ot. lerre suppli In the Naval of the Moon, Paul St. Pierre. Douglas & Mcintyre. $24.95. NE BOOK that belongs on the top of your stack of summer reading is this off-the-beaten-track mystery that is so much more than your basic mill-run police procedural it'll make life in the lawn-lounger a lot more interesting. Set in Mexico (the naval of the moon), in the village of San Sebas- tian de Ridalgo, ‘‘whose name is longer than its main street,” the intrigues surrounding a supposed large shipment of marijuana leav- me the backwater port grease | the jot. The real story, however, is the human tragicomedy played out by a cast of characters, local and co- lonial gringo, whose virtues some- times prove their undoing and whose weaknesses can transform into surprising strengths -- all of it told with the distinctive St. Pierre wit readers will recognize (and relish) from his newspaper col- umns and Cariboo stories. An unlikely bunch; none more so than Mac, the narrator, an ag- ing widowed Canadian newspa- perman shipped south of the border for a sabbatical and a spot of light spying by his RCMP Drug Unit brother-in-law. Warned against playing james Bond; he’s to write reports in the ‘form of ‘chatty’ letters home, a _ premise that St. Pierre contrives to compose humorous thumbnail sketches of characters like the White Indian, the Dark Horseman, the long-suffering syndic (mayor), and the town’s true brains-trust, a former village beauty still called The Pretty Little One, though she now justifies the crueller nickname bestowed by one wag: “the John Moore BOOK REVIEW Venus de Kilo.” In his introduction, St. Pierre notes that one of the pitfalls in writing about Mexico is resorting to stereotyped Mexican characters, who can, in fact, be found on any street corner south of the Rio Grande. Just when you think he may have stepped on his own rake with a creation like The Pretty Little One, the omniscient village wise woman with a head for business that would shame an investment banker anywhere else, he quietly lets drop the reason why she will never be anything more than she is (i won't tell; read the book). Like the boy, Angel, nicknamed The Fragment, who haunts the dusty streets and every page, it’s a reminder that inside every great humorist there's a social critic screaming for a little simple human justice. Equally pointed, though less Harmony Arts seeks volunteers VOLUNTEERS ARE needed to help with this year’s Harmony Ans Fes- tival. ; Organizers are looking for peo- ple to assist before and during the arts festival in a variety of jobs: window preparation for ArtBeat displays, staffing information booths, helping at Creative Kids Day and at the Harmony Arts Auc- tion. International = radio & t.v. personalities for events Instruction will be provided at JA upcoming volunteer orientation meetings at the Ferry Building in West Vancouver. Volunteer registration forms can be picker! : p at the Ferry Building or at the Silk Purse. For more in-' formatiion, phone Betsy at 926- 2596 or Judy at 925-3605. The Harmony Arts Festival runs Aug. 9 to 15. Find out more about yourself from these gifted channeis! CAPILANO MALL 263-6524 likely to make you feel like you’re trying to swallow a basketball, is the moment when staid, wealthy Mr. Ochoa, a proper relired g gen- Neman trimming his hedge, is mis- taken for a gardener by an Ameri- can woman who asks how much the lady of the house pays him. “Nothing,” he replies loudly, “t take her to bed.” The great humorists — Swift, Twain, Leacock — are more than mere comedians, walking sneers who strut and fret their quarter- hour on the stage with monologues cribbed from the front page. They love small towns, not merely as microcosms of a larger society to be satirized, but because the size of the stage in- herently puts a rea! and only in- FAMOUS MAKER ASSORTED PERCALE SHEET SETS Printed or solid cottor/polyester sheet sets. Includos flat and fitted sheets, pillowcase(s). Available Twin thru King. Compare NOW 6500 24° 2000 39% Queen 106-00 49° King TOWELS! TOWELS! Every Towel in our store Ay on sale for this event Twin Double 100% cotton, choose rom Gecoratar os, Wednesday, June 30, 1993 - North Shore News - 34 great sun 44 Inside every great humorist there’s a social critic screaming for a little simple human justice. 99 cidentally comic frame around the grand passions and pretentious posturings of humankind. Here, as in his columns and stories about the Cariboo, St. Pierre proves he shares that pro- found affection for people whose common sense and instinctive no- tions of human justice make them unlikely candidates to inherit the Earth, prophecy notwithstanding, The best-loved writers are never the critically acclaimed poseurs, the sterile stylists beloved of aca- demics. They are the ones who can legitimize our innate sentimentali- ty. He’s in good company; [ can’t imagine anyone marooned ona desert island with a few books who wouldn't save Huck Fina, the collected stories of Somerset Maugham or Breaking Smith’s Quarter Horse while using Fin- negan’s Wake as firestarter. 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