Dreaming in the Rain

240 pages
Arsenal Pulp Press
Reviewed by Christine Hearn

Did you know that in 1922 vaudeville comic Benny Kubelsky (Jack Benny) met his future wife Sadie Marks (Mary Livingston) on Nelson Street in Vancouver’s West End? Or that in 1959 screen legend Errol Flynn died in the apartment of the uncle of noted pianist Glenn Gould on Burnaby Street, also in the West End? Or that in 1910 young William Henry Pratt (Boris Karloff) worked in construction at the Pacific National Exhibition?

Those are just three of the interesting facts in David Spaner’s (BA’80) look at Vancouver filmmaking from the beginning to now. The early trivia is interesting, but Spaner really hits his stride when he looks at the relatively recent rise of the American film industry in Vancouver and the parallel surge in independent moviemaking.

Through interviews with big names (Robert Altman, Stephen J. Cannell, and John Travolta, among others) and up-and-comers (including Scott Smith, Lynne Stopkewich, Sandra Oh, and Mina Shum), Spaner captures the captivating twists and turns as creative forces determined to follow their own vision juggle with the compelling economic reality that movies are big business – really big business.
www.arsenalpulp.com.

Revolution Script
Little is known about the woman who is known only as Meena, founder of the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA), but her brief life and martyr’s death are still providing inspiration. Melody Ermachild Chavis (Kilian) (BA’69) chronicles the struggle in Meena, Heroine of Afghanistan. The book has an introduction by Alice Walker and all proceeds will be donated to programs sponsored by RAWA.
www.stmartins.com/smp/meenargg.htm.

Clearcut Consequences
Brian Fawcett (BA’70) put 11 years of research into Virtual Clearcut: Or the Way Things Are in My Hometown. He explores the effects of the enormous (530 square kilometre) Bowron River Valley clearcut on the

landscape and on individuals, and casts a telling eye on his hometown, Prince George. Fawcett draws a troubling parallel between the shattered forests of the Bowron River Valley and the gradual destruction of a town’s confidence and quality of life, a wake-up call to the rest of the world. His concern is for the condition of people and places hit hard by globalization.
www.thomas-allen.com/Imprint/Virtual/virtual.html

Backpacking Through Africa
Laura Enridge (BA’93) puts herself out there – Ghana, Cˆote d’Ivoire, Mali, Burkina Faso, and Togo. Her first book of stories, Tro-tros and Potholes, West Africa: Solo, chronicles her adventures getting from place to place by whatever means available.
www.fourcornerspublishing.com.

A Canadian Icon
English professor David Stouck’s Ethel Wilson: A Critical Biography is being touted by reviewers as a “magnificent book [that] does near-to-perfect justice to its complex and enigmatic subject.” Wilson’s novels, including Swamp Angel and Love and Salt Water, capture a vanished British Columbia.

The Top Ten
Check out the top ten bestsellers by SFU authors or contributors in the SFU Bookstore. aq

Cover scans courtesy Anthea Lee / SFU Continuing Studies

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