Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - July 11, 2004, Winnipeg, Manitoba B8 Winnipeg free press editor Morley Walker / 697-7307 sunday july 11, 2004 email books pounds sobering look at olympic games inside the olympics a behind the scenes look at the politics the scandals and the glory of the games by Dick Pound Wiley 288 pages $35 reviewed by Graeme Voyer w hat do you do when you Are an idealist surrounded by cynicism and corruption that seems to be the situation of Dick Pound a Canadian who became an inter National olympic official. Pound has drawn on his considerable experience to write an assessment of the state of the olympic movement. Pound a Mon Trealer competed for Canada As a swimmer at the olympics of 1960 in Rome. He served As presi Dent of the Canadian olympic association and then became a member of the International olympic committee Ioc holding several executive positions within that body. He has written a loosely structured account of various issues associated with the olympics. Among the issues he discusses. The preparations of Athens for the olympics of 2004. The judging scandal at the Winter games of 2002. The use of drugs in sports. . The threat of terrorism and the role of International politics in the olympics. . The negotiation of marketing and television contracts. . The process of selecting cities to Host the olympics. Pound has totally embraced what could be called the olympic Ideal but the olympic movement that he describes is one in which the reality is very much at variance with the Ideal. What is disconcerting is the amount of lying that Pound encounters at Vari Ous Levels. A Canadian sprinter assured Pound that he was not taking any prohibited drugs but tests revealed that he was a longtime user of a steroid. In 1984, the summer games were being held in los Angeles the soviet Union decided to Boycott in retaliation for the american Boycott of the Moscow olympics in 1980. To justify their Boycott rather than admitting that they were simply retaliating the soviets manufactured the absurd pretext that their athletes would not be Safe in America. Granted Pound says the largest collection of crazies in the world can be found in and around los Angeles but there was never a Security risk of any compounding their mendacity the soviets claimed that they would not attempt to influence other nations to join their Boycott. In fact Battle then ensued to see How Many countries they the soviets could recruit to join their Boycott and the americans finally woke up to the fact that their games could be seriously and Pound describes an incident in which a sport administrator blatantly lied to the Pope. Some of the worst corruption that Pound describes occurred within the International olympic committee itself ? in particular the Salt Lake City bidding scandal in which Mem Bers of the Ioc sought and accepted payments from the Salt Lake City bid Ding committee in Exchange for votes. One of the most culpable members of the Ioc in the bidding scandal was in Yong Kim of South Korea. Ironically both Pound and Kim ran for the presidency of the Ioc in 2001, and Kim received More votes than Pound did despite pounds exemplary record and considerable contributions to the olympic movement. They both lost to Jacques Rogge a belgian this is a sobering look at the olympics. Pounds Book is at times tedious but his self portrait As an administrator upholding ideals in the face of Petty self serving complacent colleagues is convincing. It would be an instructive read for anyone gearing up to pay attention to the Athens games which begin aug. 13. Graeme Voyer is a Winnipeg writer. Rawlins world changes in new mystery Little Scarlet by Walter Mosley Little Brown and company 320 pages $34.95 reviewed by Randall King with the initial publication of his first easy Rawlins mystery Devil in a Blue dress one could suggest author Walter Mosley was the Man who finally put the Black in detective noir fiction. Set mostly in the dark town neighbourhoods Gumshoe Philip Marlowe would observe in passing in books such As Farewell my Lovely Devil and the subsequent books of the series have the requisite Tough talk violence and sex sure. But noir As a genre implies a sense of existential doom and despair. And while Mosley a mysteries have described the apartheid like atmosphere of Post Sec Ond world War los Angeles with a cer Tain trenchant bitterness they Are Hope Ful too. This of course is due to the character of Ezekiel Rawlins himself a typically unwilling Sleuth who Only takes cases to help friends or to act As a representative of Justice when the Justice system would just As soon ignore a crime or arrest some usual suspect instead of applying itself to a Case in the Vicinity of Rawlins South los Angeles turf. Rawlins manages to be a credible character and a compelling one though he also neatly fits into the definition of a hero As proscribed by Marlowe creator Raymond Chandler detective fiction a grand old Man who famously wrote Down these mean streets a Man must go who is not himself mean who is Nei ther tarnished nor he must be the Best Man in his world and a Good enough Man for any Rawlins world is changing before his eyes in Little Scarlet which is set in the few Days following the Watts riots of 1965. A woman called Little Scarlet has been found murdered and the most Likely suspect is the White Man she rescued from a mob of rioters. The police aware of the potential of the Case to cause renewed rioting ask Rawlins to look into the murder. Unnerved by the riots himself Rawlins agrees and is True to form soon track ing the kind of murderer that could easily Fly under the land radar. Yet the Book deviates from the Norm in the Way . Itself broke out of its orbit after the Watts riots and Rawlins him self ends up taking the kind of chances that might have been unthinkable in say the 1948 Milieu of Devil in a Blue dress. The Ever increasing cast of regular characters ? including easy a danger Ous pal mouse ? offer support. But its Rawlins game and through easy Mosley cuts through the . Smog As perceptively As Chandler did in his Day. But where Chandlers . Stayed in a stasis of seedy Glamour Mosley has Over the course of his books depicted a City in violent transition while still delivering the Quality of mystery fiction that a Good enough for any world. Randall King is a free press entertainment reporter. Using Golf As vehicle for higher things modestly successful in search of burning Bush a Story of Golf Friendship and the meaning of Irons by Michael Konik Mcgraw Hill 277 pages $29 reviewed by Ron Kirbyson this Book is a Good idea awkwardly executed. At first glance it looks like another in the genre of Golf As a spiritual Enterprise. The burning Bush of the title is the mythical Golf course featured in Michael Murphy a Golf in the kingdom first published in 1972. Disappointment however is Likely to be the reaction of the Reader looking for another Murphy or perhaps a Deepak Chopra Golf for enlightenment. Successful Are the descriptions of Golf. They show knowledge of the game and familiarity with Scotland the land of its origins. Unfortunately the attempt to exploit Golf As a vehicle for higher things is at Best modestly successful. Sentimental and mawkish rather than spiritual and moving Are words appropriate to describing the material. The ideas expressed and conversations presented Are reminiscent of soap opera. Annoying diction Giggle appears countless times is constantly distract ing. The Story line has Promise at least on the surface. Two Guys golfing fanatics team up for a two week expedition to courses in Scotland an experience known to a number of Winni Eggers. The narrator is Michael Konik the 40ish younger male. A Golf writer and poker expert the beneficiary of fre quent world travel Konik is the More cosmopolitan of the two. His companion in the trip described in in search of burning Bush is Don Naifeh a poker dealer and player. His typical travel has been relatively local from Casino to Casino. Referred to As Middle aged actually forty something he suffers from the debilitating Condi Tion known As Brittle Bone disease. Don appears largely through the eyes of the narrator a kind of second banana. He is a physical Accident waiting to Hap pen consuming cigarettes for Comfort. Yet he manages to Limp through 18 holes a Day. Konik is a Veteran of trips to Scotland with Golf always the main reason for going even when travelling with his sweetheart. The object in searching for burning Bush is ostensibly much More complicated. He gets it in his head that he and pal Don must journey to Scotland. Not merely to play some interesting courses like St. Andrews and Balg Ownie but deeper goals. Early in his account Konik writes i want Golf to Rescue thereafter he repeatedly returns to the theme of seek ing the meaning of existence. In Scot land. In two weeks. Through the medium of Golf. Two sub themes Romance and Friend ship emerge from time to time. The narrator contends with memories of a relationship gone sour. Though con ceding his personal failure he aggressively counsels his buddy on dealing with a she Vixen companion by Long distance Telephone. True Friendship is something that the narrator feels escaped him earlier in life. He seems determined to Bond with his handicapped partner. The latter appears to be More inter ested in simulating certain Golf course images. He reveals he acquired them As a member of the Shivas Irons society named for the hero of Golf in the King Dom. Oddly enough no mention is made of the sequel the kingdom of Shivas Irons also by Michael Murphy and published in 1997. Not that the omission matters. Nor does it matter whether it was burning Bush where the two buddies made their final Midnight Golf shots. As Konik quotes him and readers of Murphy know not even the creator of the legendary Golf course knows for sure the physical location of his literary creation. Ron Kirbyson is a Winnipeg writer and teacher precisely rendered verbal icons in search of compelling Story port Mungo by Patrick Mcgrath Doubleday Canada 242 pages $33 reviewed by Douglas j. Johnston British born new York City Resi Dent novelist Patrick Mcgrath has a reputation As a chronicler of the obsessive and gothic. Faithful to his rep there Are obsessions galore and More than a touch of the gothic in Mcgrath a latest offering. But what his sixth novel mostly Dis closes is a writer stretching for some thing to say. Port Mungo is chock full of precisely rendered verbal icons in search of a compelling Story. What Story there is in a nutshell privileged eccentric 17-year-old Wannabe Painter Jack Rathbone Falls in love with 30-year-old Kinda Painter Vera Savage and the two of them quit London for an Odyssey that takes them to new York City Havana and finally the Titu Lar port Mungo a seedy port town on the Gulf of Honduras. Over the years they carry on like Boozy bohemians adrift in tropical Lan Gour. They manage to have two Daugh ters ? the older of whom Dies due to their negligence the younger of whom is summarily plucked from their lives at age four by jacks older brother. Along the Way some Art is created but not much. Its sometimes hard to credit what a being recounted in port Mungo. Mcgrath employs a fictional device ? the untrustworthy narrator ? to add a sense of mystery and indeterminacy to the Story. The narrator is Rathbone a sister Gin who a a bit of a nut bar. Everything that happens is filtered through her consciousness and perspective. Freud would have had a Field Day with this lady. Her affection for her brother is a Tad us unnatural. Ergo what she tells us about brother Jack and his exploits is coloured by her abnormal psychology. Her not quite sublimated incestuous feel the whole Ings percolate to the narrative surface time and again. By novels end has an gins credibility is shot abstract to hell. Some of the novels feel about main characters Are it. Nicely developed some less so. Jack Rathbone As a sort of latter Day Gauguin works Vera As his alcoholic adulterous mate sometimes fails to Rise above caricature. Though Mcgrath has a Talent for Dia Logue and description the Story never rings True or inspires. The whole narrative has an abstract feel about it. As a result you re never fully pulled into the characters lives and universe. For All its dexterity it fails As a Story anyone could care about. Douglas j. Johnston is a Winnipeg lawyer and writer. Wit Sharp ear for dialogue on display in stories the Lemon table by Julian Barnes random House Canada 241 pages $30. reviewed by Dave Williamson England a Julian Barnes has been regarded As one of the most versatile and Clever of con temporary novelists ? Best known for such genre defying works As Flaubert a Parrot 1984 and a history of the world in 10-1/2 chapters 1989. His latest offering the Lemon table is a collection of conventional Short stories but his wit and his Sharp ear for dialogue were never More abundantly Dis played. Now in his late 50s, Barnes contemplates mortality in most of these 11 stories. The key to his Overall theme can be found in the final Story the silence. The narrator an octogenarian composer tells of regularly going out to Dine at a place called the Kamp where at the Lemon table. It is permissible ? indeed obligatory ? to talk about he explains that among the chinese the Lemon is the Symbol of reflecting Back Over the preceding 10 stories one realizes that All have dealt with the different ways Barnes characters have faced death or tried to postpone it. Yet there is nothing depressing about these tales they Are refreshingly Lively and comic. In Hygiene a retired major tells in clipped Mil itary language of his surreptitious visits to a Lon Don prostitute. In the things you know two widows meet for breakfast and Barnes wittily contrasts what they re saying to each other about their deceased husbands with what they re thinking. Vigilance is less a Story than a hilarious essay on How one should behave at a classical music con Cert. Appetite is narrated by a female dental assistant now retired and looking after her demented Hus band the 75-year-old dentist she once assisted. In a Story both funny and sad she contends with the outrageous comments brought on by his condition while she reminisces about How they fell in love. Irony the Story of Mats Israelson is worthy of Chekhov in its Fine use of irony the Reader is party to three Points of View that document the missed opportunities for what might have led to a grand Romance if Only Anders Boden and Barbro Lindwall had known How each Felt about the other. The Best Story is the fruit Cage in which Chris Bishop tells what he knows about his parents love life. At 81, his father leaves his Mother for another woman and Chris noisily interviews All three to question their motives while also trying to deter mine to what extent these folks Are indulging in physical lovemaking. Chris believes that old people conspire to pre tend that old age is what their offspring want it to be ? a time of serenity. They sit there with a Rug Over their Knees nodding subservient by and agree ing that their revels now Are ended. Their move ments have slowed and the blood has thinned. The fires have gone out. Except that my father was declining to play the the Lemon table is a Rich collection of stories from a talented writer the Story of Mats Israelson and the fruit Cage Are two examples of Julian Barnes at his Best. Dave Williamson is a Winnipeg writer whose own collection of Short stories is called accountable advances ;