Vancouver: Visions of a City, Pau)
Grescoe and Karl Spreitz, Beautiful
British Columbia magazine,
$24.95, Vancouver's Many Faces,
Kevin Griffin, Whitecap Books,
$14.95. Around the Clock, B.J.
Michaels, Lexicon Ventures, $7.95

"EW INDICATORS
clock the growth of a
city more dramatically
than the number of books
and guides published about
it.

Two decades ago, Eric Nicol’s
now-dated homage to the city was
definitive almost by default, but
the last decade has produced a
tidai surge of books on every facet
of Vancouver life that shows no
sign of ebbing.

ven apparently straightforward

coffee-table books like Grescoe
and Spreitz’ Vancouver: Visions of
a City now explore the identity
Crisis in progress as the once-
provincia! end-of-the-road town
that was never quite at ease as
Canada's “third largest city” ad-

..Justs to its new role as
cosmopolitan Pacific Rim
megapolis.

Editor Paul Gresco provides a
wide range of celebrity profiles to
reflect the cultural diversity of the
metropolis and its neighborhoods:
veteran journalists like Denny
Boyd and James Barber are
valanced by native leader Wendy
Grant, landscape architect Cor-
nelia Oberlander, businessman joe
Segal and the musical Kimura
Parkers of Burnaby.

Despite Grescoe’s best efforts,
the sumptuous photographs in-
evitably dominate here. :

As creative director and chief
photographer for Beautiful British
Colurnbia magazine, Karl Spreitz
has established rigorous interna-

John Moare
BOOK REVIEW

tional standards of photography
that are as much in evidence in
this book as they were in his
previous collaboration with
Grescoe, Songs of the Wild.

The initial reaction, ‘“Van-
couver never looked this good,’”’ is
quickly supplanted as the photos
evoke memories of moments
when it did. The resurrected pic-
tures by ’50s photographer Fred
Herzog argue for a major
retrospective of his work.

Kevin Griffin’s Vancouver's
Many Faces is low on visual im-

act, but high on compressed in-
formation,

Griffin once covered
multicultural relations for the Van-
couver Sun and his concise cap-
sule histories of immigrant groups,

and the reasons and circumstances

surrounding their arrival, put the
pieces of Vancouver's cultural
mosaic into perspective.

While he modestly admits to
taking a “highlights of history’’
approach, the anecdotes are
well-chosen, and dramatic enough
in most cases to whet your page-
turning finger for the extensive
subject-indexed reacling list in the
appendix.

Part social history, part neigh-
borhood guide and part source
book/registry of cultural groups,
clubs, contact numers and ad-
dresses, this unique ‘00k goes a

long way toward telling us not just
who we are, but why.

B.}. Michaels’ Around the Clock
is my kind of guide: a no-frills
telephone directory for insom-
niacs, shift-workers, nighthawks,
vampires and midnight ramblers

who think tife looks better fit by
neon.

An invaluable quick guide to
after-hours emergency services:
medical-dental, legal, sexual, culi-
nary, financial, photographic ...
hell, you name tt, it’s here.

Whether it’s the location of the
closest cash machine or the most
convenient all-night crematorium,
your fingers can take a late-night
stroll through these pages.

There are no listings for all-night
bookstores (he noted wryly), but
one assumes you could phone
Lexicon Ventures, 261-0371 (fax
266-7998) at any time of the day or
night to order.

think I'll just stay up till 3 a.m.
and call a plumber. Why? For the

_ same reason male dogs do what

they do. Because | can.

Good night.
Agood nights rest
promotes a healthy

lifestyle.

SIMMONS
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Wednesday, August 18, 1993 - North Shore News - 27

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