Books
EVENTS AT BORDERS
WEDNESDAY 30TH MAY 7PM
SOPHIE GRIGSON AND WILLIAM BLACK
Iliiiii itius organic iecipes and sound Iood adVice Ii'om telvision's
lax/Outite husband and wile team
[QEANICI
THURSDAY 318T MAY 7PM
I129 SPRING LAUNCH
ltiiiiii l\.’/IUCL)OITCIICI, Literary Editor ol The Herald, hosts the launch xii ll‘f‘ spring wave oI titles Il'OlTl Scotland's new Iiction imprint, 11:9. authors
.,.I) NM...
Graeme Williamson, Hamish MacDonald, Drew i ’lfl‘I‘il)('II and Anne lVlOC'LCOCI will be attending the event to discuss
.’.()lI\ and the iole oI this landmark event in Scottish Dublisltinc, I J
MONDAY I8TH JUNE 7PM
ANTHONY NOLAN BONE MARROW TRUST/ EURASIA DINNER
"l-l.,t? opportunity to meet with the iiisi.)iiational Jack Black at " ii'inual LllUlIIy (IIIlllCl. Raising IUl‘.(IS lot the Anthony Nolan
I'll"‘t‘. i‘v'iaiiow Ti ust in H10 LIOIIt iOus Siiiiouiitlingj ol Eei‘i'iei‘
“ii-iixtwi'g Euiasia, Eoi more inloiiiiation call Gillian or Simon
Ol-ll 2'27 7/‘20
TUESDAY I9TH JUNE 7PM
NICK HORNBY
at the GLASGOW ROYAL CONCERT HALL Author ot Fever Pitch and High Fidelity \.-.ill be (I'SLUSSIllg his new navel leWTqéE Gabjl Tickets £2.00 available from Borders
THURSDAY 2 I ST JUNE 7PM
CARL MACDOUGALL
' mi The Cossonovo Papers, Stone Over Water and The Lights Below will be discussmg lllS new book
PAINTING—{ETE— FORTH BRIDGE lit. §5839i?QREQPUEELQENUI
BORDERS"
98 BUCHANAN STREET, GLASGOW GI 38A TEL: OIAI 2?? 7700 OPENING HOURS: 8(im to I Ipm, Monday to SCitUiCICiy, IOain to 9pm Sunday \‘/\‘J\'/.I)Oldt‘lSSIOlC‘S.COlTl'SIOIPS 283
104 THE LIST 24 May—7 Jun 2001
JAMES
chance encounter
truly blessed in having
account of the
MODERN FABLE
considered
MAGNUS MILLS Three To See The King (Flamingo €9.99) 0....
Former bus driver Magnus Mills was acclaimed for his Booker and Whitbread-nominated debut The Restraint Of Beasts and this, his third novel is equally short and just as oddly sweet.
A man lives on a plain in a house made of tin. Where he is, how he got there or even what he has in the substantial breakfasts he refers to is left to our imagination. All we are really sure of is his desire to live in a canyon, and that he has yet to find a suitable place to call his home.
Things remain relatively simple until a visitor comes; the moody but charming Mary Petrie changes everything. When his neighbours finally appear, they declare that they’re off on a pilgrimage of sorts to meet Michael Hawkins, whose intention is to build a canyon of his own for people to live in. Our hero has to decide whether to tough it out on his own or join the exodus.
Mills’ fabulist storytelling allows the reader to focus on the broader-reaching emotional and social conflicts between being an individual and acting as part of a group. Lord Of The Flies is an obvious spiritual reference point but Mills does away with the rigorous linkage to the ‘civilisation’ the children in Golding’s book are displaced from.
Instead of being a dark tale however, this is ultimately optimistic and uplifting. The real skill in Magnus Mills’ writing is not what he puts in but what he leaves out. (Mark Robertson)
Mills leaves it out to stunning effect
POSTMODERN TALE problematic relationship SHORT STORY
i . l COLLEC ION i
( betweenabiographer MIC“ LE HAMILTON- and his subject but it's ' ROBERTS PATERSON I also an incredibly _ Playing Sardines
Loving Monsters (Granta $315.99) 00” If a writer could be
poignant tale of love and regret. (Catherine Bromley)
(Virago 29.99) «0
Books so often
TAR . dOCumentawriter's Y 1 obsessions. Michele
style and taste of their Mommies (Allen Lane I Roberts has obsessions publisher, then James ; £14.99) ..... that she passionately, if I Hamilton—Paterson I - — w - - sometimes clumsily, } simply oozes Granta pastes into her stories I from every pore. like a child constructing Doubtless, the a collage with tissue publishing house was paper and glue. These falling over itself to sign eighteen tales all enjoy up a novel that common threads: food. epitomises the France and fun with concerns of the urbane. fellas. the travelled and the ’ Roberts' descriptive worldly—wise. powers are keen; Taking as its subject artichokes. anchovies two individuals who and sun-dried tomatoes possess the attributes have lives all their own given above, Loving and are vividly portrayed Monsters opens with a in tandem With the sultry i geography of France. This may be all well and good, but it is to the detriment of her characters who seem stilted in comparison. Breathless female leads are longing for romps with broad-shouldered author types and it all gets a bit Mills & Boony in places. There are some highlights; in particular. the dark diatribes of a celebrity chef stalker where she juxtaposes the sinister with the succulent. A good read in places but for some ‘
reason I'm now really, I . really hungry. I (Mark Robertson)
representative of the
To the cynic, it is difficult
not to imagine Moral/ties
is a half-witted exercise
by some naive
publishing
commissioner to cream
; off profits from the
= steaming cup of java
unlidded by Naomi
, Klein's No Logo.
I Fortunately for the
E book-buying public, Joan
Smith is a truly insightful
and intelligent writer and
critic. Subtitling this
powerful diatribe ‘Sex.
Money And Power In The
21 st Century'. she tears
into the moral maze of
hypocrisy and wilful
hoodwinking that are the trademarks of our media- ocracies. She starts with the Pinochet case and leads us through a merry dance of major themes and happenings (Clinton. Globalisation, Holocaust denial).
Again and again, Smith answers the questions our helpless and disempowered
visionaries have been
scribbling on suicide
notes for decades. This is rum, definitive stuff.
I (Paul Dale)
between the enigmatic Raymond Jerningham Jebb (‘Jayjay’ to his friends) and a political journalist (Hamilton- Paterson himself). The former commissions the latter to write his biography and because biographies are only as interesting as their subjects and their authors. this book is
two exceptional players contributing to the product.
Exceedineg self- referential (ultimately to its detriment), this is not only a well-observed