24 - Wednesday, July “8, 1992 - North Shore News

tour

Glen Baxter’s surreal humor

The Billiard Table Murders, by Glen Baxter, Publ. by Picador,
McClelland & Stewart Inc. 246 pp., $24.95 softcover

“Analyzing humor is like dissecting a frog. Few people are interested

and the frog dies of it.’ E.B. White

ITH LITTLE interest in having reptile entrails on
my hands, ¢ will start by saying The Billiard Table
Murders is nine parts comedy, one part murder

mystery.

For those who forgo the Sunday —

night movie in favor of the trials
and investigations of Superintend-
ent Dalgliesh, Miss Marple and
Lord Peter Wimsey, Glen Baxter's
mystery, while knee-sock deep in
English-speak, is not the stuff of
the popular PBS Mystery! series.

Imagine teaming the Monty
Python gang and Agatha Christie
with the task of producing a
mystery, and you get an idea of
what The Billiard Table Murders is
all about.

Though not well.known in the
colonies, Glen Baxter’s drawings
~ depicting chinoceros-headed
men sipping wine in a Manhattan
penthouse, a rower paddling up a
carpeted staircase, a furry tail

(a
hy ey tT 1]
EE RL

HE WAS ALWAYS PUSHING HIMSELF To
THE LIMITS OF HUMAN ENDURANCE.

peeping through the folds of de-
signer-label bondage wear — dur-
ing the fast decade have made him
a household name in Britain.

The Silliard Table Murders is his
first novel, though the use of his
quirky illustrations is as important
to the progression of the story as
Baxter's surreal diction.

The story chronicles the
murderous exploits of one Gladys
Babbington Morton, from her

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Tyee.

In Review
LOOKS AT BOOKS

precocious beginning at a girl’s
school in Scotland in 1949 — she
is thrown out of school when
documents detailing an elaborate
scheme to remove the choir-
master’s toupee during the final
bars of “Jerusalem” are found in
her possession — to Switzerland,
Manhattan, Marin County and fi-
nally, Senegal.

Accompanying Miss Gladys on
her homicidal tour is McNally, a
“tinnish” fellow who is, in fact, a
not-very-competent robot.

Among the characters we meet
along the way are Sorgor Ar-
vidsson, who dreams of a business
empire of sponge, and the Warden
of Netherworld Prison, “whose
controversial policy of subjecting
its inmates to 16 hours a day of
non-stop entertainment had
recently been the subject of
debate by members of the House
of Lords.”

The day is saved by Scotland
Yard inspector Trubcock, though
not until many fall victim to the
bizarre murder weapons — among
them cannelloni and, of course, a
pool table — of sweet Miss Mor-
ton.

A wonderfully eclectic and
fast-paced read, The Billiard Table
Murders may not be everyone's
cup-o-tea, but for those looking for
something a little different, Bax-
ter’s first novel will not disappoint.
— By AP. McCredie, a con-
tributing writer of mysterious
credentials, and of no fixed ad-
dress somewhere in Vancouver.

PER ROLL
PELISIOD

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Summer programs offered at centre

THE HORSESHOE Bay Chistian
Center is offering tree summer
vaction programs during July and
August.

Organizers say the centre will
be transformed into a friendly
campsite, complete with camp-
fire sing-a-longs, crafis, games,
bible stories and lots of creative

# © Special bargain clothing racks $10 an outfit

CAMELDANCE

Manufacturces of
Acrubie: Wear © Sptts Wear ¢ Casual Wear # Dance Weat

THURSDAY, JULY 9
B.C. PLACE STADIUM.

Jearning activities,

The programs are scheduled to
san from Monday, July 130 to
Thursday, August 20.

Children aped three ta five
years of age are invited to camp
on tuesdays and Thursdays from
930 am. to noon, and kids
enrolled in grades one through
six can participate in the pro-

July 9-10, Noon-7pm
July 11, 9-3pm

gram on Mondays, ‘Wednesdays
and Fridays, from 9:30 a.m. to
12:30 p.m.

Participants are welcome to br-
ing a snack and join in the fun
whenever they can.

For more information visit the
centre at 6355 Bruce St., Horse-
shoe Bay in West Vancouver, or
call 921-9715.

‘Sample and Fabric Warehouse Sale

. Great prices on cotton lycras, cotton A prints, rayons, etc.

1-1470 Rupert St, North Vancouver

(near Main & Mountain Hwy.)
980-2707

8:00 PM