BOOKS PREVIEW
extemalisation of troubled emotions also spills over into Haggard’s increasingly shaky descriptions of other characters, which are shaped by his combined mental and physical decay. Central to this is the son of Haggard's object of passion. a young Battle of Britain Spitfire pilot, whom Haggard begins to confuse with his former lover. It was. in fact. this figure who was the
junior registrar, falls in love with the _ wife of the senior pathologist at the I hospital where he has been appointed, but cannot give up thoughts of her as I when the affair ends or even when she dies. ‘I wanted to see Haggard as a man
trapped very much in an authority hierarchy within the hospital and also
within an English social scene that is
The lighmi“g "3?“ Of a short b‘" mUCh "lore rigidly bound by initial spark for the novel: a fighter Mel‘s? loviaffmr can bund me, COPYCM'O" than any Fomempomry pilot who - in the midst of that most particrpants reason for a long time Bntrsh scene,’ explains McGrath. ‘He’s masculine of pursuits, war - takes on
afterwards. Those moments of passion got a lot of constricting social bonds,
— or, more keenly felt, the loss of them and he’s transgressing in almost every
- can shape the spurned lover‘s future direction, He works out the full romantic by becoming an obsession that distorts implications of passion rather than
his perception of what is real and what allowing it simply to be smothered in
female characteristics. ‘Against all of this grand heroic stuff, here’s this poor W“ new young man whose body seems to be by emotional obsession to the point of m“““y'"g 0“ him and Changmg SQXC madness, a man whose perception is says MCGmtho The“? was Somethmg
is jealous fantasy. Patrick McGrath’s the mundanities of everyday life) _ . , lofioml abgurd b t m . , ' ' ~ - further clouded b mo hme addiction g - Y s a 0" 3‘ Picture- latest novel Dr Haggards D'sease If the has” 9'0! seems relat'vely and the phyqical gain gt?“ broken hip. But then the focus shifted: ‘It seemed places such events just before World unoriginal in itself, the method of its . . ‘ to me clear that the d g b War Two Edward Haggard a young temn k t Ha ard -g a man d .ven ThlS rs the landscape of the New . . octor mu.t e . . g . no . es 1. rr Gothic. a term coined by MCGmth and getting it wrong. that there was some
. B df d M f sort of illusion involved here. that the , - 2:11:23? Sign SgdcsoprgthBalast doctor was seeing not what was real but w E S T E N D B R A N C H year. what he wanted to see. That there was
.The novel has a strong gothic some sort of emotional disturbance in . - ‘ ' .- th t m the doctor that caused him to see the Thursday 13th May at 7.00pm 93”“ adm'“ ""3 “"‘h"? '" a .' ‘ hermaphrodite. interests are death, obsessron, passion. Medical fact underlieg Ha d,g Haggard’s personality is romantic with . o ‘ ggar ‘ touches of the gothic about it — his hgpmzes'sf the smss or with": affects demonstratio b the author of Aromathera r Lovers - ‘ ° - ' - . ' t c ‘3" “MC SyStem' Gammg ormone n y phy f0 fascmimon wuh {pedfmlf‘c 23d aberration. By this point, however, his worrymg at ques 'on“ 0 Sp judgement is no longer professionally
Tuesday 18th May at 7.00pm body’ the decaypfthc bOdy and the objective and cannot be trusted. necessity to believe in some sort of
. . , McGrath‘s insidious prose pulls us 8: P saint"? escrfgakeq Ha 8rd towards a shockingly unforgettable reading from Remembering Babylon and Sugar Caine o w 1c ‘ gg final image by means 0f one Orthe
(Respectively) somethlmg 9f ahman 0“: of "me’ 3:12" m most sharply realised unreliable a "We set m t e pas" n we go I narrators of recent times. (AM)
’ Admiss‘b" ‘0 bath events is f7“ ' Style’ his inner torment takes thSical Dr Haggard Is Disease is published by
Waterstonc's Booksellers West End Branch form around him ' his Cliff‘Cdge’ Viking at £14.99 (hardback) and £8.99 128 Princes Street Edinburgh, EHZ 4AD rd: 031 226 2666 ‘monumental’ house, the ‘blistcring made paperback)_
raw night’ into which he escapes. The / . \ / \_,/
"When someone writes as well as Rupert Thomson does, it
makes you wonder why other people bother...some of it is pure AUTHORS AT WATERSTONE'S poetry." New Statesman/Society
)
The . f h d. . . rkel MAY FESTIVAL OF BOOKS " se stories 0 transap r0 tttc intercourse are l y to pro- IN PRINCES U4 RE GLASGOW voke demented laughter of a degree that may knock your socks SQ 017-" Evening Standard WEDNESDAY 12th 7.15pm Maggie Tisserand
will be giving a short talk on aromatherapy and
will read from his new novel ,Msigningtcgpies Of h}! “62:53: ,, roma era 01" 8 AIR & FIRE 1”
accompanied by FRIDAY 14th 12.30 - 1.30pm
WILL SELF 11“? COOP“
will be signing copies of her new novel
who will read froma selection of his "The Man Who Made Husbands Jealous " prrze-wmmng work at TUESDAY 18th 12.30 - 1.30pm WATERSTONE'S Dr Miriam Stoppard 132 UNION STREET will be signing copies of GLASGOW "Conception, Pregnancy and Birth " on All events are free. If you cannot attend, please ring THURSDAY 6 MAY 041-221 9650 to reserve signed copies of any of the at above books. 6.30pm Waterstone's Booksellers
45-50 Princes Square, Glasgow GI 3JN 041-221 9650
Phone 041-221 0890 to reserve signed copies
82 The List 7—20 May 1993