tiff/1V COMET-J/ NICK REVELL Night Of The Toxic
Ostrich lHearlline {cf/t
Tll‘fl‘f‘, ll’) 39/101 T‘JLIF)‘: tr, farce. All you need is siirlple playground liuiitour. .rlsual gags of the 'i';<'li’)|f)(}lf,{tl variet, and a sprinkling of plot trusts so ludicrous they're alrnost predictable. Serwe in a large paperback and you've a rather sickly and insubstantial meal. Sooner or later you Just want the characters to sod off and learn to use the toilet properly.
Nick Revell's tale of a stand up comic on the run from some none- too-amused Islamic fuiidamentalists. however. is a much more palatable experience. Never has the tale of a sad bloke trying to avenge himself lthrough mass Christmas dinner consumption; on the Wife who divorced him for accidentally murdering his son's pet gerbil with a lit fart possessed such pathos. And that's Just one sub- plot. It gets much ‘-.".’(}|l'(I(?f', and a hell of a lot more serious too. This is the height of farcicality and a hilariously touching, morbidly human piece of Wildly addictive crap. lOlly Lassmanl
l’OOT HALL COMEDY JONATHAN WATSON 8: PHILIP DIFFER Only An Excuse? iBIack & White $6.99) 0..
Diary of a Sconou
Jonathan Watson & Philip Oifti-r
When Jonathan Watson took On/i' An Excuse? onto Scottish stages. you couldn't help the feeling that it Just wasn't the same as the TV show: gone were the rip-roaring. seamless segues from Jim White in the studio to Archie MacPherson in the gantry. back out to
Chick Young an the tunnel and up to Denis Lax; in outer space. Still. at least ,Otl had the great iri'tpersonations.
No .v that the TV show has moved further on from stage to page. you don't even get the ‘JOICL‘S. What you do get is a relatively sane. almost thoughtful look at the football season that was ladopt sonorous Mcllvannian tonesl. 2000/01 saw Celtic Win the treble. Rangers get stuff all and St tvlirren returned from whence they came. A very bad year for Chick Young all round. as they might have written.
Amusmg in places but. at the end of the day. reading this is a bit like listening to the game on a car radio while speeding along the motorway. (Brian Donaldsonl
SHORT STORIES SUHAYL SAADI The Burning Mirror (Polygon €9.99) .00.
Suhayl Saadi‘s debut collection of short stories is a small treasure. His is such a unique vaice in Scottish literature it is impossble not to get swept up in his many experiments With form and content.
The first story sets the tone; Ninety-nine Kiss- o-grams' sees a young lad from Gavan investigating the land inheritance his Pakistani father has left in his homeland. Heartbreaking Without once being sentimental. that ScottishASian muSical rhythm rings through in every line. From here things just get better. particularly ‘The Queens Of Govan' (which is like vintage Kelmanl. ‘Rabia' and the swaggering gall of ‘Killing GOd'.
Funny. clever and complex. his Scots Asran vaice IS very fresh.
and rerr‘ir‘.=sr:e"t 3" masters like Sana" Rushdie and A ar: I‘Larr‘ier anzf. or? ’1‘ s evidence. Saarii ma, soon be at the pew: of haxing few cantemporarj. real-s. Tricky and challenging but full of wit and repressed wisdom Paul Dalei
MYSTERY NOVELIA MICHEL FABER The Hundred And Ninety-Nine Steps (Canongate €9.99 0.
Canongate had re; son to champion Highlands— based writer Michel Faber as their new bright young thing. His debut novel. Under The Skin, is an intriguing flight of the imagination. Faber's follow-up. a long short stary packaged as hardback novella With half a dozen holiday snapshot illustrations. is slight in comparison.
This vaguely Gothic tale of an anCient domestic crime unearthed in modern- day Whitby is seriously underdeveloped. One hundred pages Ought to be ample to detail characters. but Sian the vrsmng archaeologist and Magnus the local lad remain sketchy. Worse. their railing against the establishment and histOry — 'we don’t need a bunch of sad old perverts — is unconvinCing. It Just saunds like a Faber rant.
SuspiCions are thus confirmed that had Under The Skin been packaged as a genre title — seience fiction fantasy — y0u wouldn't have read its many gushing broadsheet reVIews. We shall. however, reserve Judgement on Faber‘s next novel proper. Crimson Petal. l Miles Fielder)
Books
EVENTS AT BORDERS
THURSDAY 5TH JULY 7PM
CATHERINE CARSWE LL APPRECIATION
Re-discovering a Glasgow writer. Catherine Corswell wrote the novels Open the Door! and Lyin’ Awake, and the controversial and ground-breaking biography The Life of Robert Burns. Her life and work will be discussed over a glass of wine.
MONDAY 9TH JULY 1PM
NEIL GAIMAN
The writer of the groundbreaking Sandman graphic novels and the TV series Neverwhere will be signing copies of his new novel
AMERICAN GODS
WEDNESDAY I 1TH JULY 7PM
TO ARMS — THE FIRST WORLD WAR
Hew Strachan, Professor of Modern History at Glasgow University, will be discussing the build up to the First World War.
MONDAY 16TH JULY 7PM
CHUCK PALAHNIUK
Author of Fight Club, lnvisable Monsters and Survivor will be talking about and reading from his new novel
CHOKE
THURSDAY 19TH JULY 7PM
MUNROS CDROM DEMONSTRATION
lan White demonstrates this easy way to master Scotland’s famous hills. With features that aid navagating, help with accomodotion and what to do in a crisis.
BORDERS“
98 BUCHANAN STREET, GLASGOW GI 38A TEL: 014] 222 7700 OPENING HOURS: 8am to I 1pm, Monday to Saturday, lOam to 9pm Sunday www.bgrdersstores.com/stores/283
’L— 17: Jul 20’,” THE LIST 95