Books
Reviews
NM). [JP/AMI: DAVID PEACE Tokyo Year Zero
’F alien 0.
Tokyo /ear Zero is tlltr(:|‘:flilll’)!/ miserable A revolving recurrence of ”if: ’iitlli‘: ‘1'.":lti‘). punctuated by l:l‘ifllf¢‘)‘,ly repeated fragments of the narrator's strearii of (;()ltf,(£|f)tl‘)llf:‘i'>. hammering. scratching and ll(;l‘lll(}, it is also. at least in parts, nigh on iricompreherisihle. Tokyo. August 19116. As Japan suffers its defeat by American forces, the bodies of two women are found in Shiha Park. Crurrihling Detective Miriami is assigned to the case and, faced wrth the horrors he encounters during the investigation, suffers a nervous breakdown, culminating in an overdose of harhiturates and self-castration. At least I think that's what happened; the description, thankfully, wasn't terribly clear.
The novel could work as an intense portrayal of disintegration if it were much shorter, but Davrd Peace seems to mistakenly think that excessive repetition creates greater impact. The truly movrng words. because of their Simplicny. are those of the real-life man on whom the Culprit was based and who was executed for the murders. (Katie Gouldl
SOCIAL THRILLER DREDA SAY MITCHELL
Killer Tune (Hodder & StOughtonl 0..
Conspiracy. murder and mUSlC make an intoxicating combination. and Dreda Say Mitchell uses them to wonderful effect in this hugely enjoyable second effort.
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Re “th4 but: s." k. l?ll”¢’+ 41.45.
lollowuig on from the success of the award Winning Running Hot. Killer lune finds the east London horn author shining a torch on the changing faces of her hometown and its criminal underworld as we follow cocky rap sensation Lord Tribulation on the hunt to find the killer of his reggae legend father. unearthing two generations of crime and complex relationships in the process
Vibrant descriptions of the English capital and its colourful characters fill the novel while Mitchell also peppers the plot wrth musical references. twrsts and turns and drariiatic cliffhangers. turning the work into a fascinating sOCIaI and cultural commentary. Whether you're completely melody mad or an urban sounds nowce. Killer Tune is an original and intelligently Crafted read that WI” have you gripped from start to finish. (Camilla Pial
Comics
WAR
JASON AARON & CAMERON STEWART
The Other Side (Vertigo/Titan) .0.
Traditionally. comics that deal in war have been of the GI Joe/Commando camp, revelling in the glory of battle and the herbics of the average man on the frontline. The Other Side. on the other hand. deals wrth the Vietnam War and the moral ambiguity associated with this COn'v.oluted conflict which draws ob. ious parallels With the current military catastrophe in lrag. Following a young GI and a young VC as they both head Out paths to war which have as many similarities as contrasts
14 THE LIS'I’ 16-23 Aug 2007
Marlo Phllllpc Gods Behaving Badly Aphrodite is a phone sex operator while Apollo peddles a ang as a TV psychic. Only their cleaner Alice can help save these fallen Greek gods. Jonathan Cape. Adrlan Hyland Diamond Dove Set in central Australia and featuring a half- Aboriginal investigator Emily Tempest, this is being dubbed “Alexander McCall Smith meets dreamtime.’ Ouercus. Della 80th The September of Shiraz A wealthy Jewish businessman has been arrested in 1979 Iran. accused of spying. His wife and children know life now will never be the same. Picador Paul Vlltos Welcome to the Working Week Aimed at fans of David Nicholls and The Office, this comedy introduces us to Martin Sergeant, a man who is hopeless in love and has been caught indulging in improper use of email at work. Orion. Mln Jln Lee Free Food for Millionaires A novel of class. race and cultural clash set against the backdrop of New York's Korean community. Hutchinson.
With Jason Aaron painting the Vietnamese soldiers With more dignity and Justification than the mentally unstable Americans. However, the 'war is hell‘ and 'we're all human on the inside' story has been told so many times. that it can't help but feel like a re-run. lts heart is in the right place. aiming to be Full
POLlTlCAL THPlccE:
WILLIAM GIBSON
Spook Country rVikingl ”O.
Two-thirds into William Gibson's latest novel, a most contemporary of thrillers, a character declares that, “sometimes the closer to a truth one gets, the more complicated things become'. By this stage in proceedings, that certainly strikes a chord. Gibson really is something of a master of intrigue and Spook Country is quite a piece of storytelling, the kind of thriller so involving that it generates a giddy paranoia in the reader.
Set in the spring of last year, our chief protagonist Hollis is the former band member of a cult British rock group, now a budding investigative journalist enlisted by the shady publication Node (a subsidiary of Pattern Recognition's Blue Ant) to investigate a nascent virtual art movement in LA. Tito is the member of a CIA-trained espionage family employed in data transfer via iPods to a mysterious old man in New York. Milgrim is a barbiturate junkie abducted for his ability to translate coded Russian text communications by the mysterious government agent Brown.
Layering mystery upon murky mystery through the very density of Gibson’s prose, every sentence imbued with a wealth of character and context, these absorbing plot strands are tenuously woven while the non- plussed reader is left feeling strangely secure that they will ultimately relate it not converge. Ultimately, Gibson delivers tight plotting with an economy of writing, an ear for credible dialogue and an imagination for the legitimate application of modern technologies in art and espionage. This gratifying, fiber-contemporary spy yarn can only further his reputation as cultural commentator par excellence. (Mark Edmundson)
Metal Jacket the comic book. but it just falls short by rolling out the standard anti-war cliches.
(Henry Northmore)
CRIME DRAMA DAVID LAPI-IAM Silverfish (Vertigo/Titan) .00.
Comics can be amazingly astute when it comes to capturing the teen experience. Charles Burns' sublime Black Hole (Surely one of the greatest comics of all time) and last year's Sloth by Gilbert Hernandez offered strange and distorted
tales of alienation. young love and the end of innocence. Here Davrd Lapham, creator of Stray Bullets. treads similar ground as murder. death and madness enter the lives of 16-year-old Mia and her younger srster Stacey.
As they investigate the past of their new stepmother, a prank call spirals Out of control and insanity visits their home in the small town of Seaside Heights. New Jersey. The black and white art brings a grainy realism to Lapham's world. The characters are fleshed out and
utterly believable. and the Villain's struggle With his inner rage and psychotic urges is handled With subtle style. A haunting and enticing marriage of narrative and imagery.
(Henry Northmore)
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