Lily: A Rhapsody in Red

D.A. Curtis was a Toronto freelance writer.

Willie: A Romance was the astonishing best-seller that introduced a new and fascinating version of the man who was to become Canada’s most peculiar prime minister. Wickedly hilarious, it was as brilliant and insightful as it was funny: and not least among its charms was the invented character Lily Coolican, Mackenzie King’s secret bride.

Now, in Lily: A Rhapsody in Red, Lily becomes embroiled with the Communist Party. Her mother, escaped from a mental institution, blossoms into an influential psychic. And King, by now leader of the Liberal Party, is still busy convincing himself that black is white and wrong is right, just so long as the arrangement suits his purposes; his every devious piece of treachery and deception, every benefit obtained through political patronage and corruption, are, he feels, applauded and supported from beyond the grave by his shadowy mentor, Mother.

It isthe era of the Depression, the dust bowl, the bread line, Bonnie and Clyde. A roaring political/sexual scandal involving the premier of Alberta and a teenager is enjoyed by everyone except the chief participants, as a break in the bleak monotony of it all ... Lily is, if anything, even funnier and racier than its predecessor.