Times Colonist from Victoria, British Columbia, Canada • 70

THUNDER books M6 TIMES-COLONIST Sunday, April 25, 1993 Dietrich outshines daughter's tattle-tales By Frank Sullivan MARLENE DIETRICH; by her daughter Maria Riva; Random House; 790 pages; hardcover. Falling In love again, Never wanted to, ttiat ami to do? Can't help it. Sung by Lola-Lola as played by Marlene Dietrich in the 1931 tOm Tbt Blue Angel HILE looking at the pictures in this book, I found myself falling in love again with Marlene. If the writing of the book was therapeutic for Maria, she must be feeling relieved but terribly drained. As it claws the magic from her mother, the text rips even more away from the writer.

The price of vengeance? That, too, would be a presumption. A Marlene Dearest this book may not be; yet in some ways it is more insidious because bitterness is veiled, albeit sometimes thinly, in the guise of love. Marlene died last year at the age of 90, a recluse in Paris. Although the universe was unfolding as it should, aging her earthly being toward its end, she had chosen to hide herself and be remembered only in the manner she had ordained. Yet Maria, now 68, chose to reveal graphically the withering away of a person.

I find that account almost as sickening as her dramatic drool as the book winds to a merciful end. Better had she not tried to turn star-dust to ashes. Perhaps too, am being hard on Maria. Never wanted to. What am I to do? Can't help it.

Frank Sullivan Is an editor on the Timea-Colonlst newsdesk. and resentment where her mother is concerned should have been sorted out with her mother. Even if that were not possible, it would have been best not to air the laundry before the world, especially after the book's victim is no longer able to fight back. Or is she? Perhaps the dignity of no reply is all that is required. As is the case with any multiple biographies, this book is at odds with others on accounts of similar events.

I recall, and recount here, some words written in the 1981 autobiography of actress Mercedes McCambridge, The Quality of Mercy: "I have never known a more giving person than Marlene, and for so much of her life, so few have given to her. They know who they are and I wonder how they can live with their success, knowing that much of it was achieved by standing on the shoulders of a great and beautiful woman who nurtured them, supported them, made love to them, and from whom they walked away, the luggage she had given them crammed with the gifts she had bought for them. Marlene never walked away from anybody. The shoe was always on the other's foot, like a very expensive shoe that Marlene had paid for." What gives Maria's book added muscle as it vies with the others for a prominent place in history is the fact its author had access to her subject's lifelong diary and countless letters, many of them from lovers and many printed in these pages. i i Dietrich, and there have been at least 60 of them, it is clear that the greatest role she ever played was that of herself.

The image, the screen persona, the memories she left behind her, all had been carefully crafted over her career of more than three-quarters of a century. A goddess but no angel, Marlene's personal activities would raise eyebrows even today. Her list of lovers includes many well-known names in the movie world, both male and female. In one episode of this book, the author claims her mother encouraged a lesbian relationship for her so that Maria would never marry and leave her. No matter what her only daughter has written in these 790 pages or might yet write, the treasures Marlene amassed in the world of make-believe will stand as proof they have been paid for, in full.

It would be presumptuous to try to assess their worth to Marlene in terms of what she gave up. We can feel sorry for Maria and the horrors she must have had to bear as a child; there's no reason to doubt the experiences she relates. Nevertheless, her frustration, anger Never wanted to. What am I to do? Can't help it. Call me a sentimental softie for turning away from the nasty and looking at the nice; I prefer to preserve my image of this goddess who paid a price for my everlasting affection.

Can't help it. Marlene invested hours make that years in whatever it took to offer film-goers a body perfect, sans common human blemishes. Yet her daughter, Maria Riva, chooses to take us behind the makeup and show us warts. She doesn't have the right, I think, to reduce to a bundle of paper the monument of a human life sacrificed to an art. As Marlene's character said in the 1932 film Shanghai Express, "It took more than one man to change my name to Shanghai Lily," one might say today it took more than one role to establish her as Marlene Dietrich, star.

No matter which book you read about AS A HOOKER in 'Manpower' (Warner Bros. -First National, 194 1) GREATER VICTORIA PUBUC LIBRARY Gulf Islands author loves original research get mad when they see her take their history and knead it into something else. Why are so many writers braving family wrath to write about those closest to them? "We no longer think we're going to see anyone on 'the other she says cheerfully. THE FOLLOWING are new books in the Greater Victoria Public Library system, with call numbers of non-fiction titles in brackets. SISTERS OF THE ROAD-Shades of the Green River murders; Barbara Wilson's mystery is set on Seattle's Sea-Tac Strip.

TEACH YOUR CHILD HOW TO THINK Edward DeBono outlines his methods (155.41 DEB). TO SLEEP WITH GHOSTS Kimbu's experience of today's Africa conflicts with his heritage of the old Africa, fiction by G. F. Michelsen. THE STRUGGLE FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE IN BRITISH COLUMBIA A biography of Vancouver feminist leader Helena Gutteridge, by Irene Howard (923.671 GUT).

TRANSIT OF VENUS Julian Evans chronicles his recent journeys through the Pacific Islands (919.504 EVA). VICTORIA GOLF CLUB 1893-1993 Peter Corley Smith's illustrated history of the club (796.358206 COR). WALDHEIM AND AUSTRIA -An examination of Kurt Waldheim's role in modern European history, by Richard Bassett (923.1436 WAD. WHEN A MATE WANTS OUT -Marriage counselling from Sally and Jim Conway (646.78 CON). "All that's left is the body in a strange way this is related to the fitness thing and the past.

So now you find your immortality by walking backwards." With the Corbetts, the author walks backward into Norman times. In her re- i M- AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL elements and wordplay are stamped onto Audrey Thomas's novels and short stories and her latest book, Graven Images, is no exception. The heroine, Charlotte Corbett, is like Thomas of 10th generation Yankee stock, a divorced writer and occasional journalist, who makes her home on B.C.'s Galiano Island. And Charlotte makes connections between words, just like Thomas. "It's not dyslexia," says Thomas, 58.

"It's just I see one thing and imagine another." In an effort to please her cranky mother, Charlotte sets out to reconstruct the Corbett family tree, or "die-nasty," as the old lady puts it. Because Thomas is part Corbett herself, the novel lets the author reconstruct some of her own forbears. "I would say, in my flip way, this is auto-biograffiti," she says with a punster's triumphant smirk. Autobiograffiti, or creative genealogy, is attracting many writers these days: Robertson Davies Murther and Walking Spirits), Paulette Giles (Cousins), David Macfarlane (The Danger Tree) and Clark Blaise (his forthcoming memoir I Had a Father). "My mother would maintain that her father was not like the grandfather figure in the book," says Thomas.

"She'd say these things never happened. I'd say, given our family, they could have." But she admits that other family members Near the beginning of the book she details a menu from the Polish sailing ship on which Charlotte is travelling to England, a menu of noodle dumplings with lard boiled with green parsley. Near the end, Charlotte discovers a menu in a London Museum, of gruel, porridge, broth, milk and bread, which was given week after week, year after year, to the orphan foundlings of Coram's Fields Foundling Hospital in the 17th century. Both menus are authentic, the result of research and experience never do a book which isn't an excuse for me to learn a lot," says Thomas). The first menu, sampled by the curious Charlotte, reflects the mood of the opening chapters playful, full of the promise of exotic discoveries.

The second appears at the point when Charlotte's British-born friend Lydia recalls the night during the Blitz when her mother was buried in rubble and she was orphaned. A few pages later, Charlotte's own mother finally reveals a death from her childhood. "I'll never be a bestseller," says Thomas, now at work on a novel based on her years in West Africa. "I demand too much I demand the reader make connections." But she rejects the idea that readers become co-writers as they interpret the material sfie assembles. "Oh no, that's like confusing the diner with the cook." Canadian Press PUBLISH YOUR BOOK INFORMATION EVERY WRITER NEEDS TO KNOW 4 May 1st, $55 (includes lunch) SEMINARS PLUS 598-6109 SsthaUheCor- AUDREY THOMAS bett clan carried its raven banners (Corbett is from the French corbeau for crow or raven) onto the battlefield at Hastings.

One branch of the family emigrated to upstate New York, and Charlotte uncovers their bravery in Indian raids, their scandals and eventually the sources of her mother's psychic pain. While it is a serious story of family secrets, the loss of children and lost children, Graven Images is studded with bits and scraps from Thomas's files and boxes: ticket stubs, nursery rhymes, hymns, advertisements. The task for Thomas lies in controlling the material and marshalling it in aid of her story. NOW IN PAPERBACK BC BESTSELLER by JEAN BARMAN $18.95 Survey of conjuring tells no tricks 3s By John Meacham CONJURING; by James Randi; 314 pages; St. Martin's Press; hardcover.

The only slight criticism I have is that the author does take it for granted sometimes that a lay person understands all the lingo or-the modus operandi of the magic profession. For instance, he never does explain the Cup and Ball effect, but does mention how Prince Charles, at his induction into the magic circle of London, had to perform this particular trick to demonstrate his skill in magic. In conclusion, I think that this book is very good value. Certainly invaluable to the devoted magician and very good reading for the person who just wants to get the background of the who, when, but not how of magic. Victoria Jeweller John Meacham conjures up friends on his trips overseas.

extremely well researched, and would be of interest to any lay person but of particular interest to members of the magic fraternity. It is amazing to read how wealthy some of the historical figures such as Cagliostro became and how others died in abject poverty. The chapter on Kellar and Houdini are worth the price of the book alone, and I felt pangs of nostalgia reading about the famous Chung Ling Soo performing at the Wood Green Empire in North London. This was my local theatre and I recall seeing The Great Dante performing there after the war, and others of equal fame. ALTHOUGH THE title of this book Conjuring is, in this writer's opinion a little misleading as to its contents, the author is quick to apologize on Page 9 that he is not going to reveal any of the major secrets of the magic or conjuring profession.

he has done well. A more apt title for this wonderfully-researched and well-written book w.ould be Magicians Famous and Notable, Past and Present. But this aside, it is a remarkable feat of work to gather so much valuable information on the history of magic from earliest times, woodcuts from 1470 books to present-day magicians such as the awe-inspiring David Copper-field and many others. I was impressed with the number and quality of the photographs, many in color. Also a very useful and comprehensive list of magicians then and nov is at the back of the book along with a list of magic dealers' addresses and periodicals.

The content of the book itself is available at UNIVERSITY OF VICTORIA BOOKSTORE National Book Festival Yukon Memories: A Mountie's Story by Jack "Tich" Watson Gray Campbell by DYANNE GIBSON $16.95 Author Kmier a Cold (limale A Sew Mystery tearing Mountie Matteesie, the shrewd but sympathetic detective, returns to investigate a brutal double murder that slashes through lives, cultures and traditions in a remote Arctic community. $24.95 he Yukon Memories: A Mountie's Story chronicles the exploits of rookie RCMP constable Tich Watson during his posting to Dawson City in the 1930s. This first-hand account is a tribute to the great spirit of adventure and community that existed in the North of sixty years ago. 5 8 V2, 128 pes, ISBN 1-55110052-5, $12.95 softcover, black white photographs Published by Whitecap Books in hon Memories A Slot A77f STWti Available at Griffin Books 16S-K0 Johnson Street Victoria, B-CV8W3CS (604) 3S3-0633 National Book Festival Available at: Bolen Books available at UNIVERSITY OF VICTORIA BOOKSTORE 1 National Book Festival CANADA Nationaf Book Festival.