www.list.co.uk/books MUSIC MEMOIR JAY-Z Decoded (Virgin) ●●●●●
Fans of one of the world’s biggest rap artists will no doubt be putting this glossy, hard- bound autobiography on their Christmas list, but the hardcore don’t seem to be the only audience Shawn Carter is targeting. Although illustrated with decades of US hip-hop iconography and bleak vistas of the Brooklyn Marcy Projects in which Carter grew up, the book is dense with words and real, well- expressed insight, both in his text recollections and annotated dissections of his own tracks. Explaining the roots of hip hop and its meaning to him as a New York street kid, Carter illuminates a world where he was forced to sell drugs as a child and had to learn to rap as the result of a ‘something-out-of- nothing, do-or-die situation’, and how choosing art over violence ultimately led him to summits with America’s first black president. Undoubtedly self-edifying, Decoded nevertheless puts heart, soul and a strong underdog narrative back at the heart of rap. (David Pollock)
COMIC ROBERT GREENBERGER & MARTIN PASKO The Essential Superman Encyclopaedia (Titan Books) ●●●●●
Perhaps the perfect last minute gift for the geek in your life, The Essential Superman Encyclopaedia is a massive cornucopia of Clark Kent facts. If you desperately want to know more about Mr Mxyzptlk or The Purple Pile-Driver you can’t go far wrong with Robert
ALSO PUBLISHED 5 NEW YEAR HEALTH BOOKS Susan Hepburn Hypnoquit Subtitled ‘How to Break Free of Any Addiction: For Ever’, this book from the psychotherapist to the stars (well, Lily Allen) is a book and CD package offering foolproof guidance to shake off your reliance on shopping, cigarettes, alcohol and sex. Though, if you’re hooked on all of those at the same time, there may be no hope. Piatkus. Daniel Amen Change Your Brain, Change Your Body This already clunkily- titled tome adds on the arguably superfluous subtitle ‘Use Your Brain to Get the Body You Have Always Wanted’. Great author name, though. Little, Brown. Paul McKenna I Can Make You Happy Really? Bantam. Jorge Cruise Fast Track to the Belly Fat Cure Great author name, number two, as we get warned off the foods that appear healthy but are in fact stacked to the gunnels with hidden sugar. The cads. Hay House. Allen Carr Lose Weight Now He may have been deceased for four years now, but the creator of the Easyway method to quit bad stuff is still able to train our minds towards a healthier lifestyle. Arcuturus.
obviously ploughed as much effort into historical fact-checking as she did her dance technique. Which can make for heavy reading at times, only partly countered by mini- biographies of key players such as Cecchetti, Nijinsky, Balanchine, de Valois and Fonteyn. While there’s no disputing Homans has produced a concise, valuable and
Greenberger and Martin Pasko’s meticulously researched guide to the Man of Steel, his world, villains, supporting characters and history. Just to give you an idea of the scale and sheer volume of info, the entry for Superman himself runs at a whopping 23 pages. A great companion
piece for Greenberger’s equally impressive The Essential Batman Encyclopaedia, it’s well written and nicely balanced between accessibility and nerd- fact overdrive. This will tell you pretty much everything you could ever want to know about the Man of Tomorrow, the only downside being it leaves you aching to read the comics it refers to. (Henry Northmore)
DANCE HISTORY JENNIFER HOMANS Apollo’s Angels (Granta) ●●●●●
This epic review of classical ballet’s occasionally glorious, often troubled past took Jennifer Homans ten years to research and write. From the artform’s infancy in the royal court of 16th century France, through its rise in Italy, Denmark and Russia, and eventual success in Britain and America, Homans sets each development against a backdrop of social and political change. A former dancer with
San Francisco Ballet, Homans writes about her subject from the inside out, and
REVIEWS Books
ART FICTION STEVE MARTIN An Object of Beauty (Weidenfeld & Nicolson) ●●●●●
In late November, a live interview with Steve Martin at New York’s 92nd Street Y was deemed to be so dull that the venue’s boss offered refunds to the entire audience. At one point during the conversation, the interviewer was handed a note asking her to spice things up a bit suggesting that she steer Martin away from talking about his love of art and onto his early, funny filmworks. These days, Steve Martin is a bona fide art connoisseur. The man with two brains has become a guy with one passion. Those who almost fell asleep during that Y event will probably be left
similarly aghast at An Object of Beauty, a trip through the boom and bust years in the 90s/00s US art world, siphoned through the character of its narrator (art critic Daniel Franks) and chief ‘object’, Lacey Yeager, whose ambition to climb the ladder requires starting from the very bottom; quite literally, in the shape of a Sotheby’s dungeon.
For a book whose synopsis yells ‘satire’, there’s scant humour at play. Lacey is prickly and confident, tossing off catty asides and recognising her soul in Willem de Kooning’s harsh ‘Woman 1’, a work roundly loathed by feminist critics. But ultimately, Lacey feels as abstract as the paintings which Martin deals in these days. John Updike makes a fleeting and pointless cameo. The whole thing is a drab mess, threatening to build towards something magical before ultimately fizzling out. And yes, before you say it, just like Steve Martin’s career in comedy. (Brian Donaldson)
colourful guide to the ballet of yesteryear, her treatment of present day dance is less impressive. Major figures are omitted, and her depressing decree that ‘ballet is dying’ feels unnecessarily negative. (Kelly Apter) CRIME DRAMA AD MILLER Snowdrops (Atlantic) ●●●●●
For his debut novel, it was pre-determined that AD Miller would write about Russia. As The Economist’s man in Moscow for three years, he must have walked a million steps in pursuit of dark stories in a land
which has them coming round every corner. Snowdrops initially suggests it might be a Mafia corpse-fest but turns out to be a subtle affair about a country where love, history, family and loyalty are interchangeable products.
An English lawyer gets mixed up with a crook called The Cossack and two young women unafraid to destroy the frail and innocent. The tale is told as a confessional back in Britain where Nick has returned full of remorse for his unwitting part in a grand deception. Miller often displays his credentials a little too thickly and the metaphors are horribly clunky at times, landing his tone somewhere between literary and hardboiled. But as the story weaves to a sad denouement, its frostbitten cruelty leaves you numb. (Brian Donaldson)
16 Dec 2010 – 6 Jan 2011 THE LIST 49