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BOOKS IN REVIEWA closer proofreading would have uncoveredthe occasional lapse. GabrielleRoy's death is duly noted but at anotherpoint she is said to be leading "a lifedevoted almost exclusively to her art."Each chapter consists for the most partof an account of the critical reception ofthe works in question and a detailed plotsummary. There is some room, however,for analysis and commentary. The importanceof the themes of childhood andmemory is well illustrated in the discussionof Rue Deschambault and La Routed'Altamont, there is a sensitive presentationof La Petite poule d'eau and CetEté qui chantait, but the comments onAlexandre Chenevert are disappointing.Hesse does not appreciate the revelationand transformation at Lac Vert andmisses the profound message concerningthe individual's opportunity for self-discoveryand regeneration. The chapter onLa Montagne secrète affords Hesse anopportunity to discuss Gabrielle Roy'sunderstanding of the artist's vision androle in society. The artist's calling imposesa solitary life and, yet, one thatultimately creates bonds of solidarity withthe reader.The brevity accorded each text is morecruelly felt in some cases than in others.The two pages dedicated to Ces Enfantsde ma vie are simply too few to yieldanything but the most superficial plotsummary for one of Gabrielle Roy's trulyimpressive works.Hesse correctly emphasizes GabrielleRoy as the Canadian writer most concernedwith the Canadian mosaic andunreservedly sympathetic to Canada'snew settlers and the homeless. The"stranger" is, for Gabrielle Roy, a metaphorexpressing the human condition.Hesse makes the point directly: "It ismeaningless to speak of 'strangers' for itapplies to no one or every one."In the summary, the author of thisstudy places Gabrielle Roy in the contextof French-Canadian literary historybut stresses the universality of her writing.Her works are concerned with humandignity and the ideal of fellowship,and her characters embody the strugglefor the realization of that dream. Hesserepeats Donald Cameron's observationthat what one finds in Gabrielle Roy iswisdom, in spite of the fact that she is anintuitive, rather than an intellectual,writer.Hesse notes that Gabrielle Roy's workswhich take place in the past are primarilyidealistic and Utopian, whereas theones situated in the contemporary periodare mostly "realistic." She presents GabrielleRoy's fiction in terms of a seriesof dualities — the ideal and the real, theprairie and Quebec, life and death, selfand others — but there is, nevertheless,an essential, underlying unity. One finds,in the final analysis, a bond between theauthor and her readers that extends beyondthat relationship to represent thelink between the individual and his fellowman.This volume does not so much constitutean addition to the increasingly variedcritical material on Gabrielle Roy asan opportunity for English-Canadian andAmerican readers to acquaint themselveswith one of Canada's best writers. MordecaiRichler once commented sardonicallythat Canadian literature is the onlyworld literature to be read exclusively inCanada. Any serious attempt to remedythat situation should be welcome.SHALLOW GRIEFSPAUL SOCKENDAVID GiLMOUR, Bach on Tuesday. CoachHouse, $12.50.IMAGINE A DILUTED mixture of Lowry'sUnder the Volcano and Salinger'sCatcher in the Rye and you have the