POST-WAR NOVEL JAMES KELMAN Kieron Smith, Boy (Hamish Hamilton) 000
James Kelman doesn’t have a reputation for writing easy-to-read books. Not necessarily a bad thing, since often the most rewarding fiction is the most demanding. Compared to his last two novels, Translated Accounts and You Have to be Careful in the Land of the Free, Kieron Smith, Boy is relatively coherent and straightforward, but still takes some getting used to. Written in stream-of-consciousness Glasgow dialect (echoing his infamous Booker winner How Late it Was, How Late), it tells of the titular 12-year-old growing up in post-war Glasgow. Smith’s family flits from the tenements to a housing scheme on the city’s outskirts, where he moves to a better school, seeking solace from these tumultuous events (and his parents’ squabbles) at his
grandparents’ house.
The novel doesn’t contain a plot, merely a string of consecutive events, something which ultimately becomes annoying. There is no conventional story arc, rather we get a snapshot of a time and place seen through adolescent eyes and imbued with all the emotions and confusion that entails. The triumph of this book is its voice. All too often, coming-of-age novels fail because the author cannot resist using their current, middle-aged voice to comment on the past. No such cop out for Kelman, who forcefully gets inside Smith’s head on page one and
resoluter stays there.
The novel addresses sectarianism, racism, sexism, bullying and, most obviously, the struggle between the classes, but always does so through the filter of Smith’s mind. As a character study it’s virtually flawless, as a novel it’s sometimes extremely frustrating. (Doug Johnstone)
HISTORICAL TALE ANDREW DRUMMOND Elephantina (Polygon) 000
L't'philllilllil a
Scottish author Andrew Drummond has a strong reputation for writing comedic historical novels, and while this third book covers similar
but the book rather runs out of steam towards the end. and his attempts to connect events with the political climate of the time (the Act of Union being signed) don't always come off.
(Doug Johnstone)
TEENAGER STORY
I TIM WINTON
Breath (Picador) 000
Tim Winton's first novel for seven years is ostensibly a coming of age story which follows Bruce Pike (‘Pikelet') from naive and wild adolescence into
emotionally maimed
territory, it seems thinner
on substance than his previous outings. Purporting to be the discovered journals of engraver Gilbert Orum. Elephant/ha tells of the death and dissection of an elephant in 1706 in, of all places. Dundee. If this sounds far-fetched. tough, because it actually happened. Drummond tells this unlikely story well through Orum's journal (with constant interjections from a sanctimonious 19th century ‘editor‘), as local physician Dr Blair sets about dismembering and cataloguing the beast. Drummond has a lot of fun with the effect this giant animal has on the citizens of Dundee.
r- a
adulthood. Most of the time. however, Breath reads like a hymn to the sea with its rough moods and awesome beauty. Pikelet, a small town boy. throws himself into surfing as ‘a rebellion against the monotony of drawing breath'. Accompanied by an appropriately named mate Loonie and a secretive ex-surf
’7
34 THE LIST 24 Apr—8 May 2008
champion called Sando.
they seek even greater thrills.
Twenty-foot walls of water and man-eating sharks exude an irresistible appeal. but these are not the only dangers for an immature
g adolescent: love, loss and the everyday slog of
survival all take their toll. The stOry of Pikelet's maturity frames the story of youthful excess. Perhaps inevitably, it can feel flat by comparison; the sea. as much as poor Pikelet, is the main character of this novel. (Hannah Adcock)
CRIME THRILLER BRENT GHELFI
Volk’s Game
(Faber) 00
This debut novel from former US Court of Appeals clerk Brent Ghelfi introduces us to Alexei Volkovoy. ‘Volk'
5 (‘wolf‘), a one-time
sniper for the Russian ‘ Army in Chechnya, is 3 now an unscrupulous
gangster commissioned to steal a long-lost Da Vinci painting from St Petersburg's Heritage Museum by his
? shadowy. psychotic
boss. ‘The General'. While sparer written and packed with incident, Ghelfi's debut is ultimately hamstrung by its failure to diverge from a rigid formula. The protagonist embodies every thriller cliche of the anti-hero who loves his old mum.
BRENT BHElFI ,. * ‘ ‘Q
For all his brutality we're meant to identify with Volk because of his scruples about child prostitution and sympathies for Russia's forgotten victims. particularly army veterans and the elderly. While the flinty narrative is delivered at breakneck speed. transporting us around an embarrassment of locations (Prague and New York feature alongside St Petersburg, Moscow and Chechnya). the endless empty scenes of graphic violence conceal a lack of original ideas.
(Allan Radcliffe)
WARTIME DRAMA STEV GALLOWAY
The Cellist of Sarajevo (Atlantic) 0”
‘It is a sad tune. But it doesn't make me sad,’ someone said of the cellist who played Albinoni's 'Adagio' for 22 days in remembrance of innocents killed while
standing in a queue for bread. This is a sad book, but it might not make you sad. The cellist. inspired by a real person. unknowingly becomes a focal point for Arrow. Dragan and Kenan, three unconnected lives fractured by the siege on Sarajevo. War and its unending misery are ably evoked, the more so for the book's repetition.
Though sometimes capable of capturing something bleakly beautiful, Steven Galloway often trowels the sentiment on too thick, and the beauty and futility of the cellist’s actions are drowned out by the circular musings of the three. Rhetorical questions. painful yearnings and memories of happier times abound. but when each page carries an emotional crescendo. the overall power of the piece is diminished.
(Peggy Hughes)
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