BOOK

Farthing's Fortunes
Richard B Wright
Atheneum, 1976
$18.66

Richard B Wright, author of the 2001 Giller Prize-winning novel Clara Callan, is as famous a Canadian writer as you're likely to find. It's therefore interesting to go back and read some of his earlier works and see what, if any, has been his growth as a novelist. Let me make it clear from the outset: there's been substantial growth if Farthing's Fortunes is anything to go by.

The story of Bill Farthing starts off in rural Ontario at the turn of the century. There we meet a caricature of an early Canadian family made up of the drunken father, the long-suffering mother who dies young, and Bill and his siblings who manage to run the farm without the help of any adults. Naturally some of the neighbours feel sorry for them and help out, while others ignore them.

Young Bill eventually gets seduced by the undertaker's wife while he's working for her husband. He then decides to explore the rest of the world by stopping off in Toronto. There he meets his idealized lover � a dance hall girl called Sally Butters � and then goes on a pilgrimage to find her again. Unfortunately, life is hard. His travels take him to the rough streets of New York and from there to the goldmines of the Yukon. After getting out of jail in the Klondike, he makes his way to London on his continual search to find Sally.

World War I enters into the picture and after narrowly surviving a battle where his entire unit is decimated, he gets hit in the head by a cricket ball on a pitch where headquarters is located. Not one to be sidetracked, he comes out of his amnesia after 16 years still asking after Sally. Will he find her? The answer is pretty obvious. The book reads like a collection of tales strung together in an introduction to a 'write your own novel' class.

Did I enjoy it? Yes I did � it was so elementary that it was fun to read. � Dr Markus Martin

Music

The Complete Piano Sonatas & Diabelli Variations, Beethoven
Performed by Anton Kuerti
Analekta, 1996
$84.99

In his lifetime, Beethoven composed some 32 sonatas for the piano. In an undertaking that is no less than gargantuan, Austrian-born Anton Kuerti has managed to record the entire collection as well as 33 variations on a waltz by Anton Diabelli. The recordings were done here in Toronto in 1974-5 in sync with his performances in Toronto and Ottawa.

There are a number of factors that make this album awesome. First, the sheer volume of music involved. The complete Beethoven piano sonatas are generally published in two volumes (which, when taken together are about the thickness of the Sears Catalogue!) and fill no less than 10 compact discs in this collection.

Second, the incredible musicality and genius that Mr Kuerti brings to the interpretation of this collection is awe-inspiring. Listening to his interpretation of these works brings to mind a full-scale opera on stage; not one of the many thousands of themes presented which seems without its individual personality and place on the keyboard's stage. The freshness and enduring quality of his interpretation is a sheer delight. And why shouldn't this be? This music is presented to us by one of Canada's foremost concert pianists who, in addition to recording this series, has recorded all the Schubert Sonatas and all the Beethoven Concertos, as well as numerous other recordings.

The third factor comes as an added bonus: Mr Kuerti has written some very intriguing and indispensable liner notes. He fearlessly explores Beethoven's sonatas movement by movement, unabashedly critiquing the master's greater and lesser works. He introduces these notes with a quote from George Bernard Shaw: "These notes should be understandable to any literate person in music." This allusion aptly introduces us to his 10 stimulating pages of notes on form, music terminology and the freedom of modern-day pianists.

There are two ways to approach this incredible box set. One is to simply pop a cd in at random and sit back and enjoy. The other (my personal favourite) is to dust off your old Beethoven Sonata scores and follow along. This is truly great music interpreted by a truly great mind.
�Dr Iris Gorfinkel

FILM
A boy and his dog
Dir: L Q Jones
First Run Features, 1975
(reissued on DVD, 2003)
$26.07

A madcap � if cheaply made � post-apocalyptic black comedy which quickly made it into the ranks of cult classics, this film, a close adaptation of a well-known novella by speculative fiction giant Harlan Ellison, manages to be both wildly entertaining and mildly thought-provoking. An impossibly young Don Johnson (many years before the dubious fame he earned in that 80s iconic TV show Miami Vice) stars as Vic, a crude and rather horny loner who roams the nuked planet earth with his lovable telepathic dog Blood. The dog totally steals the show, not least of all because he's at least 20 times more intelligent than his master. (Film buff trivia #1: Yep, the dog in the movie is indeed Benji...)

Boy leaves dog (the film's alternate name, to give you an idea of what you can expect, is "Psycho Boy and his Killer Dog") after a fight where Blood is critically wounded, and follows a babe underground to a nightmarish world, which resembles American 50s suburbia, but without any sunshine. Turns out the men below ground are sterile and Vic's been recruited for his, um, manliness. Needless to say it's fun for a while, but the exploitation of it all leads him to escape back to the surface to nurse his wounded dog � girl in tow, of course. Oddly enough this movie is more about the bond between a man and a beloved pet than it is about life after a nuclear war, as the hilarious and rather shocking ending attests. Oh, yes: Film buff trivia #2: Tim McIntire, who took on the voice of Blood, also sings the main title song. � Madeleine Partous