The Gazette from Montreal, Quebec, Canada • 55

55: BOOKS The GAZETTE, Montreal, Saturday, January 17, 1981 1 the last word tmvv nww 1 in 1. 1 1 CHUCK SCARBOROUGH Newt anchorman 1 nj TV world makes novel mystery A born rebel with a gift for politics upwards. It was textbook Leninism, the seizure of power by the nomenclature. 1 Only a true Stalinist, as Tito was, could have stood up to the USSR after the war. Power and more power was all: once it became clear that the Soviet Union had sinister designs on the Yugoslav economy, the Party and Tito had no choice but further resistance.

It was a terrifying experience, standing up to Uncle Joe. Through it, though, people like Djilas saw the possibility of true liberation, of true Communism, the chance for Yugoslavia to blaze a totally new trail. It was not to be. The hopes for liberalization lasted from the late 1940s until Stalin's death in March, 1953, then Tito clamped down again. Stalin was dead, long live Stalin.

The rest is the same sad old story, albeit not quite on the same dizzying scale of brutality as Stalinism in Russia. The race for privilege, the accumulation of property and wealth, the total elimination of all opposition; in short, paradise for some. Tito became more and more like the kings of pre-revolutionary Yugoslavia. Once, after a visit to New York he was described in Ufa magazine as a Latin American dictator. When an appalled Djilas told Tito, the latter blushed deeply but the high-living went on to the very end of his life.

Djilas movingly describes Tito's lingering death, the old man hooked up to machines, surrounded by an impersonal staff of doctors, lackeys and cronies. Alone with the remains of his glory. And yet because of his obsession with his own power and its trappings, Tito, says Djilas, was not as harmful to Yugoslavia as he could have been. Matters which did not involve his power he left more or less alone: in these spaces, the society managed to develop in spite of the Marshal. Tito could have been so much rnore than what he was, says Djilas.

It's a harsh epitaph. But then forgiveness is not one of history's attributes. Djilas has gotten in his last word, in letters of fire and stone that will endure a long, long time. Michael Dorland's new novel The Assassination of Leon Trotsky will be published this year. TITO: The Story from Inside By Milovan Djilas Harcourt Brace Jovanovich 185 pp, $12.95 By MICHAEL DORLAND Special to The Gazette 4 Tito certainly would not have liked this book about himself.

Once' again this is a case of the written word proving stronger than power, because it lasts longer. As Djilas says, a tyrant is immortal only as long as he is alive. Josip Broz Tito died in May, 1980: the last word goes to Milovan Djilas, Tito's wartime colleague, ex-secretary of the Yugoslav Party's Central Committee, ex-Politburo member, former president of the national assembly, former vice-president of Yugoslavia, author, and his country's foremost dissident Tito: The Story from Inside is, like Trotsky's uncompleted (by virtue of his being murdered) biography of Stalin, one in which it is impossible to separate subject from author. Unlike Trotsky, however, Djilas shows no hatred for Tito; in part because Tito, though a Stalinist, was no Stalin; in part too because Djilas, after the trauma of his 1954 expulsion from the pinnacles of power and in spite of the jailings to come, clung fast to the creative vocation that had always constituted his over-riding inner drive. What we have here then is far removed from Trotsky's systematic assassination in writing of his tormentor, though Djilas, in this "analytical study," admits freely that "I can hardly render a final judgment on Tito.

I cannot be impartial. Too much of my life was intertwined with his." The portrait of Tito that emerges is, for all its passionate sorrow, balanced and impressive, a striking study of the one great historical figure Djilas knew best. The entire conflict between the two men is best summarized in the following paragraph: we talked about the forces that shape history. I attempted to explain history in terms of the most rudimentary Marxist teaching which is to say, the ideas and the masses are the basic and decisive elements. Tito snapped: 'Nonsense! Often the entire course of history depends on one It seemed obvious that Tito had himself in mind.

President Josip Droz Tito From the first, Josip Broa, son of peasants, was exceptional. A basic component of his personality was vigorous resistance to perceived reality. Josip Broz began from nothing, as nobody and nothing. From the start he did not accept the commonly perceived reality." i There was only one game and the game was power, how to get it and keep it He was a born rebel and, given the times, it is not surprising that he found himself through the one talent he did possess in abundance, a gift for politics. Imprisoned for his activities in his homeland, he fled upon release to the one true homeland, the Soviet Union, and there, at the height of the Stalinist purges, he Wolfe draws The Right Stuff' THE MYRMIDON PROJECT By Chuck Scarborough and William Murray Coward, McCann and Geoghegan, 311pp.S16.95 By DOUGLAS HAMILTON Special to The Gazette The Myrmidon Project is Chuck Scarborough's second suspense novel.

In 1978, he published Stryker, the story of a TV reporter who becomes implicated in a power struggle between the White House and his employer, the American Communications Network. Stryker was a solo effort, but Scarborough's latest book was written with William Murray, who has 13 novels to his credit. Scarborough is a former reporter and late-night news anchorman for NBC-TV in New York. Like Stryker, The Myrmidon Project unfolds at ACN headquarters in New York. It involves a clash between Harry Grunwald, a fictionalized Walter Cronkite, and the chief executive of ACN, known as the Chairman, a character who first appeared in Stryker.

Grunwald is mad as hell and isn't going to take it anymore, He feels exploited by ACN management and wants a bigger share of the financial pie that he helps produce for America's biggest TV and radio empire. But the Chairman, with a keen eye on the ledgers and an ear cocked to the protest of the stockholders, thinks differently. He is alarmed at Grunwald's monetary demands and threats to join another network, which could ruin ACN. In a desperate gamble to keep his network Number One in America, the Chairman activates Project Myrmidon. The Myrmidon were soldiers of Achilles in the Trojan Wars who were known for dog-like devotion to their masters.

The name is aptly chosen for the project a plan that will guarantee that Grunwald will slavishly submit to the whims of ACN management. It will also allow the network to change Grunwald's image according to the latest public taste. The project is the work of, the Chairman and Sarah Anderson, the president of ACN News and a ruth- less executive who covets the top job. The Chairman employs two henchmen to carry out every step of the insidious project. They are Dr.

Jerome Lillienthal, an expert in the transmission of computerized TV signals, and a man known only as Crawford, a former CIA agent. Crawford is a sexual pervert and a sadist who specializes in dirty tricks and even murder. The first phase of the project is to reduce Grunwald to a babbling wreck, incapable of rational thought. This is accomplished by murdering his closest friends as well as his wife and children. Grunwald is then kidnapped and subjected to phase two of the project.

The Generation Gap WILLIAM MURRAY Author of 13 books After a period of Grunwald's benign and avuncular face once more appears on the screen. ACN heralds his return with grandiose advertising campaign de signed to boost ratings. Here, Scai borough and Murray aim a few welt placed shots at the crassness and vut; garity of the major United States TV networks. Grunwald's reappearance arouses almost no suspicion in anyone except Jeff Campbell, ACN's best cameraman and an acquaintance of the anchorman. Campbell notices a few be: havioural changes in Grunwald as well as the fact that his eyes are a different color.

Campbell, with the help of his girlfriend Tracy, a trainee reporter, sets out to discover what really happened to Harry Grunwald. Campbell ascertains that Gruri-' wald is broadcasting from a satellite station somewhere near New York and is being treated by Lillienthal, the Chairman's mad scientist An accurate picture of the frenetic lives of New Yorkers and; city's underside' To get some much-needed firepower on his side, Campbell enlists the support of Wade Nolan, a professional killer who revels in the bucolic pleasure of the North Carolina mountain country. Nolan is one of Scarborough and Murray's best-developed characters. He's a southern rustic with a hillbilly accent and a ribald sense of humor who learned how to kill in Vietnam. The two heroes have to survive more murder attempts, stage a daring break-in at the ACN transmitter atop the World Trade Centre and rescue Tracy from the clutches of Crawford.

The action culminates in an ingenious and climactic finale. Scarborough and Murray have produced a tight, well-written thriller. Only in the closing chapters is there a hint of melodrama. Scarborough's knowledge of the New York media is evident in the realistic description of the ACN newsroom. 1 He and Murray also provide an accurate picture of the frenetic lifestyle of New Yorkers and the seemy underside of the city with its bizarre nightclubs and sordid brothels.

Some critics may quibble about the plot being an unrealistic parody of American television. Nevertheless Scarborough and Murray have produced an entertaining novel for connoisseurs of crime fiction and have given North American media moguls some food for thought Douglas Hamilton is a radio journalist for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. sno nqufWon sine 1980) and Milovan Djilas in 1945 got his chance and was appointed by his Russian masters general secretary of the Yugoslav Party. Djilas does not think it impossible that Tito got the post as a reward for his services on behalf of the Soviet secret police. Fundamentally, Tito was a Stalinist.

There was only one game and the game was power, how to get it, how to keep it. The war and the German Occupation created the opportunity for a new form of power: resistance to the Nazis as a means and guarantee, by transforming partisans into an army, that the reward would be the state. The result was the Yugoslav revolution. Tito was not a great military leader. He was overly concerned with questions of his personal safety.

His acquisition of villas that would, after the war, turn into a veritable mania, began with a taste for mountain caves. The war was the means, both for Tito and the "new class," to scramble their way It I rt i v. 'r, he presents us with 'social' situations that dwell on the preoccupations, mores, styles and fashions of 'the lumpen-bourgeoisie', an expression borrowed from an earlier Wolfe book with a very long name. In his cryptic but delightful manner he serves up a steady stream of academics, joggers, "down-filled artists, writers on the lecture tour (and the make), skinheads, New York taxi drivers, independent women, invisible wives and his new, loose womancookie. If there is anything to be discovered here that you want in Tom Wolfe's writing, it is that he is capable of losing his proverbial 'cool'.

With brush in hand, Wolfe's renderings of his 'cookies' often border on the erotic. There seems to be no fear in this book of showing where Wolfe's draw hi 1 ju MX VCV tj art a A 4 ft .1 At 7- ing style came from initially mainly England's Ronald Searle. The cartoons from the early 1960s could be carbon copies in some cases. Mind you, he might have picked a lesser talent to have been influenced by. Searle, unquestionably, is the father of contemporary political cartooning in the U.S., given his influence on the likes of Patrick Oliphant, Jeff Mac-Nelly and Don Wright.

More recently, one would guess that Wolfe probably took a very close look at the world of Daumier, Lau-trec and Heinrich Kley, mixed them up, and then moved comfortably off on his own, displaying great panache and style. He moves smoothly from pen and ink to lithographers crayon, all drawn with great power and with an obvious love of anatomy. Two minor criticisms. Often when Wolfe draws a figure who is supposedly talking, he renders it with the mouth closed, something most cartoonists stopped doing in the 1950s with the advent of television. Secondly, be Is far too kind to self in his self-portrait on the back cover of this book particularly if you have seen recent photos of the author.

But, what the the man is Tom Wolfe. And Wolfe obviously believes that a picture is worth a thousand words or, at very least, several hundred, all of which he will pair with one of his drawings in order to explain the subtle nuances of that particular cartoon. These couplings are rather reminiscent of those marvelous old plates that appeared in Punch at one time vignettes on one aspect of daily life or another. None of which is displeasing despite the old dictum that a picture should stand on its own. But the layout of the book is sometimes confusing.

In addition to the above mentioned text, Wolfe insists on opening the book with some 20-odd pages of written observations on the 1970s. These $eem like even more footnotes to the drawings and might have been better placed in the back of the book. And, the cartoons are not in chronological order. Instead, Wolfe's powerful recent drawings appear first and then gradually, we are led back through to his early hesitant efforts of the 1960s. But I found quite a simple remedy after leafing through the book several times.

Simply read the book backwards and then place it on your coffee table upside down. IN OUR TIME By Tom Wolfe Farrar, Strauss, Giroux 1 19 pp, $16.95 By TERRY MOSMER of The Gazette Lewis Carroll and Sir John Tenniel were a natural entry, Carroll, "that logical madman," wrote Alice In Wonderland while Tenniel, the most prolific political cartoonist of his time, illustrated the classic, If you haven't seen his caricature of Bis-mark entitled Dropping the Pilot then you never went to school. And yet, his illustrations lor Alice are what he is usually remembered for. Since, there have been numerous successful pairings of writers and illustrators. Brendan Behan and Paul Hogarth teamed up in the 1950s and 1960s to give us two marvelous sketchbooks; one on Ireland, the other on New York.

More recently, the 'New Journalism' of the 1970s gave us that infamous 'gonzo' duo of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson and Ralph Steadman. On occasion, some daring individual has tried his or her hand at both writing and illustrating, perhaps wanting to avoid the odious business of having to share book royalties. But it doesn't always work.

Gary Trudeau, the brilliant creator of the irreverent comic-strip Doon-esbury, was assigned by his newspaper syndicate to do some 'reportage' on the Republican and Democratic conventions this past summer. The rocnlte urero if nnthino pice par. nest. Jimmy Breslin, aghast that Trudeau would try and move in on his turf, suggested in his New York Daily News column that Trudeau retreat to comic-stripping as most newspapers had plenty of summer students around who could write "that kind of stuff." Closer to home, Pierre Berton grew up a frustrated political cartoonist who has admitted to moving on 'to lesser things'. Some can do it, however.

Jules Feiffer, the cartoonist, playwright and novelist comes to mind. Another is Tom Wolfe, and finally, we have evidence of this with the release of his latest, book In Our Time, a collection of cartoons and caricatures drawn over the past two decades. Wolfe needs no introduction as one of America's leading contemporary journalists. But many people are un- On Parents Day "Puh-Irett, Mummy, nobody wants to hear about coke, Acapulco, or Fleetwood Mac" WEEKLY AUCTION SALE ot household furniture and furnishings in good condition MONDAY, JANUARY 19tb. 1881 It 9:30 A.M.

12-piece Provincial frulfwood dining room set 7-piece floral Provincial bedroom set, hand-painted 4-piec rock maple bedroom set 3-piece Queen Anne parlour set carved oak console table pair of upholstered wing chairs 5-piece ultra-modem bedroom set hand-carved antique oak chair Val St-Lambert candlesticks Baccarat candlesticks Limoges dishes signed glass jardiniere Art Deco book ends antique crystal lustres assorted table centre-pieces sterling comport, spoons, vase assorted figurines trunks luggage picture, frames a large selection of wool, yarn, needlepoint accessories, knitting accessories, crochet accessories lumber etc. PREVIEW: Silirdii, jMtwy 171k, 1M1 Iroa 8 30 k) 4:00 TM. tli MtK tlH Mil tttsiiy. aware of his capabilities as a cartoonist. And this is not just some passing dalliance on his part.

His efforts should be ranked with those of the top American cartoonists working today. Indeed, within that fraternity, the word is now out Tom Wolfe draws like a son-of-a-bitch and possesses THE RIGHT STUFF. Wolfe's caricature of Edward Kennedy alone is worth the price of admission to In Our Time. He portrays Ted looking like Mount St. Helen stuffed into a bathing suit smoking a casual joint.

Around his neck, on those fashionably thin chains, hang, in order, a bleeding heart, a crucifix and a coke spoon. Another caricature of Hugh Hefner is also worth close scrutiny. But the majority of these drawings are not, caricatures of specific individuals. Rather, as in Wolfe's prose, All property sold in our auction is subect to a premium of 10 payable by all buyers as part of the purchase The standard commission charged to sellers is 15 on each lot sold under $500, and 10 over $500. FRASER BROS.

LTD. Wwkl Auction Room 8010 Otvonshifi eernar Frrtr Til. 34Z-0050 wiriiwi.