"UNIQUE" CANADIAN BOOK PARTY
Wednesday January 28th, 1997

by Diana Riesman

Author and filmmaker William Weintraub said it was the first time he’d done a reading in front of a dog.

Well not just any dog. The canine, Chance, an elegant poodle, belonged to the Right Honourable Kim Campbell, the Canadian Consul General in L.A., who graciously opened her home on January 28th for a book party celebrating the recent publication of Weintraub’s latest book, "City Unique: Montreal Days and Nights in the 1940s and 1950s".

A historical portrait of Montreal in its glory years, the book is filled with wonderful details and anecdotes about its denizens. "City Unique" spent more than sixteen weeks on the bestseller list in Montreal and is a nostalgic read for any Montrealers.

The evening was organized by Canadians Abroad / Les Canadiens a l’Etranger (Southern California Chapter) and the sixty-five guests - many Montrealers among them -- enjoyed cocktails, a lively reading by Mr. Weintraub and a book signing with the aforementioned canine in attendance. "The animal was extremely well-behaved," commented Weintraub when I spoke to him over the phone from his home in Montreal. "Maybe he was just incredibly bored," he quipped. I assured Weintraub there was no chance of that.

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