Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - July 30, 2006, Winnipeg, Manitoba B6 Winnipeg free press editor Morley Walker / 697-7307 sunday july 30, 2006 email books by the multimillionaire for the multimillionaire Berlusconi got himself elected Italy a pm to protect his vast wealth the sack of Rome How a Beautiful european country with a fabled history and a storied culture was taken Over by a Man named Silvio Berlusconi by Alexander Stille the Penguin press 384 pages $34 reviewed by Graeme Voyer Silvio Berlusconi makes Conrad Black seem like a Choirboy. The italian Media real estate tycoon used his immense wealth ? he is the richest Man in Italy ? to found his own political move ment and become prime minister of Italy twice in 1994 and again in 2001. This Book by Alexander Stille is a chronological account of Berlusconi a Rise to Power it also seeks to explain the Berlusconi phenomenon. Stille is an american journalist who has lived and worked in Italy. He is the author of four previous books. Berlusconi Stille recounts made his initial Fortune in real estate in the 1960s and 1970s. He parlayed this Success into a Multi Farious business Empire. He bought a newspaper. By 1984, he had acquired three television stations giving him a virtual monopoly on private television in Italy. He became Italy a largest Book and Magazine publisher. He sold insurance and other financial services and Pur chased a soccer team. Berlusconi a hallmark ? in both Busi Ness and politics ? was identifying and filling voids. Television was a classic example. Before Berlusconi italian Tele vision was dominated by the state Broad Caster Rai and its three networks. Rai was serious and High minded it perceived its role As educating and producing culture. Advertising was strictly limited. Berlusconi a private networks rep resented a marked departure from Rai. Berlusconi filled his networks with american soap operas and sit coms. His original italian program Ming included the worlds first nude game Berlusconi a trashy to with its heavy emphasis on sex was popular with both audiences and advertisers and television became the most lucrative facet of Berlusconi a Empire. By the Early 1990s, however Berlus Coni was concerned about the possibility of losing his monopoly on private Tele Ture of Success and affluence and his vision. He feared that the italian left should it gain Power would enact legis lation taking away one or two of his net works. Accordingly in order to forestall this possibility and protect his television monopoly Berlusconi decided to enter the realm of politics directly. He created his own political party forza italia. He transformed his vast business Empire into an enormous political machine. For example the stockbrokers and insurance agents working for Berlusconi a financial services company became Campaign workers and set about turning the hundreds of thousands possibly millions of financial clients into voters and party As with television Berlusconi filled a void in italian politics. During the cold War italians had voted along ideological and religious lines. With the end of the cold War traditional party loyalties were no longer relevant. As Stille notes in the Post cold War world television personality and marketing and this was a climate in which Berlus Coni could thrive. Berlusconi Stille suggests May be unique in the history of modern politics in having to some degree created his own through television he promoted a Cul a life with All its complications related with a Southern accent Nancy Culpepper by Bobbie Ann Mason random House 225 pages $30 reviewed by Jill Wilson the character of Nancy Culpepper has been featured in literary stories by Bob Bie Ann Mason going All the Way Back to the eponymous tale that appeared in the new yorker in 1980. Now Mason has collected the six Culpep per Short stories ? two of them never published before ? and a Novella into one Handy volume. The Kentucky born Mason award winning author of in country and Shiloh and other stories has a special Knack with the rhythms and feeling of life in the South. Her stories Call to mind the work of both Anne Tyler and Ann Beattie As she subtly explores the quotidian Rich Ness of her characters lives whether they re set adrift in a world that seems foreign to them or finding Comfort in the familiar. Nancy Culpepper grew up in Ken Tucky although Over the course of the Book she moves All Over the world. She a married to a photographer Jack who a a northerner and they have one precocious son. Sometimes she feels ashamed of her unsophisticated background claiming that their friends turn up their noses at her. But other times she takes a per verse Pride in recalling what her urbane friends would consider Back Woods behaviour. Mason too is clearly rooted in South Ern soil and that a where her stories truly sing. Her descriptions of Nancy a parents farm the Loving Way she talks about the Creek and the crops and the animals Shine with affection and her dialogue is Rich with expressions not heard North of the Mason Dixon line ? people Cook themselves up a mess of hog jaws and turnip greens and say things like he a Girlfriend ing already Nancy smother Lila exclaims seeing a picture of her grandson with a Date. Law that Nancy a parents can to understand her wanderlust her marriage to a Yan Kee or the Way she a always got her nose in a Book. Its easy to see them As backward and Small minded from Nancy a perspective in the Early stories but the Centre piece Novella Spence Lila reveals their inner lives Arent Small at All. Its the most affecting Story in the Book detailing Lila a Battle with breast cancer and the taciturn Spence a quiet terror at the possibility of life without her. Its a simple tale plainly told but its incredibly moving without Ever coming close to mawkish Ness. The two characters have a Radiant affection for each other that a lasted the duration of their marriage. He loves to see her when she a happily surprised. She always laughs so big Mason writes. Nancy and Jack have a More complicated relationship. In proper gypsies they have separated and she finds her self in London alone and confused caught up in memories of the past. In prelude they make their Way together again and their tender reunion is recounted alongside some of the reasons they a grown apart in the first place. Nancy recalls a dinner party where her friends looked askance at her Fried Chicken. I should have made them a big pot Chicken and dumplings Complete with the yellow feet sticking up she fumes. Nancy Culpepper can be read As a collection of stories but it also works beautifully As a novel. The works take the Reader along in chronological order but in some Nancy is merely a tangential character in oth ers she a writing in the first person. By the books end the Reader has a full por trait of a life with All its complications. Jill Wilson is a free press copy editor. Political Campaign appealed to these materialistic values. This is not a sympathetic account of Berlusconi. Stille is often highly critical of the businessman politician whose government Stille maintains represented an enormous conflict of interest. Stille portrays Berlusconi As a megalomaniac Given to referring to himself in the third person saying things like Berlusconi built an Empire ? find me someone else in Europe who has done the things that Berlusconi has for Stille there was Little substance to Berlusconi a governance there was no real program no deep policy objectives no real the Only common thread to Berlus Conis policies was Berlusconi himself and the need for More Stille concludes by attempting to draw parallels Between Berlusconi a Italy and the America of George w. Bush. How Ever these comparisons Are ill advised and unconvincing. It seems much More Likely that Berlusconi is a uniquely ital Ian phenomenon. And that phenomenon is ably depicted by Stille in what is probably one of the Best studies written in English of Post cold War italian politics. Graeme Voyer is a Winnipeg writer. Novelist behind the times and that a not a bad thing trouble in key West and Montana has Gallatin Canyon surface similarities to that of the by Thomas Mcguane bearded american literary icon but Knopf 220 pages $32 the similarities do not extend to the style and narrative voice. Reviewed by Bob Armstrong in Gallatin Canyon Mcguane employs a variety of voices a dry wit it might sound like a and a love of Bon Mots that a Reader putdown to say that might not expect after seeing the cow the american novelist boy hat wearing authors photo. And outdoors writer Mcguane a wit and wordplay Are Thomas Mcguane is restrained though and never take out of step with the away from the goal of telling a Story in times but of course which the people and their world that would depend on come to life. Your assessment of the a great Deal happens in these Sto times. Ries. In North coast two heroin in a Way Mcguane a Montana cat addicts search for treasure in the . The rancher and one time literary Star rain Forest and Mcguane makes an is a throwback to the Hemingway tra embarrassing reference to Canadas edition in american literature a Manly National health service. Man with an outsize Persona who in the Zombie a television addicted sets his fiction in the outdoors in Young Man is set up for a prostitution Manly locales. Sting with disastrous consequences. That tradition lives in Gallatin in the refugee a Burnt out survivor Canyon Mcguane a 13th Book and of 1970s key West revisits a past that second collection of Short stories included High seas terror and running three of which appeared originally in cuban refugees to the . The Semi the new yorker. Autobiographical Miracle boy is a like Hemingway Mcguane once had Memoir of a boys youth in a conflict a Fame that transcended the narrowed Irish Catholic family. World of literary fiction. In the 1970s, the plot Rich nature of these stories following the Success of his first three is another thing that makes Mcguane novels he directed the movie version of seem like a bit of a relic in an age when his hit ninety two in the Shade wrote Short fiction is mostly written by and the screenplay for the Jack Nicholson for creative writing students and pro Marlon Brando Western the Missouri lessors. Breaks and married and divorced mar unlike most Short fiction the stories got Kidder. But unlike Hemingway a in Gallatin Canyon wont leave you won fellow Michigan native Mcguane got Dering what if anything happened. Out from underneath the weight of there Are worse things than being a Fame and avoided becoming a parody bit behind the times. Of himself. Much of his fiction with damaged Bob Armstrong outsiders getting into various kinds of is a Winnipeg playwright. Have you Given your plumber a hug lately flushed How the plumber saved civilization by w. Hodding Carter Atria books 256 pages $33 reviewed by Randolph Schmid from the stench of London a sewers to a vocational school promoting toilet use in India to the Dank Corners of his own basement w. Hod Ding Carter has studied plumbing up close and personal. Perhaps surprisingly he seems fascinated by what he sees. From an interest spurred when Carter accidentally cracked a sewer pipe in his basement and decided to fix it himself has come flushed a delightful Book combining personal tales some history and a plea for better ways to dispose of Well you know what. Performing their thankless task Over the centuries Carter concludes plumbers have helped save civilization. Think about it. On a fundamental level what is More important to you electricity or running water your com Puter or your toilet Shock and Awe or a sewer system he asks. The Unsung hero of human history was of course the brain of drains the Hub of tubs the Power of showers the Brewer of sewers. The Humble plumber he asserts. Of that May be a Little Over the top. But its hard to disagree with Carter about the importance of modern plumb ing in disease prevention Comfort and just Plain convenience. The romans had great plumbing even though the toilets were Community affairs that most people today would find a bit Odd. But those facilities were Basi Cally abandoned in the Middle Ages. Think about cities like London and Paris ? crowded townhouses along Nar Row streets with their residents using chamber pots that when full were Sim ply emptied out of upstairs windows. The Wise Walker stayed to the Middle of the Street. In France the courteous Homeowner would shout Gardel eau meaning look out for the water before tossing the pots contents. That seemed like a polite idea to the British but their French want so Good and it became Gardy Loo which some have suggested gives us the cur rent British Slang for toilet Carter even advises readers that the inventor of the water closet ? which is now called a toilet ? was sir John Harrington in 1596. Thomas Crapper did to invent the Toi let a widely held misconception but he did improve it Carter reports. This is a volume Well Worth spending some Quality time Reading ? perhaps while relaxing Well. You know where. ? associated press ;