BOOKS | Reviews
MEMOIR AMY LIPTROT The Outrun (Canongate) ●●●●●
Jobless and not long out of rehab, Amy Liptrot found herself back at the family home on Orkney after spending much of her 20s in London. The Outrun tells the story of her recovery from alcoholism, and her relationship with both her city and island homes. Without descending into self-pity or exhibitionism, Liptrot writes frankly about addiction and the highs and lows of her
hedonistic London lifestyle. Fond memories of tipsy afternoons spent idling with friends in London Fields are juxtaposed with bleaker recollections of late-night solo booze runs and disintegrating relationships.
In Orkney, Liptrot comes to understand her addiction,
finding new thrills in sea swimming and the dancing lights of the aurora borealis. While Liptrot paints a vivid picture of island life, she wisely eschews the language of wilderness and retreat. Her crisp, often beautiful prose is refreshingly free of the romantic rapture and Boy’s Own derring-do that characterises some nature writing, with Orkney presented as a living, working island rather than an idyllic retreat.
Her Orkney experiences – tending the lambs on the stretch of coastland known as the Outrun; spending a summer monitoring corncrakes for the RSPB; tracing the journey of the flotsam and jetsam that washes up on the shore – fill a gap in her life and aid her recovery, but she remains attracted to the city. Indeed, some of Liptrot’s finest landscape writing is on London, an islander’s perspective giving her a particular sense of urban space. Insightful and wonderfully evocative, The Outrun is an outstanding debut, deftly blending memoir and nature writing. (Stewart Smith) Out now.
A N N A H K A N R A W S A S L © O T O H P
I
COMIC MEMOIR ISY SUTTIE The Actual One (Orion) ●●●●●
Reading a book by Isy Suttie is a whole lot similar to seeing her live or on the small screen. There’s nothing wildly original or controversial about the Matlock-born musical comic but it’s impossible not to be drawn into her whimsical spell. And so it is with The Actual One,
Suttie’s recollections of that bittersweet moment when you aren’t quite ready to grow up while all around you are taking on adult pursuits. Those inconsiderate types certainly wreck the buzz that seemed to carry Suttie through her 20s while a litany of poor choices, tough gigs and dating calamities cram the pages.
Dorothy Alexander’s great- grandmother’s father was killed in the Mauricewood coal pit fire in 1889, one of 63 men and boys who lost their lives in the tragedy, many of whose bodies could not be buried until the 1890. The novel recounts the disaster from the dual perspective of eight-year-old Martha, the daughter of miner Davie, and his wife Jess. The clever structure pays tribute to the oral tradition with the accounts told as monologues without dialogue, interspersed with factual information about the mine and the inquiry, powerfully contextualising their perspective.
Suttie rarely comes off too badly The tragedy is meticulously
(though merrily supping port at New Year while everyone else seems be contracting norovirus is a definite low point). But the unlikely star of this tale is Mrs Suttie, her dear mum, who chirpily goes around trying to sort out her little girl’s life, the peak of her endeavours coming when she works relentlessly on Isy’s internet dating profile. No good can come of that. And hilariously, it most certainly doesn’t. (Brian Donaldson) Out now. researched, creating a detailed picture of East Lothian life in the late 19th century. Jess bears witness to both her personal loss and the collective as new widows support each other in their grief. As bodies are brought to the surface we learn details of the men’s personalities, quirks and family life in a story that is as much a testament to human kindness as it is a powerful insight into the devastation of so much loss. (Rowena McIntosh) Out 18 Feb.
52 THE LIST 4 Feb–7 Apr 2016
HISTORICAL FICTION DOROTHY ALEXANDER The Mauricewood Devils (Freight) ●●●●● LITERARY FICTION YANN MARTEL The High Mountains of Portugal (Canongate) ●●●●●
Continuing his fascination with the relationship between humans and animals, Yann Martel has produced a triptych of stories spanning nearly a century, all centred on a small Portuguese mountain village. Presented as an allegory of creationism, each piece has its own protagonist, from the loveable Tomás on his 1904 road trip, to the doctor who makes an astonishing discovery during an unusual post-mortem. And then there’s Peter, the Canadian politician who, overcome with grief after his wife's death, buys a chimpanzee and moves to his ancestral Portuguese home. The seemingly disparate stories link fluidly as an old family secret is slowly revealed to Peter. The prose is sharp, comical, and carries a deeply poignant message: though religion may be one person’s belief structure and another’s laughing stock, it is important to humanity. In places though, Martel has sacrificed pace and plot with deep metaphors, which leaves the novel an intriguing mystery but one that fails to match the inventiveness of Life of Pi. (Kevin Scott) Out now.
CRIME CHRIS BROOKMYRE Black Widow (Little, Brown) ●●●●● There’s a certain sense about Scottish thriller writer Chris Brookmyre’s new book that weighty ‘Issues with a capital I’ are being explored, so heavily does it resonate with subject matter of its time. Briefly, the book follows the court case of Diana Jager, either a strong and confidently successful female surgeon or a scheming and possibly psychotic manipulator, who is accused of the murder of her husband. Jager has suffered too, though, by those who attacked her with misogynist abuse and threats following the hacking and outing of her blog about sexism in the medical world. Into the story steps Brookmyre’s most-used lead character, rumpled investigative reporter Jack Parlabane, and much of the book switches between his perspective and Jager’s. Brookmyre has an ex-journalist’s facility for picking away at the heart of a story and focusing on seemingly disparate clues and character traits which compellingly create a bigger picture. As ever, he’s created a solid, briskly paced thriller with a sense of confident contemporary relevance. (David Pollock) Out now.