The Windsor Star from Windsor, Ontario, Canada • 46

"rr wr 46 The Windsor Star, Saturday, May 6, 1972 Books -f 'w but boys grow old and fall turns cold ft Kahn, who now writes the most literate sport in North America for Esquire magazine, left the Herald Trib shortly after the disaster of 1953, when perhaps the finest baseball team of the 1950-1972 era continued to knuckle under to the Yankee hex. But he never forgot those wonderful Dodgers, whose name was connected to the buck-and-wing executed by the natives in getting out of the way of now long-forgotten street cars. And such was his boyhood. Then comes the most bitter-sweet part of all. Do old stars really fade away, or are they at time of retirement somehow consumed in fires of glory and borne to some far-off paradise? No, they cease being the boys of summer when they shed the armor of the diamond.

The heroic third baseman, now an American Legion Post bartender the man who confounded even the great Casey Stengel and who some say was the superior of Brooks Robinson, the modern-day legend. Jackie Robinson, still fighting the integration battle when Kahn last covered him in 1953, despite the fact hed been a star for five years, now engrossed in family tragedy. But who can follow a father-act like that? A man with a rifle for an arm, now a Manhattan hard hat who might feel at home in Archie Bunkers living room. The Preacher, ballooned to 22 pounds, with farm sweat on his hands, but no spit. Charlie Dressen, late of the Tigers, dead, along with that wonderful, powerful quiet man, Gil Hodges, who had gone to more fame with the successors to Flatbush, the Mets.

The happy boy-child behind the plate, who put down the tools of ignorance when paralysed in an auto crash, and then proceeded to grow into manhood. The Duke whose avocado dream rotted aw'ay in bankruptcy. Theyre all there, with the salt of the dugout, a young boys heroes in the early chapters. The Boys of Summer in the centre, and at the end, Olympians reduced to walking with the men of winter. But what a glorious, rowdy chapter in sports history.

Too bad Walter O'Malley finally killed it when he picked up his carpetbag, stowed away the remnants of his club and peddled them to Los Angeles in 1958. The smiles and the tears are all there, and worth the effort, even for Yankee fans. The Boys of Summer, by Roger Kahn. Harper and Row (Fitzhenry and Whiteside), 412 pages. By BOB McALEER It was October of 1953, and in the company of three close friends, one soon to be my wife, I paid off a World Series bet of $10.

It was on the Brooklyn Dodgers to beat the Yankees. In spite, the debt was paid in pennies. Some have had a love affair with the Dodgers spanning the better half of the century. For baseball fans, there was never a half-way house involving The Bums, no soon-forgotten summer kiss. It was marriage til death do you part though such was not my early state.

Roger Kahn, who covered his town team in the campaigns of 1952 and 1953, grew up within a long single of Ebbets Field. My brother and I were about 450 miles distant in Toronto. He was blood brother with Kahn, I was an apostle of the Giants. But his love was more tested. Its first flutter was in the late 30s, and became a bitter-sweet life-long affair when Mickey Owen let a third strike get away in the 1941 series, sapping Dodger momentum and starting a Yankee mastery of Flatbush which lasted until 1955.

But you cant escape the Dodgers forever. I never told my brother about that 1953 bet. I had laughed at him in 1947, rode home with Bobby Thomson in 1951, kept my silence in the subway series of 1952, but I joined my brother in 1953. Roger Kahn, the Brooklyn native, scion of Jewish intellectuals, would-be baseball player and all-time fan, married his chilhood sweetheart when the Herald-Tribune assigned him to the team. There was a maxium at the old Herald Tribune, put in statute by its long-time sports editor, Stanley Woodward.

No one covers the Dodgers more than two years. Objectivity lasted about that long and one became, not an employee of the newspaper, but a member of the team. The reporters hand smarted when Billy Cox knocked down a screaming drive at third, his pride died with Carl Furillos when the fly took a unique bounce' off the wall in right, his indignation climbed Olympus if Preacher Roes ethics regarding the spitball were questioned by others in the press box. With Kahn, the marriage was consumnated at spring training of 1952. How could it have been otherwise? His father was one of those who somehow equate baseball with the American dream.

Equate may be too tame a word. It was the American dream, and he was its missionary. Duke Snider at bat excellence Bob McAleer is The Stars news editor 30 years LAMPS! What a dazzling collection to choose from! Sleek Contemporary designs, ornate traditional, colonials and many others including. Swag Lamps! J. FURNITURE Open Fridays Until 9 P.M.

1331 Tecumseh Rd. E. at Hall Phone 256-1020 Free Parking at Rear of Store Closed All Day Monday Opon Wednesday All Day a good thing for you that we do When it comes to lawnmowers, either the kind you walk behind or the kind you ride, you get exactly what you pay for. Any kind of blade, under any kind of engine, will spin around and knock down grass. But there's a lot more than that to designing and building a quality lawnmower.

For example: V- The GUARDIAN Mower There's a rear safety shield, blade guard, deflector bar and safety stop switch. The "Careful Mower" for the careful buyer. Priced gBMfigggffaQD5a' 1)0 Ol KNOW TOO MICH? When it comes to good health, the old saying. A little knowledge can be a dangerous thing," is especially appropriate. We have always tried to stress that only the expert judgments of a physician, with his long period of training and experience, should be relied upon.

wiivt ahoi't Again, superficial knowledge about drugs and medicines is a serious problem. We strongly feel that it is one of the main underlying reasons for the drastic drug abuse situation that is plaguing us today. And, it is getting worse, not better, despite the efforts being made to control it. I IK lK AUK SOMK FACTS! How can a particular knowledge of drugs and medicines be harmful? Here are a few examples: 1. You could choose the wrong drug for a particular condition.

2. Similar symptoms of a previous ailment may be self-diagnosed as the same illness. 3. There could be side-effects that will be overlooked or undetected. 4.

Some drugs actually interfere with others. 5. Your body can become accustomed to a drug, leading to increased quantities, habituation and dependence. 6. One drug could mask other serious symptoms.

AUK NOT AGAINST CONSl'M KIllSM Public pressure to correct abuses in any area is welcomed by us. In particular, we do not wish to carry or to sell products that will not perform as intended or as advertised. Jf PHARMACY MMITID B.F.GORSKI, Phm.B. Phone 969-8400 YORKTOWN CENTRE 1399 GRAND MARAIS ROAD WEST I i A I V. i I I i 5 I i i i I l- i i I 1 1 'i i i i 5TJTS? 3 mf- Al 1 1 refined that find their natural place in the Roblin Lake poems (one frog like an emerald breathing), the Arctic accounts (After 600 years the ivory thought is still warm), and Old Alex, Married Mans Song, Wilderness Gothic, The Country North of Belleville, and others equally good, nay, damned good.

A1 Purdy is 54, and whether or not his best work is behind him is a matter that only fools would speculate on. The truth is, knowing Purdy, he will go on in his owm rugged way writing poems, travelling on grants, and living the best way he knows how as a poet. These Selected Poems affirm that supreme belief because, as Purdy himself said: We live with death but its life we die with. Strange, too, that poems are investments in an immortality that is for the living. Literature, describes the process of Purdy's craft in his discerning introduction: It is in the way he can manipulate the long line to create a variety of moods that Purdy has shown his growing power to fit the form exactly to the thought and thing This is not to say that his poems are entirely linear in their overall structure, for often the juxtaposition of jarring or contrasting elements is an essential part of the effect he is seeking, and there are times when he uses the moderately short line very effectively to achieve a cumulative emotive effect.

Purdys poems have a way of happening. They often implode in rings of dissociative images, phonetic effects that build a visual force-field within themselves; any random phrase or line sustains the full impact of the poems intensity. This is due, perhaps, to Purdys memory and fertile imagination, impressions, a vast knowledge of art, and the words that make things happen. Purdy knows his material and makes the most of it. The electric crackle of synecdoche, the rainy assonance, all methods revised and Len Gasparinis third and fourth books.

The Somniloquist and Pelee Island Poems, will be published this year. in Ebbets Field Bestsellers Figures in brackets indicate place last week. FICTION 1. Winds of war, by Herman Wouk. (1) 2.

Wheels, by Arthur Hailey. (2) 3. The Word, by Irving Wallace. (5) 4. The Assassins, by Elia Kazan.

(4) 5. The Betsy, by Harold Robbins. (3) 6. The Twelfth Mile, by E. G.

Per-rault. (8) 7. Message From Malaga, by Helen Macinnes. 8. Captains and The Kings, by Taylor Caldwell.

9. The Day of the Jackal, by Frederick Forsyth. (6) 10. Angel Cove, by Will R. Bird.

NON-FICTION 1. The Last Spike, by Pierre Berton. (1) 2. The Game of the Foxes, by Ladlislas Farago (4) 3. The Moon's a Balloon, by David Niven.

(3) 4. The National Dream, by Pierre Berton. (S) 5. The Double-Cross System, by J. C.

Masterman (2) 6. Eaton's 1901 catalogue, introduced by Jack (8) 7. Nunaga, by Duncan Pryde. (9) 8. The Defence Never Rests, by Francis Lee Bailey (6) 9.

Chariots Of The Gods, by Von Daniken (J. M. Dent). 10. Halifax Warden of the North, by Thomas Raddall.

States president, who winds up in hell, and does very well too. Pyramid is ready for summer. The publisher has just issued The Bike Book, by Bibs McIntyre Every bikeriders guide to survival and adventure. Penguin is issuing The President, by Miguel Angel Asturias, who won a Nobel Prize for Literature in 1967. Flamboyant chess master Bobby Fischer is passing out tips.

His methods have been explained in a Bantam paperback, Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess. Originally published by Xerox Basic Systems, the book is described as using the concept of programmed instruction. Co-authors are Dr. Stuart Margulies of Xerox and Donn Mosen-felder of Educational Design, Inc. Fans of Hammond Innes adventure novels have a new edition this month The Wreck of the Mary Deare, from Fontana.

Watchout, though: Its just a reprint with a new cover. A1 Purdy: Selected Poems, by A1 Purdy. McClelland and Stewart, 127 pages. $2.95. By LEN GASPARINI To call A1 Purdy Canadas greatest living poet is to award him no mean appelation.

Purdy has been writing seriously for almost three decades now, and in that time has published 10 books of poetry, edited several anthologies, and written radio and television plays for the CBC. This beautifully designed volume of his Selected Poems includes work from at least a half-dozen of his collections. What struck me as peculiar was Purdys omission of poems from his early chapbooks, particularly Pressed on Sand (1955) and The Crafte So Longe to Lerne (1959). I think a more fair representation of his poetic evolution in styles and forms would have been interesting to readers. This book presents us with the power of creative maturity not the effusions of growing pains.

The voice behind these poems is a resonant one. George Woodcock, editor of Canadian a. A Foot notes No honor Of Midnight Honor, by Janet Gregory Vermandel. Dodd, Mead (McClelland and Stewart), 183 pages, $5.75. By SCOTT CLARKE CUTHBERT Presumably the term suspense, when applied to a novel, implies a certain element of the unknown, an elusive essence which causes the reader to be concerned about the ultimate fate of the protagonist.

Of Midnight Honor purports to be a novel of suspense; the only element of mystery about it is how it ever got into print. The heroine, Willa Spanish, is another of those perpetual virgins, a sort of dark-haired Doris Day, so there isnt much suspense in that area. Her dreary, juvenile exploits as a 93 'A' "SI5Sj iisi-Vf 81 utoj. aj ala A' shoulder bag. That line, believe it or not, is supposed to be femininely cutesy, not ridiculous.

Perhaps the novel would be remotely bearable if it had been released as Nancy Drew Meets the FLQ, or The Puerilities of Pauline. As it stands, one can only sympathize with the reckless French-Canadian militants in the novel in their efforts to free themselves from English domination, which includes, I suppose, being subjected to sub-mediocre books like this one. S. C. Cuthbert is a freelance writer living in Windsor.

New paperbacks Philip Roths latest novel, Our Gang, is in paperback from Bantam. Its a fantasy about the murder of the United magazine editor who becomes unwittingly involved with French-Canadian activists in Montreal are more transparent, and less interesting, than a worn-out Baggie. Quite predictably, good guys turn out to be bad guys and vice-versa, but, due to the stumbling perseverance of the oh-so-romantic Miss Spanish, everything turns out quite predictably fine. Janet Gregory Vermandels talents as a writer speak for themselves. She is a master of the cliche: He reached out for me; large, warm, male, kissing me, telling me all those wonderful things his romantic French nature was sure I wanted to hear.

As a violator of versimilitude she is second to none; during a panic-stricken escape from the activists headquarters, her heroine reflects: I slid down the other side unceremoniously and thanked God Id put another pair of panty hose in my Min. 1,.