National Treasures

Don Crosby is a journalist in Durham, Ontario.

This book features a selection of June Callwood’s interviews with some
notable Canadians—namely, Margaret Atwood, Phil Fontaine, Maureen
Forrester, Farley Mowat, Buffy Sainte Marie, Charles Pachter, William
Hutt, Karen Kain, and Rosemary Brown, among others—from her VisionTV
show of the same name. At first glance the idea for the book appears to
be a good one; and, thanks to Callwood’s warm and personal style, the
interviews spring to life for a brief and impressionable moment.
Unfortunately, too much is lost in the changeover from television to
print. It doesn’t work, for example, to have jokes and laughter
written into the text in brackets. And with the visual interplay between
Callwood and her guests missing, the emotional landscape of these
treasures is rendered bland and drab.