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CRIME DRAMA
ADRIAN MCKINTY
Fifty Grand (Serpent‘s Tail) eee
Seeking to avenge the death of a father she hardly knew, cop Mercado flees unrelentingly bleak Cuba for the celebrity-filled Colorado ski resort where he was killed in a hit-and-run, his demise covered up with a pay-off to the sheriff. With a luxurious facade maintained by the labour of impoverished illegal immigrants, the place is sordid in the extreme and how the celebrities fictionally placed there - Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise, Matthew Broderick - will feel about being associated with its drug dealers,
slave labour, bent cops and murderers, I’m not sure.
A female protagonist could have given a fresh angle to a crime novel, but attempting to create a tough-talking heroine, Adrian McKinty’s overdone it somewhat. Instead of a female character, she’s merely attempting to out- men the men, a parody of male cops of a similar ilk. Perhaps appearing more macho than her blokish contemporaries is a job requirement, but until the final chapter when McKinty gives her some poetic depth and expression, she might as well be any other affectedly tough-talking male
cop.
McKinty has some poetic moments: ‘we Cubans are the vagabond descendants of the Muslim kingdom of Granada,’ says Mercado at one point. It’s slick and well-paced, and the minimalist, punchy delivery is striking, but it’s over-stylised and trying too hard. Ultimately, what you get out of Fifty Grand depends on the reason you’re reading it. If you want a fast-paced cop tale with plot twists and suspense, then fine. If you’re after originality and a fresh take on the crime genre, it will likely disappoint.
(Kate Gould)
SOCIAL DRAMA CHIKA UNIGWE On Black Sisters’ Street
(Jonathan Cape)
0..
The depiction of modern prostitution is often one- dimensional. something this skilled new writer is seeking to address. Chika Unigwe is Nigerian-born but now lives in Belgium. the setting for this evocative and heartfelt novel. Four African women share a flat in Antwerp. all of them sex workers in the same establishment. having come to Europe through a mutual pimp.
When one of them goes inissmg. then turns up dead. it forces the others to re-evaluate their reasons and motivations for being there.
We have three Nigerians — highly educated but socially disconnected Sisi. single mum Efe and abused Ama — as well as Sudanese refugee Joyce. who all possess poignant and often painful back—stories leading up to their arrivals in a strange continent. This harrowmg subject matter is handled deftly by Unigwe. with lyrical inSight and splashes of dark humour. in a book that is both thought- provoking and eye- opening.
(Doug Johnstone)
CRIME STORY THOMAS PYNCHON Inherent Vice (Jonathan Cape) eeee
Less than half the length of his last lOOO-page tome and rifting on the relatively straightforward hardboiled crime genre as opposed to the exhausting literary mash-up of Against the Day. Thomas Pynchon's seventh novel is the reclusive author's most accessible to date. Essentially a detective tale set in southern California at the butt end of the 605, it features a hippie Pl named Doc Sportello who emerges from a marijuana high to investigate the disappearance of a millionaire property magnate.
The similarities to the Coen brothers' stoner noir The Big Lebowski are inescapable. but we're nevertheless firmly in Pynchon territory. A number of characters from the northern California-set Vine/and pop up here and there. but what makes this hilarious wise-ass yarn so Pynchon-esque is the preoccupation with c0unter-pop-culture, corporate imperialism and conspiracy theories. And it's so effortlessly evocative of its psychedelic milieu, it puts paid to the notion that if one remembers the 608 one wasn't there. Pynchon clearly was. (Miles Fielder)
METAPHORICAL TALE CHLOE ARIDJIS Book of Clouds (Chatto & Windus) CO.
The Scottish climate comes in for a fair bit of stick but it Book of Clouds is to be believed, there's more to dreichness than we think. Chloe Aridjis' Berlin is awash with the wet stuff. from torrential
downpours to misty masses. Tatiana is a young Mexican woman working in the German capital (like Aridjis) transcribing treatises by a German intellectual on the psycho-geography of contemporary Berlin. Her role develops beyond that of mere
i cipher for Aridjis' . theories when
mythological aspects (ghostly footsteps. a sighting of the aged Hitler, a timely fog white- out) creep into the tale and clouds become part of an extended metaphor about Berlin's historical legacy.
3 Weaving a tale in the
tradition of magical realism. Aridjis steers away from clunky didacticism and all-out
? supernatural fun, which
leaves her without a
. solid ground for conclusions. While the
novel is engaging and charming the result is ultimately as insubstantial as Scotch Mist. (Suzanne Black)
COMICS/COMEDY VARIO
Wasted No. 2 (Bad Press) eee
More Scottish comic
: action this fortnight with . the second issue of
Wasted. Much like its predecessor Northern Lightz. it's a cheeky selection of comedy
; shorts from names such as Alan Grant. John
Wagner, Jamie Grant,
Alan Kerr, Curt Sibling.
Dave Alexander and
many more. Expect
stoner comedy.
ALSO PUBLISHED
5 TRAVEL PAPERBACKS Bruce Parry Amazon Written in diary form, this ties in with his six-part telly series from last year. Penguin.
Fleur Britten On the Couch This details the activities of a website which has people offering free accommodation and explores those that give and those that take in this oddly generous segment of the world. Collins. Keven Wheeler Tout Sweet A single thirtysomething lass gets out of here and heads for rural France to take on a run-down house all on her own. Sounds like a Channel 4 show in the making. Summersda/e.
11m MW All at Sea The poshly innovative Fringe comic is on a mission: to paddle across the English Channel. And by golly he does it. Preface.
New Port Sweet Honey, Bitter Lemons After Eating Up Italy. the food critic turns his lavish attentions towards Sicily in search of culinary delights and a bit of history. His Vespa goes too, of course. Ebury Press.
scatological humour and buxom babes with highlights including the vaguely blasphemous ‘Tales of the Buddha'. the bleak superheroics of ‘Black Cape’ and the over-the-top 'War on Drugs’.
The gags are hit and miss but the hit ratio happily wins out. The art matches the writing, varying in style and quality but overall is of a very high standard, and it all looks great printed in high grade full colour. Wasted never takes itself seriously and you shouldn't either. it’s very Scottish, very rude (definitely earning its ‘adult humour' tag) and a whole lot of fun. (Henry Northmore)
9-23 Jul 2009 TH. LIST 37