SOCIAL DRAMA NIALL GRIFFITHS
Runt (Jonathan Cape) 0000
What a courageous writer Niall Griffiths is. In the
seven years since his debut Grits - an ambitious and
occasionally brilliant study of modern hedonism in West Wales - he has divined, deviated and experimented with a bravery that is only really
comparable to that of our own James Kelman. Irvine Welsh and Kevin Sampson, the two writers he is most
often compared to, seem, by comparison, to have been trading on old glories since their 905 debuts. 2001’s Sheepshagger introduced Griffiths’ more militantly Welsh handle on his sprawling dyspeptic form followed by the tightly structured love story
Kelly and Victor and on to the unruly experiments in
linguistics and crushed narrative that were Stump and the deeply visceral Wreckage. Griffiths clearly
has a dodgy goalie’s ability to blind and impress as he moves the goalposts.
His new book, Hunt is arguably his best to date.
Racing like a damaged heart from the off, this is the
story of an under-educated 16-year-old from a big city who goes to stay with his widowed drunken
uncle in a remote Welsh hill farm. This is, however, no
ordinary teenager; there is evil born of lust in them
hills and this chosen one may be the only thing that
stands between it and the slaughter of innocents.
Drenched with paganistic intent, Runt is made odder
by Griffiths’ monologued lingual deconstruction, a Clockwork Orange distilled through the excellent
Welsh ‘community’ writing of Caradoc Evans and RS Thomas. This is a euphoric, epic and deeply moving
book. (Paul Dale)
Reviews
PSYCHOLOGICAL DRAMA NATSUO KIRINO
Grotesque (Harvill Secker) 000
The title Of this book alone should have you assuming the brace position. particularly in light of award-winning Japanese author Natsuo Kirino's reputation for driving right tO the slippery limits of the human psyche. Long and relentlessly grim. Grotesque reads like a car crash, exploring sex. conformity. cruelty and death in stark. discomforting detail. Two prostitutes are found murdered: YurikO. a freakishly beautiful career hustler. and KaZue. a deluded. but fiercely intelligent blue— Chip professional gone bad. Told largely from the perspective of Yuriko's
older sister (herself a bitter. twisted individual). the complex narrative roots out what made such 'monsters' of each: be it lust. self-obsession or jealousy. In the process. it delves into the minutiae of not just the female mindset. but Japanese society itself. Clocking in at 467 pages. the book often gets bogged down. although Kirino's brilliantly raw. voyeuristic style drags it through towards its bleak conclusion. Don't say you weren't warned. (Malcolm Jack)
MILITARY DRAMA ANTHONY SWOFFORD Exit A
(Simon 8 Schuster) C...
It comes as no surprise that Anthony Swofford. a military base kid raised in the US and Japan. should set his debut work of fiction in that very same environment. After the success of the bestselling and critically acclaimed memoir Jar/read. Exit A equally compels as it follows the lives of football-mad Severin Boxx. the 17- year—old son of an Air Force pilot and the daughter of the general who runs the base. the Bonnie & Clyde-
obsessed rebel Virginia Kindwall.
lntoxicating descriptions of Tokyo sit alongside depictrorrs of the oppressive and sterile Americanrsed base camp as this captivating romance between two very complex characters unfolds. expertly woven through subplots of underground crime. kidnapping and political unrest. We follow our two protagonists over a its-year period and watch their controlled upbringing take its toll. with a glimmer of hope running throughout which keeps us utterly gripped until the very end. (Camilla Pia)
COMrDY DRAMA JENNY TURNER
Brainstorm (Jonathan Cape) 000
Set in the booming London of the 1990s. Jenny Turner's debut
novel is already a period piece. Her astringent comedy of manners captures 'media chicks' and their men. swearing and scheming. cocooned in Canary Wharf. unaware of the cracks literally opening beneath their feet. Her prose ranges from colloquial to poetic. occasionally uneven. always easy reading. But here comes the philosophy. Turner's protagonist. Lorna. has had a brainstorm: she cannot remember what she does. where she comes from or where
she is going. She spends the novel picking up the pieces of her fractured identity and reading. perhaps re-reading. Hegel. It's all a dialectic. ‘innrt"? The dirty high—rise council flat where Lorna chooses to live. contrasts with the moral
grubbir‘ress Of the skyscraper crowd. Turner can be a bit heavy- handed with Hegel. at least to begin with. but this is a stylish novel that finishes with a soft flourish.
(Hannah Adcockl
TEEN DRAMA MOLLY MCGRANN
Exurbia (Picador) CO.
The 80s may have been the decade that taste forgot (unless you reckon that was the 70s or 908). but it's been wildly in vogue for writers lookrng to pick on an even meaner. reckless period than the one we are Currently dragging ourselves through. But rather than soil a whole book with swathes of cultural narnedroppings and acres of pop references. Molly McGrann rs keen to let her backdrop fade in gently. showing perhaps that western teenagers worries and obsessions never really change through the years.
Her crew (three sets of frustrated kids. turning to moshing, robbing and pipe bombing respectively) has the social devastation of Reaganomics as their context. with The Love Boat re-r'uns floating on
ALSO PUBLISHED
5 HISTORY BOOKS
Gerald DeGroot Dark Side of the Moon Subtitled ‘The Magnificent Madness of the American Lunar Quest', this is an anecdotal account of how the US became obsessed with plonking someone on the moon. Jonathan Cape.
Robert Hutchinson Thomas Cromwell Subtitled 'Henry Vlll's Most Notorious Minister‘, the Tudor tyrant’s reputation is put firmly on the blocks. Weidenfe/d & Nico/son.
Keith Lowe Inferno Subtitled ‘The Devastation of Hamburg, 1943', read all about the horror wreaked by the UK and US bombers from the victims‘ perspective. Viking. Mark Nicol Condor Blues Subtitled ‘British Soldiers at War in Iraq’. it's a no- holds barred tale about the flawed thinking behind the Allied operations. Mainstream.
Patrick Symmes The Boys from Dolores Would you believe that there's no subtitle here? This one is about the history of Cuba from the standpoint of 230 folks who were young in the 19403. including the lad Castro. Robinson.
TV. Ultrrnately. the plotlines all seem a mite obvious and overly familiar: You simply know that the quiet. nicer girl will end up clad in black. an abused mess. having opted to hang out with the white rnrlrtiamen. (Brian Donaldson;
Exurbia
MCI’L“ Vchcriri
lf) Feb 7001' THE LIST 3"