list.co.uk/books COMIC
DRAMA DANIEL CLOWES Mister Wonderful: A Love Story (Jonathan Cape) ●●●●●
Famed for titles like Ghost World and Art School Confidential (both adapted into films by director Terry Zwigoff), writer and artist Daniel Clowes’ real strength is the emotional realism he imbues his characters with. Mister Wonderful is a prime example, a gentle, meandering, almost-love story set over one night in Oakland.
Nothing quite goes to plan as Marshall waits nervously in a coffee shop for his blind date. He’s just about given up when Natalie arrives and their night twists and turns, taking as many ups as downs before blossoming into a relationship that might just be the start of something good.
Originally serialised in The New York Times Magazine and now
republished with 40 pages of new material, Clowes’ full colour art is crisp, clear and wonderfully emotive. Mister Wonderful doesn’t pretend to be the chocolate box world of Hollywood romcoms, but a truthful take on loneliness, expectations, self-doubt and the desire for love or at the very least, a connection. While Marshall has serious anger issues and Natalie is still a mess from her last relationship, their flaws lead to a bittersweet romance. (Henry Northmore)
ALSO PUBLISHED CRIME BOOKS
The former Norwegian minister of justice Anne Holt has been building up a reputation as a rising star of the crime fiction game, and in Fear Not (Corvus), the bodies are starting to pile metaphorically on top of one another in Bergen and Oslo. But can criminal psychologist Inger Johanne Vik make the connection? Probably. Someone who also knows a thing or two about the criminal fraternity is Stella Rimington, the former head of MI5. Now a bona fide thriller scribe, Rip Tide (Bloomsbury) is her sixth novel featuring Intelligence Officer Liz Carlyle, who this time investigates a well-off young UK Muslim who has ended up on a Somali pirate ship wielding a Kalashnikov.
Ryan David Jahn made some waves with his debut Acts of Violence, and new book The Dispatcher (Macmillan) has smalltown cop Ian Hunt taking a routine call only to hear the voice of his teenage daughter, who was snatched from her bed seven years earlier. A blood and bullet-strewn chase from Texas to California ensues as the net closes in on the abductors. In Keigo Higashino’s Japanese bestseller The Devotion of Suspect X (Little, Brown), a Tokyo shop worker and single mother answers the door to her ex-husband, who has tracked her down. Drastic action is required to get shot of him.
Scottish scribe Craig Russell delivers his latest 1950s Glasgow-set Lennox thriller with The Deep Dark Sleep (Quercus), in which bones are dredged up from the bottom of the Clyde. Could it be that they belong to the city’s most notorious armed robber, the massively inappropriately named ‘Gentleman’ Joe Strachan? (Brian Donaldson)
EVENTS Books
EVENTS Sunday 26
Events are listed by date, then city. Submit listings at least 16 days before publication to books@list.co.uk. Listings are compiled by Laura Ennor. ✽✽ Indicates Hitlist entry
Thursday 23
Glasgow ✽✽ FREE Scottish PEN Event Partick Library, 305 Dumbarton
Road, 276 1560. 6.30–7.30pm. An event run by the Scottish Writers’ Centre with Dorothy Grace Elder and Zoe Wicomb of the Writers in Prison Committee, which campaigns on behalf of persecuted and imprisoned writers around the world, including last year’s Nobel Peace Prize Winner, Liu Xiaobo. The event involves readings of work by Xiaobo and others, followed by a discussion. Part of the West End Festival. FREE Sinclair MacLeod: The Reluctant Detective Barmulloch Library, 46 Wallacewell Quadrant, 276 0875. 6.30–7.45pm. Sinclair MacLeod discusses his novel The Reluctant Detective, about an insurance investigator who is drawn into a world of fraud and deceit.
✽✽ FREE James Robertson William Patrick Library, 2–4 West
High Street, Kirkintilloch. 7pm. Robertson gives a talk on his new novel And the Land Lay Still. Edinburgh FREE Craig Sterling: Stealing Fire Blackwells, 53–59 South Bridge, 622 8222. 6.30pm. Launch of a 21st-century thriller from first time novelist Sterling. Stone Soup Maggie’s Chamber, Three Sisters, 139 Cowgate, 622 6801. 7.30pm. £6 (£5). Live music and poetry from Davesnewbike and friends.
Dundee ✽✽ FREE Beyond Tutti Frutti: In Conversation with John Byrne
University Of Dundee, Dalhousie Building Old Hawkhill, Balfour Street, 01382 223181. 5–6pm. The man himself talks to David Graham about his rich career as an artist, writer and painter.
Friday 24
Edinburgh Neu! Reekie! Scottish Book Trust, Sandeman House, Trunk’s Close, 55 High Street. 7–9.30pm. £5 (£4). A fusion of avant-garde poetry, music and film. Wordsmith Ryan van Winkle is performing with noisemakers Dan Seizure and Stevie Paterson under the banner of ‘The Naughty Boys’, and there’s also poetry from the Wordsworth Trust’s Poet in Residence Helen Mort, music from house band Emelle, plus offbeat animations and a ‘Raffle of the Absurd’. FREE The Guid Crack Club Waverley Bar, 1 St Mary’s Street, 557 1050. 7.30–10pm. Edinburgh’s popular storytelling club, where all are welcome as listeners or tellers.
Saturday 25 Edinburgh Nothing But . . . Poems about Film Scottish Poetry Library, 5 Crichton’s Close, Canongate, 557 2876. 11am–12.30pm. £5 (£3). Another of the SPL’s themed, informal poetry discussion groups: this time looking at poetry about going to the pictures. No experience required; all welcome. Mohan Rana and Bernard O’Donoghue Scottish Poetry Library, 5 Crichton’s Close, Canongate, 557 2876. 2pm. £5 (£3). It’s a busy day at the SPL as later on, forming part of a tour organised by the Poetry Translation Centre, Indian poet Mohan Rana and his translator Bernard O’Donoghue read from Rana’s work. Email reception@spl.org.uk to reserve a place.
Edinburgh FREE Spark! Creativity Showcase The Jazz Bar, 1 Chambers Street, 220 4298. 6pm. Open session for musicians, songwriters, poets, storytellers and performers of all stripes, all hosted by William Douglas. Shore Poets Wee Red Bar, Edinburgh College of Art, Lauriston Place, 229 1442. 7.45pm. £4 (£3). Short readings of new verse come from Jane McKie, Martin McIntyre and Russell Jones, while Blue Flint provide the musical interludes. There’s also a reading of the Mark Ogle Memorial Poem, by Ann Frater.
Tuesday 28 Glasgow The Magic Carpet Cabaret Tchai- Ovna House of Tea, 42 Otago Lane, 357 4524. 8pm. £2. A night of poetry, songs and stories, with open mic spots.
Edinburgh Dear Mr Harper National Library of Scotland, George IV Bridge, 623 3918. 6pm. £4. Robin Harper, one of Scotland’s most popular and best-known politicians, discusses his new book with BBC Radio Scotland’s Iain Anderson.
✽✽ FREE Launch Reading: These Islands, We Sing Scottish Poetry
Library, 5 Crichton’s Close, Canongate, 557 2876. 7–8.30pm. Launch of a new anthology of poems by writers who hail from or live on the Scottish islands, including literary lights like Sorley Maclean and Hugh Macdiarmid, alongside the lesser known but equally worthy of interest Jim Mainland, Aonghas MacNeacail, Meg Bateman, Alex Cluness and recent TS Eliot prize winner, Shetland-dwelling Jen Hadfield.
✽✽ FREE Inky Fingers Open Mic The Forest Café, 3 Bristo Place, 220
4538. 8–11pm. A fresh platform for people who love words. Email ahead (inkyfingersedinburgh@gmail.com) for a chance to perform, or just watch and admire. This month’s guest performers are the highly talented Jane McKie and Alan Bissett. See preview, page 46. Wednesday 29
Glasgow ✽✽ Clydebuilt Club Room, City Halls, Candleriggs, 353 8000. 7.30pm. £5.
It wouldn’t be a jazz festival without plenty of poetry. Twenty of Glasgow’s leading poets give first performances of new works commissioned to celebrate 25 years of the Glasgow Jazz Festival. Part of Glasgow International Jazz Festival. Word Play Tron Theatre, 63 Trongate, 552 4267. 8.30pm. £2. Open mic night with acoustic music, poetry and prose. Hosts The Word Factory are also performing together as a group.
Blackwells, 53–59 South Bridge, Edinburgh ✽✽ FREE Robert Crawford 622 8222. 6.30pm. Biographer, poet and academic Crawford introduces his latest book, entitled The Beginning of the End of the World: St Andrews, Scandal and the Birth of Photography, which explores the rather surprising fact that St Andrews was the first town to be thoroughly documented in photographs.
Saturday 2
Glasgow ✽✽ FREE Quite Frankly, it’s Frank Quitely! Plan B Books, 5 Osborne Street. 2–4pm. Comic book artist Frank Quitely appears for signings, questions and answers. Tommy Smith reads Beasts of Scotland Club Room, City Halls, Candleriggs, 353 8000. 3pm. £6. During Edwin Morgan's life, he collaborated with SNJO leader Tommy Smith on some memorable work; now hear the master sax player, bandleader and educator read
23 Jun–21 Jul 2011 THE LIST 45