30 — Wednesday, October 31, 1990 - North Shore News

books Wain

The mouth that ... snored

known as Abu Killam

Kitir — ‘‘the father of much talking.’’ One federal politician described him as “a grouch,” Shirley MacLaine called him “sexy’’ and a terrified psychiatrist labelled him a “paranoid egomaniac.”

Two of his more common (and printable) sobriquets are ‘“‘the oatmeal savage” and ‘“‘the mouth that roared.”

Sound familiar?

They should. The subject is none other than “Mr, Precisely” himself, B.C.’s own Jack Webster.

Reporter, radio hetliner, televi- sion talk-show host and now, at the ripe (but not particularly mellow) age of 72, John Edgar “Jack’’ Webster can aad “author” to his list of ac- complishments.

His autobiography Webster!, newly published by Douglas & McIntyre (247 pp.; $22.95), has been as eagerly awaited by his legions ot fans as it was no doubt dreaded by the targets of his re- lentless probing over the past 40-odd years.

The question is: was Webster! worth waiting for?

How ! answer that depends on several factors, my life expectancy chief among them. There are, after all, two ways to interpret Matthew Arnold's maxim that “Truth sits upon the lips of dying men.’

But the truth is that Webster! has to be one of the biggest let downs

| N THE Sudan he was

MIKE STEELE

baok review

of the literary year.

By now most British Columbians have heard or read that this autobiography reveals previously unknown and painful details of Webster's married life, descrip- tions of his wife's severe depres- sion and the Websters’ successful search for their natural daughter.

Well, that and some material on Webster's early days as a Scottish newspaper reporter and Canadian newspaper/radio reporter are about the only areas of substance in the entire book.

The remainder is a disjointed and superficial meandering through Webster's career that bears little or no resemblance in style or content to the incisive, hardhitting and meaty fare British Columbians expected (and usually received) when the talkshow terror brought his sights to bear on social inequities, crooked cops or prevaricating politicians.

Instead the reader is subjected to what seems like a random selection of anecdotes: Webster sparring with hippie guru Allen Ginsburg, Webster squirming under the barrage of sexual innu- endo and New Age flakiness of ac- tress Shirley MacLaine, Webster

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grilling politicians ranging from Svend Robinson to Pierre Trudeau and Bran Mulroney.

Thanktully, though, some of the old Webster fire does flare up when he rakes provincial politi- cians and their parties over the coals.

He dismisses Dave Barrett's NDP government in the ‘70s as “all human face and no edifice.” ridiculing their administration as “sloppy and ... careless’ but saves the majority of his wrath for the Socreds.

He describes W.A.C. Bennett's regime as one that ‘understood natural development and capital investment but nat social devel- opment ... The Social Credit gov- ernment didn’t promote anything its members couldn't have their picture taken beside at election time.”

Wacky Junior fares worse: “Even the scandals of the W.A.C. Bennett didn’t generate the moral stench that emanated trom Vic- toria during his son’s tenure ... Bennett seemed to have learned only two things from his father: how to polarize and how to turn a blind eye to his supporters’ sins,”’ traits Webster ascribes to the Ben- netts’ successor, Bill Vander Zalm.

He makes no bones of his loathing and disdain for Socreds in general or the party in particular as the following references attest.

“Ii was stomach-churning to watch at the 1986 Socred lead- ership convention that fawning behavior and listen to the assurances of eternal fealty and Joyalty to a man they disliked from

defeated leadership hopetuls.

“It has become a party without a soul. Its members do more about faces than weather vanes. Few have any convictions, and those who aspire to lead it are prepared to out-spend each other with our money to Bet votes.”

And one of the few regrets Webster expresses in this book concerns a Socred stalwart, ‘’Fly- ing’ Phil Gaglardi, wha “more than anyone else made me dislike Social Credit.”

“Twas never able to prove that Gaglardi was anything other than an unctuous fittle man whose per- sonality grated on me and whose politics infuriated me.”

But such sparks of the on-air Webster persona as these are too few to carry Webster! as a whole. If anything they're mere morsels that prompt an optimism of ap- petite doomed to disappointment,

The odd thing is that Webster himself might have provided a clue as to why, despite the edito- rial assistance of lan Mulgrew (Final Payoff, Unholy Terror: The Sikhs and International Terrorism), Webster! is so unstructured and flimsy.

“I've read a Jot of books but i'm a skip reader, down the mid- dle of the page. Newspapers, magazines, that’s what | love. | have not been taken with intellec- tual pursuits,"’ he says at one point.

And that, perhaps, is a major part of the problem. Because Webster! is long on naked opinion and woefully short on in-depth analysis. Stating an opinion isn’t

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JACK Webster ... biography disappoints.

enough, To gain a more complete insight into the “man behind the mouth" the reader cequires some explanation of why particular stances are taken,

It is difficult to aveid the conclu- sion that Webster! might have been a better buok had it been a biography rather than an autobiography.

It will probably satisfy habitual readers of People magazine or those who feel they’ve learned everything there is to know about a given topic trom exposure to television news clips.

Others will shake their heads and mutter “tao bad.”

We expected oatmeal. What we got was pablum.

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