Jive Talk: George Fetherling in Interviews and Documents

W.J. Keith is a retired professor of English at the University of Toronto and author A Sense of Style: Studies in the Art of Fiction in English-Speaking Canada.

I have only one criticism of this slim, unassuming, but
thought-provoking book: its title, suggesting a form of popular music,
is totally inappropriate and threatens to prevent these interviews from
reaching the audience that needs them and would appreciate them.

George Fetherling (who until recently used to publish under the name of
Doug Fetherling) is a remarkable example of the artistic all-rounder:
poet, novelist, essayist, reviewer, traveler and travel-book writer,
film critic, memoirist, painter, editor, publisher, etc. He is one of
those prolific writers fueled by an intellectual curiosity for just
about everything; I’m tempted to think of him as a younger George
Woodcock with just a hint of John Robert Colombo.

Jive Talk consists of a series of interviews Fetherling conducted
between 1993 and 2001. It is especially valuable because, although most
people interested in the arts will have encountered his name and some of
his writings, he is comparatively little known as a person. He is
unusual these days as a writer who never went to university—a fact
that may, alas, explain why he is relatively little known in
academy-dominated writing circles. (On the other hand, one suspects that
he is, at least as a writer, a loner whose great strength is his ability
to project a viewpoint from the sidelines.)

This is a pity, because what comes across strongly in these interviews
is a freshness of attitude that offers unexpected angles on topics
(U.S.-Canada relations, the Canadian publishing situation, the current
state of CanLit, etc.) that might seem to have long been exhausted.
Above all, one appreciates a seriousness that comes across as genuine
but never stuffy. Canadian writers may well be the most interviewed of
their breed on earth, and I have a theory that their ultimate importance
can be gauged at least as readily from their interviews as from their
works. On such a test, Fetherling scores strongly. This book persuades
me that I should read more of him.