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“during the interviews.

Trip to homeland
inspires new novel

A JOURNEY back to his home country of Kenya in 1984
triggered in Bill Schermbrucker an interest that has led to
the recent publication of his first novel.

Mimosa, published by Talon-
books in Vancouver, explores in
detail the life of Schermbrucker’s
mother —- a woman who died
when Schermbrucker was 11.
Schermbrucker says he didn’t
know anything about his mother
until relatives started giving him
glimpses of her life during his 1984
tri

Pp.
“‘My father never told me what

my mother died of,’*. said the 50-

year-old Capilano College English ©

instructor. ‘‘There was something
shameful about it.’’ It wasn’t until
1970 that he discovered his mother
had died of cancer — a word, he
says, that was rarely mentioned in
the society in which he grew up.
_His mother’s photographs were
removed from the walls, and the
young Schermbrucker was forbid-
den to go to her funeral. ‘‘It was a
great genesation for denial,” he
says now. “‘We see the value of
confronting things today.’’

With the aid of a Canada Coun-
cil grant, Schermbrucker travelled
again to South Africa to interview
relatives and friends of his
mother’s in an attempt to put a
picture together of her life and
character. “‘I definitely discovered

said.“‘Parts of her that I knew

, (and' had forgotten) have come

\back. to. me like her im-
‘pulsiveness.””

.. The result is a fictionalized ac-
count of his mother’s life based on

the: historical facts he unearthed

Schermbrucker says he. has just

._ finished mailing the book to his
--:family.in South ‘Africa, so has not
“yet ‘heard their reaction.

e “When
hey’re real people and they’re still

to create those characters ..... For
awhile, 1 was terrified.”*

*. Having completed the first draft
‘in 10 months,. it was back to the
wing board’ when “(Talon

980- 921 1

KNOW YOUR
NEIGHBOR

_ gibbled up.”

some things about my mother,”’ he .

-alive, it takes a certain brashness *

books) said it wasn’t anywhere
near where it should be. There
wasn’t enough life in the book.” .
Schermbrucker also spoke of
problems that arose when he tried
to put pen to paper and ‘‘found it

coming out backwards .... All the
historical stuff at the front was all

Two rewrites Jater, both author
and publisher pronounced
themselves satisfied, and Mimosa
went to press.

~ Althongh Mimesa is his first

novel, Schermbrucker has also
written Chameleon, a book of
short stories, and a number of
other fiction articles for small
presses. He has also written an
English text for use at Capilano
College, and edited three cditions
of Readings for Canadian Writing
Students, an anthology of works
studied by first-year English stu-
dents at the college.

Schermbrucker was hired as the
English departrnent coordinator at
Capilano College on Aug. 15,
1968. His first duty was to assem-
ble. the. English department in
readiness for the college’s opening
a scant three weeks later.

College administrators expected
350 students, and over 500 showed
up. “Instead of being demoralized
by this, we were tremendously ex-

cited.... There were very high spirits

in those days,’” says Scherm-
brucker.
. When Capilano College opened,

. classes met in the evening at West

Vancouver High School. Now stu-
dents and faculty have their own

~ campus — but that’s not been the

only change Schermbrucker’s

' noticed in his 20 years of teaching.

‘When we opened up we were in
the heydays ‘of the reforms of the
’60s,”’ he said. The college’s open

5 door policy ensured that all appli-

“Geason' 5 Greetings |

from the staff.

wane

See ee :

merereereeet

7 ~— Sunday, December 25, 1988 - Lynn Valley Echo

cants, regardless of their previous
level of edtication, could be placed
in classes. .

But with current-day funding
cutbacks, Schermbrucker says the
college now operates with a
prioritized registration system, in
which marks count.

“This is very contrary to the
spirit of ‘the late “60s — we're
returning to a kind of elitism,’’ he
says, noting that the prioritized
registration is partly in response to
pressure from the students
themselves, for whom, he says,
marks secm to matter more than
they used to.

Schermbrucker has a number of
projects on the’ go away from
work, including moving with his

See College
Page 9

BILL SCHERM-
BRUCKER, Capilano Col-
lege instructor, leafs
through his recently releas-
ed novel.

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