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Cdlaghans latest merits oadlng By DOUG Any new book by Callaghan deserves close atte ntion If only because Callag nan la perhaps the most honor or living Canadian writers But his latest novel CLOSE TO THE SUN AGAIN MAC MILUAN IK page If merits much more It has already been touted in advance as his best piece of fie lion in years There are a number of reasons why It is difficult to dispute this claim Style is the most obvious Here Callaghan Is writing in lop form The prose is clean and subtle and docs its Job without Another factor however is what might be called the book attitude Just as he has dropped some of the tough guy stylistic excesses of his earlier work so too has Callaghan has discarded much of the moralizing dear to him in the past This is a forceful and mo ng story eloquently told which has much to say about our present cond t on That is not say that the book is a departure from earl icr ones 11 is rather a refine ment of them Close To The Sun Again Is a filling climax to a half century long career as a novelist storyteller and gen oral presence A BORN LEADER The subject of the novel is the emotional sterility of Ira a S3 yearold bus ess man who has just returned to hs native Toronto a which as in most novels Is well described but never mentioned by name Groome already has had two DuringWoridWarll he an officer In the Royal Canad ian Navy He was Ft boons Groome of a many decorat Later he was with a multinational enterprise serving as trouble- shooter and political fixer In many countries most recently Brazil He Is then a bom leader Those under him call him Commander not necessarily because of his war record but because the cp thet seems nat for one so smooth ruth less calm and austere When we first meet him Groome has left the corpora for a life of semi retire ment as Toronto police com miss oner It is not the sure of business has got to him exactly It is rather that he can no longer bear up under lonal bankruptcy URBAN LIFE underlying statement about the quality of life in today urban world is The f half of the novel gives us Groome background and shows the shape his 1 lakes In Toronto He Is quickly inducted Into the local ruling class He even attempts cure his melancholy by having an affair with the wife of one of its other members But such therapy Is unsuc cessful and he knows it begins to lose even he facade of correctness that has He slips into alcoholism and must periodically go for treatments at a private clinic At his point the novel shifts back In l me to the war and slowly neatly reveals the source of his character unhappmess It seems that while on con voy duly aboard a corvette in the North Atlantic Groome picked up two shipwreck wealthy young can women and a man who it turns out was her bodyguard and lover of sorts as it happened were on the lam Groome and ihe woman fell in love each knowing that relationship would inevitably come a bad end When the corvette was torpedoed the woman dived overboard and was lost It is compensate or at least cover Ihls loss thai has acquired all ihe qualities that have made his such a miserable person and a successful businessman We do not learn until the end thai war experiences which arc described with what seems lo be careful authentic ity are the recollections rac through s mind as he lies hospital and are in fact his last thoughts before dying OUTCASTS Now has gone through several distinct phras as a writer and also decades of almost comp lete silence Always though his fiction has been concerned often in Christian terms outcasts of various sorts Clearly this Is also the case with Close To The Sun Again But Ihls his most and perhaps simplest book has an extra clement This Is the fact there must be a bit of Ira Groome in all of us If we are to succeed and that this situation Is Ihe banc and shame of the society we have made for ourselves Dong latest book I The Five Lives Of Ben published by Letter and Thorn Service THE HERALD Wednesday October It Page A Sale Ends Sat Oct 15th Credit Convenience at Zallera I Any These Cardfl Accepted I IN THE GEORGETOWN MARKET PtACE Open Monday Thru Friday Saturday Til