Ever wondered about the most popular Canadian books ever? According to Carleton University English professor and cultural critic Tom Henighan, the top 25 all-time fiction bestsellers include Hugh MacLennan’s Two Solitudes, Gabrielle Roy’s The Tin Flute, and Margaret Laurence’s A Jest of God. Interesting party-chat material, maybe – but one’s faith in the validity of the list is somewhat undermined by Henighan’s own admission that his calculations are less than scientific.

What about a glimpse into another aspect of Canadian culture – say, the visual arts scene? Let’s see what The Maclean’s Companion says about art galleries in Saskatchewan. Hmm, only the Dunlop Art Gallery in Regina is mentioned. It’s as if the wonderful Mendel Art Gallery in Saskatoon, a sophisticated, integral part of that city’s cultural scene, never existed – not to mention other, smaller galleries in both major Saskatchewan cities.

What Tom Henighan has attempted here is ambitious: an overview of the Canadian cultural scene, including theatre, music, visual arts, dance, film, literature, and book publishing, as well as TV and radio, cultural spaces, and arts festivals across the country. All this, with introductory essays on each cultural field, and a smattering of photographs and illustrations. That’s a lot of material to package in just under 300 pages, and the author trots it all past us a trifle too briskly. The breadth of research is impressive, but the book still falls short of offering an authoritative, one-stop resource.

While I’m an addicted looker-upper and a greedy collector of reference works, I found myself wondering who would actually use this “companion.” School kids rushing to do a report? Librarians? New Canadians? Average Canadians? Overall, I’d like to have seen more in-depth discussion and analysis in Henighan’s introductory essays, and fewer lists. In his previous two books, Ideas of North and The Presumption of Culture, Henighan has proven himself a thoughtful chronicler of Canadian culture. This volume does not seem an entirely useful application of his talents.