26 - Wednesday, February 22, 1989 — North Shore News

the column this week but first a few words about a book
that will be the focal point of next week's review: The

Satanic Verses.

Fm sure that most of us are by
now familiar with the bizarre
events surrounding author Salman
Rushdie’s controversial book and
the absurd reactions cf fanatical
Muslim fundamentalists.

In recent days Rushdie has
reportedly become the target of
so-called ‘suicide squads’ alleged-
ly unleashed by none other than
tran’s Ayatollah Khomeini. And
just in case blind faith alone is in-
sufficient incentive for the
would-be assassins, Rushdie’s
head now carries a price tag of up
to six million dollars.

Readers keen to locate a copy of
The Satanic Verses to see just
what all this idiocy is about are go-
ing to be out of luck for quite
some time. Few if any copics ure
left on Canadian bookshelves and
lecal representatives of the
publisher (Viking/Penguin) report
that stocks throughout the country
are exhausted.

In fact, even future shipments of
The Satanic Verses are in jeopardy
at this writing, given that Rushdie’s
work could run afoul of Canada
Customs if the bock is judged to
be ‘inflammatory’ according to
federal government standards.

Now, The Satanic Verses may
indeed clear the Custom’s hurdle
but should this book be subjected
to the censors’ examination?
Should any book be so treated? i
invite readers’ views and en-
courage you to Grop me a brief
note on the subject in care of the
News, and I'll publish the results
in an upcoming column.

oes

Anyone who has not had the
pleasure of reading Wilfred Sheed
to date is missing a highly reward-
ing encounter with an author of
exceptional wit and skill.

Fortunately, this oversight can

ti PARTY TE
<ALL THE: 5

be corrected relatively painlessly
with the paperback release by
McGraw-Hill of Sheed’s The Boys
of Winter (first published in hard-
cover in 1987).

The Boys of Winter is set largely
in the Hamptons, a New England
area much frequented by the
shakers and would-be shakers of
the arts-and-literature world to the
bemusement of the local inhab-
itants.

MIKE
STEELE

book reviewer

One ot these semi-permanent
invaders of bucolia is Johnathan
Oglethorpe, editor for a small but
prestigious New York publishing
house, who reluctantly shares his
small-town retreat with several of
the firm’s stable of writers.

The proximity of writers and
editor is a hilarious vehicle for the
examination of the relationship
between these natural enemies.
Egos flare with the regularity and
incandescence of sunspots, as the
writing rivals and grudg-
ingly-tolerated editor reveal and
writhe in their chaotic, interming|-
ing lifestyles.

Sheed has a fine ear for internal
and external dialogue as this ex-
cerpt describing a less-than-pas-
sionate romantic interlude dem-
onstrates: ‘‘Here we were per-
forming the great regenerative act,
what the Bible so soleninly calls
knowing each other, just to pay for
a weekend. Well 1 know I’m a one
to talk like that, holding as | do the
indoor record for trivial inter-
course, but at least it usually feels
important at the time. She was just
conscientious throughout like a fil-
ing clerk. And at the end ! wanted
to say, Here’s your change, miss.’

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ee 2

So what happens when an editor

(who secretly despises his authors)
decides to wreak the ultimate
publisher's revenge by not only
writing a book but casting his lit-
erary coterie as the novel’s char-
acters?

The results are unpredictable,
the road strewn with frustrated in-
tentions, sexual sparring, stinging
satire and even a smattering of
baseball in the highly recom-
mended The Boys of Winter (280
pp.; $8.95).

sa 8

Looking for a good thriller to
while away a winter's night? The
Gift of a Falcon may just fit the
bill. Kent Harrington’s latest novel
evades the typically linear plotting
that seems too often to be the
staple of the genre with a deftly-
worked story of falcon-smuggling
and international intrigue.

The main characters in The Gift
of a Falcon are complex and

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developed to a far greater degree
than those who generally populate
thrillers. The plot is plausible and
the locales (the Western U.S.,
Canada and the Middle East}
smoothly incorporated into a tale
of assassination, contraband and
compulsion.

Considering Harrington's
background, which includes an
association with the CIA, it should
come as no surprise that The Gift
of a Falcon consistently rings true
and carries the reader along at
breakneck speed. (McGraw-Hill
Ryerson/General Books; 352 pp.;
$26.50 in hardcover).

ene

Last up this week is a translated
crime story from Swedish author
Elisabet Peierzen, The Last Draw
(Seal; 228 pp.; $12.95 in Ppaper-

back).

! have to warn you that this is
not great crime fiction but it does
have a certain appeat. The main

Your

Should Satanic Verses be censored?

WE'LL BE looking at three works of fiction farther along in

characters are a husband-and-wife
team whose writing careers are
mainly supported by supplying
men’s magazines with ‘true’
stories for those notorious sexual
experience letters supposedly
submitted by readers. Then Erik
and Katrin stumble across a pat-
tern in a recent string of fatal stab-
bings and set off in search of a
newspaper ‘scoop.’

The Last Draw’s main attraction
is the Swedish setting. While either
the writing and/or the translation
has reduced description and
dialogue to a wooden and
simplistic tevel, much about the
politics, culture and sexual mores
of Sweden is revealed.

While the perpetrator of the
murders is a secret only to the
sleuths, The Last Draw’s ending is
a bit of a surprise and the only
redeeming factor apart from the
Swedish insights.

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