list.co.uk/books
CRIME NOVEL GEORGE PELECANOS The Cut (Orion) ●●●●●
George Pelecanos has taken his foot off the novel- writing pedal recently to work in television, most notably on The Wire, but it’s good to have back ‘perhaps the greatest living crime writer’, according to Stephen King. And he’s not wrong, because The Cut is a terrific piece of lean, tight, no-messing noir fiction, an extraordinarily clear and distilled piece of storytelling that manages to skilfully weave subtle social commentary into serious action. Spero Lucas is an Iraq veteran, an adopted
Greek-American who has returned to Washington DC with a set of killing skills and no purpose. He does detective work for a local attorney, but can’t resist taking on side work to retrieve missing marijuana packages for a major dealer. Naturally, things get very complicated in a plot that manages to combine sharpness with depth, snappy dialogue with real resonance, and a breakneck pace with genuinely moving characterisation. An exemplary and robust piece of work. (Doug Johnstone)
SOCIAL DRAMA AMY WALDMAN The Submission (Heinemann) ●●●●● Tackling the devastating emotional and political impact of 9/11 is no light undertaking but Amy Waldman grapples with it admirably in her debut The Submission. The novel centres around a panel charged with choosing the memorial to be built for those lost on that day. Of course, it’s not as straightforward as simply picking the winner, a myriad of issues are raised as a result of their decision – class and race proving particularly
explosive – as mourning families and power-hungry extremists and reporters with dubious morals clamber to have their voices heard on the contentious matter.
Waldman’s characters are complex and problematic, as she attempts to capture people at their most vulnerable and unpredictable amid the chaos. But it feels like the enormity of the backdrop to this story and its many offshoots overpowers the author’s rendering of her main protagonists and who we all remain at a distance from throughout tragedy and turmoil. It’s the only sticking point in an otherwise impressive first foray. (Camilla Pia)
Books REVIEWS
MATHS BIOGRAPHY ALEXANDER MASTERS The Genius in My Basement (Fourth Estate) ●●●●● Our bookshelves have groaned with populist tomes on maths over the past few years – from the likes of Fermat’s Last Theorem and The Music of the Primes – but it is well worth making room for The Genius in My Basement. Alexander Masters’ second volume is a biography of a mathematician, a maths
book about the biography business, and an affectionate, dynamic tale of ‘a happy man’ called Simon P Norton.
Norton was a mathematical prodigy of the 20th century who also happened to live in the basement of Masters’ Cambridge home. This afforded the author an intimate setting in which to observe (and hear, and smell) his subject. As with Masters’ hugely-acclaimed debut, Stuart: A Life Backwards, this is an inventive, compelling biography.
He explores and patches up Norton’s life story through mathematical problems and sketches, old photos and newspaper cuttings, hand-drawn maps of his habitat, questing narratives and family/acquaintance interviews of varying success and, best of all, through snatches of Norton- Masters dialogue and manuscript feedback.
There’s a sense of Calvino’s If on a Winter’s Night a Traveller
in Masters’ alternating chapters and salutation of the reader, but the general effect is versatile, and the author’s observations are stunning. He rails against clichés (of the tortured genius and the past-it prodigy), instead celebrating the life of a man who revels in the minutiae of bus timetables, packet rice, day trips, socks and carrier bags. It makes you wish that you knew Norton. And it makes you wish you could do maths. (Nicola Meighan)
ADVENTURE STORY MICHAEL ONDAATJE The Cat’s Table (Jonathan Cape) ●●●●●
‘Over the years, confusing fragments, lost corners of stories, have a clearer meaning when seen in a new light, a different place.’ From the decks and holds of the Oronsay, as seen by Michael and his two mischievous young friends, to the rockier shores of adulthood and the harsh understandings those intervening years bring, The Cat’s Table is a boy’s own adventure story, hymn to childhood and coming-of-age tale all rolled into one.
Bound for England from Ceylon in the 1950s, there are ‘constant palavars’ – magical dogs, floating gardens and cyclonic storms – as well as
the life lessons learned from strangers on board. Fictional, despite the colourings of memoir and autobiography, it’s a rich tale from a boy’s eye view. This is an exhilarating, colourful diorama of new doors opening into new worlds, tempered by wearied adult understanding but losing none of the wide-eyed joy of first friendships. (Peggy Hughes)
COMIC CRAIG COLLINS & IAIN LAURIE Roachwell (roachwell.blogspot.com) ●●●●●
Published online between 2009 and 2010, Roachwell is a fevered and messy collection of obtuse, amusing strips by Scottish writer/artists Craig Collins and Iain Laurie. Cremation and regeneration, house-hunting in the freak zone, modern day press ganging, the iniquities of being a Kate Bush fan and superhero delusion are just some of the various themes they agitate and cogitate upon. Like that of many of their peers, Collins and
Laurie’s comic book world is informed by a vibrant obsession with horror and cult movies, body dysmorphia, madness and perhaps a little coulrophobia (a morbid fear of clowns). It’s inane, dark and ugly in the way that only self-published comics can be, but it does run the gamut from laugh-out loud funny to quite disturbing to totally incomprehensible, which may just be an achievement in itself. See craig-collins.blogspot.com and powwkipsie.blogspot.com to see what these two are up to now. (Paul Dale) 25 Aug–22 Sep 2011 THE LIST 83