David Watmough (1926-2017) An obituary by Alan Twigg First published August 14, 2017 * “I hope my work is myopically ‘westcoast’ and persistently graceful in language.” — David Watmough “That rarest of birds on the literary scene, the natural storyteller.” — Robert Fulford QUICK REFERENCE ENTRY: Homosexuals in British Columbia can now express themselves openly…
Read more #153 David Watmough (1926-2017)
Victoria’s Most Haunted: Ghost Stories from BC’s Historic Capital City by Ian Gibbs Victoria: Touchwood Editions, 2017 $19.95 / 9781771512138 Reviewed by Peter Grant First published August 13, 2017 * The standard general histories of the Victoria, most of them by popular (non-academic) historians, are now almost half a century old. These are: Derek Pethick’s…
Read more #152 Getting spidey in Victoria
Chilcotin Chronicles: Stories of Adventure and Intrigue from British Columbia’s Central Interior by Sage Birchwater Halfmoon Bay: Caitlin Press, 2017 $26.95 / 9781987915334 Reviewed by Lorraine Weir First published August 10, 2017 * Sage Birchwater credits playwright Gwen Pharis Ringwood with urging him to keep a record of his travels on the Chilcotin Plateau –…
Read more #151 Taking care of stories
REVIEW: Walking to Camelot: A Pilgrimage through the Heart of Rural England by John A. Cherrington Vancouver: Figure 1 Publishing, 2016. $22.95 / 978-1-927958-62-9 Reviewed by John Gellard First published July 12, 2017 John Cherrrington takes a 365-mile hike through southern England on public footpaths. * From Figure 1 comes John Cherrington’s Walking to Camelot,…
Read more #150 Camelot and the waste land
First published July 11, 2017 REVIEW: From the Klondike to Berlin: The Yukon in World War I. by Michael Gates Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2017. $24.95 / 978-1-55017-776-3 Reviewed by Jim Wood The outpouring of centenary books about aspects of Canada’s involvement in the Great War, 1914-1918, continues with From the Klondike to Berlin: The Yukon…
Read more #149 From Yukon to the Western Front
ESSAY: Theatre in Vancouver Today: A Paradox by Carol Volkart First published July 8, 2017 * Everything about the Pacific Theatre is modest — from the low-ceilinged lobby with its island of couches around a coffee table, to its urns of self-serve coffee (regular or decaf), to its 128-seat alley-style theatre where a spectator who…
Read more #148 Pacific Theatre almost homeless
First published Jul. 6, 2017 On Island: Life Among the Coast Dwellers by Pat Carney Victoria: TouchWood Editions, 2017. $21.95 / 9781771512107 Reviewed by Pam Erikson The opening story of Pat Carney’s collection On Island: Life Among the Coast Dwellers sets a fable-like tone. On a sunny, summer morning a mysterious woman releases…
Read more #147 Cats–Pat Carney’s island carnival
The Summer Book: A Treasury of Warm Tales, Timeless Memories and Meditations on Nature by 24 BC writers by Mona Fertig (editor) Salt Spring Island: Mother Tongue Publishing, 2017. $24.95 / 9781896949611 Reviewed by Howard Macdonald Stewart First published July 1, 2017 * Mona Fertig of Mother Tongue Publishing has gathered 24 warm and poignant…
Read more #146 Poignant ruminations of summer
Light Within the Shadows: A Painter’s Memoir by Pnina Granirer Vancouver: Granville Island Publishing, 2017 $24.95 / 9781926997849 Reviewed by Janet Mary Nicol First published June 29, 2017 * Pnina Granirer was creative from an early age, but she didn’t come in to her own artistically until the “third act” of her life journey. This…
Read more #145 Pnina’s three lives
How Deep is the Lake: A Century at Chilliwack Lake by Shelley O’Callaghan Halfmoon Bay: Caitlin Press, 2017 $24.95 / 9781987915396 Reviewed by Sabina Trimble First published June 26, 2017 * In How Deep is the Lake: A Century at Chilliwack Lake, Shelley O’Callaghan reflects on her family’s 100 years at this mountain lake 45…
Read more #144 One family, one lake, one century
REVIEW: Engaging the Line: How the Great War Shaped the Canada-US Border by Brandon R. Dimmel Vancouver: UBC Press, 2016 $32.95 / 9780774832755 Reviewed by Keith Regular First published June 25, 2017 * The permeable nature of borders is of increasing intellectual interest, although the subject is yet to receive sustained attention. Since the crisis…
Read more #143 More than an imaginary line
The Sacred Herb / The Devil’s Weed by Andrew Struthers Vancouver: New Star, 2017 $19 / 9781554201150 Reviewed by Erika Dyck First published June 23, 2017 * British Columbia is the perfect setting for this timely book on…
Read more #142 Sacred Herb & Devil’s Weed
Abenaki Daring: The Life and Writings of Noel Annance, 1792-1869 by Jean Barman Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2016 $45.95 / 9780773547926 Reviewed by Michel Bouchard First published June 21, 2017 * Too often, scholars must do their best to distill the thoughts and narratives of the destitute, downtrodden, or the illiterate through the…
Read more #141 Retrieving Noel from obscurity
First published June 17, 2017 REVIEW: Gently to Nagasaki: A Spiritual Pilgrimage, an Exploration Both Communal and Intensely Personal By Joy Kogawa Halfmoon Bay: Caitlin Press, 2016. $24.95 978-1-987915-15-0 Reviewed by Patricia E. Roy The librarian who provided the Cataloguing in Publication information gave Joy Kogawa’s Gently to Nagasaki a call number in the 800s…
Read more #140 Joy Kogawa’s reflections
First published June 15, 2017 REVIEW: The Promise of Paradise: Utopian Communities in British Columbia By Andrew Scott Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2017. $24.95 / 978-1-55017-771-8 Reviewed by Keith Norbury Five centuries ago, when Thomas More conceived of a fictional perfect society, he named it Utopia, from a Greek word meaning “nowhere.” Three-and-half centuries later,…
Read more #139 Perfection is hard work
Son of a Trickster by Eden Robinson Toronto: Penguin Random House Canada, 2017 $32.00 / 9780345810786 Reviewed by David Stouck First published June 11, 2017 * In 1997 a book of remarkable short stories by a young Haisla/ Heiltsuk woman came across my desk. It had been selected as Editor’s Choice and Notable Book of…
Read more #138 The incredible deftness of being
Under Vancouver 1972-1982 by Greg Girard, with interviews by William Gibson and David Campany Toronto: The Magenta Foundation, 2017 $50.00 / 9781926856100 Reviewed by Bill Jeffries * Born in 1955, Greg Girard grew up in Burnaby and started photographing Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside in 1972, when he was still in high school. Girard moved to Hong…
Read more #137 Glimpses of pre-Expo Vancouver
The Way of Tanka by Naomi Beth Wakan Brunswick, Maine: Shanti Arts Publishing, 2017 $20.00 / 9781941830604 Reviewed by Phyllis Reeve First published June 8, 2017 * Born in England in 1931, Naomi Deutsch come to Canada in 1954 and worked as a psychotherapist in Toronto. She and her second husband Elias, who married in…
Read more #136 It takes one to tanka
The W̱SÁNEĆ and Their Neighbours: Diamond Jenness on the Coast Salish of Vancouver Island, 1935 by Diamond Jenness. Edited and with an introduction by Barnett Richling Oakville, Ontario: Rock’s Mills Press, 2017 $24.95. / 9781772440362 Reviewed by Chris Arnett Revised June 2020 * The overlooked ethnographic work of New Zealand-born Diamond Jenness (1886-1969) has been…
Read more #135 The W̱SÁNEĆ revisited
James Legge and the Chinese Classics A Brilliant Scot in the Turmoil of Colonial Hong Kong by Marilyn Laura Bowman Victoria: FriesenPress Publishers, 2016 $37.99 / 9781460288832 Reviewed by Norman Girardot First published June 2, 2017 Born in the Peace River country, Marilyn Bowman studied at the University of Alberta and McGill and taught Clinical…
Read more #134 Resuscitation of James Legge