Books Reviews
SOCIAL DRAMA
ANDREW O’HAGAN
Be Near Me IFaberi 0...
Since publishing his critically acclaimed non-fiction debut The Missing in 1995, Andrew O’Hagan has carved himself a distinctive place in modern writing. Two novels, Our Fathers (1999) and Personality (2003) established him as a thoughtful, mature voice, demonstrating a fierce command of words and a love of language; that reputation will be enhanced by Be Near Me, a beautifully constructed novel following the life of Father David, an English priest stationed in a small parish in the West of Scotland who gets caught up in the lives of two teenagers. It‘s well delivered, the action takes unexpected twists and O’Hagan never falls into the trap of preaching, despite including several scenes with extensive dialogue about the war in Iraq. Perhaps this is because his narrator isn't a character readers will naturally warm to, or perhaps because his flaws are tenderly described. Whatever the reason, O’Hagan never lets us relax into a set view of his narrator, even when the plot takes
a dark turn.
Some of the issues tackled in Be Near Me may appear distant. O’Hagan opens by quoting Tennyson, explores the inner workings of an Oxford University clique who love Proust, and describes 19605 English boarding schools sympathetically. But he always asks readers to question their assumptions, dealing deftly with issues of class, sex, and the tensions between the UK nations, moving the story on all the while. This may sound serious - and there aren't many jokes in Be Near Me - but it’s one of the novels of the year. (Rodge Glass)
TAMIL ’ SAGA WALTER MOSLEY Fortunate Son iSerpent's Taili 0000
On the surtace a QLllrky tale of two boys raised as brothers in unlikely Circumstances — the handsome white overachiever Eric and the Sickly downtrodden black kid Tommy — this fine book blends issues of race and family to
14 THE LIST 10—1 7 Aug 2006
love. death. fate. As one of the masters of literate American genre fiction. Walter Mosley's prose is suitany easy to digest. yet it also flows with an rmrnensely addictive crack'e.
He imagines the boys' early life wrth warmth and tenderness. but brutality soon follows when the pair are separated until adulthood. Not least
Tommy's descent into drug-running, poverty and abuse: yet somehow Mosley still manages to create a certain sense of redemption in his acceptance of all these as a condition of survival. Meanwhile. Eric looks at the misfortune of those he meets and imagines he has cursed them all. Even the predictability of their reunion can't spoil
WALTER MUSLEY FORTUNATE SON
sucl‘ ar‘ "triguing Journey. iDavid Pollocki
COMING—OF-AGE TALE ANTI-IO GIARDINA
White Guys
iWilliam Heinemanni .00
There are some friendships that never go away. For T.'rimy O'Kane. the narrator of Anthony Giardina's third novel. that trend is Billy Mogavero. a physically imposing and rather taCiturn character whose early brush with the law sets him apart from his pals. While Bi'ly stays home in s'naii tC‘Hf‘. Winship. the others find themselves lucrative robs elsewhere. marry respectable women and have beautiful children. Their connection wrth reprobate Billy is re- established when Freddie offers him a highly paid JOD. but the Out8ider's return is always an uneasy one. His marriage to Patty Shaughnessy offers brief redemption until tragedy strikes. Billy struggles on but slowly Timmy (who morphs into a kind of grown-up version of The Wonder Years' Kevrn Arnold) becomes inextricably entangled in the repercussions. Yet the stakes are never really high enough to make this a genome thriIIer: in Trmmy's world ‘the truth of breasts and dicks. of habit and chiidren' always wins thrOugh in the end. (Rachael Streeti
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C BIS LYNCH Inexcusable
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Everyone theught that Keir as a bit cool when he caused a nast'. iniui‘, on the sports tield one day The". even started caII'rig It'li‘. Killer " honour of the dair‘aaz- he inflicted But the name never reaI‘. sat well wrth him. \‘y'it‘i " s mum hazing died t)e‘:f'e he knew her and a am: who can barely ’le enough for his kids. he has yen, different parental stresses nagging away at him; but is this any reason to date rape his girlfriend Gigi? And did he actually do it? While 'the way it looks is not the way it is' becomes Kerr's mantra. perhaps more telling is the book's tagline: ‘good guys don't do bad things'
Chris Lynch's story is a spirited attempt at tackling a thorny topic for all sectors of society. never mind the teen one. And while the emotions are well laid out. the tale feels skimpier than the weight of the SUDIGCI seems to demand.
(Brian Donaldson)
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FAIRY TALE
TONY MILLIONAIRE Billy Hazelnuts (FantagraphiCSi O...
Creepy kids and idiotic adults alike wrll love this graphic novella from the guy wrth the best monicker in comics. It's a screwy take on the children's bedtime book. reminiscent of Maurice Where the MM Things Are Sendak at his most fantastically transporting. When a bunch of mice create a mincemeat pie homunculus to protect them from a hungry domestic cat. the
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TC Boyle Talk Talk A 24-esque romp as a couple trek across American trying to prove their innocence. Bloomsbury.
Dara Horn The World to Come A divorced former child prodigy becomes obsessed with a Marc Chagall painting which once belonged to his family. Hamish Hamilton.
Howard Sounes Seventies Subtitled ‘The Sights. Sounds and Ideas of a Brilliant Decade.’ Simon and Schuster.
Ian Sansom Mr Dixon Disappears The second in the Mobile library series features the librarian crime- solver Israel Armstrong investigates a nasty kidnapping. Harper Perennial.
Stephen McCauley Alternatives to Sex A wicked affair which merges sex and real estate. Granta.
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