161 pages $15 TP
ISBN: 092071756X
Book Review
A Concert of Voices
by Eileen Manion
Theoret's texts do not make easy reading, not only because of the abrupt transitions and the departures from conventional rhetorical strategies, but also because her narrators speak so intensely and so bitterly.
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Mixed Media, Mixed Messages
216 pages $13.95
ISBN: 092158623x
Unusual Circumstances, Interesting Times And Other Impolite Interventions
by Brian Fawcett,

244 pages $14.95 TP
ISBN: 0921586272
Politically Incorrect
by George Jonas,

320 pages $18.95 CT
ISBN: 1895555043
Book Review
Journalistic Mediums
by I. M. Owen
Of these three writers of newspaper columns and magazine articles, Brian Fawcett is perhaps the most original. Originality in non-fiction writing does carry its dangers, of course.
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1991 Best Canadian Stories
by David Helwig, Maggie Helwig,

pages $15.95 TP
ISBN: 0887508561
Scenes from Provincial Life
by Joan Givner,

pages $25.95 TC
ISBN: 0887508588
Book Review
Extraordinary Provinces
by Roger Mason
The core of the collection is a group of stories about writing and art, although they are presented as narratives about individuals.
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Somewhere Waiting The Life & Art of Christiane Pflug
by Ann Davis,

352 pages $29.95 TC
ISBN: 0195408578
Book Review
Haunting Elements
by Susan Walker
An artist who suffered a lifelong sense of confinement deserves to be celebrated in a book that opens the doors on her inner life.
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Leonard Cohen Prophet of the Heart
by L. S. Dorman, C. L. Rawlins,

Omnibus Press
384 pages $24.95 TP
ISBN: 071192774X
Book Review
Not Our Man
by Daniel Jones
At 57, Leonard Cohen is seven years older than Bob Dylan, and nine years the senior of Mick Jagger.
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People of the Pines
by Pindera, Geoffrey York,

pages $14.99 TP
ISBN: 0316902713
Book Review
Behind the Barricades
by Douglas Glover
On July 11, 1990, the Surete de Quebec police attacked a party of Kanesatake Mohawks protesting the expansion of a golf course onto land to which they had no legal title, but which they regarded as theirs by tradition.
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The Last Roman Catholic?
199 pages $17.95
ISBN: 092116517x
Book Review
True Confessions?
by Michael Coren
The story is quintessentially pre-Vatican II, before the Second Vatican Council of the early 1960s ushered in a radical alteration of the Roman Catholic church.
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Bourassa
244 pages $27.95
ISBN: 0771591489
Book Review
More Quebecois than Thou
by Sheldon Gordon
Michel Vastel has dedicated his portrait of Quebec's premier to "Robert Bourassa, a Quebecois'' no mere statement of fact but rather an accolade.
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Arnold Edinborough An Autobiography
by Arnold Edinborough,

248 pages $29.95 TC
ISBN: 0773725393
Book Review
From Cradle to Retirement
by George Galt
This kind of autobiography is often penned by people who are natural raconteurs, or natural hobnobbers and name-droppers. Or they're written by what the media call "high-profile personalities" who believe they have Something Important or Witty to Say.
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Father Must Stories
by Rick Rofihe,

Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Incorporated
186 pages $18.95 TC
ISBN: 0374153841
Blue Husbands
by Don Dickinson,

128 pages $10.95 TP
ISBN: 0889841233
Book Review
Debuts For Two
by Michael Darling
Not a promising idea for a story, perhaps, but Rofihe makes it a metaphysical puzzle: who is wasting time here - the boy who didn't move for 15 minutes or the lady who watched him?
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In the National Interest A Chronicle of the National Film Board of Canada from 1949 to 1989
by Gary Evans,

464 pages $85 TC
ISBN: 0802027849
Book Review
Behind the Screens
by Chris Whynot
The National Film Board of Canada is, and always has been, a strange kind of beast.
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Interviews
Sacred Monsters
by David Homel
Michel Tremblay's characters always go beyond realistic truth: 'Once youre on stage, who cares about real life?'
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Letters to Editor
Letters to Editor
Her letter not only demonstrates but proves the existence of that bedrock racism that surfaces as soon as there is any attempt to present a fuller and more detailed picture of what has been a thoroughly Eurocentric and inaccurate view of Africa.
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Prose/Poetry
The Mysterium
by Eric McCormack
We'd heard only rumours, mutterings about 'plague' and 'disaster.' But no one really knew what was going on...
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Profiles
Profile - Mutability and Meditation
by Cary Fagan
Graced with a rich central theme and the time to develop it, Don Coles has produced a quietly rewarding poetic oeuvre.
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Opinion
Opinion - Cross-Country Check-Up, Part 1
by Kenneth McGoogan
Tired of getting all your news from Toronto? Here's how things look from Calgary (Calgary Herald).
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Opinion
Opinion - Cross-Country Check-Up, Part 2
by Bryan Demchinsky
Tired of getting all your news from Toronto? Here's how things look from Montreal (The Gazette).
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Opinion
Opinion - Cross-Country Check-Up, Part 3
by Claudia Pinsent
Tired of getting all your news from Toronto? Here's how things look from Halifax (The Chronicle-Herald and The Mail-Star).
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Opinion
Opinion - Cross-Country Check-Up, Part 4
by Marke Andrews
Tired of getting all your news from Toronto? Here's how things look from Vancouver (The Vancouver Sun).
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Bahama Heat
by Barry Estabrook,

336 pages $26.99 TC
ISBN: 0312062974
Asya A Novel
by Michael Ignatieff,

Alfred A.\Knopf#Incorporated
309 pages $22 TC
ISBN: 0679406573
Cub Reporter Learns a Thing...
by Bruce Hutchison,

pages $9.95 TC
ISBN: 0888947372
The Influence Peddlers An Ottawa Fable
167 pages $12.95
ISBN: 0889624836
Cafe des Westens
by Norman Ravvin,

pages $24.95 TC
ISBN: 0889950792
First Novels
First Novels - Trash and Treasures
by Laurel Boone
It's a pleasant change to say something nice about a book that has been almost universally trashed.
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Field Notes
Field Notes - Architects and Termites
by David Homel
If you wanted to hear the Canada Council praised this last fall, the place to be was on Parliament Hill. Not the one in Ottawa, mind you - its homologue in Quebec City.
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Field Notes
Field Notes - Hoping for the Best
by Joel Yanofsky
I grew up and still live in a suburb a half-hour drive north of downtown Montreal. Whenever I do come into the city to attend a literary event, I'm asked the same question by fellow writers: why do you live out there?
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George Fetherling
Last Words - Technical Corrections
by Alec McEwen
'Won't' is an odd-looking contraction until it is recognized as a short form of 'woll not', in which 'woll' is an ancient spelling of 'will'.
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The Last Tasmanian
by Herb Curtis,

291 pages $14.95 CT
ISBN: 0864921055
Brief Reviews
Brief Reviews - Fiction
by Pat Barclay
Curtis's achievement in this novel is all the more impressive because he does not present it as the "star turn" that in fact it is.
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Great Canadian Murder & Mystery Stories
by Don Bailey, Daile Unruh,

240 pages $18.95 TP
ISBN: 1550820192
Brief Reviews
Brief Reviews - Fiction
by Pat Barclay
GIVEN the popular appetite for tales of murder and mystery, publication of yet another collection may be justified; but titling it 'Great Canadian Murder and Mystery Stories' is not.
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Saltwater Trees
by J. Jill Robinson,

L P C/InBook
pages $11.95 TP
ISBN: 0889782415
Brief Reviews
Brief Reviews - Fiction
by Virginia Beaton
While the author has a talent for creating quirky characters and situations, her writing focuses on minute details of sensation and thought, and consequently the stories lack animation.
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Crucified Woman
by Doris J. Dyke,

pages $13.95 TP
ISBN: 0919000681
Brief Reviews
Brief Reviews - Non-fiction
by Mary Coady
This book will be close to the bone for women brought up according to the tenets of religious institutions. It is a welcome addition to the growing ranks of books by women that are trying to break the male stranglehold on Christianity.
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Undercover
by Dubro,

McClelland & Stewart/Tundra Books
pages $6.99 PT
ISBN: 0771029020
Brief Reviews
Brief Reviews - Non-fiction
by George Kaufman
If the book has a weakness, it is that the style sometimes goes flat and reads more like an emotionless police report than a real-life crime thriller.
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Brick Reader Writers on Writing
by Linda Spalding,

Consortium Book Sales & Distribution
pages $16.95 PT
ISBN: 0889104220
Brief Reviews
Brief Reviews - Non-Fiction
by Keith Nickson
A few selections are too thin to merit inclusion. Alberto Manguel's brief memoir of Borges reads like a leftover from a literary machine always working overtime.
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Six Months Rent
by Anne F. Walker,

Firefly Books, Limited
pages $10.95 TP
ISBN: 0887532209
The New Long Poem Anthology
by Sharon Thesen,

General Distribution Services, Incorporated
384 pages $26.95 TC
ISBN: 0889104077
Reasons for Winter
by Guttman,

pages $9.95 TP
ISBN: 0919626513
Down to the Golden Chersonese
by Nancy Holmes,

pages $9.95 TP
ISBN: 1550390058
Evenings at Loose Ends
by Gerald Godin, Judith Cowan,

87 pages $9.95 PT
ISBN: 1550650157
Tolstoy at Yasnaya Polyanna
by George Woodcock,

120 pages $12.95 TP
ISBN: 1550820052
In the House of No
by Ken Morris,

90 pages $12.95 PT
ISBN: 1550820079
In Broad Daylight Stories of Sex, Love, & War
by John E. Sorrell,

Mercury Publishing Company, The
80 pages $10 TP
ISBN: 1895419123
Brief Reviews
Brief Reviews - Poetry
by Ann Diamond
LET'S START WITH a declaration. Despite a certain familiarity with the English language I am at times totally lost in the byways of its traditions. As I perused these volumes, I recognized a few landmarks. Here a Black Mountain outcropping, there a Victorian panorama. Pausing to bathe, I smelled the lichenous odour of paleontology, saw the colourfully bloated corpse of Dada half submerged, the engulfing mists of imagisme drifting languorously downstream. Let me begin with the fattest, which n
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