Never Under The Table, By Joe Garner, Publ. Cinnabar Press 274 pages, $14.95, soft cover

OE GARNER’S book

Never Under the Table

is a lively history and discussion of the forest in- dustry from a logger’s perspective.

In Review LOOKS AT BOOKS

It chronicles the post-war histo- ry of logging in a detail rarely

seen, He names names and states dates of bribery and corruption at the highest ievels of government. He then describes in considerable detail the process by which our trees come down.

As a lifelong logger he brings to the book the biases of this trade; however, one cannot help be surprised by how often he agrees with the environmentalists.

At one point he states, ‘‘De- cades of guidelines and industry self-regulation have led to ‘pro- gressive’ clearcuts, charred slash and rivers that run like chocolate pudding when it rains. It does not take a rocket scientist to figure out why. ‘They’ say the bad stuff happened in the past. But it is happening right now.”

Garner's writing style was to do interviews and then to quote his subjects verbatim throughout the chapter. The people he selected spent their lives in the industry at the grassroots level. They had a lat

First lines of the classics make great impressions

In the Beginning, Great first lines from your favorite books Collected by Hans Bauer, Publ. by Chronicle Books, 190 pp., $8.95 softcover

AT FIRST | thought a collection of first lines from famous books was a sort of silly excuse for a book.

( flipped through In the Beginn- ing skeptically. Then | chanced across this line from Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse (which 1 roundly devoured in university} — "Yes, of course, if it’s fine tomorrow,’ said Mrs. Ramsay.’ — and the whole novel came flooding back into memory along with the circumstances in which | read it.

| continued flipping and soon found myself getting reacquainted with all sorts of old friends or get- ting glimpses of some | would like to know. Such as, “If 1am out of my mind, it’s all right with me,

thought Mases Herzeg,”’ from Saul Bellow’s Herzog. Never did read that book.

Some of them sound so amaz- ingly perfect and self-evident — “Miss Jane Marple was sitting by her window” (The Mirror Crack’d, Agatha Christie) — while others are comically cliche ‘‘He rolled the cigarette in his lips, liking the taste of the tobacco, squinting his eyes against the sun’s glare’ (Hondo, Louis L'Amour).

in the Beginning has limited uses but would make a handy desk ref- erence for word aficionados. Over 500 famous novels are repre- sented, arranged alphabetically by title with an index to the authors.

Authors are predominantly American and British but Cana- dians who rate include Michael Ondaatje, W.P. Kinsella, Robert- son Davies, and Margaret Atwood. —By Barbara Black, assistant copy editor for the News.

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fo say and said it well with Joe's free hand.

There are inconsistencies, how- ever. He states outright that we are overcutting but seems to endorse teaching logging skills in rural high schools. Should we not be leading our young people away from logg- ing rather than encouraging it?

Near the end of the book Garner’s folksy style gives way to a barrage of hard and startiing facts.

Wednesday, January 15, 1992 - North Shore News - 23

The mismanagement of our forests by both government and forest companies becomes obvious. Harsh words are also given about professional foresters who are described as merely guessing and certainly not knowing what they are doing.

it is comforting to hear this from an old, experienced logger because as an environmentalist | have sometimes been appalled by

the conduct of professional forest- ers who seem to manuiacture ex- Cuses to justify excessive logging. For any reader who wants the logger's perspective on these crit- ical issues in our forests today, this book is a must-read. .

By Paul Hundal., a local en- vironmentalist and vice-president of SPEC (Saciety Promoting En- vironmental Conservation).

National co. promotes local dancer

FORMER NORTH Shore dancer Chan Hon Goh has been pro- moted to first soloist with the National Ballet of Canada, artistic director Reid Anderson has an- nounced.

Goh will debut as Bianca in the camnany’s upcoming premiere

- Lowes prices.of the year, to make way

of Taming of the Shrew.

Goh joined the National Ballet in July 1988 and was promoted to second soloist two years later. She danced the Snow Queen and Sugar Plum Fairy roles in the company’s most recent Nut- cracker performance, in addition

to Olga in Onegin, Bluebird Pas de Deux in The Sleeping Beauty and Daphais and Chloe in Swan Lake.

She landed the fead im the

company premiere of Concerto for Fluie and Harp.

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