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. Read more...
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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. Read more...
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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'. Read more...
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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. Read more...
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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. Read more...
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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. Read more...
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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. Read more...
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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. Read more...
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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. Read more...
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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. Read more...
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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. Read more...
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Interviews An Instinct for Life by R Vaughan David Adams Richards discovered his own voice by making his own mistakes. Read more...
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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. Read more...
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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?' Read more...
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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'. Read more...
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Profiles Unpunctually Yours by David Prosser Publishers who don't mind their periods and commas are putting theater texts in question. Read more...
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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. Read more...
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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. Read more...
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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. Read more...
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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. Read more...
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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. Read more...
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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. Read more...
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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. Read more...
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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. Read more...
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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. Read more...
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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? Read more...
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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. Read more...
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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. Read more...
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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. Read more...
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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. Read more...
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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. Read more...
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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. Read more...
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