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5 comments about Thin Ice: Coming of Age in Canada.

1. It helps to appreciate this memoir if you have an idea of who Bruce McCall is. The best way of doing that at one stroke is to read his cartoon collection, _Zany Afternoons_, which is out of print. _Thin Ice_ is a tale of a joyless family ruled by a loveless, inconsiderate father, seen from the viewpoint of the artistic child. By all rights, I should dislike this book, as I think giving one's parents the "Mommy Dearest" treatment is ungrateful, unless they were downright abusive. As the psychiatrist said to the centaur, "Stop blaming your parents." Yet he recreates his childhood homes and family climate so winningly that the story overcomes such resistance, and we are transported back with him. All those witty zingers about how dull Canada was are entertaining, too. The book ends just as he is on his way to revive his career in the States. Since that is where, by his own definition, the "good part" of the story lies, let's hope he produces the next installment soon.



2. Wanting to know more about Canadian perspectives on the United States, and attracted by quotes indicating that P. J. O'Rourke and Peter Jennings found it very humorous, I bought this book. Unfortunately, I was once again reminded not to attribute too much credit to quotes from reviews printed on a book's cover. This is a far from humorous work; rather, it is a painful read.

   McCall's memoir is a bitter reflection on his childhood in Canada. His depiction of the Canada in which he was raised seems to arise from inductive reasoning: since his was a poor, emotionally uncommunicative, and disfunctional family he attributes those same attributes to the entire nation. Since McCall's personal life only took an upturn upon his immigration to the United States in retrospect everything American in his youth was bright, colorful, luxurious and exciting; things from Canada on the other hand were grey, utilitarian, and boring. Americans were fun and vigorous; Canadians dour and laconic.

   McCall's memoir constitutes an unrelenting denunciation of his parents' rearing of their children. His mother is depicted as a tragic, downtrodden, alcoholic who withdrew into alcohol as an escape from the burden of six children and a domineering, unsupportive husband. His description of his father is severe: mean, tyrannical, selfish, belittling. The denunciations are so excessive that about two thirds through the book the one wonders whether McCall doesn't regret missing the opportunity to drive a stake through his father's heart. He describes a stark childhood entirely devoid of love, happiness, or material comforts and attributes all his failures and personality quirks and those of his siblings to their upbringing.

   This was a hard book to plow through, much less finish. It is a sad, depressing memoir which would have been better kept within the McCall family; the writer makes an apt observation in the beginning of the book when he expresses concern about how his siblings will receive this recollection of their childhood.

   I really regret buying this book and the time I invested in reading it. Under no circumstances would I recommend it to others.




3. Thin Ice is one of the best books I have ever read. I also grew up in a large, dysfunctional family in southern Ontario in the fifties and sixties with a tyrannical, alcoholic father in a tense, cold emotion-starved environment. It wasn't until I was in therapy many years later for an anxiety disorder that I even realized that my childhood was far from normal, and all the feelings of inadequacy and inferiority I had carried all my life stemmed from my childhood.

   Thin Ice was a very painful book for me to read, because it is a tearful, emotional trip back in time, but a journey that was necessary for me to understand what happened to me and to finally stop blaming myself. Thin Ice is also uproariously funny, and I am reading it a second time. I, too, yearned to leave Canada behind and move to the United States. I left Canada over a decade ago to raise our children here and have never looked back. After therapy and Bruce's book I can finally leave it emotionally behind, also.

   Canadians get very upset when they are poked fun at, and Bruce does it like a pro. If you are a Pierre Burton nationalist, prepare yourself to be indignant. Bruce "tries to create a time when things were very different indeed - a time when a Canadian, certainly this Canadian, felt himself to be two thirds American, with the other third composed of a grayish ball of chaff: hockey/plaid/butter tarts/earmuffs/CBC/Mounties/toques/wheat/fish/lumber/God Save the King/Queen".

   I bought Thin Ice to be entertained and I not only laughed until I cried, I also really cried and gained a priceless insight into my complex childhood and the key to my personality today.




4. As a Canadian coming of age in Canada, with all the small town yearnings of the U.S. in all it's glory, I could certainly relate to Bruce McCall's book, but I would have loved it anyway. I am buying copies for friends.



5. This book was one of the best i've read in years. Bruce McCall is so great at his craft. he pays attention to every word. Making it impossible to read this book fast. it would not be doing it justice. You need to sit back and savor every single word.

No comments about Bora Laskin: Bringing Law to Life (Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History).

No comments about Ernie Boffa: Canadian Bush Pilot.

2 comments about Arms and the Man: Dr. Gerald Bull, Iraq and The Supergun.

1. This is a great read, even for those who know nothing about the exploits of Dr Gerry Bull. Dr Bull was a flawed genius - a passionate and driven ballistics visionary responsible for the design of many of the worlds deadliest artillery cannons, and yet he was politically naive, inspirational to his colleagues, and a practical joker. He provoked both deep loyalty in his friends and deep hatred in his enemies. The latter would lead to his assassination. He died during his work on Project Babylon - a cannon several hundred metres long!
   
   This book delivers on many fronts: it is well researched and provides in depth information about the superguns that Dr Bull hoped could send small satelites into space, it also delves into his personal life, and takes the reader into the shady and nervous underworld of illegal arms dealings that Gerald Bull wound up in by circumstance.
   
   William Lowther has written with great passion and produced a book that will captivate you and make you want to tell Dr Bull's story to everyone you meet.



2. This is a fascinating look at the life of a true genius whose path took him, inevitably, to Saddam's door. His dream of producing a gun capable of putting a satellite into orbit was twisted into a weapon for the Iraqi regime. Reads like an espionage novel, although it slows down a bit when talking about the businesses and fronts used to get the weapon's parts into Iraq. Otherwise, a really good read!

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2 comments about There It Is: A Canadian in the Vietnam War.

1. This book had a profound effect on me in the way it illustrated how the "spiritual awakening" and prosperity of Canada during the 60's was paid for with the blood of America's children. I find it sickening how Canadians have distanced themselves from this war and condemned innocent veterans, most of whom were just out of highschool at the time...while at the same time praising the draft dodgers who headed north and assimilated into the Canadian population. These veterans need to be treated with the respect they deserve once and for all.

   In his autobiography, "There It Is", Les Brown tells of his experiences as a Canadian born teenager, drafted into the US Army after returning to his parents home in California after a summer vacation in his native Quebec. You feel the helplessness he must have felt while trapped in the Kafkaesque draft system -one moment surfing the golden California beaches, the next on the front lines in South East Asia.

   Lost in the green whirlwind that is the US Army, the young soldier quickly adapts to grunt life -finding brotherhood among those poor souls lost in the anarchy of a deteriorating war effort. As it becomes more and more clear that the American leadership has failed, Les becomes increasingly defiant. While in the most dangerous jungles he refuses to carry an M-16 and even goes AWOL for week surfing the beaches of Vietnam. A truly courageous Anti-War memoir, "There It Is" brings to the public consciousness the demons harbored by one man but belong to us all.




2. This book had a profound effect on me in the way it illustrated how the "spiritual awakening" and prosperity of Canada during the 60's was paid for with the blood of America's children. I find it sickening how Canadians have distanced themselves from this war and condemned innocent veterans, most of whom were just out of highschool at the time, as "baby-killers" while at the same time praising the draft dodgers who headed north and assimilated into the Canadian population. These veterans need to be treated with the respect they deserve once and for all.

   In his autobigraphy, "There It Is", Les Brown tells of his experiences as a Canadian born teenager, drafted into the US Army after returning to his parents home in California after a summer vacation in his native Quebec. You feel the helplessness he must have felt while trapped in the Kafkaesque draft system -one moment surfing the golden Calfornia beaches, the next on the front lines in South East Asia.

   Lost in the green wirlwind that is the US Army, the young soldier quickly adapts to grunt life -finding brotherhood among those poor souls lost in the anarchy of a deteriorating war effort. As it becomes more and more clear that the American leadership has failed, Les becomes increasingly defiant. While in the most dangerous jungles he refuses to carry an M-16 and even goes AWOL for week surfing the beaches of Vietnam. A truly courageous Anti-War memoir, "There It Is" brings to the public consciousness the demons harboured by one man but belong to us all.

No comments about Grenfell of Labrador: A Biography.