| Lancette Arts Journal Founded in 2000 |
NON-Fiction Book Reviews From our Archives |
December 2006 |
By Alidë Kohlhaas
John Allemang's satirical verse is one of the regular features I enjoy to read in the Saturday edition of The Globe and Mail's Focus section even if I don't always agree with his expressed opinion. That he was induced to collect some of his best into a book, Poetic Justice, is terrific news for his fans. There are 75 in all, some from 2002, when he first started this column, others are from the years that followed, including some from 2006.
Although his topics are usually related to a recent event—one that may have happened just days before the column appears—they hold true even long after. To ensure the reader of the book can still relate a long-past event to the rhymes in the slender volume, some have short side notes to jog the mind.
There are many controversial verses that he left out of the book. They were, perhaps, seen as too politically loaded or incorrect. One concerned Ariel Sharon, which drew an angry response in a letter to the editor from the Canadian Jewish Congress. Strange as it may seem, it is all right to make all sorts of demeaning comments about George W. Bush, but touching the Israelis is not okay. Some people can laugh at themselves, while others take any shot being taken at Israel as being anti-Semitic, which is, of course, nonsense. There is more than one poem about Bush included in this volume of Poetic Justice. Surely that does not mean Allemang is an enemy of all Americans. Nor can I recall any objections to the well observed The Body Politic-Leni Riefenstahl (1902-2003). This satiric obituary to the controversial German filmmaker didn't raise a single heckle from the German community even though . . .
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