www.list.co.uk/books MYSTERY DRAMA ROBERTO BOLANO The Skating Rink (Picador) ●●●●●
Chilean writer Roberto Bolaño’s seemingly boundless posthumous career continues to flex its muscles with this magnificent murder mystery. Centring upon the love and lust felt by three men for fallen Spanish figure skater Nuria, a triad of alternating male narrators – a civil servant whose longing drives him to embezzlement, an adroit small-time entrepreneur, and a poetic vagabond – swiftly skirts around the crime, weaving a narrative that draws in political corruption, personal longing and deep class divides.
This highly coloured text is wrought with voices of great urgency and yet penned with a delectable lightness of touch. Most impressively, this split- narrative work is gifted with such unity that it lends the impression that it has been cast by Bolaño with a single breath. A sense of the surreal punctuates its otherwise gritty pages, and an enigmatic central scene – a rink built inside the abandoned remains of a ruined palace – perfectly echoes the otherworldly skill of its accomplished author. (Rosalie Doubal)
SUPERNATURAL DRAMA JOHN AJVIDE LINDQVIST Harbour (Quercus) ●●●●●
Anyone looking for a fix of murky, unputdownable drama from Sweden after Stieg Larsson’s wildly successful Millennium Trilogy could do worse than to try John Ajvide Lindqvist. This is the Stockholm author whose debut novel,
urban vampire drama Let the Right One In, was recently adapted into a critically- acclaimed movie. Lindqvist’s latest work translated into English is Harbour, a story featuring his trademark blend of awkward outsiders and supernatural suspense. On Domarö, a remote island in the Stockholm archipelago, Anders and Cecilia are torn apart when their young daughter Maja disappears during a winter walk across the frozen sea. Anders returns years later, a lonely drunk, to discover that Domarö is stalked by some kind of omnipotent mystical force, emanating from the water itself. Powered by what feels like a mixture of awe and contempt for the deep blue, the pieces of a complex narrative spanning several generations snap together jigsaw-like, in a non-linear fashion that ensures this remains a solid page-turner to the last. (Malcolm Jack) SHORT STORIES DAVID SEDARIS Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk: A Wicked Bestiary (Little, Brown) ●●●●●
Anthropomorphism and popular culture have long been lusty bedfellows. Our tellies are crammed with salesmen masquerading as CGI meerkats, drumming gorillas, dancing cows and nodding dogs. For
REVIEWS Books
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5 UPCOMING MUSIC BOOKS Michael Heatley & Frank Hopkinson The Girl in the Song Subtitled ‘The Real Stories Behind 50 Classic Pop Songs’, this intriguing-looking title delves into the true tales of the women who inspired such tunes as ‘Sweet Caroline’, ‘Dear Prudence’ and ‘Layla.’ Portico, 1 Nov. James Kaplan Frank: The Making of a Legend The co- author of John McEnroe’s autobiog claims to be getting deeper under the skin of Sinatra than ever before, featuring the almighty revelation that Ole Blue Eyes never truly grew up. Sphere, 4 Nov.
Don McCullin A Day in the Life of the Beatles In 1968, the renowned war photographer returned from ‘nam to snap 20 rolls of film as the Fab Four went about their business over the course of a single day. This is the result. Jonathan Cape, 4 Nov. Jay Z Decoded An ‘intimate chronicle’ from the hip-hop king of his rise to fame through some lavish photos and a narrative organised around a detailed analysis of his lyrics. Virgin, 18 Nov.
Maureen Callahan Poker Face: The Rise and Rise of Lady Gaga To coincide with her UK dates in December, this is an illustrated biog of the meat-dress wearing pop provocateur. Hyperion, 16 Dec.
that decision and there they are, brazenly posturing on the cover. Probably not one to have unwrapped at a family Christmas unless you have a family that is open to seeing an animated tiger dressed as a high-heeled nurse or reading about ‘The Cock Ring of Quetzalcoatl’. (Brian Donaldson) 7–21 Oct 2010 THE LIST 37
ART BOOK ANTONY GORMLEY One and Other (Jonathan Cape) ●●●●●
For 100 days last year, 2400 chosen people plonked themselves atop the Fourth Plinth at Trafalgar Square and had an hour to express pretty much anything they wished. So, we had one person delivering a list of apologies for all the wrongs they’d committed, a similarly long list of rants, a Nazi-clad wheelchair-user drawing attention to Hitler’s genocide against the disabled, a pensioner doing some patchwork, a cyclist highlighting the issue of those on two wheels who have been killed on London’s roads and a fair share of semi-nudity and dancing. From the serious (a statement from Death Row) to the silly (a guy talking like a pirate), each ‘performer’ captured the imagination of the watching public, whether in person or online. For artist Antony Gormley, it seemed to be the culmination of a
career in public and living art which has featured the ‘Angel of the North’, ‘Margate Exodus’ and his recent ‘6 Times’ project in Edinburgh. ‘One and Other’ even reached The Archers as a trio of Ambridge residents made unsuccessful applications for their 60 minutes of fame. But was it art? As psychoanalyst Darian Leader maintains in one of the book’s five commissioned essays, if you have to ask the question then chances are that, yes, it was art. Reading the transcripts of the plinthers and looking at a selection of screen grabs and official photographs, there’s a real ‘had to be there’ feeling about this. Chances are those that indeed were present would be the ones to get most of out this bound memorial to a very public work of art. (Brian Donaldson)
London-based writer and playwright David Sedaris, however, the transplanting of beasts into human scenarios (dinner dates; press interviews; Secret Santas) serves to explore our mortal flaws. From power-crazed rabbits to death-fearing lab rats, his animalistic characterisations are provocative, poignant, and always accessible: it’s not hard to envisage these creatures (or situations), after all. While the impact is not
as dramatic as that of, say, Will Self’s zoological masterstroke Great Apes, this collection of short stories about journalistic parrots and alcoholic cats is imbued with Sedaris’ humdrum yet surreal humour. ‘What if jazz was squirrel slang for something
terrible, like anal intercourse?’ worries a young chipmunk in the title tale. It is funny, preposterous and sad: a furry metaphor for life passing us by. (Nicola Meighan) COMEDY MANUAL KRISTEN SCHAAL & RICH BLOMQUIST The Sexy Book of Sexy Sex (Hodder & Stoughton) ●●●●●
Having previously joked about doling out sexual favours in return for
positive reviews at the Fringe and playing a rubbish stalker in Flight of the Conchords, Kristen Schaal’s foray into literature with a book about doing the do was never going to be a humdrum affair. Written with her bloke and Daily Show writer Rich Blomquist, The Sexy Book of Sexy Sex is a lavishly produced bedside tome of comic- erotica with nine chapters featuring titles such as ‘The Dark Side of Sex’, ‘Cupid’s Toolbox’ and ‘The Gay Chapter’.
The pair had initially planned to write the book anonymously as Schaal hadn’t wanted readers to imagine her getting up to the sordid things detailed within, but market forces ultimately determined