Books REVIEWS
CRIME DRAMA JO NESBO Phantom (Harvill Secker) ●●●●● Like all great fictional detectives, Harry Hole is always one step ahead. Not only of us, the reader, but those around him. Which, when you’re trying to solve a crime, is a definite bonus. Less so when it comes to affairs of the heart, when allowing yourself to see things on the
same level as other human beings is fairly vital.
Nesbo’s flawed but brilliant hero has brushed against the
vulnerability of love on a few occasions, but nobody has come closer to him than Rakel Faulke. The undisputed love of his life, Faulke also brought Hole the possibility of (step) fatherhood via her young son, Oleg. Having been on the scene from the first Harry Hole novel,
The Redbreast, this make-shift ‘family’ has suffered the slings and arrows of Hole’s career more than most, including the odd life-threatening situation. Nesbo regularly dangles a happy ending for Harry and Rakel in front of us, but knows fine well that it’s Hole’s unremitting dedication to duty, not his ability to do the laundry, that keeps us hooked. So, it should come as no surprise that this, the seventh novel, delivers yet another kick in the teeth to the Harry- Rakel-Oleg relationship. And yet it still smarts. Phantom leaves us reeling, with a storyline and ending that hurts us almost as much as it does the protagonists. After a three-year stint in Hong Kong, Hole returns to the streets of Oslo to find them flooded with a new class A drug, and a murder closer to home than anything he’s experienced before. The twists and turns show Nesbo at his complicated, yet utterly accessible best, and Hole at his undeniably brilliant but self-destructive worst. (Kelly Apter)
SHORT STORIES JOHANNA SKIBSRUD This Will be Difficult to Explain and other stories (Heinemann) ●●●●●
Time is not on the short story’s side. There are no leisurely chapters in which to manufacture a slow build to a devastating denouement; no space to take us on a character’s full-length journey. To succeed, therefore, a short story has to do one of three things (or, if it’s really clever, all three): hit the reader with an unexpected reveal; leave us somehow changed; or wrap us in the warmth of beautifully crafted sentences. Johanna Skibsrud does all of these things, but only once or twice. And over a collection of nine
SOCIAL COMEDY JOHN O’FARRELL The Man Who Forgot His Wife (Doubleday) ●●●●●
What would we make of our partners if our memories were wiped and we spied them anew? This question loiters, doe-eyed, at the heart of John O’Farrell’s retrograde amnesia rom-com, The Man Who Forgot His Wife. It’s a light-hearted modern-day parable whose principle, familiar touchstones are bricks and mortar, gender stereotypes, family units (and the breakdown thereof) and social media existentialism (and the clichés therein: ‘I Facebook therefore I am’). The novel’s central characters are rounded and
likeable, but over-conventional: there’s the amnesiac husband who took his comfortable life for granted; the once-wild girlfriend who became his world-weary (and near ex) wife; the impeccable offspring; the wisecracking best mate. The book’s second-chance scenario is mildly diverting but its observations,
witticisms and matrimonial platitudes have decidedly mixed results. (Nicola Meighan)
stories, that just isn’t enough. The surprise ending of ‘Clarence’ keeps you hooked; the realisation of an American ex-pat in Paris that life is essentially the same no matter where you live is touching; and occasionally, Skibsrud hits us with a killer line. But you dive into most of these stories and re-emerge with none of the water clinging to you. It’s almost as if you’ve never been there at all. (Kelly Apter)
SUBURBAN DRAMA JOHN LANCHESTER Capital (Faber) ●●●●●
Pepys Road is the setting for a slowly unfurling whodunit, where residents of the posh London suburb must work out who is harassing them. It begins with an innocuous postcard, stating, ‘We Want What You Have’. Things get progressively more twisted as footage of the neighbours arrives via unmarked DVDs. The author’s CV – football reporter, restaurant critic, financial commentator, dad, and husband amongst other things – clearly supplies plenty of inspiration. We meet bitter mum Arabella, locked
US SATIRE TOM PERROTTA The Leftovers (Fourth Estate) ●●●●●
Tom Perrotta’s measured new novel proves that even with the most fantastical story, you don’t have to be flashy to hit your nail right on its head. The Leftovers is about a half-cocked Rapture in which believers and atheists alike have been whizzed out of thin air. The novel relates the stories of those left behind and how people cope very differently when faced with inexplicably huge trauma.
Focusing on the Garvey family, who have remained intact physically but psychologically are torn apart, we meet Kevin, the father and local
into a game of ‘competitive tiredness’ with her banker husband. A traffic warden, Muslim shopkeeper and Polish builder add to the ensemble cast.
But as well observed as these city dwellers are, and Lanchester’s skills as an astute and sensitive nosey parker are in no question, the plot lacks momentum, and the near-600 pages feel like a string of poorly sewn together short stories. (Claire Sawers)
politician faced with the heavy burden of reassuring loved ones and voters; daughter Jill has shaved her hair while mourning the friend who was zapped right in front of her; and son Tom has joined a cult whose leader is embroiled in an almighty scandal. The waft of post-9/11 America is all over this book, but Perrotta’s humorous and subtle prose and incisive character-shaping helps him deftly explore the pain of severe loss. (Brian Donaldson)
46 THE LIST 1–29 Mar 2012