「一般對於加拿大的印象多半是寬容、公平與冷靜，擁有龐大的天然資源與美好理念，但是卻缺乏一股權力意志，也少了來自南方較不良善卻多采多姿鄰居的魅力。即便如此，作者白大維明顯的不打算處裡這類枯燥的題材。 1909年在溫尼伯的居民中混雜了德國人、斯堪的納維亞人、東德猶太人、華人與其他民族，十個有九個不會說英語或法語。白大維透過其獨數一格與無政府風格，渴望再現他們的歷史。 『這些人一出生就沒人要』，作者以少有的嚴肅筆觸繼續寫到，『對這些人來說，他們的所擁有的一切就是邊緣化；他們是天生的吉普塞人，逃離各樣規訓，來到如此遙遠的地方流浪與潔淨自己』。 所有的事情可能自那時起便風平浪靜，但作者筆下雜技演員、酒鬼與娼妓的組合代表了一種反抗的，不順服的歷史；身為冷靜觀察的學術份子，白大維或許不想他們被遺忘。」

 

                          -- Bradley Winterton,台北時報 (Taipei Times ), 2010年3月15日。

 

 

 

"A common general image of Canada is of a tolerant, fair-minded, sober place with massive natural resources and full of good intentions, but lacking the will to power and charisma of its less benign but more colorful southern neighbor. Barton, though, will obviously have not truck with any of this blandness.  In 1909 nine out of 10 Winnipeg inhabitants couldn’t speak either English or French. They were a mixture of Germans, Scandinavians, Jewish Eastern Europeans, Chinese and others and Barton is anxious to represent their history, albeit in his own distinctive, anarchic style. ‘These were people who had been born unwanted,’ he writes in a rare straight-faced moment, ‘people for whom marginalization was all they had; genetic gypsies who had come this far wandering and scavenging to get away from conformity of any kind.’ Things may have quieted down since then, but Barton’s collection of acrobats, drunks and whores stands for a rebellious, non-conformist history that, as a level- headed academic, he probably doesn’t want forgotten.”  

 

                                      

 

                                        -- Bradley Winterton, Taipei Times, March 15, 2010.