Hamptons and reSisting the attempts of ’new money' owners to gateCrash their social sphere is believable, if hardly riveting. Our narrator George Lenhart takes 289 pages to realise that hrs friends - and the object of his deSrre Kate Goodenow - are not very pleasant people. The reader, however, sussed that
one after two chapters.
While the pace drags, we anticipate
striking revelations or a tWist that Will
throw some insight into the characters but these never arrive. Their Wall Street careers would never make it onto celluloid and the Sex And The City girls would eat them for breakfast.
(Loursa Pearson)
POLITICAL ROMANCE
, Justin Cartwright Half In Love (Sceptre £14.99) at it t t
Following the Whitbread Award-Winning Leading The Cheers comes Justin
Cartwright’s sixth novel. Half In Love is a . multi-layered story, the focus of which is
an acc0unt of the affair between married
Hollywood actress Joanna Jermyn, and Richard McAIlister, MP and the prime minister's oldest friend.
However, it is by no means a mere love
. story; Cartwright has a talent for
weaving together unconnected narrative
themes to make a coherent whole, so
Half /n Love IS also a political satire, soaal examination, philosophical treatise, history and more.
The tale is told through the eyes of both Joanna and Richard, interspersed with third person narrative, and skips back and forth through time and place, taking in last century Africa to modern day California. However, despite its breadth of location and range of themes, Half In Love is essentially an accmately observed commentary on the nature of
Britain past and present. (Kirsty Knaggs)
Z FAMILY DRAMA ? Anita Brookner
The Bay Of Angels (Viking £16.99) 1: it
Anita Brookner may well be a veteran of many novels but that doesn’t Justify indulgent navel-gazing of the sort
displayed in The Bay OfAnge/s.
The story centres on Zoe, a middle-class
English girl growing up in 19505 London
' with her fragile, wrdowed mother. They depart for Nice when her mother takes a
second husband — Simon, a rich, near geriatric gentleman — and we follow the family relationships and life progress of the rather vacant Zoe.
The main problem rs Brookner’s
economy of language; or more, the lack
of it. With prose more flowery than a
Chelsea pensioner’s back garden,
Brookner tells of Zoe’s skewed worldvrew With a cold verbosity that w0uld make a
science lecturer blush. Momentum is
sacrificed in favour of pondering and the
pace is deathly.
This isn’t particularly beautiful, carefully studied or thoughtful; if anything, Brookner’s mis-shapen sketch of this dysfunctional family is as inaccurate as you could care to find. (Mark Robertson)
STAR RATINGS t it t t * Unmissable t * i it Very ood t a t Wort a shot it it Below average it You’ve been warned
books
events
THURSDAY 18
Glasgow
Magnus Magnusson Royal Concert Hall. 2 Sauchiehal Street. 287 5511. 12.30pm. Free. Magnusson talks about his latest book Scotland's History (HarperCollins £19.99 ). The Clearances Royal Concert Hall. 2 Sauchiehall Street. 287 5511.6 m. Free. A discussion chaired by Colin Be I with a panel consisting of Michael Fry. Dr Ewen Cameron and Dr Fiona Watson as they discuss Patrick .S'e/lar and the Highland Clearances by Eric Richards (Polygon £16.99).
FRIDAY 19 Edinburgh
A Celebration Of Robert Burns National Gallery of Scotland. The Mound. 62-1 6200. 12.45pm. Free. Celebrate the hard with words and music from Jack Weir and Gordon Hanning.
WEDNESDAY 24
Glasgow
Whisky Tasting Waterstone's. 153—157 Sauchiehall Street. 332 9105. 7 m. £1. Sipping session with Helen Art ur. author of Whisky. The Water Of Life (Apple Press £16.99).
Sauchiehall Street Reading Grou \V’aterstone's. 153—157 Sauchiehall . treet. 332 9105. 7pm. Free. The group will discuss Charles Dickens' The ( lil Curiosity
Shop. THURSDAY 25 Glasgow
Robert Burns and Politics Roval Concert Hall. 2 Sauchiehall Street. 2875511. 6pm. Free. Donnie O‘Rourke. Douglas Gifford. Gerry Carruthers. Janet Paisley and chair Professor Ted Cowan will discuss the poems of Robert Burns.
FRIDAY 26
Edinburgh
Libby Purves James Thin. The Gyle Shop ing Centre. 35 Gyle Avenue. South GyleiBroadway. 539 7757. 1pm. Free. Libby Purves. presenter of Radio 4's Woman 's Hour. will be signin ' copies of her latest novel Passing Go (Fiodder 8.: Stoughton £6.99).
SUNDAY 28
Glasgow
Sunday Muse With Brian McCabe Tron Theatre. 63 Trongate. 552 4267. 5—7pm. £3. The first appearance in the new series of Sunday Muse at the Tron will be from gaze-winning author Brian McCabe.
2 lusical accom animent comes from the Linda Jackson rio and upcoming authors this season will be Scottish heavyweights Alan Spence and Laura Hird.
TUESDAY 30
Glasgow
A Wheen 0' Blethers Waterstone's. 153—157 Sauchiehall Street. 332 9105. 7pm. Free. A Wheen ()‘Blerhers (Lindsay Publications £8.99) is a collection of caricature portraits of writers who have emerged from Scotland over the past 240 years. The author David Gray. discusses his selection and Alasdair Gray and Edwin Morgan read from their work.
"é
Edinbur h
Alan Ta lor The Hub. Castlehill. Royal Mile. 4 3 2000. 6pm. £6 (£4.50). Alan Taylor reads from The Assassin '5' Cloak (Canongate £25). a collection of diarists which he co-edited and which includes thought-provoking snippets by authors as diverse as Alan Bennett. Lord Byron and Simone de Beauvoir.
THURSDAY 1
Edinburgh
11:9 Waterstone‘s. I28 Princes Street. 226 2666. 6pm. Free. Launch of new fiction
imprint l 1:9's latest series of titles. See
preview.
BOOKS
EVENTS
GROUPS AT BORDERS
CREATIVE WRITING PROGRAMME
Classes every Monday and Wednesday 5.30pm & 7.30pm
7.3OPM THURSDAY 18TH JANUARY & 8TH FEBRUARY
POETRY WRITING GROUP LANGUAGE CAFES
7-9PM MONDAY 15TH JANUARY
German Language Caio with Goethe Institut Glasgow
7-9PM MONDAY 29TH JANUARY French Language Cale with Alliance Francoise De Glasgow
7-9PM MONDAY 5TH FEBRUARY
Spanish Language Caie with Monica Bedregal
6.45PM WEDNESDAY 3IST JANUARY
SCIENCE FICTION/ FANTASY QUIZ
7.3OPM WEDNESDAY 315T JANUARY
SCIENCE FICTION/FANTASY DISCUSSION GROUP
CHILDREN’S
STORYTIME EVERY SATURDAY I 1AM
1PM SUNDAY 28TH JANUARY
LOOKING AFTER PETS IN GLASGOW
Fiona from People's Dispensary lor Sick Animals talks about some oi her more unusual cases and brings in some of her favourite animals.
AUTHOR EVENTS
7PM WEDNESDAY 7TH FEBRUARY
MAURICE COTTERELL
Discover the secrets oi the Incas and the treasure filled tombs oi the lost sun—kings.
THE LOST TOMB OF VIROCOCHA
BORDERS"
98 BUCHANAN STREET, GLASGOW GI 38A TEL: 0141 222 7700 OPENING HOURS: 80m to l 1pm, Monday to Saturday, lOam to 9pm Sunday www.borclei'sstores.com/stores/283
18 Jan—1 Feb 2001 THE “ST 97