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Book Reviews in September 1993 Issue

Kim Campbell The Making of a Politician
208 pages $22.95
ISBN: 0002550768
Reading Kim Right
by Frank Davey,

L P C/InBook
0 pages $19.93 TP
ISBN: 0889223424
The Politics of Kim Campbell From School Trustee to Prime Minister
by Murray Dobbin,

pages $14.95 TP
ISBN: 1550284134
Book Review
Mulroney with a Mean Streak?
by Christopher Moore
When the Kim Campbell phenomenon was brand new, just before Brian Mulroney resigned, few experts could explain Campbell's sudden arrival as the inevitable successor.
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The Wealthy Banker's Wife
by L. McQuaig, Linda McQuaig,

pages $11.99 TP
ISBN: 0140230653
Main Brides
by Gail Scott,

240 pages $18.95 TP
ISBN: 0889104565
Book Review
Refrains and Reminiscences
by Margaret Sweatman
There is much to be learned from this novel, and it would take more than a review to explore the complexity of Scott's style and the subtle humour of her spatial text.
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For Those Who Hunt the Wounded Down
by David A. Richards,

pages $18.99 TP
ISBN: 0771074646
Book Review
Moral Discomforts
by Lynne Luven
Can things get much bleaker than this?" fans (and critics) of the New Brunswick writer David Adams Richards may well have asked after the publication of his 1990 novel, 'Evening Snow Will Bring Such Peace'.
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Aesthete The Frank Diaries of Michael Coren
156 pages $13
ISBN: 0394223438
Waiting for Aquarius
by John Levesque,

Mosaic Press
200 pages $14.95 TP
ISBN: 0889625379
Book Review
Funny Guys
by George Kaufman
The economy is closing in like a circling shark; our political choices are narrowing quickly to Eenie, Meenie, Mynie, and what's-her-name; and the humourless forces of Political Correctness stalk the land like cultural storm troopers.
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The Shaman's Knife
by Scott Young,

Viking Penguin
288 pages $5.95 TP
ISBN: 014014353X
Much Improved by Death
pages $24.95 TC
ISBN: 0316729310
Water Damage
by Gregory Ward,

320 pages $24.95 TC
ISBN: 0316922331
Book Review
Detecting Crimes
by Anne Denoon
I doubt that many readers will be able to foresee either the identity of the culprit or the complex machinations that person employs, all of which are elucidated in a masterly summing-up by the redoubtable Prior.
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Vital Choices Life, Death & the Health Care Crisis
by William Molloy,

pages $14.99 TP
ISBN: 0140173730
Magic or Medicine?
by Sabbagh, R. Buckman, Buckman,

pages $29.95 CT
ISBN: 1550132954
Safety Last
by Regush,

pages $19.95 CT
ISBN: 1550134620
Book Review
Keeping Our Health
by Ellen Roseman
For anyone who still thinks that modern medicine can cure all ills, these books help provide an antidote. Attacking the shortcomings of the medical model from different angles, they explain why people are flocking to alternative therapies.
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Ravensong
by Lee Maracle,

pages $12.95 TP
ISBN: 0889740445
Book Review
Life at a Distance
by Phil Hall
The nobility of this novel's subject and intentions is not enough to rescue it from the crude failings of its prose.
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Ad Sanctos Martyrology
by B. P. Nichol,

pages $19.95 TP
ISBN: 0889104549
Truth A Book of Fictions
by B. P. Nichol, Irene Niechoda,

pages $14.95 TP
ISBN: 0920544983
A Sourcery for Books One & Two of B. P. Nichol's The Martyrology
by Irene Niechoda,

214 pages $25 PT
ISBN: 1550221027
Book Review
Experimentalism Lite
by Clint Burnham
There's a kind of urban myth that's been floating around for the past 15 or 20 years about experimental writing or metafiction or whatever term it is we agree to use to describe prose that refuses transparent language and causal narrative.
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Juliette
by Yves Beauchemin,

pages $19.99 TC
ISBN: 0771011601
Book Review
Sure Excess
by Eric McCormack
For better or worse, this is the kind of novel many of us have been so educated away from in EngLit courses; it's almost impossible for us to read them with the innocence we must surely once have had.
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Book Review
Realities of War
by John Doyle
This is a book about war, the steadfast strength of women, and the growth of a sensibility.
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Wives of Bath
by SWAN ,

pages $26 TC
ISBN: 0394280067
Book Review
Not So Golden School-Days
by Sharon Butala
Lacking that passionate edge of either wit or profundity, I found that 'The Wives of Bath', for all its considerable merits - its humour, tightness, warmth, lack of pretension, and the skill with which it is written - never fully engages.
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Interviews
An Instinct for Life
by R Vaughan
David Adams Richards discovered his own voice by making his own mistakes.
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Letters to Editor
Letters to Editor
Letters may be edited for length or to delete potentially libellous statements. Except in extraordinary circumstances, letters of more than 500 words will not be accepted for publication.
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Prose/Poetry
The Power of Refusal
by Leona Gom
'Did you ever wonder,' she said, 'why the two men in your life are, shall we say, men manques - you know, men-with-something-missing?'
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Profiles
The Magnificent Voyage of Jovette Marchessault
by Elaine Naves
Toward a future where 'all tears will be dried, all the bowed backs will straighten'.
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Playwrights Collective Creatio
by Diane Bessai,

pages $24.99 TP
ISBN: 0889242275
Thirteen Hands
by Carol Shields,

pages $10.95 PT
ISBN: 0921368305
Castrato
by Greg Nelson,

pages $11.95 PT
ISBN: 0921368313
Stillborn Lover
by T. Findley,

pages $10.95 PT
ISBN: 0921368585
Escape Acts 7 Canadian One-Acts
by Colleen Curran,

192 pages $14.95 CT
ISBN: 0921833210
Someday
by Drew H. Taylor,

pages $10.95 TP
ISBN: 189561810X
Profiles
Unpunctually Yours
by David Prosser
Publishers who don't mind their periods and commas are putting theater texts in question.
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Profiles
Remembering Tom Marshall
by Douglas Fetherling
Personally, I like to remember Tom as he was during the summer of 1969 in London, England, where he had come to oversee the sale of 'The Psychic Mariner', his now seldom-cited study of D. H. Lawrence's poetry.
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Profiles
In the Belly of the Beast
by Sherri Davis-Barron
As long as he can remember, Roger Caron needed danger to feel fully alive. And to feel powerful when he survived it.
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Lion of Judah
by Victor Ostrovsky,

Saint Martin's Press, Incorporated
320 pages $21.95 TC
ISBN: 0312100167
One Indian Summer
by Wayne Curtis,

200 pages $14.95 TP
ISBN: 0864921519
Visions of Kerouac
by Ken Mcgoogan,

pages $16.95 PF
ISBN: 0919001750
Birds of Passage
by Linda Leith,

256 pages $13.95 PT
ISBN: 092183313X
A Circle of Birds Winner of the 15th Annual 3-Day Novel Contest
by Hayden Trenholm,

99 pages $9.95 CT
ISBN: 1895636035
First Novels
First Novels - Fanciful Flights
by Gary Draper
To be fair, there are some genuinely suspenseful moments in the book, and a puzzle to be solved. My guess is that for the dedicated fan there is enough here to provide some thrills for a lazy afternoon.
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Field Notes
Field Notes - Living Poetry
by Raymond Filip
The Canadian flag has two sides. Reverse it, and you may discover the colours of another homeland. Lithuania happens to be the other country in the case of this author.
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George Fetherling
Last Words - Strangers Within Our Gates
by Alec McEwen
'Creole' is a multipurpose word that was once reserved as a name for European colonists, especially those of Spanish or French descent, who were born in the West Indies.
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Two Guys on Holy Land
by Walid Bitar,

University Press of New England
68 pages $25 CT
ISBN: 0819522066
Underwater Carpentry
by Brian Bartlett,

115 pages $12.95 TP
ISBN: 0864921330
The Bat Had Blue Eyes
by Betsy Warland,

100 pages $11.95 TP
ISBN: 088961184X
Short Talks
by Anne Carson,

pages $10.95 TP
ISBN: 0919626580
This Brighter Prison A Book of Journeys
by Karen Connelly,

112 pages $11.95 TP
ISBN: 0919626637
Stones to Harvest
by Henry Beissel,

64 pages $10.95 PT
ISBN: 0920259448
Old Habits
by Rhona McAdam,

64 pages $11 TP
ISBN: 1895449081
Brief Reviews
Brief Reviews - Poetry
by Barbara Carey
Some poetry books venture far afield in form and/or material; others situate themselves on familiar ground. This month's batch of titles is a mixture of the restless and the stay-at-home, providing the pleasures of the unexpected and of recognition.
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Baie Comeau Angel & Other Stories
by Wilfred Watson,

pages $12.95 PT
ISBN: 0920897290
Brief Reviews
Brief Reviews - Fiction
by Ayse Tuzlak
The stories in 'The Baie Comeau Angel' can be unsettling, but Watson's keen eye and wild imagination make the book worth a reader's attention.
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Missing Fred Astaire
by P. Scott Lawrence, Linda Leith,

208 pages $13.95 TP
ISBN: 1550650335
Brief Reviews
Brief Reviews - Fiction
by Donna Dunlop
In "Famous," Lawrence explores fate and fame through the figure of a bit-playing, unheroic Hollywood movie actor from Quebec, whose final and tragic leading role occurs bizarrely, but not surprisingly, in his own life.
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Elephant Hook & Other Stories
by Martin Sherman,

pages $12.95 PF
ISBN: 0920897274
Brief Reviews
Brief Reviews - Fiction
by Virginia Beaton
Sherman's flair for snappy endings is particularly notable. He lets the anonymous taxi driver of "Cab Ride" have the last say on the difference between life and art, as the cabbie comments on an ill-fated passenger.
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From Here to Paternity
by Jay Teitel,

288 pages $25.99 CT
ISBN: 0670847488
Brief Reviews
Brief Reviews - Non-fiction
by George Kaufman
The effort yields some interesting insights, and Teitel has a knack for telling a story. But all too often, my response was, So what?
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The Voyages of Jacques Cartier
177 pages $17.95 TP
ISBN: 0802060005
Brief Reviews
Brief Reviews - Non-fiction
by Christopher Moore
It is a sparkling essay, guided more by new literary theory than old historical glosses, and it makes Europe seem as foreign as the New World.
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Writers & Company
by Eleanor Wachtel,

pages $15.95 TC
ISBN: 0676970249
Brief Reviews
Brief Reviews - Non-Fiction
by Michael Darling
Wachtel's questions never lead to any consideration of style or technique, and as entertaining as these interviews may be, we are seldom reminded of the reasons why these writers were deemed worthy of being interviewed.
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The Heartbreak Grape A California Winemaker's Search for the Perfect Pinot Noir
by Marq De Villiers,

208 pages $31 TC
ISBN: 0062585231
Brief Reviews
Brief Reviews - Non-fiction
by Susan Aihoshi
Interesting and straightforward publications about wine and winemaking are rare; there are many reference books and guides, but rare is the volume that tells a compelling story about the magical process of turning grapes into a unique beverage.
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More Watery Still
by Patricia Young,

85 pages $12.95 TP
ISBN: 088784541X
Brief Reviews
Brief reviews - Poetry
by Sandra Nicholls
'More Watery Still' gives the impression of having been rushed into print. It's a fine collection, one I'd recommend, but if Young had waited to fill this volume with only her best work, it could have been extraordinary.
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A Handful of Seeds
by Monica Hughes, Luis Garay,

Orchard Books
32 pages $14.95 TC
ISBN: 0531094987
The Longest Home Run
by Roch Carrier, Sheila Fischman, Sheldon Cohen,

24 pages $15.95 TC
ISBN: 0887763006
Grampa's Alkali
by Jo Bannatyne-Cugnet,

96 pages $8.95 TP
ISBN: 0889950962
The Best of Arlie Zack
by Hazel Hutchins, Ruth Ohi,

88 pages $4.95 TP
ISBN: 1550373153
Belle's Journey
by Marilynn Reynolds, Stephen McCallum,

32 pages $7.95 TP
ISBN: 1551430215
Children's Books
Children's Books - Reader in Transition
by Elizabeth Anthony
While this book is ostensibly addressed to children of all ages, its naive idealism best suits the very young, who are novices to, not veterans of, the play ground.
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At Large
At Large - The Big (Brother) Chill
by Michael Coren
George Orwell's perception of the ultimate menace to free and free reading was Big Brother; in Canada the large sibling now takes the form of a group of men dressed in black with legal documents under their arm.
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