MUHUE f4 M VSTHJD/ DENISE MINA The Dead Hour lBarilarii Pressi 0...
Reviews
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TOM BISSELL God Lives in St When Denise Mina packed up her writing kit and PeterSPUVQ moved on from Garnethill - the chilling trilogy that
it zit/:r; 0000 marked her out as a writer of intelligent, complex, compelling thrillers - there was inevitably a sense of
nervous anticipation as to what the Glasgow-based
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:11. M' ‘ I ' American writer loin fissell has spent tirnr: :‘Joiking in the former Soviet rei rublscs of ()entral Asia. and his t3Xl)t?ll(}lil,t:f) in this oft forgotten part of the world lieaxrly influence this (L()||(:’,l|t)ll of richly atiiiospher'ic and wonderfully executed short stories. lhe six tales here are set in the likes of U/bekistan. Ka/akhstan and Afghanistan. and invariably involve American characters 77 diplomats. aid workers. iournalists. scam iiierchar‘its - With Bissell using the extraordinaw culture shock between east and west to crystallise both his own opinions on the region and his characters' flaws and probleriis.
'lhe desperation in the area is expertly portrayed by the likes of ‘Aral'. in which UN scientists are sent to exarriine the enVironmental catastrophe of the shrinking and polluted Aral Sea. and "The Anilxissadt‘ir's Son'. which is a superbly paced ride through the country‘s lawlessness and corruption. Throughout. Bissell's evocation of place is imptx:cable and Vibrant in a collection which is both Visceral and thought-provoking. (Doug Johnstonel
BLACK COMEDY RICHARD BLANDFORD Hound Dog (Jonathan Capel CO
A darkly comic tale of an ageing, self-proclaimed psychopathic Elvis impersonator. this debut is packed wrth off-the- cutt cruelty and bigotry
former academic researcher would do next. Fans needn’t have feared. Mina returned
triumphantly with a rich new protagonist, 18-year-old
Paddy Meehan, stuck in the middle of a large, Glaswegian Irish-Catholic family, who dreams of
escaping from the drudge of family life and making it as a journalist. Set in the recession-ridden early 805, Field of Blood featured some fascinating period detail
as well as a gripping, gruesome murder mystery.
Fast forward to 1984, and Mina’s follow-up, The Dead Hour, finds Paddy promoted to the dreaded night shift at the Daily News, still hunting for that elusive career- making story, and forced to support her immediate family, all of whom are languishing miserably on the brew. Following the police to a domestic in Bearsden, a concerned Paddy is offered £50 to keep her nose out, only for the victim to be found dead the next day. An appropriate suspect turns up drowned a few days later, but Paddy has her own ideas about the fate of
the ‘Bearsden Bird.’
As well as creating another page-turning thriller in its own right, Mina refuses to pull any punches in her development of the recurring characters. Paddy is a
brilliant, authentic creation, by turns feisty and vulnerable in her responses to the political and personal transformations going on around her.
(Allan Radcliffe)
but offers up too little to keep the pages turning. Even when the barbed humour hits its mark. the narcissism of the protagonist and narrator make it difficult to give a stuff about the events that unfold. Weird and wonderful mob connections. coupled Willi the possibility that Elvis may well be a certified sado-riutiob. do offer the potential for bloody violence. the King's overblown sex drive promiSing a racy distraction. but Homrd Dog rarely meets the sum of its parts.
Only in its latter stages does the book truly engage the reader. revealing itself as a stOry of consequence. COnSCience and redemption. but it is too little. too late in the day. Nevertheless Richard
Blandfor'd's prose has its moments and offers a gliriipse at a glorious sardonic potential.
(Mark Edmundson)
eieL ICAl MYi ii DAVID GROSSMAN
Lion‘s Honey (Canongatel O.
The story of Samson is one that even the most ardent atheist knows. What may surprise is how concise the biblical text actually is. in terms of language. emotion and detail (the King James VI version is very helpfully printed here). In Lion's Honey. DaVid Grossman attempts to look in greater r_)sychological depth at the legendary warrior to build a picture of the man outside his myth. The problem is that. despite being a ‘factual‘
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book. it relies so heavrly on phrases such as 'riiaybe'. 'pt ssibly' and ‘could have'. that what you're left With is nothing more than one man's modern day r)syctioanalytical suppositions about a literary hero. As such it's difficult to see who this is for. except perhaps A Level theology students. If nothing else. seeing how much can be read into so little does provrde some insight into how one book could have caused 2000 years of wars. wrtch hunts and pogroriis.
lGordon Eldretti
SAT IRICAL lAl E S GEO SAUNDERS
The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil (Blooriisburyi O...
The nation of inner Homer is so small that only a Single person can live there at one llll‘iC‘. The peeple of Outer Homer dislike their neigthurs but have tolerated them for many years. All that changes when the bitterest Phil comes along wrth a brain which falls off now and again as he enforces unfair tax meaSu'res upOn the Inner Hornerians.
Welcome to the wonky world of George Saunders. whose style effortlessly merges the surreal wrth the satirical.
BBB! 0f PHIL 'The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phri' is the novella which opens up this inspired collection and it’s difficult
not to ask questions of it:
chiefly. what does Outer Homer stand for? Canada. Mexico. Airierica. lrao or Afghanistan? All of them? Or none? With this story and tales such as the disturbing neighbour conflict in ‘Adarns' or the (LUSIOHICT coriiplaints letter of ‘ Can Speakltriii' it's probably best iust to go With Saunders offbeat ride rather than make wur head bust open wrth analysrs.
(Brian Donaldsoni
ALSO PUBLISHED
Niccolo Ammantti Steal You Away The tale of a 12-year-old boy with dreams of escaping his small town existence. Canongate. Jonathan Safran Foer (ed) A Convergence of Birds The cocksure NYC scribe brings together pals such as Rick Moody. Joyce Carol Oates and Siri Hustvedt to write about US author Joseph Cornell. Hamish Hamilton. Owen King We 're All in This Together The son of Stephen steps out of the shadows with this novella set in Maine following the 2000 US presidential election. Faber. Deborah Tannon You 're Wearing That? An analysis of the ways in which mums and daughters communicate. Virago. Benjamin Franks, Stephen Harper, Jonathan Murray and Lesley Stevenson (eds) The Quest for the Wicker Man HistOry. folklore and pagan perspectives on the movie. Luath Press.
22 Jim—'3 Jill Err/1‘; YHE LIST 31