BACK LIST
SFIRST OF
BOOKSHOP
43 ’CANDLEMAKER ROW EDINBURGH EH1 208 PHONE ' 031225 2612
is [e Notesfl
Bag with - carrierl5p) from 1st of May.
to be seen
RESTAURANT: Tue—Sat (evenings only) Table D’Héte and a la carte menus
BRASSERIE: Seven days: lunchtimes and evenings Wide range of meals available
7 OLD FISHMA RKIiT CLOSE EDINBURGH 031-225 5428
We our shirt on it.
* The waitresses in Times Square have a message
DU
for‘you. On the backs of their blouses is the legend: If it ain't Ed‘s . . . it ain't edLble. * It‘s a message that serves Ed's Broadway Diner well. * Ed runs the food counter in the New York style Bar Diner Known as Times Square; here you can choose anything from Boston Clam Chowder right through to Mexican dishes and kebabs. * In the bar there's plenty of good draught beer to be had and an awesome line-up of bottled and canned beers from around the World. it And for fans of the gridiron there's American football on TV. * The joint is lively and friendly with a real good mlx of people. it So if you want hustle. bustle. good food and drink. forget Times Square. New York and say hi to Times Square in St. Enoch Square.
TIMES SQUARE
St Enoch Square Glasgow G1 40H Telephone 041-221 2000
ALLOA BREWERY COMPANY
IN PRINT
0 Cry Hard and SWlm Jacqueline Spring (Virago £4.50) Jacqueline Spring’s personal account of incestuous abuse by her father implicitly seeks to promote understanding and to work towards an environment which will acknowledge and then suport incest ‘survivors’ (the name preferred to ‘victims’). Her father abused his authoritative familial position, abused the love and trust of his children and violated the sacrosanctity of the family unit. A simple formula relieves the narrator of much guilt and anguish: any adult who enforces his/her sexual will on a child, whether blood-related or not, whether by violence or emotional blackmail, is guilty ofchild sexual abuse. Thus, self-accusations of physical complicity (ie not struggling) are absolved.
The book begins with a series of never-sent letters, written by a narrator who is hauntingly child and hauntingly adult. The family structure is described as the author accuses her mother of not protecting her children: ‘It is impossible to guess from your face what you are thinking, Mama. Idare not question you. To you, He is always right. There is always a good reason behind what he does. You love Him best, therefore His power is absolute. Of course we love Him too, and we know He is right. Which means it is we who are wrong, who are bad. We are all grey angels pretending to be white.‘
A stiflineg dutiful mother, an autocratic father and an all-pervading ethos pf presenting a solid happy family image, distort the narrator’s childhood perceptions. Throughout, the narrative is punctuated with poems which. by the density of their emotional content, serve to heighten the chaotic and intense confusion. Guided by Eve. the model therapist who manages to avoid the trust-tests set for her, the healing process begins. Layers and layers of psychological skin are peeled away to reveal the open wound of the ‘hurt child’ (Ms Spring’s poignant euphemism for the abused child).
Ultimately, recovery is aided by the narrator’s ability to understand the terrible failings of her parents — the sexual abuse was not her fault. And understanding is exactly what this book promotes. It is a coherent. powerful and well-written account which deserves great respect. (Kristina Woolnough)
JUST PUBLISHED
0 Who’s Had Who Simon Bell, Richard Curtis and Helen Fielding (Faber £4.95) Ingenious laylines associated Les McKeown (Bay City Rollers) with Eva Peron, Elvis and Prince Charles (‘in 14 rogers’) and the Duchess ofWindsor and Sylvester Stallone (‘in 15 rogers’). Top rogerers are Warren Beatty and Ryan O’Neal who seems to have had anyone who’s had anyone (and a few more besides). An indispensable companion to Burke’s Peerage.
0 Where the Sea Breaks John Prebble (Richard Drew, £3.95) Unusual war-time drama centring on one of four German airmen who occupy a remote Scottish island when their bomber crashes.
o Fragments oi 3 Lite Story Demon Welch (Penguin £5.95) ‘Every short story and prose fragement ever written‘ by the author of Maiden Voyage.
0 Island Nights’ Entertainments Robert Louis Stevenson (Hogarth Press £3.95) Three tales by Tusitala, the best being the much under-rated ‘The Beach of Falesa’ which sailed the short story into uncharted waters later to become the preserve of Conrad.
o Underthe Banyan Tree R. K. Narayan (Penguin £2.95) Narayan draws his material from the streets of Mysore and each of his stories is suffused with human warmth and humour and a serenity which has wrought praise from Graham
' Greene.
ALTERNATIVE BESTSELLERS
Compiled by Lavendar Menace and the First at May Bookshops, Edinburgh.
1. Young Tom Forrest Reid (Gay Men’s Press £3.95) A powerful evocation ofchildhood. chronicling the growing awareness of a young boy through to his adolescence.
2. The Women's Decameron Julia Voznesanskaya (Methuen £3.95) Ten Soviet women, trapped by quarantine in a maternity hospital, tell stories of their lives and loves.
3. The Lost Language oi Cranes David Leavitt (Penguin/Viking £10.95) A remarkable first novel about a complex family and a marriage suddenly imperilled by the revelation of long-kept secrets.
4. Jealousy Nancy Friday (Fontana £3.95) Autobiographical account of the pains and traumas caused by this most debilitating ofemotions by the best-selling author of My Mother/My Self.
5. Incest: Fact and Myth Sarah Nelson (Stramullion £4.95) Second edition of the pioneering work.
6. ComputersiorBeglnners Errol Selkirk (Writers and Readers £3.95) The history of the computer from the abacus to Amstrad in popular, well-illustrated series.
7. The Life oi Oscar Wilde Hesketh Pearson (Penguin £4.95) Sexually inexplicit but elegant biography.
8. 3 Novellas John Herdman (Polygon £3.95) ‘A Truth Lover’, ‘Pagan’s Pilgrimage’ and ‘Clapperton’.
9. Heavenly Bodies: Film Stars and Society Richard Dyer (BFI £3.95) Subtle, detailed investigation of the meaning behind the mythology of the movie-star focusing on Marilyn Monroe, Judy Garland and Paul Robeson.
10. Women and Apple Tree: Moa Martinson (Women;s Press £4.95) Short stories of working-class women by one of Sweden’s best-loved writers.
44 The List 6 —19 March