list.co.uk/books
SHORT STORIES JACKIE KAY Reality, Reality (Picador) ●●●●●
In the wake of 2010’s fantastic memoir Red Dust Road and last year's poetry collection Fiere, this short story outing has some beautiful moments in it. Jackie Kay's trademark compassion for her characters is intact even if the quality of work is patchy. The finest writing occurs when Kay plays things with a straight bat. The outstanding story is ‘Grace and Rose’, a simple recounting of a middle- aged lesbian couple’s relationship. Dealing with similar themes in an equally assured way is ‘Bread Bin’, in which a 49-year-old woman recounts her sexual experiences to her elderly
mother. Elsewhere, the focus shifts from romantic love to friendship, and both ‘Owl’ and ‘The Last of the Smokers’ are beautiful reminders about lives lived together. But there are other less effective stories, either overly familiar scenarios or slightly clunky attempts at experimentalism. When Kay is at her best, her writing is uplifting, but that doesn’t happen often enough here. (Doug Johnstone)
Books REVIEWS
DOMESTIC DRAMA MARK HADDON The Red House (Jonathan Cape) ●●●●● Prolific author of children’s books and part-time writer of novels for adults, Mark Haddon’s latest is his most mature work to date. It’s mature in terms of both content and style, and reading The Red House there’s a sense that this ‘growing up’ is quite purposely Haddon’s intention.
In fact, it takes most of the opening 30-page section to get used to the impressionistic imagery, poetic language and stream-of-consciousness narrative that jumps from one narrator to another between pages and paragraphs. However, once you’re into Haddon’s groove, the storytelling really starts to dance off the page and The Red House becomes an effortlessly engrossing and richly rewarding read.
The subject matter itself – dysfunctional family in a
domestic environment – is familiar enough, but Haddon’s treatment of the variously unstable relationships between estranged brother and sister Richard and Angela and their families (who are attempting to holiday together in the titular Edwardian pile in Wales following the death of their mother) feels fresh and rings true. Haddon also makes a determined effort to focus on the everyday and commonplace minutiae of family life in the early 21st century, and in doing so he pulls off the tricky task of making the mundane interesting. There’s a quasi-supernatural element to the story in the haunting presence of Angela’s first, stillborn daughter, but Haddon keeps even that peripheral to her related psychological trauma. Ultimately, it’s the troubled psyches ensconced in the house that concern Haddon. His third book for oldies is all the better for it. (Miles Fielder)
NATURE ESSAYS KATHLEEN JAMIE Sightlines (Sort Of Books) ●●●●●
Kathleen Jamie’s collection of essays has the potential to be a remarkable study of nature and human existence within it. Unfortunately, it isn’t until two thirds of the way into Sightlines that Jamie emerges as an engaging storyteller. Writing on cave paintings, the whaling industry, the plight of migratory birds and of animals hunted to near- extinction, her passion and outrage are compelling. Without hyperbole – frankly, there’s no need for
any – she recounts the violence of hunting and writes tenderly on killer whales circling Rona and a haunting display of whale skeletons. Her style is languorous and, at times, reminiscent of Annie Proulx’s Bird Cloud, but Jamie lacks that writer’s discipline, crowding descriptions with figures of speech and detailing her feelings when a simple telling of the story would be more absorbing. The collection is uneven, often cluttered by her poeticising, but Jamie’s love of nature, so crucial to her observations, is evident in every piece. (Kate Gould)
COMIC NOVEL MICHAEL FRAYN Skios (Faber) ●●●●●
Awkward sexual encounters, mistaken identities and buffoonish caricatures of powerful men and women litter this engaging, occasionally bawdy comedy. To many, Frayn is better known for his plays – such as Noises Off and Copenhagen – than his novels, and Skios sparkles with a precise, theatrical timing that just about pulls off even the most grotesque and ridiculous jokes.
Dr Norman Wilfred is flying to an idyllic Greek island to deliver the annual lecture for a prominent cultural foundation. But at the airport, he switches existences with Oliver Fox, a playboy looking for a
BLACK COMEDY RUSSELL KANE The Humorist (Simon & Schuster) ●●●●●
Anyone familiar with Russell Kane’s stand-up won’t be surprised by his debut dip into literary fiction. The comedian might be a restless spirit on stage, but his number one priority is the weight and heft of his lyrical content. And so metaphor, simile and imagery are paramount, providing a winning line here and delicately carved sentence there. In terms of plot, though, The Humorist feels like an elongated short, the kind of surreal intellectual piece Woody Allen perfected in the 1970s. Benjamin White is a feared comedy critic who understands the essence of humour better than
new adventure. As in many classic farces, hapless Brits abroad take centre stage while charming locals and wealthy Americans provide a string of background jokes. But Frayn also cleverly pierces the self-importance of egotistical academics and their benefactors. Skios is entertaining and astute, though its chaotic ending may leave some readers a little unsatisfied. (Yasmin Sulaiman) anyone who has ever lived, but was born with the inability to smile or laugh. When he discovers a formula that might be able to literally ‘kill an audience’, will he use it for good or evil? While Kane shoots his bolt early with a gory opening, he entertainingly leads us through a winding tale that takes us from a corpse- filled Comedy Store to an African enclave and back. (Brian Donaldson)
26 Apr–24 May 2012 THE LIST 45