The Words of My Roaring

Robert Kroetsch's book is a classic novel of the depression and the rise to power of 'Bible Bill' Aberhart's Social Credit in the Alberta Legislature. But it's more than that -- it is truly Canadian literature, evoking in poetic terms both the prairies and the lushness of southern Ontario, and the multicultural nature of the Canadian people.

I got to proofread this book for the U of A Press and met the author on several occasions. The experience convinced me to stay in publishing. Kroetsch is a warm, interesting man with a fantastic ability to tell a story. His character, Johnnie Backstrom, makes meaningful but unfortunate mistakes. The miracle of this novel is that you identify with him from page one. The couleur locale, moreover, is priceless.Incidentally, the cover painting is a by a relatively famous Canadian painter, as are most U of A books. This is a beautiful, readable edition of a novel that the Torontonians, in their infinite wisdom, let slide out of print. What muckie-mucks.

At its best, Kroetsch's fiction is impossible to resist. The present volume is no exception. The author beautifully evokes every detail of dusbowl Alberta, from rusty old Chevs to rodeos to farmer's daughters. As Johnny backstrom's campaign picks up speed, we watch a man transformed by hucksterism and inflammatory rhetoric. needless to say, parallels to our own politicians are everywhere apparent. But this novel is primarily a yarn, like all of Kroetsch's novels. It bounds along like a prairie school bus--solid, loud, colorful and true.