BACKLIST
historical figures discussing the relationship between music and language. art and the artist. and myth and reality. 'I‘hese conversations are interrupted by scenes from an operatic version of Amadeus. a film script. a narrative translation of the 40th Symphony. a discussion between ‘Anthony' and ‘Burgess‘. and. finally. an essay by
the author himself about Mozart and
this tribute. The tone is light (except during the analyses of the music). reminding the reader of both Milan Kundera and John Fowles.
Burgess admires the affirmative message of Mozart‘s melodies. as well as his ‘prolific production‘. The aim of the book is probably to entertain. induce contemplation. and slip onto the shelfin a matterof hours. All three come easily. (Douglas McCabe)
DULL DICKS
I Angels In Heaven David M. Pierce (Scribners £12.95) According to the press release. David M. Pierce has ‘recently graduated from starving to death in a Paris garret to hanging about in disreputable cafes‘. On the evidence of.‘tngel.s' In Heaven. he could be back in his crummy attic soon. as the royalties from this would
BOOKS
probably not even stand him one good night out on the Left Bank. This is schoolboy (handler. with Marlowe played by such an exceptionally dull character. \' (for Victor) Daniel. that he would make Alan 'I‘itchmarsh seem like a good bloke. Apparently this is Part Three
ofthe Daniels trilogy. I'm just i thankful I was spared I’arts ()ne and
Two. (Richard Harrison)
BIG WORDS
I Lempriere’s Dictionary Lawrence Norfolk (Sinclair-Stevenson £14.95) Lempriere's Dictionary is an Iinglish novel indebted in style. story and title to the European fiction of Umberto Eco and (ieorges I’erec. Like their work it is a long. verbally dazzling book that investigates complicated events through historical fact and fiction. a good
deal ofsensation and adventure. and ; anextraordinary attention todetail.
Its bashful. academic hero. John Lempriere (who wrote his dictionary in 1788). isthe unwilling centreof
the novel's search into the lives of his ‘ ancestors and their involvement with
the East India Company. The family. and the Company’s eight other shareholders. were in extended conflict following a battle
The final song
To read Isaac Bashevis Singer is to step into a twilight world, weighted by a history and culture which once spanned Europe. In committing the colour and
fragrance of that world to paper, Singer ;
gave life to the echoes and shadows of his Yiddish background, otherwise vanquished to reference books and museums. Apart from depriving us of a masterstorytelier, Singer’s death in July brought to an end one of the last authentic connections with the Jewish landscape that was.
Scum, his posthumously-published last novel, is as strong a reaffirmation of the Nobel Prize-winner's faith as one could expect. A tale of a Jew returning to Poland at the turn of the century in search of spiritual regeneration, Scum is also a parable of estrangement. Max Barabander has lost his identity somewhere between the brothels of Argentina and the Sabbath table of his childhood, disgusted by one and in awe of the other. Foreshadowing his decline into the moral laxity he professes to reject, Max woos a rabbi’s daughter on lalse pretences and abuses the trust of several other women, onlyto find himself increasingly drawn into the nightmare scenario of his ever-repeated dreams.
Singer offers no redemption, suggesting that Max is beyond forgiveness, though it can also be Interpreted as a bizarre self-fulfilling prophecy. Thus Max Barabander, exhausted by life, revolted by his own amorality, neither gives himselt, nor is given, any alternative.
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Scum, like his other nine novels and
ten collections of short stories, cannot ' be divorced from Singer’s social
environment. Acuter aware of the
1 spiritual dilemma otJudaism in the
l
aftermath of the Holocaust, he set out to examine such universal issues as survival and recovery (The Slave), and the reconciliation of the past with the
‘3 present(Enemies).Avegetarian
because he felt that ‘what the Nazis had once done to the Jews, man was doing
to the animals‘, Singerwas held in high
esteem by otherwriters. Muriel Spark, an early reviewer of his work, told The
5 List that ‘his writing brought life to, and
recognition of, a whole culture that would otherwise have been lost in the death campsite did this with style, brilliance and humour.‘ (Aaron Hicklin)
Scum is published by Jonathan Cape at
£14.99.
I
1 iii iii/{ii ‘5' J]
SCOTTISH
BOOK FORTNIGHT l9 OCTOBER to 2 NOVEMBER
A CELEBRATION OF SCOTTISH BOOKS
ANDREW YULE AND MAIDIE MURRAY
SATURDAY I9 OCTOBER I2.30 pm
Grin at The Best Way to Laugh - The Chic Murray Bumper Fun Book. Waterstones, l3-l4 Princes Street, Edinburgh (03I 556 3034).
ELSPETH BARKER
TUESDAY 22 OCTOBER 7 pm
Magical and macabre — the world of O Caledonia.
Waterstones, l3-l4 Princes Street, Edinburgh (03l 556 3034).
ALAN SPENCE
WEDNESDAY 23 OCTOBER 7pm
Inspired reading from The Magic Flute.
James Thin, 53—59 South Bridge. Edinburgh (O3l 556 6743).
IAIN BANKS
WEDNESDAY 23 OCTOBER 7.30 pm
Creator of the Culture - frankly The State ofthe Art.
Paisley Central Library. High Street. Paisley (04l 887 3672).
MICHAEL TURNBULL
WEDNESDAY 23 OCTOBER 7.30 pm
Edinburgh Graveyard Guide - cryptic by candlelight.
Cornerstone Bookshop, St John's Church, Princes St. Edinburgh (03l 229 3776).
Information on events and titles is available from SBMG. Scottish Book Centre. I37 Dundee St. Edinburgh EHII IBG, tel: 03| 228 6866.
OFF THE ROAD
CAROLYN CASSADY
'Carolyn Cassady's book is the one that l have been waiting to read for the past forty years, the one that sets the record straight for the first time... This is a book about the end of innocence in America. It's one hell of a story,‘ jay Landesman, Sunday Times
‘ . _ . HarpeerImsI’uqubm
£5.99
‘l’lie I,l\l II II I )ctolicr l‘l‘ll 7
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