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SHORT STORIES DAVE EGGERS How We Are Hungry (Hamish Hamilton) .0.
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.‘Jlttl a kick. sharply sending up the crassness of the industry and its growing fascination with the macabre.
(Mark Edinundsoni
Dave Eggers is a manic writer. A symptom of being a manic man? His (slim-ish) collected short stories feature protagonists who either zoom savagely through life (the ‘fast-fast dog’ in ‘After I Was Thrown in the River and Before I Drowned’), or fantasise about ending it all (the cross state driver in ‘Climbing to the Window, Pretending to Dance’). Even Eggers’ story titles are fused with craziness: ‘There Are Some Things He Should Keep to Himself‘ has more words in the title than the story. Eggers must bash out his stories during parachute jumps, possibly prior to opening his chute. As a consequence the writing is thrillingly unrestrained, admirably reckless, though not wreck-less. ‘Notes for a Story of a Man Who Will Not Die Alone’ is an undeveloped idea dressed up with a bit of po-mo playfulness, while the 60-page ‘Up the Mountain
Coming Down Slowly’ just goes on a bit.
But sometimes Eggers cracks like a lightening bolt. ‘She Waits, Seething, Blooming’, about a single mother waiting, worried, drunk and angry for her teenage son to return home so she can ball him out, ends: ‘She can't wait for it to begin.’ And ‘Your Mother and l’, the odd story out, reads as a sappy fantasy about perfect parents who rid the world of poverty and war. Considering that his parents died when he was young, prematurely and within a year of each other, this is actually extremely poignant. But the whole is not a heartbreaking work of staggering
genius. (Miles Fielder)
30 THE LIST 31 Mar—$1 AD' 203:"
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JONATHAN FALLA
Poor Mercy R; r‘i 0..
Set ‘99:. the troubietit Darfur region of Sudan. this deceptrxely biting rlO‘.€}l couldn't be more pertinent .n tonne; of its topic the difficulties and moral ambiguities surrounding the concept of foreign aid in Africa. Jonathan Falla's second novel. after the acclaimed Blue Poppies. is based on the author's own experience working for disaster agencies. That first-hand knowledge certainly lends an air of authentiCity to his story. which revolves around a dark. Southern stranger called Mogga. who is pitched into a difficult political Situation between Darfur locals and foreign aid workers.
So far so good. This book's strengths are twofold; Falla's depiction of the frustration and COrruption is preCIse and eye-opening, while his lyrical descriptive passages are often wonderful. But despite plenty of effort. the characters and plot remain a little unengaging. making Poor Mercy a fascrnating stOry but not one that remains With you for long.
(Doug Johnstone)
HORROR TALE KOJI SUZUKI Spiral (HarperCollins) 0..
This is the follow-up to KOJI Suzuki's multi- million-selling Ring, the horror novel that spawned the Cult Japanese film, Ringu, and its glossy Hollywood remake. ln Fling. Suzuki's chilling premise was brilliantly simple. that watching a certain Video tape meant you were gomg to be dead within a week. The end of that
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book was sunningl'. left open for sequels and hore is the first (Witt) Loop to follow in .‘Jtlltft‘ the ‘arus' behind the \ideo inutates with cum inOre de‘.a:‘.tating consequences
As a stand alone st in. Spira' doesn't ti‘u’til‘, .‘xork, .1:th tot» lilii‘tt‘i backstory exposition scattered around the place. Suzuki's execution of his fantastically creepy ideas is clinical. but the prose is at times laughably clunky. possibly down to a dodgy translation. But even despite the clumsy language. the terror of the plot shines through. leavrng you wrth a very definite chill dowr your spine. (Doug Johnstone)
POETRY COLLECTION STEWART CONN
Ghosts at Cockcrow (Bloodaxe) COO
'Swooping hand in hand towards infinity' is the line With which Stewart Conn chooses to depict the speCific horror of 9/1 t. This combines with his exrstential musmg on the frailty of life and the sometimes suppressed desire to reach out to Our loved ones. Edinburgh's first Poet Laureate certainly knows how to magic a moment. be it historical. fanCIful or personal, and his poems on parenthood. fishing, Auld Reekie. and followrng in the footsteps of Robert Louis Stevenson are very well crafted indeed.
ALSO PUBLISHED
Pavel flak Sniper The insanity of war rages in an unnamed country in a terse tale from his Paris-based Czech novelist. Serpents Tail. Sebastian Barry A Long Long Way HistOrical drama about a Dublin teenager off to tight in W‘Wl while political tenSions tester back home. Faber. Various Chambers Dictionary of Literary Characters Over 65.000 entries covering everyone from Benton to Rebus and Jane Eyre to King Lear. Chambers. William Palmer The India House A black comedy about Britain as the era of colonialism finally comes to an end. Jonathan Cape. Julian Clary A Young Man '3 Passage A typically obtuse title for the memoir of the thinking chap's Larry Grayson. Ebury Press.
Yet some of his work is either Just out and out luWie—ish ('the derision of the Gods. the last straw'i or too obsciirely high cultured for this particular philistine. Still. havrng knocked the board-treading inatrg-rial, there is 7i gern by the title of 'Epitaph': 'Havuig died on stage as Vladimir in Godot, way his spirit appreciate'the tvrist of fate whereby the wait at least for him/is now over.‘
(Rodger Evans)