Interwoven Lives: Indigenous Mothers of Salish Coast Communities by Candace Wellman Pullman, WA: Washington State University Press, 2019 $27.95 (U.S.) / 9780874223644 Reviewed by Marie Elliott * Researching settlement history can take you in many directions, some more challenging than others. While helping people with their family histories at the Washington State Archives in Bellingham,… Read more #599 Coast Salish women revealed
Jim Christy: A Vagabond Life by Ian Cutler, with a foreword by Luis E. Navia Port Angeles, WA: Feral House, 2019 $17.95 (U.S.) / 9781627310741 Reviewed by John Moore * Literary biography is a problematic genre. Ostensibly, its purpose is to illuminate the author’s work, but writing about an author inevitably means competing with a… Read more #596 Escape from the fish farm
In His Steps: The Life and Times of Wilberforce Cooper, Vancouver’s Skid Road Priest by Peter J. Cooper Victoria: FriesenPress Publishers, 2019 $27.68 / 9781525544545 Reviewed by Phyllis Reeve * St. James’s Anglican Church presides over Vancouver’s Downtown East Side — presides over but does not loom over. Described as simultaneously Byzantine, Gothic Revival, and… Read more #590 Mission to skid row
Cornelius O’Keefe: The Life, Loves, and Legacy of an Okanagan Pioneer by Sherri Field Victoria: Heritage House, 2019 $9.95 / 9781772032482 Reviewed by Ian Pooley * Sherri Field’s new book, Cornelius O’Keefe, the Life, Loves, and Legacy of an Okanagan Rancher, is a welcome addition to the short list of serious works about Okanagan history… Read more #583 From Nepean to Okanagan
At the Bridge: James Teit and An Anthropology of Belonging by Wendy Wickwire Vancouver: UBC Press, 2019 $34.95 / 9780774861526 Reviewed by Daniel Marshall * In my travels as an historian over the years through the communities of the southern B.C. Interior, I have heard two names repeatedly in conversations with regard to the history… Read more #575 The late, great, James Teit
The Ormsby Review presents a joint review of all ten books in the Unheralded Artists of B.C. Series from Mother Tongue Publishing of Salt Spring Island, 2008-2017. — Ed. Monika Ullmann, with an introduction by Brooks Joyner, The Life and Art of David Marshall (Mother Tongue: 2008) (UABC #1) Eve Lazarus, Claudia Cornwall, and Wendy Newbold… Read more #573 BC’s forgotten artists
Rolf Knight (1936-2019) An obituary by Alan Twigg * Born on March 4, 1936, the son of an itinerant cook, Rolf Knight grew up in remote B.C. logging camps, without other children to play with. He gained his M.A. in anthropology at UBC in 1962, and a Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1968. For decades… Read more #570 Rolf Knight (1936-2019)
Harold Rhenisch reviews two books: Through the Whirlpool: Swept Up in the Nazi Apocalypse by Karl Koerber CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2019 $15.85 / 9781718958524 * In Other Words: A German-Canadian Story by Norbert Ruebsaat CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2017 $16.20 / 9781547129027 * … Read more #565 Postwar Germans
First published May 5, 2019 Greg Younging (1961-2019) An obituary by Alan Twigg * Formerly an Assistant Director of Research for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Dr. Gregory George Younging, a publisher of Theytus Books and a professor of Indigenous Studies at the UBC Okanagan campus, died at the Penticton Hospital on May… Read more #544 Greg Younging (1961-2019)
First published April 29, 2019 Wayson Choy (1939-2019) An obituary by Alan Twigg * At age 80, Wayson Choy died at home on April 28, 2019. Wayson Choy was born on April 20, 1939 in Vancouver as the only son of two working parents. His mother was a meat-cutter and sausage stuffer; he was told… Read more #540 Wayson Choy (1939-2019)
Blamed and Broken: The Mounties and the Death of Robert Dziekanski by Curt Petrovich Toronto: Dundurn, 2019 $20.99 / 9781459742932 Reviewed by Bonnie Reilly Schmidt First published April 19, 2019 * On October 14, 2007, Robert Dziekanski arrived in Vancouver on a flight from Poland to begin a new life in Canada. In Blamed and… Read more #532 The death of Robert Dziekanski
What Forever Feels Like: A Memoir of Johnsons Landing by Ellen Burt New Denver: Maa Press, 2018 $23.00 / 9781999554804 Reviewed by Lee Reid First published March 28, 2019 * The old magic of “once upon a time” can ambush us, especially when we see the loves and challenges of our own lives mirrored in… Read more #518 Matriarchs of Johnsons Landing
Almost Islands: Phyllis Webb and the Pursuit of the Unwritten by Stephen Collis Vancouver: Talonbooks, 2018 $24.95 / 9781772012071 Reviewed by Sharon Thesen * Literary friendships are the source of more compositional energy than we usually give them credit for. As Stephen Collis reminds us in this deeply engaging book-length essay set within his friendship… Read more #515 Fulford Harbour’s silent poet
Big Lonely Doug: The Story of One of Canada’s Last Great Trees by Harley Rustad Toronto: House of Anansi Press (Walrus Books), 2018 $22.95 / 9781487003111 Reviewed by Mark Forsythe * An immense, solitary Douglas fir stands inside a vast clear-cut. Sun-bleached slash stretches in all directions; the tree’s shadow reaches for a nearby second… Read more #500 A tall tale from Port Renfrew
George Garrett: Intrepid Reporter by George Garrett Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2019 $26.95 / 9781550178661 Reviewed by Michael Sasges * George Garrett: Intrepid Reporter is important reading for anyone interested in Vancouver politics and journalism in the last fifty years of the previous century. As a reporter for radio station CKNW from 1956 to 1999,… Read more #497 Vancouver’s master broadcaster
Edith Iglauer (1917-2019). An obituary by Alan Twigg First published Feb. 14, 2019 * Having lived for many decades in a waterfront cottage that was built by her second husband, John Daly, about whom she wrote her memoir Fishing With John, the former New Yorker contributor Edith Iglauer Daly of Garden Bay has died at… Read more #486 Edith Iglauer (1917-2019)
He Speaks Volumes: A Biography of George Bowering by Rebecca Wigod Vancouver: Talonbooks, 2018 $24.95 / 9781772012064 Reviewed by Kathy Mezei First published Feb. 12, 2019 * What a great title. For George Bowering does speak volumes; he is out-spoken, loud, witty, loquacious, a “talk producer” as Virginia Woolf once described a character. And, as… Read more #484 A life in books: George Bowering
Guide to Victoria’s Historic Jewish Cemetery by Amber Woods Victoria: Old Cemeteries Society, 2018 $15.00 / 9780968289945 Available at: jewishvictoria.wordpress.com/ordering/ * Raincoast Jews: Integration in British Columbia by Lillooet Nördlinger McDonnell Vancouver: Midtown Press, 2014 $22.95 / 9780988110120 Both books reviewed by Sheldon Goldfarb First published Feb. 9, 2019 * * Here’s a curious pair… Read more #482 Two views of Raincoast Jews
On The Rocks with Jack Knox: Islanders I will Never Forget by Jack Knox Victoria: Heritage House, 2018 $19.95 / 9781772032666 Reviewed by Keith Norbury First published Feb. 8, 2019 * It’s often said that journalism represents the first rough draft of history. As a reporter, editor, and columnist with the Victoria Times Colonist daily… Read more #481 Island characters
How Churchill Waged War: The Most Challenging Decisions of the Second World War by Allen Packwood Barnsley, UK: Pen & Sword Books, 2018 $34.95 (U.S.) / 9781473893894 Reviewed by Peter Clarke First published Jan. 29, 2019 * Each new book about Winston Churchill inevitably faces the question of whether it is really necessary, since there… Read more #474 Decisions, decisions