Al Purdy relates oS quest

: REACHING FOR THE BEAUFORT |
SEA. An autobiography. Al Purdy.
~ (Harbor Publishing.) $26.95 -

(ie |
John Moore. -.
: BOOK REVIEW -

-ECEMBER. THE last.

‘leaf on the calendar,

.. like the last page of

“a book, and despite the riot-
ous racket of festive merty-"

making, the end of yet: -

other. year.inevitably in-. .
clines ‘one toward reflection:
and self-examination. ae

ig :

book for weeks. not because it’s'a ’

zrind, but because I'don’t want it
‘0 end, so. I’ve been doling it out

ie myself as a reward for. what ©;
sses for good kehavior (meeting

Christmas deadlines; etc.) ”
Foitunately; Purdy has written”

exactly the kind of autobiography
‘poet should write: intense,

isodic, with only a barely ‘polite :

nod to chronology; focused on the
sometimes small but meee
experiences of a lifetime, and to.
Hell withthe boring detailg ;
hot through with bursts of

characteristic lyricism, the nar-_”
fative captures the mood of.

after midnight’! conversation 50:
perfectly-you'll, be looking u upto"
flag down the waiter for: ‘another.

r with, most oh his ee
iterary contemporaries and friends
r.sod or permanently

General's Award winiier is prace-
fully,-if reluctantly, easing into the
eo ae Old Man of Cana-

a night still prompt him to
faunch an: empty beer bottle or’,
knotted fist my wa' except for the -
satisfaction he'd ta ein -knowing |’
ow much the v very idea would ;

uch else about the emergence of:
distinctive Canadian literature in’
his century, lies in Purdy’s often:
reverent sketches of fellow")
writers: Hugh Gamer,.F.R. Scott,

tving Layton, Milton Acom: Alden’:

; john Newlove, Margaret -
iSOn,” Margaret Laurence; etc:
He first met Margaret Atwood
hen she anived at his Roblin ©
“some.

ae Lonsdale Avenue

da ON ITE

who he typically baited into an
argument so successfully that she
poured beer on him. An early

, egalitarian male, he promptly

returned the compliment and the

- ‘combat continued with beer and

’ water well into the lake. .

Years later, trapped in an airport

_ public washroom with a very

~ drunk Atwood-hating Hugh

Garner and a mickey of scotch, he

would risk both sobriety and a

possible pounding from the hard-

boiled Garner in her defence.
But ultimately it’s not the insider

glimpses of Leonard Cohen as a

- silk-robed poseur, slavishly wor-

shipping Bob Dylan (Purdy sen-
sibly retired to the kitchen where
the beer was), that make Reaching
For The Beaufort Sea such a cap-
tivating book.

It’s the stories of riding the rails
as a hobo in the late ‘30s, sending
a cab over a cliff into the lake
rather than hand it over to the
bankruptcy bailiff, the shop-floor
- combats in mattress factories in
. Vancouver and Montreal, that

“One theme recurs, as it does in -

“his poetry. Purdy has roamed this
“country like a resttess ghost, not .
_ just from the Atlantic to the
Pacific, but ‘north to the Beaufort
:. Sea, to the permanently frozen
heart of the Canadian ‘‘out-
back,” in an often Quixotic per-
“sonal quest for the. elusive soul of
: this nation...

When he says he feels closer i in

_ Spirit to two long-dead Inuit hunt-

ers he participated in an RCAF
‘search for, than to people he
meets every day, you know it’s
- because he’s spent his life trying to.
say in words what-no map can‘
ever hope to articulate.: .
‘Purdy’s muse has not left him,.
“though God and the Canadian
“Civil Code have given her ample,

.grounds.. If there is a heroine in

this self-told tale, it is his long-suf-
fering wife, Eurithe, who could:
‘probably have shot him, pleaded
justifiable homicide and. taken a

, probationary walk half a dozen

times.) :
Al documents their lifelong ex-
cruciating poverty with a poet’s
‘aplomb; one suspects her version .
‘might differ in tone somewhat.
:Purdy’s'only concession to’ age is’
that he now spends his winters in:
the more benign climate of
Sydney, on Vancouver Island, in-
‘stead of the frozen shares of.)

. “Roblin Lake."

_ “My mind is on a few more -
poems, as many more as tcan
manage,’’ he.says. ‘‘Of course,

‘, More poems depend on living,

- living in its fullest sense, whatever
2 that may mean.’ wr B

if anybody knows what i ii means, o

Purdy does.

4 Large Pizza (any 3 toppings)
m BB.Q. Chicken with’ Lesagna :
-. 2 Garlie Toast © 2 Salads

DS cy

2 Medien Pizzas (Any 3 toppings)
2 gma.

.2 Garlic Toast * 22 Salads :

986-5757.

Boneleds. beef

‘Club Pack™

502864:

“imported

6.35 kg -

ib.

fresh kiwi fruit

331 475

Bakeshop

-sourdoug

unsliced, 5809.
099897...

rench |

Foremost,-4 L jug

Kraft or Velveeta, 500 9, 16s or 24s

processed

80890. ~

m0 name™, assorted, 170 g_

“esarin :
“no jo name™, assorted, 170 g ‘

instant ric

“799978

each