By WARNER TROYER |

In attempting, to un-
derstand “the. patterns of

- Canadian book publishing

it’s. probably - useful to
remember that. Canadian
publishers seem: ‘generally to
believe that Canadians do
not like books, especially
hardcover books.

| Ats Jeast- ‘that’ s been ‘my
theory for sometime, and it’s
borne out by the curious and
uniqué~ Canadian habit ‘of
publishing’ most of each
. year’s harvest of books in the
fall. After all, Canadians
may not like books them-
selves, but they probably see

in books an appropriately

prestigious or cultural gift
for someone - else: ergo,
massiye fall publication lists
followed by . the --trickling
trifles of. mid-winter, spring
and summer. (Lest be
accused of hypocticy. this
data: my last book was
published in May, 1977; my
next will be out in February
of 1979.)

In any event, the notion
that Canadians can be most
easily persuaded to buy
books as gifts for others
leads naturally to the
development of the ‘gift
book,’ or ‘coffee table book’.
These latter being obviously
expensive volumes dealing
with Culture which may then
be left. about to impress
visitors. _

Here, therefore, a survey
of some of this season's
coffee table books.

The Halifax Explosion —
edited by Graham Metson.
Published by McGraw-Hill
Ryerson Limited. $8.95.

This isn’t your standard
coffee table book (check the
‘low price). The format is
paperback, about 8'%-by-1!
inches, only 172 pages.
Moreover the picture
content is probably less than
one-fifth of the total book.

_ The National Ballet

What this book is, is an

engrossing account of the
1917 explosion in Halifax
harbor that killed 1,650
people and utterly destroyed
two square miles in the heart
of that city. Fascinating
reading in'our history.

of
Canada -- text by Celia

“Franca; photographs by the

University of Toronto Press.
$24.95. t

Karen Kain — text by David
Street. Published
McGraw-Hill

Ryerson.
Limited. $14.95.

My own only departure
froth the audience at ballet
took place about 1972. when,
asked to ‘perform’ as a
stretcher-bearer in the
‘Nutcracker’, I endured the
distinct discomfort of
dropping. my -end of the

stretcher on stage. Those _

little girls in the tutus,
found, are much heavier

‘than they look.

And thereby. hangs: a
point, one germane to both
these books. Because bailet
is largely illusion: the ot-
chestra pit is interposed
between audience and stage
for the very good reason that
one’s suspension of belief
during ‘the performance
would be destroyed by the
sounds of creaking joints,
popping muscles, thudding
feet, grunting ballerinas.
Fhe blood-lined ballet
slippers and sweat-stained
tutus have no place in the
ethereal romance of ‘Swan
Lake’ or ‘Romeo and Juliet’.

Unhappily for me, at least,
neither of these books lifts
that veil between audience
and performer. Both are
antiseptic, polite, pretty.
Celia Franca admits that, as
Artistic Director of the
National Ballet’ during -its
first twenty-five years of life,
she came to dread “crotch

JAN UARY

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RAY,

MONI )

aAlons

Woedaunds Vancouver, Park Royal Guildford,

New Westminster, Lansdowne.

ONTHEMAILL Arbutus, Oakridge, Park Royal(South Mail)
Cut N Cu Park Royal(North Mall), Hair Today(Lansdowne),

12th and Granville.

shots” in.

by

' performance.

televised ‘and
filmed | performances. And.

Karen Kain admits to being ..
very,

very. tired after

rehearsals.

But nowhere, here, are the
agonies of endurance, the
counterpoints of pain that
are every sérious dancer's -
constant companions.

Nothing here about the fact
that touring ballerinas prefer
hotel rooms where the
bathtub is immediately
beside the toilet, so they can
“dip alternate feet into the
john while soaking in the
tub, flushing constantly to
relax their painful pedal
extremities with a  do-it-
yourself whirlpool bath.

Nothing, either, about the
permanent disfigurement of
toes and feet hammered into
‘obscene caricatures of
themselves by the daily
torture of rehearsal and
Nor much
about the monastic life of
people who cannot succeed
even.a little without sacrifice
of almost every ‘normal’

‘pleasure of food, home,

family, romance, recreation.

Never mind: In Celia
Franca’s memoirs you will
find a biography of the birth,
triumphs, survival of the
‘National Ballet from the
time she joined it in 1951.
Ken Bell was official

Neil Munro as Hamlet.

tragedy.

January 22, 24 at 8

William Schwenck

at 2:30 p.m.

Saturday matinee:

1979 National Tour

The National Arts Centre
‘Theatre Company |

Hamlet

by William Shakespeare
directed by John Wood

“The play’s the thing”’

Set in the 1930's, Neil Munro
stars in this brilliant new
production of the world’s greatest

Q. E. Playhouse
Hamlet - Mon., Wed.,

and Sat. January 27 at 9 p.m.

Arthur Who? - Tues.,
Thurs., Fri., January 23, 25,
26 at 8 p.m. Sat. January 27

t
photographer ‘to the. com-
pany from the beginning. If

- thé photos in the book seem -

to have been chosen more

- for archival interest than

aesthetic pleasure, that will
only please those who want a
record of the National
company from its beginning.

Here are all the triumphs
over " logistic impossibility,
the pragmatic responses to
mechanical disasters; even,
elliptically, references to
some of the ‘internal and
external political feuds and
pressures.

You'll find little here,
interestingly, about Karen
Kain or Ann (Ann, as she
now is) Ditchburn. Neither
rates more than a brief cut-
line. a

Celia Franca’s book is
subtitled, ‘A Celebration’. It
would more aptly have been
called, with its (fifty color
photos and 160 black-and-
white pictures, a catalogue.

The..Karen Kain book,
subtitled ‘Lady of Dance’, is
a celebration — of that lady.
The photos are oftea superb,
occasionaHy haunting. The
text by David Mason, who
gets no credit on the dust
jacket, is. banal. .But, for-
tunately, most of the book is
pictures. Mr. Mason, who
has done, “a number of
popular books in military
history”, should return to his

’ first love.

What this slim (125-page)
book does do, and
beautifully, is show you the

The Vancouver Playhouse presents

an

Sullivan

p.m.

and

Evenings: $6.50, $7.50 (Mon. - Thurs.) $7.50, $8.50

$5.50, $6.50

Tickets: All: Vancouver Ticket Centre
outlets 683-3255 and Eaton’s.

William
Schwenck
d Arthur
Who?

r Shades of G & S”

A new musical by

Alan Laing & John Wood
Words and music (mostly) by
William S. Gilbert & Arthur

Karen Wood. Edward Atienza
and Mary Trainor

Smash hit musical!

A dazzling pot
dance inspired by
Gilbert & Sullivan.

. many lovely facets of Karen... .-
‘Kain, just as advertised- You ©
_won't.. read. here of _ her

celebrated hi-jinks with Ann *-

Ditchburn, her collaborator -
in a decade of mischief that
made the pair the black’
sheep of the National:
Company. (Though Miss
Kain does confess, on one
fey occasion, to having |
donned brilliant blue leg *
warmers, horn-rimmed
glasses and a hideous wig to

_ await Frank Augustyn’s kiss .

in Sleeping Beauty.) -:- »

Mostly the book is, like
Miss Kain herself. — she of
the stunning eyes and
demure smile —
years of age Karen Kain |
wrote of herself, in a school
essay published in the book,
that, “I hope to be a nice
person all my life.’
‘Niceness’, of course, being
the endemic Canadian curse,
’spreading blandness _ and
despair over an otherwise
fascinating and exciting
landscape. Miss Kain has
allowed nothing in this book
to contradict her ambitions
of Grade Three. .

e228

Summer Places — text by
Brendan Gill; photos by Rolf
Kalman. Published by
McClelland and Stewart

Limited. $29.95 until
December 31, 1978: then
$35.

‘When Mr. Gill instructs
us, on page 69, that, “the
> prettiest churches . - were

CONTINUED ON PAGE 20

urri of song and
y the genius of

(Fri. and Sat.)

simply - |-
lovely. When she was nine ~]-