Books
R unflinchingly and From an almost ; honestly portrayed, ! fetishistically detailed 5 making Prep a singularly i It ii i \ opening of a hunting trip cringing read and quite j ) Y _' i that ends in human unique in the chick-lit t k l l k butchery. we‘re into the genre. ‘ seedy side of an
unnamed. Genoa-based Italian city that goes where the guidebooks
(Mark Edmundson)
POETRY COLLECTION DAVID KINLOCH . . In My Fathers House 3 don t show you. That m. l IS . --~ ~--‘ ~—- = Um” “MN!” workinginthemidstofal The world of David ‘ ' * bin strike only hammers
Kinloch's poetry is E the point of this I surprising and often ! engrossineg detailed l surreal. Lady Macbeth is f (not one of the Rumpole but unflinchingly sordid found on the beach on a E series) demonstrates voyage home. 3 family holiday; a I just how much he relies (David Pollock) cantankerous upon that character's
acerbic humour for his own laughs. Without
grandmother declares herself the Callas of
Cardross; the pages of i him this tale of an unden/vear catalogues are ‘thumbed to a palimpsest'; Roger
unlikely romance between do-gooding l charity worker Lucy
i Casement's infamous Purefoy and convicted l diaries are interspersed burglar Terry Keegan l with the horrors of : lacks any kind of bite at I colonial abuse against 5 all. i i which he campaigned; The characterisation l g The Mikado is l and plot are so flimsy as i ‘ performed in Africa by to make Alexander ; Henry Morton Stanley ; McCall Smith's books } LUCA m Fumo A l and his thespian troupe; l seem like Dostoyevsky. , %é%§02%§;ou ELLIS i and an elegy is delivered whilethe style is so fluffy i ALso puausuzo Lunar park I to a lover as his body is ; and light that you fear I The Picador) ... : embalmed. I the pages may lust float l “M, a”. d’ v i - - i - l _ i away out of your hands Secret L’fe Ofa The best thing that can be said about Lunar Park is that you’re never quite W‘" i as you turn them. As teenage Punk Rocker sure where you are with it. A maddeningly baffling tale, it’s about a writer . ' ' Lucy and Terry's n S_ 197$ and mink '5 called Bret Easton Ellis who uses the first passages of the book to remind "M " h “M ' "i" I relationship transforms at “3 he'ght- Th'S is 3 us of his career to date and how his dad was semi-supportive (throwing a _ 9 them in almost personal tesnmon'a' celeb-heavy graduation party for his son) though mainly not so (Ellis recalls completely unrealistic from those Wfld days‘ that he based his most terrifying creation, Patrick Bateman, on his old I i and thoroughly Cher” Red man). ; unconvincing fashion. 8mm" So far, so drearily autobiographical. Yet before you know it, our hero you can see the A CraCk '" the Edge becomes a happily married (quite clean) man with a lovely wife and two Q 3 ‘hilarious' ending 0f the Wand QU'te brattish kids (something not quite ringing true there, eh?) who is suddenly i : coming from 100 miles top'ca'f supp“? as being spooked out by a student who may be stalking him while dressed 5 f away. and only the the “rm/arse Spms smartly as the notorious American Psycho and the ghost of his father may ; i occasional daft one-liner asunder eve'yWhere‘ also be haunting his every move. When a cop comes round to inform him i i in the mouth of Lucy's The amhor Of _ that a serial killer is on the loose bumping victims off in the Bateman-stylee 3 bishop father saves this Krakatoa 'Ook? mo and email attachments pop into his inbox showing his dad’s last 3 E from being abject. flighty the 83” Franc'sco movements, things turn distinctly macabre. I Kinloch's salutation of I dross. (Doug Johnstone) quake Of 1906' Despite the author’s claim that ‘all of it really happened, every word is Rimbaud (‘eftir thi Arabic I CRIME DRAMA true’, it’s not too long before you realise that we’re in the company of the of Mou'in Bsissou'). his LUCA DI FULV'O l R t " 63:9" most unreliable author since the guy who wrote the Hitler Diaries and what i rendering of Lazarus The Mannequin Man Te um 0t 6L rt he’s giving us is a sub-Hallowe’en tale, a postmodern chiller which reads ! (‘eftir thi Latin 0 E (Bitter Lemon) m i ’mewa§ er 9 9’8 like the first draft of a Wes Craven/Kevin Williamson project. The whole is Prudentius'). and i —r - a — ~ ' Cooper '5 aqua.” the more than zero but a proper autobiography or a real horror romp may have i translations of German i 'No one knew what Comedy W"th Rom" been more satisfying. (Brian Donaldson) i poet Paul Celan. into ; went on in the head of l P0996" and here he : Scots are inventive ; the brilliant Inspector . Scr'bb'es nonsef‘se to .. . . , 1 , literary feats. However. Amaldi. No one could ! Tony 8'3" and mes to TEEN DRAMA . . . 3 3 claiming not to have i he is at his most , get close enough to find : DOOR a room for a CURTIS l . - . - - i . - - l robot. Time Wamer. SITTENFELD I 5 been such an awkward. j expresswe — his lyrics ; out. AntlherOlc l “a “mum. ‘ Prep i reflective character in , most profound — when l policemen. it seems, are Ch” T Ml. (picador) ”. i her youth; her drawing on personal ; the same the world over ' ° . _ i I representation of the ; remembrances. He may i and. but for a few welcome ’0 Bnta’n A A coming of-age tale ' churning inner turmoil of call upon the greats for 3 changes in name and b°°k Of phF’tOS Presented by SGVTlOSieE ‘ ., . _ ’ E the chronically shy ’ inspiration. but his own ' geography, the clipped g 9ncapsvlai'“9 the '93] Curtis Sittenfeld‘s debut l I +3 - ' I i ringing true through the story is the most i but evocative imagery of me Of “"3 sceptred follows the self- "W" ' . detail and repetition of l attesting. (Katie Gould) 9 this Italian crime thriller '3‘9- Sara“ Jess'ca conscious ’ life as an outsider. i could easily have Parker '5 a fan' , preoccupations of Lee Admirably, Sittenfeld NSH'P COMEDY i emerged from lan apparent” Head/ma Fiora. a scholarship ' l doesn't get hung up on MORTIMER Rankin's pen. On the if” 3mm student at the otherwise I ’ big drama. all the ‘ Quite Honesfly ; other hand. there isn't Cows” Odusl . privileged Atill boarding ‘ ! ‘events' unfolding in a (Viking) .. much in the Rebus I account Of SCOtands school. The big issues essentially sit out her , small, real way. the ' * ' ' ' i novels to meet some of I W°”dw'de d'aspora of class, race and self-administered ? narrative proving John Mortimer's most ’ the sadistic tableaux based 'etters' money in public incarceration. The whole remarkable in its famous creation is. of : portrayed here. which is ' farm” “sures and schooling are addressed I thing feels undeniany E ordinariness. Rarely has course. curmudgeonly ; possibly why Luca Di l the aUthorS, own on a personal level as l autobiographical, i the tedium of teenage old barrister Horace Fulvio is compared to "ave's' Ma’nsmam' Lee tries to fit in and . despite Sittenfeld l angst ever been so Rumpole but this novel l Thomas Harris. I
2O Oct-3 Nov 2005 THE LIST 27