The Age of Walter Gage: How One Canadian Shaped the Lives of Thousands by Shelley Fralic [Vancouver]: The Friends of Walter Gage, 2018 $24.99 / 9780994932938 Reviewed by Sheldon Goldfarb First published Sept. 17, 2018 * People familiar with UBC will know the Walter Gage Towers near the heart of the campus, three 17-storey student…
Read more #378 Love affair with UBC
Tom Burrows by Scott Watson and Ian Wallace Vancouver: Figure 1 Publishing, 2018. Co-published with the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery $50.00 / 9781927958889 Reviewed by Robert Amos First published September 11th, 2018 * Born in Ontario in 1940, Tom Burrows moved to Vancouver in 1960 hoping to study medicine, but instead earned a B.A….
Read more #371 Burning down the house
Smith House II by Michael Prokopow, with photography by Michael Perlmutter and a foreword by Douglas Coupland Novato, California: ORO Editions, 2018 $24.95 (U.S.) / 9781940743387 Reviewed by Harold Kalman First published Sept. 2, 2018 * Historian of architecture Hal Kalman appreciates Michael Prokopow’s Smith House II, the biography of a house in West Vancouver designed…
Read more #363 An Erickson-Massey masterpiece
First published Jul. 3, 2018. Apples, etc.: An Artist’s Memoir by Gathie Falk with Robin Laurence Vancouver: Figure 1, 2018. $22.95 / 9781773270128 Reviewed by Sheryl Salloum * The opportunity to sit down with an eminent artist and have that person share their reminiscences is rare. In Apples, etc. An Artist’s Memoir by Gathie Falk…
Read more #336 Gathering Gathie
The Plague by Kevin Chong Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press, 2018 $19.95 / 9781551527185 Reviewed by Michael Kluckner First published June 6, 2018 * A 1947 modernist novel by an existentialist French philosopher set in a dusty Algerian town? This sounds like an improbable inspiration for a story about glittering 21st-century Vancouver, but Kevin Chong manages…
Read more #317 Channeling Camus
First published June 1, 2018. Born in Toronto on August 14, 1931, Doreen Alice Ellen (Hayes) Armitage died at Lions Gate Hospital in North Vancouver on May 15, 2018. A writer who believed strongly in oral history, Armitage wrote for publications such as Canadian Geographic, Outdoors Canada and Canadian Living before publishing her first book,…
Read more #313 Doreen Armitage (1931-2018)
First published May 25, 2018. City on Edge: A Rebellious Century of Vancouver Protests, Riots, and Strikes by Kate Bird, foreword by Charles Demers Vancouver: Greystone Books, 2017. $32.95 / 9781771643139 Reviewed by Larry Hannant * We would be remiss if we did not preface this review with a notation that Michael Barnholden has previously…
Read more #308 A little revolution, please
Sitting Shiva on Minto Avenue, by Toots by Erín Moure Vancouver: New Star Books, 2017 $21.00 / 9781554201419 Reviewed by Claire Sicherman First published April 19, 2018 * It is three weeks after the death of her former lover, Paul Émile Savard, when author Erín Moure learns he is dead, and that he died alone…
Read more #290 Grieving with Google
A Temporary Stranger: Homages, Poems, Recollections by Jamie Reid Vancouver: Anvil Books, 2017 $18.00 / 9781772140989 Reviewed by Andrew Parkin First published April 4, 2018 * In a posthumously published collection by Vancouver poet Jamie Reid (1941-2015), there are poems of homage to a number of famous French poets from Baudelaire to Apollinaire, including Reverdy,…
Read more #281 Baudelaire, Rimbaud, and Jamie
The Clean Money Revolution: Reinventing Power, Purpose, and Capitalism by Joel Solomon with Tyee Bridge Gabriola Island: New Society Publishers, 2017 $29.99 / 9780865718395 Reviewed by Jawad Qureshy First published April 2, 2018 * Born in Tennessee in 1954, Joel Solomon was educated at Vassar College, worked as national youth co-ordinator on Jimmy Carter’s election campaign…
Read more #279 The wisdom of Solomon
First published March 22, 2018. Canada: Modern Architectures in History by Rhodri Windsor Liscombe and Michelangelo Sabatino London: Reaktion Books, 2016. £20.00 / 9781780236339 Reviewed by Martin Segger * This survey of Modernism in Canada is the thirteenth volume in a series of country-by-country studies of twentieth century architecture. This one has long been anticipated…
Read more #270 Starchitects, 1886 onwards
The Plague by Kevin Chong Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press, 2018 $19.95 / 9781551527185 Reviewed by Joan Givner First published March 21, 2018 * A classic French text invigorates a new tale of rats overtaking Vancouver. Joan Givner compares Kevin Chong’s The Plague, set in Vancouver, with Albert Camus’ work of the same name published seventy years…
Read more #269 A plague on our houses
Georgia Straight: A 50th Anniversary Celebration by Doug Sarti and Dan McLeod, with an introduction by Bob Geldof and essays by Mike Harcourt, Paul Watson, and Bif Naked Victoria: Rocky Mountain Books, 2017 $40.00 / 9781771602525 Reviewed by Ron Dart First published Mar. 10, 2018 * In February 1967, the name Georgia Straight was hatched…
Read more #263 Georgia Straight honoured
Ryga Award announcement, 2018 This year’s Ryga Award winner for Social Awareness goes to Georgia Straight journalist Travis Lupick for Fighting for Space: How a Group of Drug Users Transformed One City’s Struggle with Addiction. First published March 6, 2018 * “I hope that Fighting for Space receiving this award encourages discussion of Canada’s overdose…
Read more #260 Travis’s travail wins Ryga
First published Feb. 22, 2018. The Campbell Revolution? Power, Politics, and Policy in British Columbia J.R. (Jason) Lacharite and Tracy Summerville (editors) Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queens University Press, 2017. $34.95 / 9780773551039 Reviewed by Hamish Telford Duplicitous in terms of his First Nations policies, Gordon Campbell was likewise self-serving when it came to the arts;…
Read more #250 Gordon Campbell, a reckoning
Binning House by Matthew Soules (text) and Michael Perlmutter (photography) Novato, California: ORO Editions, 2017 UBC SALA/West Coast Modern House Series $24.95 (U.S.) / 9871939621665 Reviewed by Rhodri Windsor-Liscombe First published Feb. 19, 2018 * Architecture critic Adele Weder is now trying to preserve the much-admired house that was built and designed by Bert Binning…
Read more #249 West Vancouver modern
Fighting for Space: How a Group of Drug Users Transformed One City’s Struggle with Addiction by Travis Lupick Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press, 2017 $24.95 / 9781551527123 Reviewed by Danya Fast First published Feb. 4, 2018 * Locally and globally, Vancouver is celebrated for its world-class harm reduction and social housing programs, and regarded as a…
Read more #244 Downtown Eastside influencers
Red Robinson: The Last Deejay by Robin Brunet Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2016 $29.95 / 9781550177695 Reviewed by Lani Russwurm First published Jan, 25, 2018 From vaudeville to punk rock, entertainment looms larger than it probably should in Vancouver’s history, considering the city’s dinky stature for most of its existence. One reason for this is…
Read more #239 And here’s to you, Mr. Robinson
The unforgettable Major Matthews: A memoir of 1969 by John Pass First published Jan. 23, 2018 * We are pleased to unveil a memoir by the award-winning poet John Pass (born 1947) from the summer of 1969 when he crossed paths with Vancouver’s first archivist, the one and only Major J.S. Matthews, an Imperial bulldog…
Read more #238 Unforgettable Major Matthews
Sustenance: Writers from BC and Beyond on the Subject of Food by Rachel Rose (editor) Vancouver: Anvil Press, 2017 $25.00 / 9781772141016 Review by Caroline Woodward First published Dec. 20, 2017 * As Poet Laureate for the City of Vancouver from 2014-2017, Rachel Rose wanted a community project which offered another world view than the muttering…
Read more #225 Food & community in Vancouver