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inducing writing. (Doug Johnstone)
MUSIC TRIVIA JOHN HARRIS Hail! Hail! Rock’n’Roll (Sphere) ●●●●● John Harris is best known these days as a face on Newsnight Review and a Guardian columnist, but this knockabout trawl through the world of musical myths and legends owes more to his days as an NME and Select magazine hack. More fun than the author’s previous, rather po-faced books about New Labour and Britpop, this illustrated miscellany has everything from a history of the rock moustache to a guide to obscure metal genres and a lot more nonsense aside.
Harris treats the excesses and idiosyncrasies of rock’n’roll with the light- hearted derision they deserve, but there is also clearly love in his heart for the spectacular carnival that is modern music. It’s a little uneven (there’s way too much Beatles stuff, for instance) and doesn’t aspire to being much more than a chucklesome read while you sit on the toilet. Still, it’s an entertaining look at all the egotistical daftness. (Doug Johnstone)
SCI-FI COMIC RAY BRADBURY & TIM HAMILTON Fahrenheit 451 (HarperVoyager) ●●●●●
Inspired by the Nazi book burnings of the 1930s (451 degrees Fahrenheit is the temperature at which paper ignites), Ray Bradbury created a dark future where books are illegal for promoting critical thought and intellectualism, a world where firemen have
become state sanctioned book-burners searching houses and punishing transgressors. However, curiosity and a meeting with an ethereal teenage neighbour leads disillusioned fireman Montag to question a society that stamps down on independent thought. This comic isn’t the first adaptation of the story – François Truffaut directed a film version in 1966 which Frank Darabont is set to remake next year – and Tim Hamilton’s graphic novel brings Bradbury’s tale to vivid life with careful use of colour and shade to create a claustrophobic world that attempts to control its populace. Some of the dialogue feels slightly stilted in this new interpretation but Fahrenheit 451 still retains its powerful message about the value of literature. (Henry Northmore)
MYTH HANDBOOK KEVIN JACKSON Bite (Portobello) ●●●●●
The symbolic breadth and depth of the vampire has long been the cultural analyst’s wet nightmare. Blood- suckers have variously stood for capitalist tyranny, dictatorial communism, Freudian repression, drug addiction, social Darwinism and sexuality in all its forms. With such a rich field of reference to plunder it’s a shame, then, that Kevin Jackson has produced a quickfire if compulsive handbook rather than giving us something to really get our teeth into. Down the ages, there have been more iconic vampire figures than you could shake a blooded stake at, and Jackson features them all: Vlad the Impaler, the vampire bat, Nosferatu, Dracula,
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Blacula, Deafula (yes, Deafula) as well as the hunter heroes Buffy and Van Helsing. But any rhythm which gets going is stunted by a massive overuse of parenthesis (much of which is quite unnecessary) and some howling typos, giving the stark impression that this may have been rush- produced to catch the Hallowe’en market. (Brian Donaldson) 8–22 Oct 2009 THE LIST 37
COMEDY MEMOIR FRANKIE BOYLE My Shit Life So Far (HarperCollins) ●●●●●
Apparently, Glasgow’s cherished cheeky-man Francis Boyle showed a talent for ‘the offensive non-sequitur’ from a young age. At school, he was the nerdy, fantasy-novel reading smartarse making people laugh so hard they spat their drinks out. His autobiography, My Shit Life So Far, showcases that cruel and unusual comedy that’s become his trademark, and should probably be enjoyed far away from hot liquids. Dryly nostalgic anecdotes about the Mock the Week star’s Catholic
upbringing in Pollokshaws (which he lovingly describes as ‘a slap in the face to childhood’), writing comedy on ecstasy, and his stint working in a mental asylum are blended with syringe-sharp views on topics like global warming and homophobia. The taekwondo fan also pulls no punches when he gets stuck into Scottish culture’s low points. Scotland is obviously a place he holds dear, but sometimes Boyle likes to twist it into an affectionate head lock: ‘A recent survey revealed that one in ten Scots are on anti-depressants, which begs the question, what have the other nine got to be so happy about?’ As with his stand-up, Boyle cleverly keeps the emphasis on being funny, rather than likeable. It means that certain areas of his private life are fast- forwarded to make more room for the funny stuff (his partner and two kids, for example, seem to be magicked out of a hat). A failed marriage and drink and drug addictions are also glossed over in favour of dystopian rants, steering his writing away from self-indulgence or back-patting towards something altogether more bizarre, intelligent and abusively hilarious. (Claire Sawers)
NOIR THRILLER PATRICIA MELO Lost World (Bloomsbury) ●●●●● Casually brutal and utterly uncompromising, this Brazilian noir thriller is nerve-shreddingly compelling from start to grizzly finish. A sequel to The Killer, Patricia Melo’s 1995 novel, Lost World picks up the story of amoral ex-contract killer Maiquel who has been a fugitive from justice for ten years. Emerging from the shadows into his old hunting ground of Sao Bernardo, Maiquel goes
Melo’s prose is razor sharp and pared to the bone as we travel around the horrific netherworlds of Brazil then Bolivia, every page filled with desolate, wasted landscapes and desperate, damaged characters. Violence and treachery haunt Maiquel at every turn as he struggles to escape his past, and as he relentlessly catches up with his prey, Melo creates a truly fearsome climax refreshingly free from authorial moralising. Excellent, shudder- in search of his ex- girlfriend who ran off with a preacher, taking Maiquel’s young daughter with her.