Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - September 7, 1997, Winnipeg, Manitoba Books sunday free press editor Morley Walker / 697-7307 Winnipeg september 7, 1997 email Bouchard profile All that shines stumbles in spots was Gold the antagonist by Lawrence Martin Viking books 368 pages $35 reviewed by Terence Moore a free press editorial writer Ottawa journalist Lawrence Martin has done a Fine reporting Job on the life and times of Quebec Premier Lucien Bouchard. For this heavily publicized new Book subtitled Lucien Bouchard and the politics of delusion he interviewed interesting sources such As Bouchard a Brothers his College and University classmates his second in command at Canadas Paris embassy one former concubine and several former Law partners. He has drawn from them interesting details about the eloquent Quick thinking Quick tempered lawyer who became the charismatic Leader of the Quebec secessionist movement. When he tries to reach beyond reporting and reveal unseen things however Martin stumbles. The psychiatrists commentary about Bouchard sinner motivations already widely reported is no More illuminating in the Book than it was in the newspapers. Martin tries to make much of his list of Bouchard a flip flops but not knowing what to make of it he merely serves it up As proof of the premieres dishonesty. On Page 128, Martin tells us All witnesses agree Bouchard a mind was a buried in the past. He could never wipe the slate clean and move on. He could never rid himself of old two pages further on he cites psychiatrist or. Vivian Rakoff to prove that Bouchard like an actor a shuts out the past and becomes totally committed to the scene of the having flatly contradicted himself within two pages Martin mocks Bouchard for praising Canada when he was ambassador to Paris and condemning it after he became Premier of Quebec. This is the first and Best Martins look at Bouchard is a superficial caricature. Item in his list of Bouchard a 50 flip flops. But it is neither new nor interesting to learn that Canadas ambassadors Praise Canada and Quebec premiers sometimes condemn it. If this is psychotic self contradiction then every lawyer every journalist every politician and most civil servants should be under professional care. The world is a Complex place and the More you try to describe it the More you must contradict yourself. It May be Worth the Effort however to look hard at those contradictions to try to see where they come from and where they May Lead. Bouchard like the Quebe cers who elect him lives partly in United Canada the Canada that has its capital in Ottawa and partly in another much older country that settlers from Normandy started in the St. Lawrence Val Ley 400 years ago. That country once called Canada now called Quebec has survived several changes of ownership and Constitution. Whatever becomes of the newer country the older one will still be there. Q results Ruebe cers Are deeply attached to both. Twice they have voted on separation. The to showed they were of two minds. That is not the mental disease Martin tries to depict. It is the Concrete reality that history has Given Quebe cers. Bouchard a life and times reflect those two sets of ties. Martin the assiduous reporter has assembled the data that could have produced an illuminating picture of a Man and a society. He has used them instead to produce a superficial caricature and a shrill polemic. It is a waste of Talent and Good material. Psychologist Sheds notions by David Pitt a Halifax freelance writer like Many of her colleagues psychologist Lauren Slater had certain notions about schizophrenics a especially she writes in Welcome to my country Anchor 199 pages $18a the belief that the schizophrenic. Cannot think about higher level concerns like love and Beauty the swellings of intimate sex. A it would be like trying to teach Dostoevsky to a three year old logarithms to an alzheimer a but once she began working with schizophrenics Slater Learned that her patients were As capable of dealing with a higher level concerns As anyone. Beautifully written Slater describes her patients As a foreign tropical Green roses and striped plants that Are hard to understand Welcome to my country describes the casting off of slaters misconceptions and challenges us to reconsider our own perceptions of schizophrenics. The scepticism following the announcement that movie actor Ethan Hawke was writing a novel was it turns out entirely unjustified. The hottest state Vintage 196 pages $15 is a very Good first novel a Well written and compassionate with characters who remind us of people we be known. The Story is traditional a boy meets girl boy loses girl a but Hawke tells it paperback smartly mostly avoiding the obvious cliches. His Central character a Young actor named William is like Many Young lovers caring but self centred passionate but cold. It is these contradictions that make William such an appealing character and it is Williams voice telling us his Story that will linger in the mind. In blues All around me Avon 336 pages $9blues musician . King presents himself As an ambitious Young Man who made Good As much through hard work As through Talent. He Wasny to a discovered a his career began when he was hired to write and perform a Jingle for a tonic called Pep Ticon which turned out he adds to have been 12 per cent alcohol. He parlayed that gig into a full time Job As a deejay and his stage name the Beale Street blues boy was soon shortened to . A close friends clipped it off to just Plain the Book is apparently transcribed from interviews with King its co written by David Ritz who a collaborated on the autobiographies of Ray Charles and Smokey Robi Sonand the blues master certainly knows How to turn a phrase describing Booker t. Washington White King says a the could have been a con Man because you believed every word he said but he Wasny the was a Reading blues All around me is like listening to King Tell us his life Story a a Nice Way to spend a few hours. More social commentary than True crime Melissa Fay Greene a the Temple bombing Fawcett 499 pages $20 tells the Story of the 1958 bombing of the Temple Atlanta a oldest and wealthiest synagogue. Greene who lives in Atlanta interviewed Many of the people involved in the Case and she a created a detailed picture of a particularly difficult time in the City a history. In the 1950s, Atlanta was in the midst of racial upheaval. While politicians and interest groups promoted desegregation and equal rights terrorist organizations were on a bombing spree hitting among other targets synagogues Community centres and rabbis Homes. A by 1958,�?� Greene writes a Atlanta was ringed by after the Temple bombing the City a jewish and Black populations joined forces against the terrorists a ironically the bomb that was supposed to prolong racial hatred actually helped to hasten the birth of the civil rights movement. This fascinating Book reminds us that although we still have a Long Way to go we have also come a Long Way. Bea successful writer make Money writing amp earn while you learn. Want to write the writing school s unique Home study course will show you How to write Well and How to get your work published. You la learn to write articles Short stories novels romances and scripts that sell and keep on Selling. Your personal Tutor will review your work showing you How to write material that s fresh readable and Saleable. In fact if you have not recovered your fees by the time you have completed the course you la receive a full refund. Send today for the free Book that explains it All. Call 1-800-267-1829 fax 1-613-749-9551 the writing school 38 Mcarthur Avenue sixth 2860 Oti Awa Ontario k11. 6r2 tax deductible amp get exempt Mary scorer lease end final Sale Opp music Opp books Opp gift Ware 389 Graham a venue thanks but for fools the Brex fraud by Douglas Goold and Andrew Willis Mcclelland amp Stewart 272 pages $28_______________ reviewed by Buzz Currie features editor five months ago to the Day a 62-year-old lawyer named Lawrence Beadle took a pistol from a drawer in the desk of his Home office in new Westminster b.c., and shot himself. Beadle had retired a few months earlier with $3 million. He had sunk All of it and More a buying on margin a into a soaring Stock called Brex minerals Ltd. That was now nearly worthless. Beadles sad end is recounted in a Book by Globe and mail reporters Douglas Goold and Andrew Willis. The Globe reporters have handily won the race into print with the fabulous Brex Saga. Four More books Are in the works but they re not expected out until next year. And when they show up its hard to believe get closer to the truth than Goold and Willis. Surely you know the Story. Hardscrabble Canadian exploration company finds Likely spot in indonesian Jungle. Test drilling finds Gold. Lots of it. Maybe 50 million ounces. No make that 70 million. A Hundred million. Two Hundred million All to be dug out at $75 an ounce and sold for $350 or More. Investors leap on Gravy train. Mining firms Battle for right to dig up what Brex has found. Australian company with Long history in Indonesia wins prize sets to work. It finds no Gold. None. Samples have been salted. Brex geologist leaps to death from helicopter. Billions of dollars in paper profits vanish. The Globe reporters advantage is that they had the Benefit of All their newspapers coverage of Brex. Of course they May have rushed too hastily into print. They May be chagrined to read in one of the forthcoming books that the ramp has sorted out exactly who profited criminally and who profited honestly a for Many did a from Brex. But if you believe that a going to happen you re naive enough to be an investment analyst. Many of that fraternity emerge from the fiasco looking downright stupid at least through the Globe teams eyes. Two Days after the Brex geologist Mike de Guzman had killed himself and while the internet was Abuzz with news that there was no Gold at Busang Nesbitt Burns analyst Egizio Bianchini told his clients a the Gold is the analysts were convinced they had seen the Gold. They Hadnot. What they had seen were reports. Cores from Busang had indeed been assayed and the assayer had found abundant Gold. No wonder. De Guzman and maybe others had bought the Gold from a storekeeper who had panned it out of a Creek. A Microscope would have shown the Gold was a a Placer Gold and not the Type found in Rock. But that Wasny to the assayers Job. Brex hired an engineering firm Kilborn to verify the find. Kilborn read the assayers reports and paid no attention to the Sloppy Way the samples went from Busang to the lab. The Stock shot up so rapidly that buying now became More important than doing Homework. All along the Chain that led from Busang to investors people relied on what they had heard and read not what they had seen. The Story Between the lines of the Brex fraud is that the world of High finance is built More on Blind Trust than we in the laity would Ever have guessed. And if there is a moral it is that caveat emptor let the buyer beware is As Good advice As Ever. The Stock shot up so rapidly that buying now became More important than doing Homework. On the night table Bill Richardson Csc radio Host and author a i recently finished Reading John Lanchester a the debt to pleasure. I just loved that Book. I went crazy Over it. Its so beautifully crafted. Every sentence in that Book is Brilliant. I found myself Reading it carefully sentence by bestsellers based on sales at Mcnally Robinson booksellers As of september 1 hardcovers mass Market 1. Larry a party Carol Shields. Canadian fiction. $31.00 a 2. Simple abundance Sarah ban breath Nach. Inspiration. $22.95 3. The under Painter Jane Urquhart. Canadian fiction. $29.99 4. Boom bust and Echo How to profit from the coming demographic shift David foot with Daniel Stoff Man. Business. $29.95 5. Babyhood Paul Reiser. Humour $27.00 6. Conversations with god Book 1, Neale d. Walsch. Religion. $26.95 7. The Celestine prophecy James Redfield. Fiction. $23.95 8. The Brex fraud Douglas Goold amp Andrew Willis. Business issues. $27.99 9. Its just Prairie Ron Richardson. 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