\s mYevtew ELECTRONIC ADDITION - University of British Columbia

OPINIONS AND NOTESWe await their coming, books that initiatepersonal explorations in word manipulation,planetary motion, drawing facesthat change expression, simulating predator-preyecologies, composing sixteenthcentury counterpoint, tracing the intricateshape of simple formulas, testing technicalstrategies in the stock market, analysingwriting style, generating story plots,playing go-moku, operating an antcolony,. . . (The list is apparently endless.My article-generating program continuedfor two more pages before I realized thatit might never stop. )A. K. DEWDNEY*** JACK KAPicA, ed., Shocked and Appalled:a Century of Letters to the Globe andMail. Lester & Orpen Dennys, $19.95. Americanswrite their Congressman when they'reshocked and appalled; Canadians write theEditor of their local paper. I'm fond of aletter that appeared recently in the Sun, fromsomeone who justified the postal rate increaseon the grounds of its being a storage fee. Thereare letters that sting, letters that amuse, sensibleletters, and letters that explain everythingby referring to the approximate shape of theearth. This collection of addresses to theGlobe & Mail (from the 1880's to the 1980's)turns into quite a miscellany. The letters concernRiel and rebirth, declare that "There isnot a Canadian literature because there is noCanada," and attack the poetics of a versetribute to Sir John A. ; they offer sketches ofEgypt, correct spelling, complain that "obey"has been dropped from marriage vows, objectto the idea that the peony should replace themaple as a national emblem, and offer awhole series of suggestions for the NationalBird: junco, goose, sparrow, owl, stork, chickkadee,robin, jay, dove, grouse, hawk . . . (andbeaver?). J. E. H. MacDonald writes onpainting, Merrill Denison writes on the wilderness,Stephen Leacock writes about theCBC's general manager, Norman Levine abouthidden censorship, Hugh MacLennan on separatismand American annexation, MurraySchäfer on loons and the national soundscape.There are letters from David Helwig andPierre Berton, Eugene Forsey and Hugh Hood—• and by a host of other people. The book isan engaging glimpse of the issues that reallyget people going; it contains many of the realvoices of Canadian culture, and (like the"Letters" columns of the local paper) it is adelight to read.**** JEFFREY SIMPSON & GED MARTIN, TheCanadian Guide to Britain, vol. 1. Macmillan,$24.95. The title is slightly misleading:Wales is included (Scotland will be the subjectof vol. 2). But the substance of entries inthis directory of Canadian connections withEngland is fascinating. There are brief commentson Lowry and Leacock, Carleton andMurray, Frobisher, Francis Dickens, and scoresof others — but the most engaging momentsare the unexpected ones: the recipe for SnailTea, a medicinal concoction Mrs. Wolfebrewed up for her sickly son, James; or thecollege song for a Borstal school that sentboys to Canada ("Australia and Canada thrillwith our fame, / And the kangaroo leaps atthe sound of our name..."). This is pophistory for the inquisitive traveller, wellresearched(if incomplete), and ably told.W.N.A set of reference works particularly valuableto literary historians and aficionados of thebook trade is the group of Gale works devotedto commentary on literary journals. The LiteraryJournal in America to 1900 ($62.00),The English Literary Journal to 1900($62.00), and English Literary Journals, 1900-1950 ($60.00) combine discursive reflectionson periodical history with specific data (concerningdates and editors) about listed journals,and with annotated bibliographic listingsthat bear on each journal. Journals such asScribner's and the North American Revieware listed — periodicals that attracted a numberof nineteenth-century writers; the bibliographyamply aids research into this (oftenephemeral) territory.W.N.*** Fingerprints. Irwin, $12.95. A collectionof tales by the Crime Writers of Canada,this anthology offers a generally sprightly collectionof mysteries, thriller, political intriques,and tough romances. Most impressive are thetwo Iron Curtain stories — riddled withironies both structural and political — byAnna Sandor and Josef Skvorecky. The oneother standout — for its chiselled prose, itsartful control of time — is the story by SandraWoodruff.2O2