DEAR M: LETTERS FROM A GENTLEMAN OF EXCESS Jack Pollock Toronto, McClelland & Stewart, 1989. 308pp, cloth, $27.95 ISBN 0-7710-7027-6. CIP Adult/Post-secondary Reviewed by Doug Watling. Volume 18 Number 3 1990 May Dear M: Letters from a Gentleman of Excess is a collection of letters by Jack Pollock, founder of Toronto's Pollock Gallery and arguably the most influential figure in that city's art scene during the 1960s and 1970s. Pollock wrote the letters from self-imposed exile in Provence between 1984 and 1987. M, the recipient, is an unnamed Toronto psychiatrist who counselled Pollock in the wake of the gallery's collapse and Pollock's deteriorating health, both of which were abetted by Pollock's addiction to cocaine. Only Pollock's correspondence is included. The letters are feverish outpourings from a man prone to extremes of behaviour followed by recriminations and self-doubt. Pollock is borderline obsessive about relationships, his own sexuality, and the psychology of living and putting the past into some sort of healthy perspective. What saves Pollock's letters from preachiness are his vulnerability and almost guileless voice. In any case. Dear M has more dimensions than Pollock himself. The book is rife with anecdotes and pithy evaluations of artists. Pollock's remembrances of Norval Morisseau are worth the price of the book. When the letters turn episodic. Dear M reads like an epistolary novel. The reader can then easily forgive Pollock his indulgences and enjoy this spirited book. Doug Watling, West Credit Secondary School, Mississauga, Ont.