Why Are You Telling Me This?

Peter Martin, of Peter Martin & Associates, is the founding publisher of
the Canadian Book Review Annual.

Anthologies are often a hard sell, especially so when there’s no
obvious theme uniting the individual selections. Such is the case with
Why Are You Telling Me This?, an anthology in which 11 of Canada’s
best journalists contribute first-person articles on subjects ranging
from mothers, to Native voices, to modern Berlin. As Alberto Manguel
explains in his too-short introduction, “The pieces [were] all written
at the Banff Centre for the Arts, as contributions to the Arts
Journalism program.” Inevitably, the articles are uneven in quality.
Sandra Martin is not at the top of her form in “Travels in the New
South Africa.” David Macfarlane’s “Music for Music’s Sake” is
an excellent, far-ranging essay, but a trifle forced at times. Lindalee
Tracey’s account of her first performance as a stripper is for the
most part enchanting, but it is distressing to see the speech of her
francophone co-workers rendered as “dese” and “dose.”

Despite these criticisms, the collection is well worth reading. Morris
Wolfe’s harrowing account of his companion’s death is alone worth
the price of the book.