MEDIA SAT (RT? RICK MOODY The Diviners (Faber) O...
In his first novel for eight years, Rick Moody has given us a potent satire on American television processes and popular culture. In an all-encompassing and uncanny multi-narrative he overlaps the orbits of flawed film executives, philandering movie stars, a bipolar courier and an elderly woman who is apparently receiving cellular phone calls in her cranium.
Set in the aftermath of the 2000 Bush/Gore election fiasco, the obvious targets of ‘enhanced reality‘ TV and the Hollywood machine are acknowledged but brushed aside as easy sport. The real meat, in Moody’s eyes, lies in America’s emerging mould for quality broadcasting and the high-gloss, multi-season serial. Though cutting and exact, this is no cynical misery tour, displaying as it does a genuine empathy and compassion for the sprawling cast of fully rounded misfits and their conflicting ambitions. Widely acclaimed for Hollywood adaptations of his Garden State and The Ice Storm, Moody’s mastery of pace and intrigue allows his story to unfold in a hugely gratifying way, the reader joining the dots as the author flexes his storytelling muscles.
As explored as the overriding theme of his selective memoir The Black Veil, Moody entices with a combination of concealment and revelation, offering equal gravitas to the morsels he holds back as the events he shares. This all makes for mature, populist literature of the highest order. Though The Diviners is an at times exacting tome of intimidating stature it will have you looking forward to killing time on public transport and gleefully stealing Saturday mornings in bed. (Mark Edmundson)
FAMILY DRAMA KA
TE PULLINGER A Little Stranger (Serpents Tail) 0...
Fan‘in ties are peculiar bonds. We powerful electromagnets they draw some irresistibly together wt‘ile sending others Sl)‘.":'ll-".§j a'.'/ay. New mum Fran is
struggling ‘f/Ittl the stran
— both financia and Cll‘OtIOllEit — of her
s tuat'on. One day. 'sclated and hopeless. sl‘e flees. buying a plane ticket to escape the gc'den handcuffs of her tar'iiiy. Titus begins the unfolding of her untidy past z s she lays a trail yia Las Vegas back to the Vancouver where ( she discovers the true
l ran's clan are fairly obvious. but it is that
power a mother l‘as over her children's future. The conclusions Kate
Pullinger draws about
obviousness that makes this book feel all the moie true. as it is often those problems that are staring you right in the face that are the hardest to solve. Pullinger is deft with language and resists cliche for her characters. giving us a guietly uplifting book with real heart.
ilvlark Robertson)
SHORT STORIES ALEXANDER MCCALL SMITH, IAN RANKIN AND IRVINE WELSH
One City
(Polygon) .0.
This slim volume contains a short stow each from three of Edinburgh's biggest literary names plus an introduction by JK Rowling. These giant names have been brought together by the OneCity Trust which campaigns for social
Justice in Edinburgh and.
like all charity offerings. it's hard to untangle the fine sentiment from the duality of work when re\.'iewing.
(itviitt WELSH
In truth. none of the stories shows the authors in their finest light. McCall Smith's offering trundles along aiiiiably en0ugh, while Rankin seems a tad exposed without a criminal plot to hang things on. Welsh's effort fairs best. the energy of his story (about an escaped tiger in salubi‘ious Murrayfield) dragging it along nicely. But really the best writing here is Rowling's touching introduction, in which she perceptively dissects Edinburgh's tendency towards social exclusion from her own Viewpoint. haying seen both sides as first a broke single mother. and now probably the country's richest woman.
(Doug Johnstone)
SCI-Fl DRAMA MICHEL HOUELLEBECO The Possibility of an Island
(Weidenfeld & Nicolson) 0..
the ".J:SID"‘t'
q " a: u‘ .
"l tLLEBECO
As the poet and novelist Michel Houellebecq has spent much of his career mining his deeply pessimistic vision of modern humanity. it's unsurprising that his latest work imagines a future in which the dull. shallow human race has been replaced by 'neo- humans'. The latest world-weary protagonist to trudge from the pen of France's biggest selling author is Daniel, a misanthropic comedian. celebrated in the late 20th century as an acerbic commentator on the human condition. (Typical joke: ‘Do you know what they call the fat stuff around the vagina? The woman.) Bored of such cynicism. Daniel embarks on two unhappy love affairs before becoming embroiled with 8 Cult intent on supplanting humans with superior clones. Much has been written of Houellebecq's 'shock-jock' credentials. but scrape back Daniel‘s studied cynicism and there's very little that's partiCUIarly repellent or especially new in his grotesque depiction of the vapidity of modern life and the mystifying search for love. (Allan Radcliffe)
FOLKLORE COLLECTION NORAH AND WILLIAM MONTGOMERIE The Folk Tales of Scofland
(Mercat Press) 0000
Every country on the planet claims to have a rich folklore (other than. possibly, Monaco which just has fast cars and a dead princess) but Scotland may well have more than its fair share
of myths. legends and cute wee tales. This collection of stories was first published in 1956. revamped in 1975 and mildly tickled for 2006. the passage of time not denting its charming effect one jot.
It's certainly difficult not to be swayed emotionally by tales with titles such as ‘The Flea and the Louse'. ‘The Wife and Her Bush of Berries' and ‘How the Cock Got the Better of the Fox'. Most of these mini-fables come in at very-easy-to-digest two- page lengths. making it ideal for all of your literary toilet-stop moments.
(Brian Donaldson)
ALSO PUBLISHED
Christophe Dufossé School '3 Out It's as though Alan Warner had written Lord of the Flies. Apparently. William Heinemann. Arthur Swinson Scotch on the Rocks The true stOry behind Compton MacKenzie‘s rather famous tale of duty- free whisky cargo. Luath Press.
Cecilia Ahern If You Could See Me Now The Express' favourite writer gets edgy with a tale of gleaming kitchens. reluctant mums and carefree strangers. HarperCo/lins.
Ian Stewart The Mayor of Ug/yvi/Ie 's Dilemma . . . “and other mathematical puzzles and enigmas'. Better than Sudoko. anyway. Atlantic Books. Hanif Kureishi The Word and the Bomb Extracts from his finest fictional work plus an essay on the London bombings. Faber.
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53—19 Jan 2:) ‘6 THE LIST 29