Reviews
SHORT STORIES DES DILLON They Scream When You Kill Them (Luath) COO.
Writing this collection of shorts seems to have been an enjoyable experience for award— winning Scottish author Des Dillon. and the pages turn all the QLiiCker for it. Gritty themes (violence. drugs. booze — actually. mostly booze) are the mortar between the 28 literary bricks: otherwise his pen runs Wide and free. building brief inSights into people. places and Situations. some apparently drawn from strands of experience. others purely from a wildly creative imagination.
Notables include. 'I Thought You'd Give Me Pills' — a touching rumination on compaSSion and suffering provoked by a dying cat — and the hilarious humanisation of
PHILOSOPHICAL DRAMA
Strathclyde Police in ‘Motor Traffic Acts One and Two.’ That said. different combinations of standOuts will apply to every reader. such is each short's undoubted capacity to reflect a familiar little trait. memory or emotion in someone. Sometimes poignant. sometimes confounding and always vibrant of language. each of these stories has a power that belies its length. (Malcolm Jack)
TEEN FICTION SARAH MILLER Inside the Mind of Gideon Rayburn (Bloomsbury) CO.
The premise of the book is interesting enough: for some unexplained reason a nameless female finds herself With full access to the confused mind of one Gideon Rayburn. Young Gid IS just starting at an expensive prep school and the hormones of a 15-year-old Virgin are raging. Unfortunately. this scenario is wasted on
CORMAC MCCARTHY
The Road (Picador) O...
Cormac McCarthy has spent over 40 years examining human frailty, from the cowboy myths of his acclaimed Border Trilogy through the more contemporary concerns of last year’s No Country for Old Men. In his latest novel McCarthy projects his vision of an inhuman post-apocalyptic fug that perhaps predictably holds no fantastic technologies or revelations. Instead he paints an austere landscape, half-lit by an obscured sun in which humankind has been reduced to its most base and basic function: survival. The story itself follows a man and his son as they journey south through a regressive American wasteland, scavenging for whatever morsels of food they can find and avoiding contact with perhaps the only other living beings on the planet, cannibalistic humans.
The reader joins the pair with their journey already underway and is offered a blow-by-blow account of their trials. Doing away with chapters, McCarthy structures the narrative like the unfolding events themselves, in a seemingly endless sequence of paragraphs. Into this minimal frame the author injects stark philosophy and narrative suspense while maintaining a plaintive picture of strife and futility. The scene that McCarthy sets is thus wholly convincing and the story, though bleak in the extreme, proves utterly compelling, offering glimpses of both the best and worst of the human condition in its darkest hour. Rejecting the fanciful preoccupations of the science fiction genre, the 73-year~ old’s step beyond presents an ambiguous yet timely glimpse of our
pending fate. (Mark Edmundson)
cliched characters and a predictable plot. It's a shame. as events trot along at a decent pace and there's enough swearing and sex to satisfy most adolescent readers.
But when a guy is faced between the chOice of a stunning but shallow girl and the plainer. clever one. yOu can hear the teen-flick producers gagging for the film rights. It's a just above average. slightly brain-dead read; and although entertaining, Sarah Miller suffers from a rather patronising attitude towards her
readership. The very girly.
often whimpering commentary throughout means this is one for the ladies: lust don't expect any great inSights into the male adolescent pSyche. (Sian Bevan)
CRIME DRAMA IAN RANKIN The Naming of the Dead
(Orion) COO.
Truculent DI Rebus is as familiar as an old pair of slippers these days. not least because of Ken Stolt's excellent recent portrayal on teleVision. This latest escapade ar0und Ian Rankin's schi7ophrenic Edinburgh (the 17th Rebus book) shows that. far from running out of ideas. the author is firing on all Cylinders. Setting events around last year's (38 Summit and protests is a
of the
[535:1 i.)
neat idea. imbuing the usual dead bodies and mystery With plenty of intriguing resonances. The character deveIOpment of Rebus' sidekick DS Siobhan Clarke continues nicely as Rebus approaches retirement. and they're now something of a consummate black comedy double act. Rankin has learned a thing or two about dramatic tension over the years. and he handles the complex plot - involving an MP's apparent Suicide. a serial killer of sex offenders. corrupt government. arms dealers and police — Willi real skill and pinpOint aCCLiraCy. If only all crime fiction was this accomplished. (Deug Johnstone)
METAPHYSICAL DRAMA PAUL AUSTER Travels in the Scriptorium
(Faber) 000
On the surface. Travels in the Scriptorium takes place in a small room with no means of
escape. Its occupant. a cenfused old man known only as Mr Blank. finds even the most mundane tasks problematic. The who. where and why of Blank's existence is a mystery. to both him and us. Of course. with Paul Auster. Surface is only half the slow. and this metaphysical yarn has yOu searching for meaning in every line. The room itself. seemingly a metaphor for
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Auster's mind. is a place where old characters are recycled. Names such as Fanshawe and Quinn (formerly of New York Trilogy fame) make an appearance. one of a range of deVices Auster uses to mess With our heads. But despite its air of mystery. Travels in the Scriptorium smacks of author self-indulgence. And as it SCreeches to a maddenineg frustrating climax. yOu can't help but wonder if this wasn't written more for Auster‘s pleasure than ours. (Kelly Apter)
Books
5 COMEDY BOOKS
Michael Neatley Ricky Gervais: The Story So Far British comedy’s most powerful man? Or a one-trick pony about to run out of steam quicksharp? Unbelievably, Gervais is cackling on the cover. Michael O'Mara
Jimmy Carr 8. Lucy Greeves The Naked Jape: Uncovering the Hidden World of Jokes The lad Carr knows a thing or two about jokes considering he rattles off more in one hour than most comics manage in a lifetime. This book asks the big questions: Are men actually funnier than women? Can God take a joke? Why are clowns scary? Michael Joseph.
Deirdre Dolah Curb Your Enthusiasm: The Book Fans of Larry David will be in hog heaven with this companion to the show which was a pioneer of the verite' sitcom. Simon 8 Schuster.
Julian Hall The Rough Guide to British Cult Comedy That Gen/ais guy adorns the cover so it's not especially culty. ‘Addictive’ and ‘definitive’ may be more accurate descriptions of this guide by The Independents comedy critic. Rough Guides.
John Fisher Tommy Cooper: Always Leave Them Laughing A biography from a close colleague which looks at the self-doubt which often plagues the best of them. HarperCo/lins.
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2).- lti Nov 2006 THE LIST 29