A Killer is Loose Among Us Robert Terrall Winnipeg: Harlequin, 1949 |
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A JOURNEY THROUGH CANADA'S FORGOTTEN, NEGLECTED AND SUPPRESSED WRITING
Susan Niles was blonde.A fashion illustrator, Susan had a beautiful figure and really knew how to dress and make herself up. What Jane, a bookkeeper, lacked in looks she made up in personality and a wholesome philosophy of life. Stoney was in love with her. If he'd been making $30 a week, instead of $25, he would have proposed. As it was, Stoney was happy to take Jane out on Saturday nights... until the Saturday night she'd agreed to a date with chunky Kurt.
Or brunette.
Or red-headed.
Depending on the fashion of the time and her mood.
The corner of Granville & Hastings, Vancouver, 1928 |
"You don't want a divorce? Why not, for God's sake? Do you mean you like living this kind of bloody life?"Then comes Black Tuesday. Stoney's salary is cut, cut, cut, cut, and cut, until the newspaper goes under and he joins the ranks of the unemployed.
"No, I don't like it any better than you do. And I'm not going to continue it any longer. I'm moving out this afternoon. But I don't want a divorce."
Stoney was losing his patience and his temper.
"What the hell are you raving about?" he demanded.
Susan lit a cigarette and blew out a long plume of blue smoke before she replied. Then, not looking at him, but staring straight in front of her at the blank wall, exactly as she had on another memorable and terrible occasion, she said, "This is what I'm raving about, as you put it. I've taken more from you than I've ever taken from any man before, or ever will again. You've insulted me and browbeaten me and made me cheapen myself because I loved you."
"I don't believe that," grunted Stoney.
"I don't care a damn whether you believe it or not. It happens to be true. I did love you, or I wouldn't have done the things I did. and yet you, with your sickening moral hypocrisy, were wiling to accept the physical aspect of our relationship, but nothing more. You pretended you wanted to call the whole thing off, and yet the minute I made a pass at you, you were right back in bed with me. And when you were faced with the prospect of assuming some responsibility for your actions, you called me filthy names.
"Well, Mr. Martin, I've been saving these things for you. You have a few debts to pay off, and you're going to pay them... with interest."
It was always the same. A shameful crawling and pleading, like a beaten dog begging to be allowed back into the good graces of its master. After a while Stoney became, like many of his fellow drudges, inured to the hopelessness of the situation. They simply did not care any more. Tramping through the streets in the fall and winter rains, with cracked and broken shoes, their suits wrinkled and their cuffs frayed, they gave up trying. They worked of half a day, perhaps on for an hour, attempting to sell without enthusiasm, or more important, trying to make collections.It's Diespecker's depiction of Depression-era Vancouver and the struggles endured by Stoney and others that make Rebound worth reading. The novel loses strength with the coming of the Second World War. Curiously, there is less drama, less conflict, and the atmosphere of despair dissipates.
Progress Books, publishing arm of the Communist Party of Canada, announced April 15, 1945 as the publication date of Dorothy Dumbrille’s All This Difference. I’ve found no evidence that the novel hit the shelves on that day, that month, or in the three months that followed. The earliest reviews — and there were many — are from early August of that year. I can’t help but wonder whether its delay had something to do with the publication of Two Solitudes, which occurred a few weeks before All This Difference was to have been released.
MacLennan's novel was received not as a book of the season, but a book for all time. Globe and Mail literary editor William Arthur Deacon’s April 7 review begins:
Spectacular as was Canadian achievement in the novel in 1944, Hugh MacLennan of Montreal has opened 1945 with greater power. In light of Two Solitudes, the excellence of Barometer Rising diminishes to the level of an apprentice piece. The promise of the first book is justified abundantly in the second. Considering style, theme, characters, craftsmanship, significance and integrity, Two Solitudes may well be considered the most important Canadian novel ever published.
The English press praised the book, as did the French, and sales were strong. By that October, MacLennan’s novel had sold 45,000 copies and was in its sixth printing. I can’t say I’ve ever visited a used bookstore in this country that didn’t stock a copy. And yet, though I kept an eye out, it was years before I first saw a copy of All This Difference. The first was at the home of my Montreal friend Adrian King-Edwards, owner of The Word bookshop. A couple of years later, I spotted another on a dollar cart outside Attic Books in London, Ontario. I haven’t come across another since.So begins my review of All This Difference, posted yesterday at Canadian Notes & Queries online. You can read the whole thing here:
Dorothy Dumbrille's Communist ManifestationHer second novel, but first to be published in book form, it's a highly ambitious work, as reflected in this publisher's advert:
The Globe & Mail 4 August 1945 |
Toronto: Harlequin 1963 |
That Dear Perfection Alison York Toronto: Harlequin, 1988 |
Fortunes of Love Jessica Steele Toronto: Harlequin, 1988 |
No Angel Jeanne Allan Toronto: Harlequin, 1991 |
Anything for You Rosemary Hammond Toronto: Harlequin, 1992 |
Unfriendly Proposition Jessica Steele Toronto: Harlequin, 1990 |
The Canadian Caper Jean Pelletier and Claude Adams Toronto: PaperJacks, 1982 |
cliquez pour agrandir |
Alex had always been fascinated by Australia and went out there from England to get a job as a nurse.
There she met the autocratic boss of a logging camp, Grant Mitchell, who told her, "There's no padding around in this job, Miss Leighton. Just dust and drought and a twenty-four-hour day."
She would show him she wasn't scared of hard work, or of him!And she did. She showed him.
The duke and the single mom!
Nurse Rosie Hobbes knows charming men cannot be trusted. Visiting pediatrician and sexy Italian duke Dr. Leo Marchetti is surely no exception! Her toddler twins are now the centre of her life, and she expects Leo to run a mile when he meets them. Instead his warmth leaves her breathless!Not just a doctor, but a duke. Sexy to boot! Looks like he showed her!
Death About Face Frank Kane Toronto: Harlequin, 1951 |
Out of the Night [The Black Dark Murders] Robert O. Saber [pseud. Milton K. Ozaki] Toronto: Harlequin, 1954 |
Heath, Sex and Birth Control Percy E. Ryberg, M.D. Toronto: Harlequin, 1952 |
The Wicked Lady Skelton Magellan King-Hill 1949 |
Die With Me, Lady Ronald Cocking 1953 |
Lady - Here's Your Wreath Raymond Marshall [pseud. James Hadley Chase] 1953 |
The Lady Lost Her Head Manning Lee Stokes 1958 |
Hickory House Toronto: Harlequin, 1956 Cover illustration by Norm Eastman |
Hickory House – the result of a lifetime's hopes and ambitions. After lean years of insignificant books with their small bets and mean losers, hurried movings and furtive payoffs, now Al Rossi was a Big Time operator with a whole city answering to him.
The Damned and the Destroyed London: Dobson, 1962 |
When Maxwell Dent returned from the Korean War after helping to smash an enemy ring supplying narcotics to U.N. forces, he thought he had turned his back forever on this nefarious trade with all its unpleasant associations. Yet here he was in Huntley Ashton's elegant Westmount home being asked to undertake a similar task in Montreal.
Night Without Darkness Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1965 Jacket design by Peter Edwards |
Anton Fox, a Communist militant, has abducted a Western scientist, Beldon, and plans to use his new discovery, known as "paralysis mist", to get control of the Communist bloc – and take the Cold War off the ice.
Cry Hallelujah! London: Dobson, 1970 Jacket design by Geoffrey Harrold |
A beautiful girl with a vision starts a revivalist mission in a decrepit hall in Greenwich Village – her congregation a handful of down and outs and the prostitutes from the brothel opposite.
Into a Dark Mirror London: Dobson, 1971 Jacket design by Colin Andrews |
Mark and Toni become inextricably involved in a crime hunt in France when they are there to investigate the extraordinary disappearance of their fathers after a war reunion.
The Disinherited London: Dobson, 1974 |
Here is an audaciously original novel of human conflicts and suspense. In a story of nonstop tension it details the agony of the wrongly-accused and the guilty, and the public attitude toward them.
The Doomsday List London: Dobson, 1974 |
Several CIA agents have been 'eliminated' in various particularly brutal ghoulish ways. These murders have taken place at regular intervals in different European countries, and Adam Beck from another top-secret agency, is detailed to investigate.
Over and Under the Table: The Anatomy of an Alcoholic Montreal: Optimum, 1985 Cover design by Emmanuel Blanc |
I feel very excited. Over and Under the Table will be advantageous to family members of alcoholics, school children, ministers of religion and persons who work on a day to day basis with alcoholic members of our society.Major R. MackenzieDirector, Public Relations, The Salvation Army, Montreal