This book examines the influence of political advisers on policy formation in Canada even as modern public service has been called "deliberately resistant to changes, and largely incapable of dealing with new challenges." This stands in contrast to the conception of public service that Craft (Univ. of Toronto) especially associates with the distinguished political scientist James Mallory, who in the 1960s raised the alarm that "the trend of increasing political staff in Ottawa was an affront to the Westminster-style Cabinet-parliamentary system [of] platonic guardianship." At the time, Mallory was opposed by Paul Tellier, who championed the idea of cabinet ministers being "bulwarked by a hand-picked cadre of young operatives." Forty years later, it's clear that Tellier bested Mallory—"partisan advisers are now active policy workers" who "buffer" and "bridge" (provide and circulate policy advice) and "move" and "shape" (procedurally and substantively contribute to formal policy making). Thus, "a return to Mallory's preferred state of affairs is unlikely, if not impractical." For all that, the fundamental question that absorbed Sir Henry Taylor in his The Statesman (1836) remains today: how do citizens prevent partisan policy advice from posing a threat to the vital principle of "equal justice for all, special treatment for none"? Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.

--C. D. Pearce, Clemson University

Colin D. Pearce

Clemson University

A compendium of essays tracing the history of Indian poetry in English, Chaudhuri's book is unique in its meticulous presentation of information and analysis of poets, from the 18th through the 21st centuries. The volume covers Indians, British colonizers, and second generation British in India before Independence, and it addresses the finding of an Indian voice in the latter half of the 20th century among Progressive Artists' Group (in Bombay), and the more recent English language experiments that are bolder, self-assured, and comfortable with Indianness. The early chapters in the book expose the reader to the less-known poets and genres—women, comic poets, second generation British poets living in India, as well as less-familiar Indian poets. Though the essays on Arun Kolatkar, Nissim Ezekiel, and poets of the 1980s are interesting, the final two essays, by Vivek Narayanan and Anjum Hasan respectively, stand out for their pressing questions about the nature of Indian poetry written in English, the function of language in poetry, the poet's consciousness of voice, and so on. This book paves the way for future work, which could include the contributions of diaspora poets. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty.

--P. Venkateswaran, Nassau Community College

Pramila Venkateswaran

Nassau Community College