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novelist) he has a soft spot for whores and here he is on his charger (Hertz rental?) in pursuit oprril Kyle whom he saved from the streets in an earlier parable and installed in a high class brothel. But now she‘s done a bunk and is in cahoots with a musical pimp called Rambeaux, who’s as nasty as he sounds but doesn‘t have the pectorals. In a word he‘s a cad and soon exits but Spenser seems hellbent on a wisecracking tour ofthe States before he finds the broad in daylight on his doorstep. Hawk and Susan Silverman make
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guest appearances at gourmet luncheons but otherwise Sir Galahad is on his tod, soliloquising and making me laugh like a drain. (Alan Taylor)
0 Intidelities Freda Bright (Andre Deutsch £10.95) Emperor Maximilian is not used to the dizzy heights ofglamorous New York social circles. Consequently, when his guardians Annie and Seth Peterson make a heap of money by foul means and fair. he takes it into his head to leap out ofthe window of their new sky-scraping apartment. I
A WEST COAST DINER FOR AIL YOU SOUI'HSIDE JOHNNIES.
Y On the Southside of Glasgow, on the corner of Kilmarnock and Pollokshaws, is the Granary Y A Californian Bar and Diner, its a little corner of the West Coast in the heart of Shawlands. Y The staff, or cheer leaders as we prefer to call them, mix some mean cocktails and ply an exotic range of beers. And as you'd expect, with the accent being American, the food’s good and plentiful and the service is‘quick and friendly. Y To help keep things rolling, there's even a railroad with its own locomotive, rolling stock and genuine beercar which chugs its way around the bar. Y “Pardon me boy is that the chatta...” Anyway make tracks for The Granary for some Stateside
hospitality - but watch out for the giant Ostrich!
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don‘t know if there is some subtle infidelity lurking in their episode, but Anne. budding opera singer, certainly thinks it is an ill-omen. Max is. in fact. the cat. so I might have misled you as to his significance — which is virtually nil. But I liked him better than his custodians.
Freda Bright has produced her fourth novel of the one-worder title type — indicating either the American soap-operaesque genre or a sad shortage ofvocabulary on the part ofthe author. This one illustrates every conceivable kind of infidelity from the inevitable ‘roll in the hay‘ (quote) to the betrayal of Joe Public‘s trust in scientists. Annie and Seth have had — until the beginning of the novel. ofcourse — a perfect marriage. We can immediately and smugly count on the fact that it is about to stop being perfect. Vi Hagerty. a raunchy. streetwise character is an effective foil to the happy couple: she is not stinking rich. divorced. swears like a trooper and has a gawky son to boot. By some quirk ofthe novelist‘s pen. their lives become entangled. Noble poverty (but not too poor ofcourse) wins out against the American success ethos which has gone-too-far, but the cat still snuffs it. Ms Bright writes as well as can be expected in the genre and I quite liked the book. But then I like Dallas and EastEnders too. though I found the fortune-telling Haitian obeah woman a little hard to take.
(Kristina Woolnough)
ALTERNATIVE BESTSELLERS
Compiled by Lavendar Menace and the First of May Bookshops, Edinburgh.
1. Jaguar Smile Salmon Rushdie (Picador £2.95) Eyewitness account of the Nicaraguan Revolution by the best-selling, prize-winning author of Midnight's Children.
2. ImmodestActsJudith C. Brown (Oxford £4.95) The compelling, reconstructed. true story of the rise and fall ofa lesbian nun and a visionary in Renaissance Italy.
3. They Won'tTake Me Alive Claribel Alegria (Women‘s Press £3.95) Leading Salvadorean writer tells of the life and death of guerilla commander Eugenia through interviews with her family and colleagues.
4. The Blue Star Robert Ferro (Gay Men‘s Press £4.95) Two young Americans in Europe satisfy hungers of the spirit . . . and more pressing needs ofthe flesh.
5. Encyclopaedia of Feminism Lisa Tuttle (Arrow £6.95) From ‘ableism‘ through ‘Marilyn French‘ to ‘zap
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action’. The indispensable guide to
all aspects of the Women’s Movement.
6. Lesbian Mothers' Legal Handbook: Rights at Women Lesbians’ Custody Group (Women’s Press £3.95) What precautions to take if you want to keep your children and how to cope with a custody dispute.
7. Cry Hard And Swim Jacqueline Spring (Virago £3.95) Eloquent testimony of an incest survivor. with practical guidance for fellow survivors.
8. Jumping the Cracks Rebecca O‘Rourke (Virago £3.95) Rats and her lover. Helen, try to track down a killer in seedy. decaying London.
9. Second Sight Neil Gunn (Richard Drew £3.95) A new attractive edition of the mystery and suspense story by the author of the classic Highland River.
10. Collected Verse Noel Coward (Methuen £4.50) The wit and irreverence of Coward displayed in everything from epigrams to verse short stories.
JUST PUBLISHED
0 Black and Gold Anthony Sampson (Hodder£12.95) Informed analysis of the South African situation by one ofthe wisest counsellors: aphoristic. intelligent and cautiously optimistic about the future.
0 The Prague Orgy Philip Roth (Penguin £2.50) Epilogue to the Zuckerman trilogy in which Nathan goes to Czechoslovakia in search of the unpublished manuscript ofa martyred Yiddish writer. Said Roth to The Paris Review: ‘I went to Prague every spring and took a little crash course in political repression.‘ o I Could Never Be Lonely Without A Husband Djuna Barnes (Virago £5.50) Reprint ofoffbeat interviews by the author of Nightwood with the famous and forgotten. all ofwhich have Barnes‘ distinct timbre. low on facts. high on perception. Here she is on Joyce: ‘At the moment ofseeing him a remark made to me by a mystic flashed through my mind — “A man who has been more crucified on his own sensibilities that any writer of our age“ — and I said to myself. “This is a strange way to recognise a man I had never laid my eyes on.“‘
O The Lost Chart Neil Gunn (Richard Drew, £3.95) Ostensibly the story of the quest for a sea chart lost after a street light but as ever the search
is spiritual as well as material.
0 Fernie Brae J.Hendry (Polygon £3.95) Handsome reissue ofa minor and long out-of-print classic portraying the lot ofone ofJock Tamson‘s bairns as he grows up in Glasgow between the wars.
OK, so you know we sell books. Butdo
about t e rest? Chinese Posters,Nicaraquan
ou know
Coffee,A'frit:an Records
44 The List 20 Feb — 5 March