books
review
SHORT STORY COLLECTION
Carol Shields
Dressing Up For The Carnival (Fourth Estate £13.99) ****
D RESSING U THE
CARNIVAL
FOR
Interviewed recently, Carol Shields said ) that fiction about adultery needed to
be counterbalanced by the literature of long marriages. The Canadian-based writer has always staked out a territory
that covers both in a uniquely measured way. After her novels — the 1 superb Stone Diaries and the slightly
flabby (but prize-winning) Larry’s Party — this collection of short stories is Shields in sharp, focused form.
The dramas are entirely unexpected; a
woman is hit by a flying harp, a child
assaulted with a bag of lamb chops. The adulteries on the other hand are
suspected, sometimes accommodated
or quietly avenged. Her themes of domestic compromises, disappointments and quiet contentment, often contain tiny shards of glass. And her riffs on the life of the writer and on academic theory are as smart as those of any LitBrat.
Running beneath all these stories is Shields’s persistent claim; this is what
life and literature are really made of. ; (Ml)
FUTURISTIC THRILLER
, Jon Courtenay
Jon Courtenay Grimwood’s new sCI-fi
Grimwood redRobe (Earthlight £6.99) * * ‘k t *
* novel oozes originality, venomous wrt
4‘ g
"e, .. its“):
and pace the way most sci-fi novels ooze cliche and self regard. Set in a Vatican-colonised, hardware-
dominated South America and various space outposts, redRobe is a top drawer, non-stop rattling good thriller
i that tells of muted yet vicious lives.
Within the book, we have washed-up assassins, Japanese kinderwhores, corrupt cardinals, a woman Pope,
voodoo priests and a talking gun.
By turns surreal, repellent and
, ingenious, Grimwood is truly inspired by his Napoleonic techno—chronic vision
of the future and delivers an unputdownable story. There are few
- comparisons in this genre when things
get this good; apart from the obvrous
that is.
So unless William Gibson releases a
new novel before 2001, the smart
money is on this being the finest sci—fl novel of the year. (PD)
CONSPIRACY THRILLER John Grisham The Brethren (Century £16.99) air a at
His New Bestseller
Despite the title, ‘li's not a hunt for Masons under the bed or about a splinter band of Quakers. The Brethren IS a conventional Cirisliamly tale of CIA machinations to manipulate the American electoral system, With three Judges being imprisoned for various crimes from stealing bingo money to drunk driving. During their time inside, they stage mock courts where fellow prisoners can an grievances, while also running an extortion scam by targeting closet homosexuals replying to lonely
hearts ads.
AlthOiigh none of their Victims are outed, they suffer finanCially and emotionally while the judges are finally bought off by the CIA. For the CIA’s hypocritical money, conservative American family values are preserved.
It all logs along prosaically until the ensnaring of the ClA’s presudential candidate, a rnorrient which appears to fire the plot. But this is Grisham, so appearances are deceptive and the tale is not sufficiently complex to suggest that us anything other than a best- selling piece of genre writing. (DP)
Continued over page
STAR RATINGS
‘k at t we Outstanding
ir * 1r 1f Recommended g a: t * Worth a try
1r * 50-50
14* Poor
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