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passages, but the haunting DeLillo style is ever present and leaves its own idiosyncratic aftertaste when the final page is turned. Beginning and ending
with anonymous watchers viewing Douglas Gordon’s 24- Hour Psycho, DeLillo’s meditation on time, space and fractured souls moves into the desert home of Richard Elster, a military intelligence man being courted by a young documentary-maker keen to film an eclectic portrait of this shadowy figure. It’s not a bad place for DeLillo virgins to start but long-term fans will wind up less than sated. (Brian Donaldson)
HISTORICAL FICTION BEATRICE COLIN The Songwriter (John Murray) ●●●●●
SOCIAL ESSAY JONATHAN SAFRAN FOER Eating Animals (Hamish Hamilton) ●●●●●
Jonathan Safran Foer’s new book – a thoughtful and vigorously researched survey of US farming practices – may seem at odds with his previous works, but there are striking similarities. Like his lauded novels, Everything is Illuminated and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, he conveys strong emphasis on family bonds and Eating Animals too is centred around a protagonist eager to investigate a mystery of sorts.
In this case, the central character is the real-life Foer who, in the face of looming fatherhood, sets out to discover what it really means to eat animals in America today. That the author is now a dedicated vegetarian after years of indecision should give readers some indication of the book’s politics but Eating Animals doesn’t simply advocate the virtues of this lifestyle. It’s also a searching look into the cruelties dealt out to animals raised for slaughter, with details so lucid they are often literally stomach- churning.
Through his paradoxically entertaining prose, Foer is more comfortable
introducing us to the characters he meets on his journey – such as a vegetarian rancher and vegan slaughterhouse builder – than he is gushing out facts. And while the extensive section of notes helps to corroborate any factual claims he makes, the book straddles the awkward line between an academic work and a meditative, philosophical treatise, never quite deciding on either. These misgivings aside, Eating Animals is a riveting addition to Foer’s oeuvre, with a nuanced argument that carnivores needn’t be reluctant to approach. (Yasmin Sulaiman)
FANTASY THRILLER JOE HILL Horns (Victor Gollancz) ●●●●● Joe Hill certainly has an eye for a story pitch. Heart-Shaped Box, his full-length debut novel of 2007, features an ageing rock star who inadvertently purchases a poltergeist over the internet, leading to
some terrifying consequences. In this second work, Ignatius Perrish wakes up one hungover morning, devilish horns growing out of his temples and people telling him their dirty, dark secrets without his prompting. But what he really needs is to discover just who raped and murdered his girlfriend, a crime that he has taken the blame for. Hill reveals the killer’s identity early on, thrusting us back and forward in time to witness how the pieces in this puzzle fell into place.
Like his old man Stephen King, Hill can knock out a compulsive page-turner but this tale could surely have lost 50 pages without any
permanent damage done to his plot. Creepy and showy, Horns is still a novel to grab a hold of. (Brian Donaldson) EXISTENTIAL NOVELLA DON DELILLO Point Omega (Picador) ●●●●●
In a rare interview given to the British press, Don DeLillo claimed that his recent shorter fiction has nothing to do with him, that the books take him by the hand and suggest their length. Harsher critics point to the fact that in quantity alone, those four novellas in total still fall short of his 832-page epic Underworld, suggesting a dying of his muse. Point Omega certainly has its fair share of clunky
One of the more promising new writers in Scotland returns with a fourth novel which sets its sights far from her home country. In the same manner as Glasgow-based Beatrice Colin’s last book The Luminous Life of Lilly Aphrodite explored German society in the first third of the 20th century, so The Songwriter rolls over the Atlantic to America in the same time period: specifically, the first Red Scare of 1916 until the end of the decade. Against a backdrop of
jazz and prohibition, a cast of performers and glamorous aristos weave their way through these paranoid, war-stricken times. Colin, who once lived in New York herself, retraces the era with consummate period detail and beautifully flowing prose. The thicker accents found in her dialogue don’t entirely convince, but this is a minor detail alongside a story arc which presents unforced comparison with contemporary America, and which gently brings home the fact that even nations can repeat their mistakes. (David Pollock) SUPERHERO COMIC TONY S DANIEL & VARIOUS Batman: Battle for the Cowl (DC/Titan) ●●●●● VARIOUS Batman: Battle for the Cowl Companion (DC/Titan) ●●●●●
After the cataclysmic events in Grant Morrison’s Batman RIP, there’s a significant void to be filled in Gotham City, and while Nightwing, Robin, Huntress, Batgirl, Catwoman and their allies are trying to fend off the crimewave, it appears someone needs to step into Bruce Wayne’s shoes and assume the mantle of the Bat. An essential chapter in the ongoing mythology of the Batman, this, and Tony S Daniel on writing and pencilling duties, handles the action with considerable style as a new hero takes over the role of one of the genre’s most iconic characters. The accompanying
Companion fleshes out the story ever further as various writers and artists (including David
ALSO PUBLISHED
5 SCOTTISH BOOKS OUT SOON Gavin Bain California Schemin’ The crazy true story of how two Dundonians fooled the US music industry into believing they were a pair of rappers called Silibil N’ Brains. Simon & Schuster, 1 Apr. James Kelman If It Is Your Life A typically uncompromising collection of stories giving a voice to the dispossessed. Hamish Hamilton, 1 Apr.
Alan Warner The Stars in the Bright Sky The cast of his 1999 romp, The Sopranos, are back with Kay, Manda and co now in their 20s and ready to wreak further rampage across Europe and beyond. Jonathan Cape, 6 May.
Andrew O’Hagan The Life and Opinions of Maf the Dog and of His Friend Marilyn Monroe When Frank Sinatra gave Marilyn Monroe a dog called Maf in 1960, who could have known the dramas, both personal and political, that this pooch would witness in two tumultuous years? Faber, 20 May. Karen Campbell Shadowplay When Anna Cameron is promoted to Chief Inspector, it should be a turning point for her. But if she thought having a female boss would make things easier, she’d reckoned without the fearsome ‘JC’ Hamilton. Hodder & Stoughton, 27 May.
Hine, Chris Yost, Fabian Nicieza and Mark McKenna) show the events from other angles focusing on the likes of Commissioner Gordon, Man-Bat and Oracle. While not essential for understanding the main story, it adds even more depth to this complex and absorbing fictional world. (Henry Northmore) 4–18 Mar 2010 THE LIST 33