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The Dionne Quintuplets are the subject of Pierre Bertons The Dionne Years now available in paperback The book tells the story of five baby girls who captured the hearts and headlines around the world THE DIONNE YEARS By Pierre Berton Seal Books 52 75 For those of us born after 1939 its difficult to realize just how popular and how famoLis the Dionne uiiituplets were during the Depression years in anada Following their birth in the backwoods of Northern Ontario in ltlH the five daughters born to lliva and Elzire Dionne became the cen tre of attention for an entire continent of babywatchers During the nine years the quints were on display to the public they attracted Visitors from as faraway as Alaska and Honolulu at the peak of their popularity in 1938 they brought an estimated $30 million worth of tourist business tothitario lhe Dionne story is dramatic bizaare and colored by tragedy and makes splendid material for lierre Rertons recent book The Dionne Years now available in paixrback Berton has established reputation as skilled popularizer of anadian history and The Dionne Years is one of his best efforts to date Its well researched expertly organized and captures the peculiar moods and attitudes of the tttttis that made the Dionne quints famous around the world The story of the quintuplets birth was fairy tale writes Berton explaining how the media quickly transformed the lives of everyone involved with the quints Dr Allan Defoe the smalltown doctor who delivered three of the five quints became the hero oi the Dionne miracle The press idiolized him and portrayed him often falsely as an altruistic allknowing doctor whose only concern was the welfare of the Dionne quints For almost nine years Daloe had virtually complete control over the quints but his role as surrogate lather was never questioned nor was the fact that he made as much money from the Dionne phenomena as any one of the quiiits thiiiselves RUIJIUliVllilAlN Cast in the role of villain in the Dionne stoiy were the parents of the quints in particular lillzire Dionne the father Dionne was backwoods lariuer hoixilessly ill Slittttl to the sudden fame and publicin that descended on his famin when tiicquiiits were born The media went out of their way to insult and ridicule him and unscrupulous pro moters sent him on lecture tours in the where he was ticated likea fool iertoii stresses the point that the qumts story is tragic one despite the fact that everyone involved acted from sincere motives to protect the quints from exploitation llie iitario Government stepped in less than year after the quints birth to remove them from the custody of their parents and place them under the superw sion of board of guardians The government feared ex ploitation by business pro nioters but despite the appoint iiiciit of guardians thequints and Dr Dafoe continued to earn small fortunes through the sale of photographs and movies and the endoisciiient of every conceivable type of product For niiicycais from NIH to full lIlzire Dionne fought bitter battle to win back custody of his daughters lle battled ltafoe the Lovermiunt and the media to reunite his family but after he succeeded he kept the quints secluded iii the family house near tallaiidar tintario Dionne quickly found out that he could not raise his daughters by tiaditioual values their for mative yeais had been shaped by doctors nurses and psychologists hired by the government to give them the must modern upbringing possi ble IRUIBIJZUIINH In their later years the quints moved away from the family home but soon found they had trouble coping with adulthood After Emilie Dionne died during an epileptic seizure in 1934 the four surviving quints moved to Montreal the following year the family was in the news again when lllllt Dionne called press coii fereiice to announce that the quints had been treating their family withconteiiipt The relationship between the parents and the tourquiiits coii tiiiiied to deterioate Ill 11tth series of articles appeared Ill lctalls magainc describing ust how much bitterness the quiiits ielt towards their fami ly toiicliides littlttlt ly separatingtliequiiituplctsfrom their family physically psychologically and financially and by treating the lll sisters as royal celebiiies artificially reared constantly on display the ttiitario government and its appointees had created schism within the family that could iie er be heal ed Today only three of the Dionne quints are still alive larie Dionne died of blood clot in her brain in mm iiettc is separated from her husband and supporting four children on iii month her share of the interest from the Dionne tnist fund Yvonne is hyiiig alone in lUlllltHl suburb irtiial recluse aiid Iccilc is separated from lici husband and supporting her children by working as clerk iiia Montreal suixiinarkct Its sad story lodcrii fairy tales don always end happily the liioiiiic tlftllllpltls lcar tied that lesson the hard way so By Timothy Findley Penquin Books $225 REVIEWED BY SllIllIlIN tllCR oiisidcring the important role played by aiiada the two world wars its curious that few tanadian novelists have chosen to rite about the tanadiaii war experience iiitish liuropeaii and iiieiicaii writers have produc ed outstanding war novels durr mg the past tilt years but anadas contribution has been negligible lliat oversight has been par tially corrected by the Wars limothy liiidlcys novel about taiiadian lieutenant who serves in the llll World ar The novel ltst released in paperback by lciiguiii Kooks won the loveiuoiieneral ward and the tity of lorouto took Award in NW and deservedly so it ranks as one of the finest war novels of the past tliieedecades liiidley central achieve inciit witli llic Wars is to re create with tremendous power and authenticity the horros suf fered by front liiie soldiers in the lust World War The book is gripping indictment of war the pain the waste and the futility of armies clashing iii the mud tilled trenches of lIiiiope tobert lloss the central character in the llttl enlists in 1501 iter short training session iii lbcrta he leaves for lfiirope where he soon slluLtLl trig for surial the trenches near Ypres lhe central portion of the noch describes ltosss tour of duty at the front and liindley describes the horror of french warfare so well you can aliiitst feel the mud and shine and cold that tortund the soldicis 24 hours day Has attacks arr tillery fire aerial barrages fill the pages of the novel until the prose takes on the texture of steel edged night mare Ross is the kind of man who quickly realics how insane and bow futile the war really is but hes so caught up in the day today stniggle of staying alive and kttplll his soldiers alive that he has little time to in tcllectualie his experiences ltllRttlll ISll5 liiidley moves Ross through iiionochromatic landscape of death and dcstnictioii coiiceii trat mg more on the physical es perieiicc of war than on the thoughts and feelings of his WHO DO YOU By Alice Munro Macmillan $l095 Who Do You Think You Are is collection of short stories by Alice Munro that reads like novel and carries the impact of Molotov cocktail beneath the cool superbly crafted polish of Munros prose lies an explosive description of lifes deceptions tragedies and deceits lti Munros world of tie tion the emphasis is on the lessons of experience and the small details that create per sonalityaud character The theme of Munros new book parallels themes used in her prevmus work the coin mg of age of young girl in small town in southern Ontario We meet Rose when shes timid student in elementary school by the end of the book shes survived disastrous marrige and several affairs and is edging uneasily into mid llc age Rose is the kind of girl whos so bright and sensitive that the poverty of her childhood leaves permanent scars But at the same time her stepiiiothers attitude that Rose must not be protected from anything make her insatiany curious about life its paradoXIcal state of mind but it gives her life adventurous unpredictable quality In story called Wild Swans Rose is molested by middleaged man during her first train trip to loroiito The man spread newspaper on his knee and slips his hand under her coat Roses first reaction is einbarassnieiit but her shame quickly turns to curiosity she cant resist the urge to find out what will happen and what she will feel so she doesnt protest Several years later Rose wins scholarship to university and meets Patrick the son of wealthy tritiin oluinbia businessman Patrick woos her character Ross says little but we still get close enough to him to understand why he deserts the army near the end of the novel and sets in motion se quence of events that leads to his destruction lindley has constructed the novel using documentary technique ii unnamed and unobtrusive marrator tells Rosss story as though icconstructing series of ac tiial events Friends of Rosss are Illttltfl photographs are examined and described archive documents are researr ched and summarized This documentary style works brilliantly the feeling of realism is strengthened because Findley like literary magician transforms the novel form into something more life like more powerful and more disturbing We also see the domestic counterpart to Rosss war exs ixiriences back home in Rosedale his family awaits his safe return from the war Rosss mother is an alcoholic who cant cope with the uncer tainty of her sons fate and takes to wandering the streets to ease her tltpltSSltlll Rosss brother and sister meanwhile report his exploits to classmates at school the family suffers the same sense of uiireahty that Ross does Wt lRSl IIRRURS In such dangerous things as war the errors which proceed liom spirit of benevolence are the worst says tHl tlausew1tz military strategist in the opening quote of the novel Ross illustrates the truth of that remark when he tries to save barn full of horses from death by fire Through the course of the novel Russ becomes kind of liveryman representing the thousands of tanadiaiis who marched off to war between 1914 and lttttf The war was an insane exercise iii slaughter and destruction that criple generation it was the Both enturys first brush with the twhnology of war and the devastmg efficiency of that tixlmologv is still with us for day With The Wars limothy limdley has written one of the most eloquent antiwar novels that Ive ever read And he makes his pomt without resor ting to preaching or propagair da the life of Robert Ross is dramatic testimony to the bit ter lessons oi war The Yais is not an easy book to read perhaps for that very reason it isabook that should be read HINK YOU ARE and makes her feel loved for the first time iii her life but after marriage and alter inov ing to the West toast she discovers latiick is too materialistic too mean spirited to suit her Rose has an affair with violinist to satisfy her curiosity about infidelity and then divorces latrick Her life splits apart and loses tlirec tioii She starts career as an actress and moves restlessly across the country lake the female protagonists in many of Munros stories Rose is woman caught up in the shifting currents of an ideii tity crises Who do you tliiiik you are asks high school teacher iii the title story when Rose demonstrates her prowess at memorizing poetry The question pursues Rose throughout the book she can cope with the memories childhood shaped by cruel parents and wicked classmates but shes not really sure of herself as an adult Growing up poor on the wrong sale of the tracks meant learning to cheat lie and deceive and Rose finds out that in grown up world of affluence and ltlltltlltrtlttSS stability her sneaky mischievous approach to life is not understood In Simons liaiice for ex ample Rose meets an at tractive lIiiglish professor at party and they end up spending the weekend together at her house in the country Rose feels suddenly happy and elated by love but when Simon leaves on Monday and never calls her again Rose falls apart She takes off in her car abandoning the house and her job and drives to the West ost where she finds work in series year later she learns that her lover had died Simons dying struck Rose as kind of disarrangement It was preposterous it was lttt fair that such chunk of in formaton should have been left out and that Rose even at this late date could have thought herself the only person who could seriously lack power Alice Munro has become an important writer since her first collection of short stories Dance of the Happy Shades was published in littitt Who Do You Think You Are confirms her status as one of the finest short story writers in North America Most of the stories in the book have appeared in magazines like the New Yorker Ms and Redhook But Who Do You Think You lt is much more than short story collection it has the unity power and depth of novel liew writers capture smalltowii life in the tttitts and itittts the way Munro can liew can equal the clarity and insight of her observations about the emotional lives of generation now exploring the challenges of middle age