Montreal Review of Books: Fall and Winter 2002

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Eleventh Issue
Volume 6, No. 1

features

A Graphic Tale
By Ian McGillis

Catherine Kidd
By Ian McGillis

On The Road Again
By Noel Rieder

fiction

Grave Suspects
Reviewed by Melissa Scowcroft

That Sleep Of Death
Reviewed by Melissa Scowcroft

The Art Of Deception
Reviewed by Carmine Starnino

A Tourist's Guide To Glengarry
Reviewed by Reg Silvester

The Originals
Reviewed by Joel Yanofsky

Sea Peach
Reviewed by Gemini Jones

Spare Parts Plus Two
Reviewed by X. I. Selene

fiction at a glance

Mask
Reviewed by Margaret Goldik

Fair Weather
Reviewed by Ian McGillis

Not Quite Mainstream: Canadian Jewish Short Stories
Reviewed by Margaret Goldik

Summer Blonde
Reviewed by Ian McGillis

non-fiction

Doug: The Doug Harvey Story
Reviewed by Byron Ray Rempel

Montreal: The Unknown City
Reviewed by Ian Ferrier

A Good Enough Life: The Dying Speak
Reviewed by Mary Soderstrom

How Linda Died
Reviewed by Mary Soderstrom

Memoirs Of A Less Travelled Road: A Historian's Life
Reviewed by Louise Abbott

Stephen Leacock: His Remarkable Life
Reviewed by T.F. Rigelhof

The Rescue Of Jerusalem: The Alliance Between Hebrews And Africans In 701 Bc
Reviewed by Mark Heffernan

non-fiction at a glance

Inns And Bed And Breakfasts In Quebec
Reviewed by Margaret Goldik

The Novalis Guide To Canadian Shrines
Reviewed by Margaret Goldik

Visiting Scholar: A Reader For Educational Leaders
Reviewed by Margaret Goldik

Downtown Montreal
Reviewed by Ian McGillis

Exploring Old Montreal
Reviewed by Ian McGillis

Handbook: An English Program For Students With Learning Disabilities
Reviewed by Margaret Goldik

The Biker Who Shot Me: Reflections Of A Crime Reporter
Reviewed by Ian McGillis

poetry

Before We Had Words
Reviewed by Lucille King-Edwards

Transcona Fragments
Reviewed by Sonja A. Skarstedt

Resume Drowning
Reviewed by Sonja A. Skarstedt

Café Alibi
Reviewed by Adrienne Ho

The Envelope. Please (cd)
Reviewed by Adrienne Ho

young readers

Wilfred Laurier: A Pledge For Canada
Reviewed by Carol-Ann Hoyte

The Mole Sisters And The Cool Breeze
Reviewed by Carol-Ann Hoyte

The Mole Sisters And The Question
Reviewed by Carol-Ann Hoyte

Sally Dog Little
Reviewed by Carol-Ann Hoyte

Tina And The Penguin
Reviewed by Carol-Ann Hoyte

Anancy And The Haunted House
Reviewed by Carol-Ann Hoyte

Generals Die In Bed: A Story From The Trenches
Reviewed by Carol-Ann Hoyte

In The Key Of Do
Reviewed by Carol-Ann Hoyte

Building America
Reviewed by Carol-Ann Hoyte

Making Masks
Reviewed by Carol-Ann Hoyte

Phyllis Munday, Mountaineer
Reviewed by Carol-Ann Hoyte

Talking Book

Spoken Word Star Catherine Kidd's Sea Peach

By Ian McGillis

What was it like spending part of your youth in the Yukon?

The things I remember are melting a bit. When I was about three or four a man gave me a beaded bracelet he had made, with the initials LG on it. They were the initials of a girlfriend he had just broken up with. Beads show up in my work as the way memory is strung together. Also I remember the prancing neon horse above the W... READ MORE

The Son Also Rises

Guillaume Vigneault's Necessary Betrayals

By Noel Rieder

For a while in the '80s everyone was talking about Generation X. Surely you recall: they were brooding, materialistic slackers who'd one day (about now actually) sink the economy with their apathy and annoying Zen philosophy.

Now that Gen-Xers are blended into the general wash of adulthood, the emergence of raving, ecstasy-addled Gen-Y is what's terrifying finance ministers. These days th... READ MORE

Forensically Speaking

Kathy Reichs's Grave Secrets

By Melissa Scowcroft

If trends in crime fiction were a reflection of reality, the streets of Montreal would be awash with blood. The recent mania for local detectives and detection is perhaps no surprise given the commercial success of local crime writers Kathy Reichs and Trevor Ferguson (as John Farrow). Reichs in particular seems to have breathed new life into that rather tired creative writing class maxim: write wh... READ MORE

GDS Postmortem: A publisher's take

By Simon Dardick of Véhicule Press

There is no one closer to a publisher than a distributor. They hold all our books, ship orders to the bookstore and collect payment. The distributor then pays the publisher according to their contract. It is an exclusive arrangement - a system that has, by and large, worked as long as anyone can remember.

This equilibrium was shattered on April 30, 2002 when Jack Stoddart's General Distribution Services, one of Canada's largest book distributors, owing $47 million, received court protection from its creditors. Two hundred publishers (sixty of them Canadian-owned) were catapulted into a crisis situation. Payments to client pubishers completely stopped (although most publishers had received little or not revenue from GDS since October 2001). Since bankruptcy protection freezes contracts between publisher and distributor, most publishers were unable to freely remove their books from the GDS warehouse or seek another distributor, unless GDS actually went into bankruptcy. In one fell swoop the existence of sixty small and large Canadian publishers was put in jeopardy.

On August 19, GDS filed for bankruptcy, thus freeing the publishers from their contracts but leaving them with the task of ensuring that their companies survive: extricating books from the GDS warehouse after paying extortionist fees, finding a new distributor, making up for months of lost sales and income, and - most importantly - reactivating postponed titles and marketing plans, not to mention assuring authors that royalties will be paid.

By borrowing money and mortgaging their homes, the publishers demonstrated their belief in the diversity and value of Canadian culture and the passion they have for what they do. However, the collapse of GDS has been a painful lesson. In 1995 the Competition Bureau should never have allowed Smithbooks and Coles - two independent chains - to become Chapters, and then again in 2001 to allow Chapters and Indigo to merge into an even larger monopoly that has 70% of the retail market. Due to their size the chain could demand higher discounts that reduced publishers already modest margins. Before Chapters was sold to Indigo, in order to improve their balance sheet Chapters returned an unprecedented number of books to publishers for full credit. As this avalanche of books arrived at the newly expanded GDS warehouse it completely destabilized a company that was already in financial straits. A downward spiral had begun, one that would end in bankruptcy.

As publishers pick up the pieces it is clear that there will have to be a new approach to contracts with distributors. What is less clear is how we can return competition to Canada's book trade.

We wish to thank the Canada Council for the Arts, the Department of Canadian Heritage, and the Canada Council for the Arts and the Department of Canadian Heritage through the Interdepartmental Partnership with Official Language Communities, for their generous support, without which this publication would not exist.

Montreal Review of Books is published biannually by the Association of English-language Publishers of Quebec (AELAQ)

Circulation 35,000

Co-Editor: Margaret Goldik

Co-Editor: Ian McGillis

Designer: David LeBlanc

Advertising Manager: Michael Wile

For editorial inquiries contact

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