Light Prose

464 LETTERS IN CANADA technically but which remains so drastically divided, a new force will be born which will match the violence and give life to gnawing despair' (102). The present state of affairs cannot continue ... it is a question of revolution, decadence, or the fire and peace of true love. Vanier opts for the latter with his requirement of 'a new race of men and women, capable of great generosity.' Vanier is no cynic. His writings combine a keen, sensitive social analysis with an inspirational and devotional mood and an unqualified witness to the Christian faith. Marcia Hollis, Down to Earth: Thoughts on God and Gardening. G.R. Welch, 144, $4.25 A devotional work, dealing with the parallels between the life of a Christian and the life of a gardener. The author is the wife of an Anglican clergyman in a Montreal suburb. (DONALD V. WADE) LIGHT PROSE 'Only connect.' Well, yes, it's excellent advice, but if taken too seriously by a reviewer, it can lead to tendentious tomfoolery. Apart from the adventitious , my search through the five books of words and two books of drawings that bled from the lighter vein this year has located no strong links among them all. Weak links there are, along with some balding greens and missing balls, but 'Fore!' is our cry. First and best, Gregory Clark, who is represented by two 1971 collections , A Barl of Apples (McGraw-Hill Ryerson, $8.95) and Outdoors with Gregory Clark (McClelland & Stewart, $5.95). The former, subtitled 'A Gregory Clark Omnibus,' collects many of his newspaper pieces from the full range of his career; quite a few of these have appeared in earlier collections, but for me the shock of familiarity was a pleasant One. None of our writers in this genre is close to Mr Clark in multiplicity of effect, or in change of pace. His most frequented memory mines are the two World Wars, downtown Toronto, and rural and recreational Ontario; his greatest strength is in selecting and transforming personal encounters by acute observation and surprising analysis. Authors usually botch explanations of their craft, but it's worth quoting Mr Clark's own summary, though the wording could be improved: 'Fix it. Dramatize it. Have fun with it. Make it an occasion, whether it is lovely or unusual, odd or strange, LlGHTPROSB 465 or in any way to be remembered. For memory, after all, is the sweetest story ever told.' To which, at the very least, must be added the injunction to be gregarious. Any story in the collection would do to illustrate, and I'll mention only two. 'Teleyawny,' based on the universal automatic propensity to join a yawner in a bursting gape, traces a homebound bus trip through an induced mass rictus to a panic over carbon monoxide poisoning, with appropriate (and infectious) noises. 'A Dear Old Man' explores a different route as sentimentality over the old man of the title, who has a magic charm for the pigeons in Trafalgar Square, is shattered by the revelation of his malign purpose in charming them. In each and all of the tales Gregory Clark demonstrates that the line between newspaper colour piece and short story is a misleading One: I dare predict the day when he will, for good or ill, be studied in our schools. His second collection, Outdoors with Gregory Clark, is gathered from the thousands of 'Packsack' articles he contributed to many newspapers. These very short pieces have a lesser dimension than his other writings, but demonstrate his intense acquaintance with and love for nature. As birdwatcher, angler, and hunter, he has watched and recorded details evocative rather than minutely drawn, though his percipience is almost always evident. Not as belle-lettrist as most other 'country' writers, he differs from many of them in keeping his opinions in middle distance, though visible. One would have to characterize him as a medium welldone conservationist, not fanatical, but scathing in his condemnation of wicked folly, and unsure that the trend to universal death can be stopped. And now for something not entirely different (he's primarily a newspaperman , self-deprecating, though not so long in the couth). Eric...