шш in review DISCOURSE OF THE OTHER - University of British ...

BOOKS IN REVIEWthought that this will be quoted in studentessays is too much to bear.The reading that Cameron offers ofthis poem, coming as it does at what Ihave already noted as a turning point inthe book, marks the move from the authorityof disclosure, which is the biographer'sposition, to her own authorial,interpretative disapproval which characterizesthe later part of the book. It willbe interesting to see which way Cameronmoves next : I hope that it will be towardthe kind of serious biographical writingthat she has, at times, shown herself ableto do.DIAMOND& DAYDREAMBEN JONESw. p. KiNSELLA, The Iowa Baseball Confederacy.Collins, $19.95.LIKE W. P. KINSELLA'S first novel, ShoelessJoe, this book defies easy description.To call either work "just" a baseballnovel would not do it justice, for bothdeal with far more than the game; theyare about life itself, the bittersweet qualitiesof loves lost and time past, and inthe new book a marathon game in Iowabecomes a metaphor for the physical andspiritual struggles of the human condition.The Iowa Baseball Confederacyconjures up memories of such diverseworks as "Back to the Future," OurTown, The Wizard of Oz, Faust, LakeWobegone Days, One Flew Over theCuckoo's Nest, and "Dear Hearts andGentle People." Mostly, however, it remindsme of Shoeless Joe's mix of subjects:love, family, baseball, religion,mystery, local colour, Indian lore, history,time, magic.To enjoy this book fully, you must believe— or want to believe — that magicis possible, that the immutable forces oftime and death can and should be challenged.If you don't, you probably won'taccept the outlandish premise of thenovel: a man named Gideon Clarkeattempts to demonstrate memory inheritedfrom his father, namely that the1908 Chicago Cubs, contrary to all survivingrecords, really did play a fantasticexhibition game against a collection ofIowa All-Stars. Seventy years after thefact, Gideon sneaks through a "crack intime" to relive the epic struggle that tookplace in a tiny town on the outskirts ofIowa City.Magic in this novel affects time, place,and action. It is startling enough thatGideon is able to travel back in time,but what at first appears to be an innocentyearning to experience the pastturns out to be a struggle to the deathwith death and the ravages of time. Fromthe beginning, when Gideon's father recountsthe "one moment in which youwould like to live forever. . . . One momentwhen you'd like to be frozen intime," to the end, when Gideon hopes,"Perhaps there does not have to be anymore death. Perhaps time can be defeated,"time and death prompt the fascinatingrevelations of this novel.The magic of place shapes Iowa Cityand its fictional neighbour, Onamata,formerly called Big Inning. Residents ofIowa City (Johnson County) — and theCanadian Kinsella is one of them, dividinghis time between there and WhiteRock, B.C. — speak of a certain "magic"which pervades the area, much as didGideon's father, who was "always talkingof the magic in the air."The magic of action is the sport ofbaseball. Here as elsewhere, Kinsellalyrically praises the great game, butagain, baseball is the means not the end.Baseball is the perfect medium throughwhich to illumine the magic and mysteryof human existence.162