The Brussels Post, 1975-07-02, Page 2Does it cooFyou off? Snow on cornfield
Sugar and Spice
by Bill Smiley
Rather belatedly, I'm reading Hugh.
Garner's autobiOgraphical One Damn
Thing After Another, and thoroughly
enjoying it.
There are two types of people to whom
this book would appeal: those who are
interested in the rather mysterious worlds
of the professional writer and the
publisher, and those who enjoy the
reminiscences of a robust and prickly
personality who has done a lot of living in
sixty-odd years.
It is far from Garner's best book. It is
repititious and padded inexcusably with
articles he has written and a speech he has
made. There is nothing of the grace and
strength of his magnificent short stories or
the solid skill of his good ,novels.
But that's as it should be. He is
writing about Hugh Garner the man, as
well as Hugh Garner the writer, and
nobody knows better than he that, while
the latter may be on the way to becoming a
Canadian literary giant, the former has feet
of clay, if not putty.
Garner makes it quite clear that he is far
from being an admirable person, in the
usual sense. He gets drunk at, or arrives
drunk at, formidably serious events. He
tells people to do impossible biological
things to themselves.
As he tells it, he is the sort of guy you
would never invite to a second party at your
place, because he would likely have
insulted someone at the first party. Or, if
you invited him to a party as the guest of
honor, he'd probably get into a beer parlor
and forget all about it, leaving you, his
host, with egg on your face when the
"distinguished author" failed to show.
Despite the somewhat dim light in which
Garner often shows himself, he makes it
perfectly clear that he admires himself very
much. Out of the book comes a good,
strong, healthy ego, which is fine. Every
real writer must have this belief in himself,
or he turns into a door-mat for editors and
publishers.
And somewhere along the line, as you
read this book, you begin to share Garnet's
Opinion of himself.
In most of us, however sedate our lives,
there lurks a hidden 'rebel, a wild
nonconformist, a teller-off of the boss, a
fighter for hopeless catiseS.
Garner has been, and is, all of these
things, and we' can enjoy ourselves,
vieatiously, by identifying with his colorful,
battleftil life.
Hugh Garner has been fighting battles
all his life, and a lesS doughty fighter
would long since have been buried
physically, socially, and perhaps
spiritually.
Asa kid, he fought the obloquy and
occasional hutriiliation of the very poor in a
Toronto slum, and emerged from it tough
and chip-on-shoulder.
As a youth, he dropped out of school and
ran head-on into the Depression. He
bummed all over NorthAmerica, riding
freights, seeing country, working at many
things, and storing a great fund of
experience for his future fiction.
He learned earlier the frustration of a
proletariat facing the establishment and
this led to a suspicion of, and
disillusionment with, authority, which he
has retained all his life.
He fought as a volunteer in the
International Brigade in the Spanish Civil
War. This was probably the last gallant
crusade in the history of war, when
thousands of young idealists from many
nations left home to battle fascism. Most of
them were scorned and derided as "reds"
in their own countries.
Yet Garner was clear-headed enough to
realize that the Communists were using the
volunteers as dupes, and he was never
sucked in. •
Again a fight loomed, when Canada
declared war on Germany.Garner joined up
in the army, right away. His "red"
background was against him, so he
switched to the navy, and spent a number
of dangerous, tumultuous and hilarious
years before his discharge as a chief petty
officer (he certainly wasn't "officer
material").
Then came the biggest battle of all,
trying to become a professional writer in
Canada. At the time, he had about as much
chance as he would have had if he'd chosen
to run for king of England:
Doggedly, he fought stupid editors,
timid publishers, and the great apathy of
the Canadian reader, sustained only by his
own sublime and cent ain conviction that
his stuff was good.
It was a long, pitched battle, with many a
skirmish, .the occasional rout, and the
just-as-occasional victory. But he won.
At his best, Hugh. Garner is one of the
best short story writers in the English
language, with a grasp of the feelings and
motives of "ordinary" people that is
wholly credible.
His novels are above average, a couple
of them excellent, notably
"Cabbagetowii.''
Where most of us can identify with
Garner is in his scorn for the petty, the
bureaucratic, the timid, the phoney.
He is somewhat like a "naughty" baby
who pulls that cat's taili knocks over the
delicate table with the Spade figurine On it,
and sits up looking around to make sure
everybody is taking notice.
If Canada were the sort of country which
erects statues of its writers, heaven forbid,
Garner would be sculpted in solid stone, a
fiendish grin on his face, a chip ott each
shoulder, and hiS right arm meting, the
Middle finger of that hand raised erectly in
the universal gesture.•
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WEDNESQAY,JULY 2, 1975 ONTARIO
, Serving Brussels and the surrounding community,
Published each Wednesday afternoon at Brussels, Ontario
by McLean Bros.Publishers, Limited.
Evelyn Kennedy - Editor . Dave Robb - Advertising
Member Canadian Community Newspaper Association and
Ontario Weekly Newspaper Association. „.„
Subscriptions lin advance) Canada $6.00 a year, Others
CCNIA $8.00 a year, Single Copies15 cents each.
We can bridge the gap
The injustices of land distribution around the
world are only too obvious -- locally, nationally and
internationally. One village with fertile soil and an
ample water supply may get double the crop yields of
another one only a few miles away. Some of the most
unfortunate nations are so poor not because their
people have less intelligence but because they lack
resources.
And on a global scale, the inequities as to land
ownership are truly staggering. Bangladesh, with
75,000,000 people, has a poplulation density of 1,360
persons per square mile.That figure in Canada is six
persons per square mile, and in Australia only four.
These two countries put together have a combined
area of 6,500,000 square miles -- more than 100 times
that of Bangladesh -- yet their combined populations
do not even number half of those living in
Bangladesh.
It is crystal clear that the disparities are dangercius
.. It is just as evident that very little can be done
immediately to correct the situation. In fact, by the
end of the century, the four billion people who are
expected to live in Asia will represent about 62 per
cent of mankind.
But there are signs of change, and change will
have to come more rapidly. Those blessed with much
fertil land will have to learn to give more readily and
more often to those nature and history have
deprived. Governments in overpopulated lands such
as Bangladesh and India, authorities on overcrowded
islands such as Java and Mauritius, will have to find
the courage to dissuade their people from having
large families.
Rich nations must put behind them the temptation
of using cheap labor to exploit the natural resources
of developing countries. Fairer prices must be paid
by the rich to the poor if the tilting global balance is
to be corrected.
Much will depend on the leadership in many
lands. The combined political will of rich and poor
can bridge the gap that continues to divide too much
of the world into those who h ave much, and those
who have nothing. It will be a long and complex task,
a desperate struggle with many setbacks. But all of
us must persevere -- and must look at the
alternatives to greater justice -- if we are to ensure
for our children and- grandchildren a peaceful 21st
century.
(Contributed)
44i
aSE Vette EY•e-s'l
7/? Vow 7WE O. PP,
806, •