The Coffee Mate, Sepember 21, 2001
Review of Better the Devil You Know... by Betty Keller

By Beatice Repp

The reader is in for a surprise and unusual entertainment by historical fiction set in Vancouver in 1907. The author is good enough to tell us what is fact and what is fiction. She has put the story together in such a way as to give the reader a rollicking, fast-paced, sometimes comical yarn to complete with appropriate accents and diverse characters. "Back to saving drunks!" Said the Reverend Dodds, who really is an ex-con and wears woman's clothing as a disguise, when needed, "At least he could count on drunks to react with a touch more gratitude when he threw himself at their feet or clasped them to his bosom."

The scrapping that continually goes on between the residents of the local cathouse will make the reader smile and, at times, chuckle out loud. The five-year-old Merton is a resourceful lad but we don't learn the truth about him until the last few chapters where everyone is in court.

Fawkes, the Klondike miner experiences nothing but grief, once his poke disappears.

The antics of the ladies of the red house are hilarious throughout the story.

The author can keep the reader interested in her story, up to the last page. The fact that Keller has devoted her life to the written word is evident here. Another BC author we can be proud of.

Times Colonist, September 9, 2001
Review of Better the Devil You Know... by Betty Keller

By Beth Haysom

If you're looking for a fast-paced, funny paperback to while away an afternoon at the beach or a ferry lineup or two, you could do worse than pick up Betty Kellers latest.

Better the Devil You Know is an outrageous romp of a novel set in turn-of-the-century Vancouver when Gastown was still the hub of the fast-evolving city.

It was a time, if Keller is to be believed, when so-called staid Vancouver attracted a strange assortment of characters who would have made Queen Victoria feel quite faint if she had been informed about the carryings-on in her colonies.

The farcical action revolves around Rev. Abercrombie Dodds, a cross-dressing con man who passes himself off as an evangelical preacher. He cons his way around North American cities and turns up in Vancouver with a five-year-old love child in tow.

The unlikely pair becomes entangled with a skinny tip-thieving hooker who reigns in the red light district as the Princess of Paradise.

For various nefarious reasons, both Princess and the villainous vicar are trying to evade the clutches of an avenging "Angel," a.k.a. Dora, Queen of the Cathouse.

While trying to make their escape they have to deal with a stinky Klondike miner angrily searching for his lost pouch full of gold nuggets; a larcenous lingerie salesman and a fiercesome female barkeep adept at defending herself with a billiard cue when necessary.

Just for good measure Keller throws into this zany mix Magnolia the Magnificent, a massive black woman of ill repute; a corpse that refuses to stay dead; and a crew of sewer-line diggers who believe they have struck it rich when they discover a couple of the lost nuggets in their freshly dug ditch.

Much of this story is down at sewer level with the various characters regularly tumbling into the ditch, much to the chagrin of a zealous piano teacher who lives nearby and has pleaded in vain with City Hall to order the workers to keep it covered.

Amazingly, Keller is not kidding when she says that much of this tale is constructed on fact. This story is also liberally peppered with actual photos, mostly prised from the BC and City of Vancouver Archives. Keller, a Canadian author now living in Sechelt, has obviously spent time researching this and previous works, including a biography of Pauline Johnson and On the Shady Side, a more serious study of Vancouver from 1886-1914.

The sewer line really was being extended at the time the novel is set; there really was a mini goldrush caused by the discovery of dropped nuggets; there really was a scandal over a cadaver and there really was a madam named Dora Reno.

However, Keller confesses candidly that she has used poetic license to play fast and loose with these historical facts. Clearly it was time for Keller, the historian, to let her literary hair down a little.

So why not suspend some disbelief and join her. After all, summertime may not be over yet. War and Peace will still be waiting when you're done.

Beth Haysom is a Victoria freelance writer.

Northwoods Journal, Autumn 2001
Review of Curtained Windows Lighted Rooms by Bal Sethi

By Diana K. Rubin

Curtained Windows, poetry by Bal Sethi, Caitlin Press Inc., Box 2387 Stn B, Prince George, BC V2N 2S6, Canada, attractively printed, perfect-bound, paperback, 96 pages.

Bal Sethi is a magnificently talented poet who creates intense verse which radiates on many levels, The poem, "Last," addresses racial prejudice and intolerance, while "Reply" is about the power of self-dignity and is in style rather impressive.

"Away From Home" is a searing poem pondering the finality of one's own existence. "Outlooks" carries a deep and beautiful message getting down to the intrinsic matters of the heart. "Complacency" delivers an effective and powerful message about the need for environmental conservation. "A Rainy Night" weaves a tapestry in the form of story telling about a love long gone. In "Crossings," a deceased love is recollected. "Wayside Stop" is particularly poignant.

I particularly enjoyed "Soul Mates" about the transmigration of souls-both known and unknown to us. "Words Left Unsaid" touches upon communication—or rather the lack of it—and how it affects our life permanently. Poems of equal quality include "A Park Bench" and "Veiled Moon."

Some of the final poems in the collection deal with divine presence, among them "Slicing the Air," "No Fixed Address," "A Matching Game," and "Clay And The Potter."

I enjoyed this work immensely.

 

Times-Colonist, September 24, 2001
Review of Sisters Torn by Cynthia J. Faryon

By Sandra McCulloch, Times-Colonist staff

Headline: Sister's dramatic reunion in Victoria inspires book

The true life story of a Victoria woman finding her sister in England after a 65-year separation is the basis of a book penned by the woman's daughter.

The official book-launch takes place at Victoria public library's main branch at 7:30 pm on Tuesday.

Sisters Torn is "creative non-fiction," says the author Cynthia Faryon. It is based on the lives of Faryon's mother, Gwen Cramer, and her sister Joan Ley who were abandoned by their parents and separated by the British adoption system.

They were reunited in Victoria in August 1996 with help from the Times-Colonist, who paid for Haskell's flight here.

The story "was really something that should be shared," Faryon explained in an interview.

Cramer said she thinks the book turned out "very, very well. I'm very thrilled with it and my sister is, too. I've been reading it to her over the phone."

While the sisters were at first reluctant to go public with their story, they soon became interested in the project, said Faryon.

"It's good to share it with the rest of the family and good to share it with my cousins in England," she said.

The reunion brought her family closer together, she added.

"Even writing the book brought us closer together."

Cramer was haunted most of her life by feelings of abandonment. Finding her sister was the beginning of a healing process, said Faryon.

The book was a daunting project, she added.

"I was really worried about my mom's reaction because it was so personal. I was afraid I wouldnÕt be able to give it justice."

Her mother shed tears, Faryon said, but they were tears of healing.

"It helped me understand her. Growing up, she was very protective of us children. She was like a mother hen. She was always an over achiever."

Now the book is done and arriving on local bookshelves, Faryon is ecstatic and jittery.

"I am nervous. I am excited—this is launching a career IÕve dreamed of." The underlying message of the book has to do with how society treats children.

"It's a realization of how we relate to children and how children so often are used as chattel. We don't think that what happens to them as kids will affect them as adults."

Sisters Torn published by Caitlin Press Inc. of Prince George and available for $18.95 plus tax. It's available through most bookstores here, said the publisher.

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