Authors at
Waterstone’s
Waterstone’s
in April Edinburgh WED EAST END 2 2 DR DAVID WEEKS figipm “Superyoung " (Hodder £9.99) THU WEST END M 2 3 DOUG 903‘ COUPLAO —— “Girlfriend in a oma " 7'00 PM (Harpercollins £12.99) FR' QUEENS HALL 2 4 JOHN IRVING APR “A Widow For One Year ” —— (Bloomsbury £16.99) Tickets £3/£1.50 7.30 PM SAT EAST END 2 5 MELVYN BRAGG APR “Giants Shoulders ” 1 _ 2 pM (Hodder £12.99) WED EAST END 2 9 DR RICHARD CARLSON APR “Don 't Swear the Small Stuff" 7.00 PM (Hodder £7.99) Book now for “Withnail and I ” director Bruce Robinson at the Assembly Rooms, 6 May. Tickets £3, £1.50 dine. 83 George Street, Edinburgh tel: 0131 225 3436 West End, 128 Princes Street, Edinburgh tel: 0131 226 2666 East End, 13-14 Princes Street, Edinburgh \\;,\'1‘1.;R5'1‘()X1.;‘S tel: 0131 556 3034/5
102 TIIEIJST 16-30 Apr 1998
. u I I , I. r 3,. 4‘
Various (Flamingo, £6.99) *«Hr If this is the future of Scottish writing. then we're about to become a nation of literary teases. The authors inthis hitand misscollection what the appetite with intriguing plottines and characters who are quiddy developed, but seldom follow h with a satisfying finish.
Take Laura J. Hird's 'The lnitiation‘. a brilliantly nasty piece of work. Claire and Jackie aretwoteen terrorswho subject a retarded man to a stomach- churningly graphic initiation ceremony to their gang. Hind shows what bitches girls can be, and your sympathy is for Johnnie. the harmless butt of their jokes.
And yet. horrific as these degrading rites are, you must keep reading to see what the girls' sick minds will
conjure up next. The end comes all too soon. leaving you gagging,” 5?}
Thisisalltoooftenthecaseinthiscoilection-theauthorscodd ’dowith, “ writingafewmorepages. StilLit‘sgoodtoseesudradhrerseselection: _' the New Scottish Writing banner. With subjects' irrdtrdmg' .a stem " i v. " 1 , obsession, sword-dancing and femalecirtumcrsron‘ ' .anything 'V ' f ' ’
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Singling Out The Doom Fox
Couples Iceberg Slim (Payback Press £5.99) ****
Stella Duffy (Sceptre £10) 111*
Though it may be akin to accusing Bret Easton Ellis of being a Wall Street serial killer, you can’t escape the hunch that Stella Duffy has been badly hurt somewhere down the relationship line. Her central character in Sing/mg Out The Coup/es is a metamorphosing fairy- demon intent on splitting up the most inseparable of couples. The fact that she is devoid of a beating heart makes the task that much easier. Problems begin when one starts to grow and pangs of guilt develop. Meanwhile, her fairy brother is dispatched from the land of milk and honey to prevent her from turning London into a couple-free zone. A sweet idea, but one which doesn’t quite deliver the pay-off which the early episodes leave you gasping for while her punnery and playful wordplay grates at times. Still, a feast for the lovelorn, vengeful and bitter out there. (80)
PAPERBAC KS The Actresses
Barbara Ewing (Warner Books £5.99) ir fir it
Is the strain of being 'kulchured‘ taking its toll? If so, sneak out and buy this — a not-a-lot-of-explicit-bonking buster, set in thespian‘circles. A disparate bunch of actors and actresses converge for a drama school reunion and their varying degrees of success are dissected before a rape allegation shatters their illusions. Check out a terrific supporting cast - Viola, Benedict and, honest, Elvira. (SM)
My Golden Trades Ivan Klima (Granta £6.99) *‘k‘kir
Given the dearth of Czech authors in the nation's bookshops, Klima may well be the country's 'greatest living writer of fiction'. Flippancy aside, this is a moving sextet of stories in which the narrator - like Klima a banned writer — recalls the diverse jobs he undertook in the name of survival and fulfilment. (SM)
Previously unpublished, Slim's final manuscript before his death has all the pace and punch of its six predecessors. Set in LA and returning to his trademark of gangsters, ghettos and life on the edge, Doom Fox follows three generations of men attempting to find an honourable place in the world against the dark draw of discrimination and criminality. (SM)
Great Apes Will Self (Penguin £6.99) *ir'k‘k
When artist Simon Dykes wakes up after a night on the razz, the world appears to have turned upside down. His babe girlfriend has inexplicably metamorphosed into a chimpanzee, as has everyone else. Simon's trawl through a (swinging?) London where humans are an endangered Species shows arch-stylist Self as being far wittier than Planet of the Apes, with a much bigger vocabulary to boot. (NC)
JCEBERG $9M ,.
Doom Fox
REVIEWERS THIS ISSUE
Neil Cooper, Brian Donaldson, Thom Dibdin, Rodger Evans, Teddy Jamieson, Dawn Lindsey, Damien Love, Susan Mackenzie, Alastair Mabbott, Claire Prentice.