An Illustrated Dictionary of French Similes by Keith Foley (review)

Abstract

MLR, 97.4, 2002 955 critics is second-rate, as Solecki would have us believe. Certainly not all of it had 'politicized culture to make it do the work of identity politics' (p. 24). Yet asking the question why contemporary Canadian critics have so frequently ignored the classics from previous generations is important, a sort of rescue waking call. Solecki is absolutely right when he insists that a tradition cannot be devalued, glossed over, simply because it was created by our ancestors who operated within a differentideological framework. A far more rewarding part of Solecki's study for the general reader, for those who will come to it because of their interest in the poet, is the second one. Here, with an infectious enthusiasm and admiration Solecki discusses the influences that shaped Purdy's life and his poetic genius. For the firsttime, to my knowledge, the reader can follow an intelligent and extensive discussion of how the poet's voice was forged and how it came into its own. Through close textual exegesis, Solecki documents the influences of Bliss Carman, Layton, and D. H. Lawrence on Purdy's initial stage of development, pointingout how these men helped open up Purdy's genius, rather than close it into a slavish gesture. Solecki's various explanations of Purdy's major poems in terms of literary traditions and conventions are particularly illuminating and will most certainly extend the reader's understanding and appreciation of one of Canada's most authentic and autochthonous poets. Libera Universita degli Studi, S. Pio V, Rome Branko Gorjup An LllustratedDictionary ofFrench Similes. By Keith Foley. Lewiston, NY, Queenston , Ont., and Lampeter: Mellen. 2000. vi + 335pp. $99.95. 'Comparaison n'est pas raison'; comparisons are odious. No, they are not. French treats similes and metaphors even-handedly, English divisively. Comparisons of any kind obviously seek to bridge gaps, and to provide mind-opening collocations (or, in the case of cliches, mind-numbing repetitions). Keith Foley's claim that his book, warts and all, is unique cannot seriously be gainsaid. He does not distinguish between inventive and shop-soiled similes, for he holds that 'even hackneyed similes may be considered as fossilized poetry'. Faced with the problem of what to include, then, Foley fruitfully adopts the ecumenical approach: standard comparisons are given alongside creative examples, which so often take off,trampoline-fashion, from stock items, subverting, recycling, or extending them. Thus he has cake and eats it, like a horse, or like four as French puts it. He occasionally provides notes on the more mystifying likenings (e.g. 'degringoler comme des capucins de cartes'). As he notes, many similes are puns (which Swift said get everywhere, like fleas), for instance, San Antonio's phrase for 'very drunk', 'beurre comme toute la Normandie', or the anonymous 'lacher quelqu'un comme un pet'. Some of San Antonio's prostheses are pleonastic (e.g. 'une question, plus epineuse qu'un cactus pas rase'), though of course the tack-on makes a joke of the whole business of paralleling. Others' inventions, like 'bander comme un Carme', for a monumental hard-on, set the imagination to work. The literary examples are mainly but not exclusively from the twentieth and nineteenth centuries. Longish illustrative quotations put the analogies in context. Among useful additions to similes strictly defined are adjectival phrases such as 'une taille de nymphe'. Foley is expert at unearthing English counterparts, while recognizing that these are not invariably true equivalents: for example, Colette's 'chambrer comme un Corton', for which he suggests 'to wind someone up like a watch'. He calls comparisons by opposites 'ironic similes' (such as 'gai comme un enterrement'). His excellent sense of humour works against the pedantry threatening the whole enterprise. The reader feels incited to join in the hunt. For San Antonio's 956 Reviews 'je me sens aussi a l'aise [. . .] qu'un scaphandrier sur un pur sang', I would supply the snappier Scouse 'as comfortable as a cow on a bike'. Foley rightly mocks Dylan Thomas and his probably hypocritical and apocryphal statement that 'comparing one thing with another is like comparing Milton to Stilton'. His dictionary is a splendidly researched, thought-out, and organized work of...