29 - Wednesday, February 28, 199 - North Shore News

CHRISTINE

+8. CD C+

books yp

Craziness of Alaska town chronicled| CLEARANCE

© Silks and Assorted Fabrics

e have three through some of the most spec- and uninitiated alike with its
books to examine tacular and rugged regions of wealth of information on access © Bridal Laces
this week, more or Southern British Columbia, be- points, historical background and ALL AT COST
less linked by an outdoors tween Midway and Hope. complement of archival Open every Satunday of March, 3,017.24 &
a theme Exploring The Kettle Valley photographs. IOC am, 40 pin,
ve . Railway will appeal to the initiated we

But the first, Going To Ex-
tremes, is not as much concerned
with the physical environment as it

_ is with the men and women who
4 inhabit it. tt is an extraordinary
: Book by a most extraordinary sto-
ryteller.

Joe McGinniss had heard that
the mountains of Alaska had few
equals anywhere. This struck the
American author (The Selling of
The President, 1968) as worth see-
ing. So he did.

3 Going To Extremes (Plume/
cet Penguin; 285 pp.; $11.95), a non-
, fiction work, is the product of that
odyssey and the marvellous
creatures, two-legged and other-
wo wise, that he encountered.

wee And encounters he definitely
: had as he travelled the length and

MIKE
STEELE

book review

breadth of boom-and-bust Alaska:
coke-snortin’ legislators, a grass-
smoking principal, a mayor intent
on building a $12 million
municipal hall in a town of 3,000
that went for days without water
but seldom more than a few weeks
a without a murder.

2 But Going To Extremes isn’t
about problems — it’s about peo-
ple: drunk, ambitious, honorable,
thieving, loving and, in not a few
instances, crazy as bedbugs.

Of course, it’s also about
paradox, nature, corporate
America and a vanishing way of
life. Take the following description
(drastizally edited due to space
limitations) of the impact of televi-
a sion on a remote Inuit village.

Pg “No more were ancient stories
told late into the night. No more
_ the quiet visits, the dances, the lit-
tle games."

“The children watched Sesame
_§ Street each afternoun. Little
Gg Eskimo kids coming off the tundra

a and sitting three feet from the
screen. Learning to count from
one to 10 in Spanish. Gone was
the symbolism of the raven and
the bear. The new gods were Big
Bird and Bert and Ernie.”

McGinniss is a true storyteller.
He seduces the reader by degree,

ca a
= weaving with the written word an "
t intimate relationship of sight, Ss E
ae sound, smell and touch as he ex-
plores the human topography of

Be ccimmew | tO Getyour projects offthe ground | -

both guides: Jean Lauriault’s
definitive identification Guide To

-~

The Trees of Canada and Beth This summer hire energy and enthusiasm. possible without our support.
Hill's Exploring The Kettle Valley Hire a student. Under ‘Challenge ‘90’, the Invest in Canada’s future workforce by |
The Identification Guide To The Government of Canada has funding assistance _ providing a student with practical on-the-job work |
4 Nbveian eon ie of available to help private businesses, experience.
Whiteside; 479 pp.: $25 in hard- municipalities and non-profit organizations hire a Become a Challenge '90 employer — it's
caver) lew news a ary na high school, college or university student. good for students and it's good for business. .
be the only reference guide to We want to help you create additional jobs Apply now through your local Canada
Canadian tees anyone need own. this summer — jobs that would otherwise not be Employment Centre. ™

Range, name origin(s), identify-
ing features, characteristics and

anecdotes are combined with Applications must be postmarked no later than March 16th.

maps (for each and every species),

superb line drawings and (a nice Ea
5 touch), not only are common and cree nt ee ee _—- cee ene cane te ne ene ee eee Seen nae ana a

Latin tree names supplied but so ) 0

* are the French equivalents a Sa Government of Canada Gouvernement du Canada

Exploring The Kettle Valley non noel ' .
Raitway (Pelestar/Stanton & Mac- Minister of State for Youth Ministre d'Etat a la Jeunesse

Dougall; 108 pp.; $10.95) is equal
parts guidebook and preservation
manifesto.

Although the Kettle Valley
Railway (KVR) is long defunct, the
right of way, 500 ken/300 miles in
length, is largely intact. t winds