Liffeyside

One Boy Missing by Stephen Orr

2014-08-19T21:24:00.000+01:00

Guilderton, small town Australia. The kind of place where nothing happens and where the best thing about it is the road out. It’s about as far removed from the image of the sun drenched beaches of the Gold Coast as you can get. The town, dying from within, is only sustained by the tenacity of its residents and local farmers. In short a people who keep to themselves and regard strangers with jaundiced suspicion.

Into this world returns Detective Bart Moy, one time local who left to join the big city police force. Leaving the glamour and bright lights of the big city behind he’s back essentially to take care of his argumentative sickly father. The truth however is that Detective Moy is running from his own ghosts and hopes in Guilderton to find some peace from his demons. Demons which will pursue him as the novel progresses.

The novel opens with the local butcher reporting what seems to be a child abduction in a back lane behind his premises. He’s sketchy and not too sure about what he’s seen. Could it just have been a case of a boy playing truant and an angry over exasperated father? Possibly but nevertheless Detective Moy seems compelled to investigate.

As the story progresses a series of seemingly unconnected incidents a body discovered on a coastline miles away, a burned derelict building found to contain the corpse of an unknown woman are bound together. From working the case we discover that Moy isn’t exactly welcomed back with open arms. The locals are hardly in awe of their returned prodigal. He’s a stranger now, too long away to be one of them. Moy has big city ways and he regards the town with the haunting nostalgia of his youth.

But Moy is haunted by many things. The death of his child in an accident he himself was the cause of, the end of his marriage, a career that’s stalled and the health and well being of his father.

One of the strengths of the novel is the relationship between Moy and his antagonistic father George. Throughout there is a genuine feeling of fondness and affection between father and son. Yes they do rub each other up the wrong way. Yes there are words between them, sometimes the verbal exchanges are harsh. The dialogue between the two men is sharp, crisp and to the point, not one word is out of place. Without doubt this is one of the strengths of the novel. Overall there is a feeling that here are two men who both admire and respect each other. Both care how the others doing, both lookout for each other.

Sincerity is a strong point in the novel. When Detective Moy is confronting his demons the reader gets a genuine feeling of a man to overcome the horrors which torment him. Here is a character tortured night and day by what has been taken from him.

As the case continues the characters background is slowly drawn to the surface. We learn the back stories and as regards family history all is not as it seems.

One Boy Missing by Stephen Orr is a crisp sincere novel, which, in this part of the world, will serve as an excellent introduction, to a class writer.

Saltwater by Lane Ashfeldt

2013-03-05T21:34:00.003+00:00

Throughout "Saltwater", it is the sea which is the most constant. The sea characterises each story in this, Lane Ashfeldt’s first collection of short stories. The sea both causes and bears witness to our despairs and triumphs.

Ashfeldt’s stories take place in a variety of destinations. Haiti, Greece, England, and New Zealand are all settings where the sea both destroys and redeems mankind.

Set during the earthquake which hit Haiti in 2010 "Catching the Tap-tap to Cayes-de-Jacmel" tells the story of Lucien a young man trapped under the rubble of a collapsed cinema where he worked. A country boy he longs to return to the countryside and the familiarity of his home town.

"Dancing On Canvey" relates how a girl, who wants desperately to grow up, survives the flooding of her island home, in the Thames Estuary. First loves and their mysteries are swept away and nothing for her will ever be the same again.

The title story "Saltwater" concerns the a group of sailors who take their craft from Ireland to Cornwall to collect china clay for the Arklow Pottery. A seemingly innocent commercial journey but one which is set during WWII. As the sailors battle for survival the story also relates an outing the wife of the captain takes with her children, but even this simple trip is not without incident.

The main strength of this collection is the ability of the author, in a few deft sentences, to get into the mind of her characters. We empathise with them and find ourselves cheering them on as they battle through whatever life throws their way. Lane Ashfeldt is an author destined to have a bright and glorious future.

Pump Six by Paolo Bacigalupa

2013-01-12T21:09:00.000+00:00

"Pump Six" is the first collection of short stories by American science fiction writer Paolo Bacigalupi. Set in the near future on an Earth where the citizens are seemingly trying to come to terms with society around them.

In "Pocket Full of Dharma", Wang Jun a young homeless boy is chased through the streets of Chengdu city. Unbeknownst to him Wang carries the soul of the Dali Lama in a datacube.

"The Tamarisk Hunter", tells the story of Lolo, and his attempts to eek out a living in the now desert state of Utah. All Lolo wants is dignity for himself and his wife.

While in "Pop Squad" we learn of a world where immortality is declared compulsory. But what happens if people want something more than everlasting life?

Food shortages and genetic modified crops, wars for natural resources and environmental degradation, bioengineering gone horribly wrong, religious and political fanaticism, are just some of the problems Bacigalupi presents us with. His is not a vision of humanity grappling with the stars rather one of the individual struggling with the earth.

However there are positives to be taken from these dystopian tales. The refusal of the main characters to surrender to bigger forces and their willingness to fight against impossible odds. The ability of the individual to strike out and see that there’s more than just running with the herd.

Bacigalupi’s thought provoking tales cover fears and concerns many in the 21^st century will be more than familiar with.

The Moon and Sixpence by W. Somerset Maugham

2012-12-28T07:28:00.000+00:00

Charles Strickland is a well to do London stockbroker. He is apparently a happily married family man. Those who know him describe him as a dull, plain man, a hardworking stalwart of Edwardian England.

Inexplicably then he vanishes leaving telling his wife that he has gone to live in Paris. His wife stunned asks the narrator to find Strickland and tell him to return home. Rather reluctantly the narrator obliges.

What emerges in Paris is not a married man having one last fling with a paramour in a fine hotel but rather a burgeoning artist who has left the stifling conventions of London behind in order to pursue his innate calling.

As the novel progresses we learn that Strickland has risked all in pursuit of his art. He lives in dire poverty in Paris taking help from all who offer it. He travels to Marseilles where after an altercation he works his passage to Tahiti.

All of which sounds very virtuous and noble. Nothing could be further from the truth. As a character Strickland is totally dislikeable. He is arrogant, vein and irresponsible. His actions bring death and disaster upon those who love him most. He cares nothing for his wife and children and less for the concerns and worries of others.

Written by Somerset Maugham in 1919 and based loosely on the life of painter Paul Gauguin, "The Moon and Sixpence", can said to be both a meditation on genius and a damning critique of Edwardian society.

Just Kids by Patti Smith

2012-12-14T08:06:00.000+00:00

Patti Smith has written a memoir recalling her friendship with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. Touching and incredibly vivid Just Kids tells of their initial meeting as penny less artists in New York in the 1960’s. It relates their love affairs, both together and apart, their struggles to establish themselves and ultimately the successes they both achieve.

Throughout Smith makes no attempt to disguise the affection she held for Robert Mapplethorpe who at times would serve as Smith’s friend, lover, teacher and inspiration. The story of their life and times together is extremely touching and highly personal and I’d imagine it was an extremely difficult story for Patti Smith to recount.
Many will be fascinated by the time Patti and Robert spent in the Chelsea Hotel where as young artists they first encountered the good and the great as they paraded in style through the corridors or buried themselves behind their doors. Here Smith throws a less than glamorous light on the lives of the various artists she encounters. But she also relates the many touching moments and acts of generosity she experienced.

Great names of the artistic and rock n roll world stride through this memoir. Alan Ginsberg, William Burroughs, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Andy Warhol and of course Bob Dylan are just a few of the great ones the reader will meet. Looking back the late 1960’s seem to be a time of high ideals with a dark destructive underbelly. You had the scene in New York and the reaction against war in Vietnam. Smith captures the atmosphere of the time and the reaction to both.

Ultimately though it is the tragedy of Robert Mapplethorpe’s death from an AIDS related disease that is the reason for the memoir’s existence. Once the initial spark of friendship is ignited Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe vowed never to leave each other. Just Kids proves that up to Robert’s death and beyond, they never have.

Sidney Nolan. Ned Kelly Series at IMMA Dublin

2012-11-28T07:26:00.000+00:00

Australian artist Sidney Nolan painted his Ned Kelly Series of paintings between 1946 and 1947. The paintings numbering 27 in total depict the life and times of the infamous Irish Australian outlaw Ned Kelly. Accompanied by his fellow gang members Ned Kelly is portrayed wearing a black suit of armour and accompanying distinctive helmet.

On first regarding the paintings they may seem almost cartoonish. The colour of Kelly’s armour is in contrast to the vivid depictions of the wild Australian bush. Be warned however humour was the furthest thing from the painters mind. For Nolan the outlaw Ned Kelly stands for the rugged individual striking out against the establishment. Kelly is the warrior chief going into combat against the occupiers.

The paintings each of which is highly stylised, contain vivid colours which makes them the perfect prism from which to view the Australian outback. Up to this artists had struggle to depict their native countryside and had resorted to using formal European methods which in fact were considered inadequate.

In time Nolan’s rendering of Ned Kelly dressed in a suit of metal, complete with helmet would catapult him onto the world stage. The image of Ned Kelly outlaw battling the dark forces of imperial oppression would become part of Australian national consciousness.

Sidney Nolan, Ned Kelly Series runs in the Irish Museum of Modern Art until 27^th of January 2013.

Crime by Ferdinand Von Schirach

2012-11-11T17:12:00.001+00:00

"Jim Jarmusch once said he’d rather make a movie about a man walking his dog than about the Emperor of China. I feel the same way".

Crime is the first collection of short stories by German author Ferdinand Von Schirach. Being a defence lawer Schirach in each of his stories demonstrats that occasionally the law gets it wrong, the guily are not always punished and that it's not unusual for the innocent to bear the full weight of the law. The narrator in each of the stories is an un-named defence lawyer.

In the story "Fahner" a small town country doctor must endure decades long abuse from his over bearing wife. One evening he snaps and murders her in his allotment. He phones the police informing them of his crime, then calmly awaits their arrival.

"Self Defence" relates the murder in a Hamburg train station of two drunken neo-nazi's by a balding, non descript, middleaged man dressed in grey. When questioned the man is reluctant even to mention his name. After he has been released it emerges he may, or may not be an international hit man.

While "The Ethiopian" deals with the case of Michalka, an orphan and juvenile delinquent who in his later life finds happiness and a family in the Ethiopian countryside.

Each story in the collection is based on an actual case, with the background detailed without being boring or bogged down in legal jargon. It is to its credit that for a book which operates in courtrooms there is a distinct lack of legalese. Crime is th first collection of short stories by Ferdinand Von Schirach. Along with it compaion volume Guilt it is scheduled to be adapted soon for film.

The Grass Arena by John Healy

2012-09-21T08:19:00.000+01:00

John Healy’s autobiography begins with a description of his father, a violent Irish emigrant in London punching the then six year old author in the face for having the audacity to ask did he have a dog licence.

Such an arresting opening sets the tone for the rest of Healy’s book which from the outset bristles with violence and unexpected moments of tenderness and beauty. Healy graphically describes the brutality he endured at the hands of his father which only for the interventions on behalf of his mother stopped his father from carrying the beatings further.

As the narrative progresses the author is subjected to violence from older boys who regard him as being Irish. Ironically when he travels to Ireland he is called a “black and tan” on account of his English accent. He suffers from tension which causes him to walk with a stoop later he will learn that the only way to relieve this tension is to drink and it is here that his main troubles start. Drink and subsequent alcoholism will lead to Healy’dismissal from the army, his homelessness, subsequent brushes with the law and incarceration.

One of the strong points of this autobiography is the strong narrative voice. Healy tells a warts and all story of his life on the streets, the characters he encounters and the casual and routine violence he endures. In total he would spend fifteen years as a homeless alcoholic.

His life on the streets is related in a series of vignettes which are neither maudlin nor sentimental but rather get straight to the point. Stories run into each other and you get the sense of days running into months then years, punctuated only by short prison terms. Here the prose is short clear and as sharp as as a knife blade.

"So the days merge together more and more, each one like the other. You wake, rise, look for drink, fall asleep again, staring into darkness, seeing nothing, feeling nothing, hearing nothing. Time passes nonetheless."

In just a few sentences Healy can bring characters from the street to life. Mad Gerry, Dipper, Long John, Taffy and Ginger are some of the individuals Healy quite vividly and with ease brings out onto the page. Each one has his or her own personality, there are no stereotypes here only vivid descriptions of people the author knew only too well.

A grain on humour runs throughout the narrative, but it is humour of the darkest variety. Casual violence and death are commonplace and both are treated with a manner that is matter of fact but in no way blasé.

Redemption of a sort comes when Healy, while in prison, is introduced to the game of chess by fellow inmate Harry "The Fox". Immediately he becomes addicted and vows to quite the drink and concentrate on chess. Of the game of chess Healy calls it a jealous lover alongside which nothing can possibly prosper.

True to his word John Healy quit alcohol and instead turned his focus on the chess board. In a characteristic clear headed style he relates playing against grand masters, playing tournaments, playing matches blindfolded and multiple matches played simultaneously. At one point he is invited to peoples houses to play chess where he says he’s given, "served in patterned cups, by wives in lovely dresses and sensible, low-heeled shoes". All a far cry from the outdoor drinking schools of inner city London.

In The Grass Arena Healy introduces the reader to a world many of us will have absolutely no knowledge of and will go to incredible lengths to avoid. John Healy doesn’t want sympathy instead he chronicles the life he has lead, the people he has encountered and his eventual escape from the street.

Olvidon and Other Stories by F. Sionil Jose

2012-09-06T09:21:00.000+01:00

First an introduction to the writer, whom I guess not many will be familiar with. Born in 1924 F. Sionil Jose is the grand old man of Filipino literature. He is still active with a steady stream of novels and a host of regular newspaper columns. He is perhaps best known for his five novel Rosales saga which covered a hundred years of Philippine history from 1872 to the introduction of Martial Law in the country in 1972.

Indeed the introduction of Martial Law and its effect on the general population is a constant feature in Olvidon and Other Stories. The title story "Olvidon" focuses on Dr. Puro, a doctor with a lucrative medical practice in Boston. Puro is asked by The Leader (obviously Ferdinand Marcos) to return to the country and treat him for a skin disease which has left the normally virile leader a nervous wreck. It is an open secret that Puro has no love for his country, and regards his countrymen with scorn and derision. In order to entice him to stay The Leader provides him with the most up to date medical equipment, a plush residence and a whole host of beautiful women.

The good doctor agrees to remain in the country of his birth and to discover a cure for the ailing president. He soon discovers however that The Leader is suffering from an unknown disease which he names white dermatitis. It soon becomes apparent however that most of The Leader's cabinet, his wife and generals are also succumbing to the disease. It's a clever metaphor for the corruption which is eating away at the elite while the country goes down the tubes.

Time and again the theme of a lack of empathy on behalf of the elites be they, political, economic or cultural occurs again and again. In "Imagination" an aging university professor enters a massage parlour where he meets one of his students working there. As she explains through her embarrassment she needs the money in order to complete the course. Otherwise........

While in "Friendship", Minister Arcadio Guzman, a man who considers himself of some importance but who is little more than a lapdog for the president ignores and treats with contempt a plea for help fro a former associate who has fallen foul of the regime.

"Wounds" presents us with a tale of a young Japanese women, a daughter of a Japanese associate of a Filipino businessman. She has decided to travel for a week to The Philippines in order to experience the country and in particular see the massive banana plantations which cover the provinces. Well she achieves her wish but in the process observes all the social wounds of the country in close proximity.

No one is free from Sionil Jose scorn, "The Mistress" features an established artist now in his sixties who encounters one of the women he has leeched off and treated contemptuously in the past. The woman in question can barely afford dinner and quite rightly treats with derision his request that she give him her compassion.

If the reader is looking for a reflection of life in The Philippines they could no better than to pick up a copy of F. Sionil Jose collection. First published in 1988 "Olvidon and Other Stories" countinues to enthral, enrage and educate in equal measure.

Corto Maltese. The Ballad of The Salt Sea by Hugo Pratt

2012-08-22T08:39:00.000+01:00

The Ballad of the Salt Sea marks the most recent publication in English of the first volume in the adventures of Corto Maltese. This production has received much criticism over the internet with many readers stating that the cutting, pasting and truncating of the original panels have lessened somewhat the focus and rhythm of the original story.

The novel begins in the South Seas in November 1913. A catamaran belonging to the pirate captain Rasputin encounters two teenagers whose boat was wrecked in a recent storm. Rasputin questions the two teenagers and learns that they are cousins Cain and Pandora Groovsnore. Their family are wealthy shipping magnets with contacts scattered throughout the globe. Rasputin hatches a plan to hold the children for ransom.

It is at this stage that Corto Maltese makes his appearance and it is the most unromantic and unconventional of entrances. Like the Grosvenors he is adrift at sea, however here the similarity ends as his pirate crew has mutinied and have cast him into the ocean strapped to some debris.

Rasputin plucks Corto Maltese out of the ocean and confides his plans for the Groovsnore children with him. There is however one slight problem both pirate captains work for the mysterious Monk, a pirate king whose headquarters is the island of Escondida.

Here intrigue and mystery, romance and heroism all ofwhich are to be the hallmarks of future Corto Maltese story take hold. The Monk is working with the then German Imperial Navy to supply them with coal to fuel their fleet in the South Seas. Ships are stopped and their cargos plundered. War is expected to break out at any moment and the Kaisers forces want to be on the ready.

One of the strengths of The Ballad of the Salt Sea is character development. Corto goes from being a peripheral figure to emerge as the enigmatic romantic loner the reader of later works would become familiar with. Rasputin is revealed to be a heartless killer unable to understand why he travels friendless through the world while the Groovsnores change from precocious teenagers to alert and appreciative young adults.

Pratt also focus’s in on characters who up to this would not normally have featured strongly in literature. One of the main characters is Tarao a young Maori, who in many ways is the hero of the story. Another is Cranio a native of the South Sea Islands who act as the Monk’s right hand man.

Fans of Hugo Pratt were disappointed in this edition of The Ballad of the Salt Sea and complaints about panel layout only served to lead to further gripes about the quality of the pictures and the fact that said pictures were rendered in colour rather than their original black and white. As an aside this edition of The Ballad of the Salt Sea is based on an earlier Italian edition of the novel and changes to panel layout etc received the official endorsement of Hugo Pratt.

Readers should remember that The Ballad of the Salt Sea is the first in the Corto Maltese series of novels. The distinctive style Pratt used to retell the adventurers stories had yet to be developed and would later reach its zenith with Fables of Venice and The Golden House of Samarkand. People should bear this in mind if at times the artwork seems a bit rough and ready.

Publishers Universal have stated that they’ve learned from their mistakes and should their future plans materialise to publish further novels in the series they won’t be so rash as to make wholesale changes. I have to admit that The Ballad of the Salt Sea isn’t perfect, it took me two reading to get it, and hopefully future reprints of the story will be better served. A definite recommendation but one which comes with some caveats.

I'll end this review on a positive note. On page 94 Pratt has a nice visual reference to his home town. Those who are obervant should have no probelms in guessing which is Pratt's native city.

Italian Noir: The Story of Italian Crime Fiction

2012-08-02T08:00:00.000+01:00

Like its Irish counterpart Italian crime fiction is currently undergoing some long overdue critical and commercial success. Starting with Andrea Camilleri creator of the Inspector Montalbano series of novels, Italian Noir: The Story of Italian Crime Fiction, charts the history of Italian crime and it’s recent rise to fame.

Carlo Emilio Gadda’s novel "That Awful Mess on the Via Merulana" is cited as being the genesis of the Italian thriller. First published in 1957 Gadda’s novel uses a series of murders in Rome to serve as a critique of the fascist government of Benito Mussolini.

Other novelists featuring in the film are Leonardo Sciascia, author of "The Owl" and "The Moro Affair", and Massimo Carlotto, author of the "The Fugutive", whose own life story makes for fascinating reading.

Relatively unknown, in English speaking countries Giancarlo de Cataldo and Barbara Baraldi are also featured. Being a judge de Cataldo reveals he had access to places, people and files which were strictly off limits to other writers.

Finally we are introduced to Carlo Lucarelli whose novel "Almost Blue" was a best seller in Italy and beyond. As well as being a writer Lucarelli presents his owncrime investigative programme on Italian tv.

If Italian crime fiction has a common theme it is that by the end of the novel things are not so clear cut. A certain ambiguity remains and crimes are often not solved, or, if they are, as many questions as answers remain.

First broadcast in 2010 Italian Noir: The Story of Italian Crime Fiction will serve as an excellent introduction to Italy its crime writers and recent history of political and social problems. Ciao bella.

Besieged by Barbara Demick

2012-07-04T23:05:00.000+01:00

In 1993 Barbara Demick was assigned by her newspaper the Philadephia Inquirer to Berlin in order to cover the reshaping of Eastern Europe's post-Cold War economy. Insead for the duration of her posting she wrote more about the war in Bosnia than the region's economic plight.

Demick arrived in Sarajevo, Bosnia's capital in Janaury 1994. By this stage the city had been under siege since April 1992, a state of affairs which was to last until the ending of the war in November 1995. Ms. Demick finds her accommodation consisting of the city's Holiday Inn, a mustard coloured hotel which, being less than a mile away form the front line, made it in no way immune from attack.

Faced with the immense task of thrying to capture the scale of the human suffering endured by the residents of Sarajevo Demick was advised by her editor to focus on one particular street and describe their lives of the people. She choose Logavina Street, which was situated adjacent to Bascarsija the old Turkish centre of Sarajevo.

By her own admission Ms. Demick was captivated by the street and soon became vividly involved with the struggles of the residents as they struggled to survive in the face of hunger, deprivation and the all threatening fear of death. In her own words Demick says of the street,

"Logavina Street is a six block long history lesson. To know Logavina is to know Sarajevo and to understand what this city once was, and what it has become. To know logavina is to witness the strength and ingenuity that ordinary people can muster in order to survive."

A month after her arrival sixty-eight people are killed when a mortar fired by the Serbs lands in a market where people had been queuing for food and water. The market had been less than a mile away from Logavina Street and for one of the residents, nineteen year old Delila Lacevic, the attact brought back nightmares of the death, in similar circumstances, of her parents.

The story of Delila Lacevic is one of the many related by Barbara Demick as she firmly becomes embedded with the people of Logavina Street. The street is unique in the Muslims, Catholics and Orthodox neighbours continue to live side by side and help each other during the duration of the siege.

Through Barbara Demick we learn of the indivuals the lives they had before the war and how the conflict has robbed them of their freedom. We learn of Milutin Durdevac, a Serb, who before the war was an executive. Now he has lost everything, along with hie wife he has chosen to remain in Sarajevo.

Then theere's Ekram Kaljana a Muslim, a former electrician, now a policeman, who rigs up illicit electric cables for his neighbours in order to lessen the burden of their lives. Or Desa Stanic a Serb, whose husband a Catholic was killed while fighting for the Bosnian army. Zijo and Jela Dzino, an elderly coule who live in a house on Logavina Street which has been in thier family for generations.

What Demnick does throughtout is convey the utter sense of helplessness, fear and anger which the people of Logavina Street feel toward both the Serbs attacking them and the UN with it's apparent lack of concern toward them.

Demick carries off a difficult balancing act, she empathises with the people of Logavia, tries to understand their anger and sympathises with them while at the same time remains remarkably professional throughout. She is non judgemental towards the people particularily those who choose to leave Sarajevo by fare means or foul. She is the perfect reporter, she does not convey her own prejudices but instead tells the story of the brave citizens of one street in Sarajevo during the siege.

First published in 1996, Besieged has been reissued to coincide with the twentith anniverary of the beginning of the conflict in Bosnia.

Portobello Notebook by Adrian Kenny

2012-06-16T10:18:00.000+01:00

"Seeing things ... hearing things ... trying to write things. That would be his life, as Harry’s life had been buying junk and trying to sell it on. There would be no change now."

After too long a silence Portobello Notebook, a collection of short stories, marks a welcome return to the written word by Dublin writer Adrian Kenny. Set for the most part in and around Portobello and it’s environs this collection, which spans thirty years, charts the narrator, who is based on the author, as he comes to terms with the life he’s leading and his own particular place in the world.

In order to understand his own standing the narrator must first interact with characters who in some way have missed out on life. They’ve lost sight of their dreams or else have watched as they vanished about them. Happiness eludes them and they flounder in a disaster which for the most part is of their own design.

At times these characters annoy the narrator. They invite him into their homes and after half an hour he can’t wait to get back to his wife. On other occasions he is jealous of their freedom, as they revel in their Bohemia he is tied down in quiet domestic bliss.

This is very much the case in the story "The Tea Cloth" where the narrator visits a neighbour, who is also an old lover. Her boyfriend has just left her and she lives alone. Working as a part time waitress she harbours ambitions to become a painter. Her work in horrendous and according to the narrator "She breathed out an air of failure, which bored him."

In "Harry" an old Jewish junk collector, who is an invalid and until recently lived alone, visits the author at home. Harry’s house was burgled, he was assaulted, and a number of valuables stolen. After a number of hours the author leaves Harry home, to a house, which like Harry, has fallen into decrepitude.

"The Lower Deck" introduces us to Triona, another former lover and old neighbour, who has died to cancer. Like many characters Triona, a dressmaker and perennial rebel, had seen her plans for life go awry. Kenny tells us that she’d been wild like all the children of the 1960’s who resembled "butterflies fluttering against the windowpane". She immigrated to Barcelona where she remained for a number of years. Her dreams didn’t work out and she eventually returned to Portobello, where, as an adult, she was still stuck fluttering inside.

Despite the various scenarios, and however bad their situations, the writer has a basic sympathy for his characters. As they drift along annoy, pester and bother him he respects and attempts to empathise with their lives. "In New York" he visits Joe, an old friend, and pities him as he flounders under an overpowering wife. While in "Kestrel and Starlings" he observes as a young woman’s marriage falls to pieces around her.

By the end of the collection the author has accepted his lot. He has collected all his characters and listed their stories is in notebook. He has realised his mistakes and is happy both with his wife and the life he is leading in Portobello.

The Fairy Tales of Charles Perrault by Angela Carter

2012-06-01T09:56:00.000+01:00

Don’t let the title deceive you, this is not a collection of saccharine coated fairly tales for 21^st century, or as it was first published in 1977, 20^th century children. Instead what we have is a subtle translation and retelling by Angela Cater of ten fairy tales which for the most part were first presented in France by Charles Perraut in 1697.

As the title "Fairy Tales" suggests the collection contains many of the classic stories you would associate with the genre, "Little Red Riding Hood", "Puss In Boots" and "Sleeping Beauty in the Woods" are just three tales contained in the collection. At a glance each tale contains all the ingredients a story more suited to children rather than adults, good overcomes evil and the prince and princess live happily ever after.

However as this is a retelling rather than a literal translation Angela Carter has for her part taken some liberties in her presentation of the stories. The first thing that the reader notices is how modern and immediately accessible the writing is. Nowhere can you say that the tales are written in a faux old world style so beloved and bedevilled of translators with translations.

The heroes are not wooden one dimensional characters rather they come across as being all too human , for example the cat in "Puss In Boots" uses cunning, intimidation and the threat of murder in order to further the cause of his master. While the princess in "Donkey-Skin", pretends not to have seen the prince spying on her as she tries on her dress that is the colour of the sun.

Some of the tales have a dark side not normally prevalent in modern rendering of fairy stories, for example in "Little Red Riding Hood", usually her father shows up, just in the nick of time to save her from the big bad wolf. In Angela Carter’s version, Little Red Riding Hood’s father is notably absent. While in "Donkey-Skin" the original reason for the princess’s departure from her kingdom is that her father was so convinced that she was the most beautiful woman in the land that the wished to marry her. Incest being reason enough for any young woman, princess or not, to flee her home.

Angela Carter was greatly influenced by Charles Perrault’s fairy tales and gave "Puss In Boots", "Beauty and the Beast" and "Cinderella" an outing in The Body Chamber, her own collection of fairy tales, albeit giving each tale an unorthodox twist at the end. She also participated in writing the script of The Company if Wolves which of course was based on her own version of the classic tale.

Each tale in the collection ends with a moral, some enhance the story while in other the moral may appear contradictory to the spirit of the story. The moral in "Sleeping Beauty" states that no modern woman would consider waiting a hundred years for a brave handsome husband. While the moral at the end of "Cinderella: Or, The little Glass Slipper" goes,

"It is certainly a great advantage to be intelligent, brave, wellborn, sensible and have other similar talents given only by heaven. But however great may be your God-given store, they will never help you to get on in the world unless you have either a godfather or godmother to put them to work for you."

In Charles Perrault, Angela Carter chose a godfather with whom she could display all her numerous illuminated talents.

If I Die In A Combat Zone by Tim O'Brien

2012-05-18T08:58:00.000+01:00

"Do dreams offer lessons? Do nightmares have themes, do we awaken and analyse them and live our lives and advise others as a result? Can the foot soldier teach anything about war, merely for having been there? I think not. He can tell war stories."

Occasionally you come across a book that utterly captivates. You find yourself swept along in a river of prose which elevates writing to a different level. The writing resonates, its message is timeless and you find yourself compelled to read to the last page. "If I die in a Combat Zone" Tim O'Brien's account of his time in the combat zone is just such a book.

The book begins with O'Brien in the field of operations in Vietnam. His unit is out on patrol and comes under attack from snipers. It is apparently the tenth time on that particular day that they’ve been targeted.

In the summer of 1969 and university student Tim O'Brien is conscripted into the American army. After initial training he is assigned to the infantry and becomes a grunt an ordinary foot soldier, a GI. In describing his training O'Brien states that if someone wants to understand what happened in Mai Lai they need to understand Fort Lewis, Washington.

Throughout O'Brien isn’t afraid to castigate his comrades. He graphically describes the life of an American soldier on combat duty in South Vietnam. The army comes across as being lazy, badly motivated with low discipline and terrible morale. While officers, through their incompetence, barely command the respect of the men they're leading. The term lions lead by donkeys first used in a previous war comes to mind.

O'Brien finds himself in Mai Lai a year after the massacre in the area. Along with his fellow combatants he is at a loss as to why the locals are so antagonistic toward their defenders. It is only later that news of the massacre in the area emerges. Tim O'Brien graphically describes the reaction of his superior officers to the massacre. He informs us of the drunken rants of one officer who states the reason the massacre occurred was that due to the nature of the war American soldiers simply did not know who their enemies were. They were taking no chances and acted accordingly.

One of the strengths of the book is O'Brien questioning on what is meant by true courage. According to him the commanding officer of his unit Captain Johansen is the very personification of courage. That courage according to O’Brien is doing the right thing for the right reason. Johansen's replacement is Captain Smith a pompous overbearing commander whose actions lead to the deaths of several members of the unit and his, Smith's, eventual replacement.

As the book comes to the conclusion and O'Brien returns home to Minnesota, he asks, "What kind of war is it that begins and ends that way, with a pretty girl, cushioned seats and magazines?".

Blue Angel, White Shadow by Charlson Ong

2012-05-03T06:15:00.000+01:00

Binondo, Manila; a young woman is found murdered in a room above the bar where she works as a cabaret singer. Cyrus Ledesma of the Philippines Police force is sent to investigate. Binondo, is Manila’s Chinatown, and as a mestiso (half Chinese, half Filipino) is also Ledesma’s home turf.

The bar where the young woman, Laurice Salgada, was murdered is known as The Blue Angel and is an old fashioned piano bar with an equally aging cliental. To the accompaniment of piano player Rey Nadurata, Laurice would sing various jazz standards throughout the night. Although not especially beautiful she has many admirers included among them are the owner of The Blue Angel, Antonio Cobianco and Lagdameo Go-Lopez, the Mayor of Manila.

Like the best crime novels the investigating officer has secrets and Blue Angel, White Shadow is no exception. Inspector Ledesma is formally an enforcer for the police. On their behalf he undertook many ex-judicial killings, though he later fell foul of the authorities when he murdered a police informer whom he suspected of being a paedophile. For this he was sent to prison and it was only through the intervention of his uncle Police Chief Ruben Jacinto that Ledesma was released and allowed to re-enter the force.

Charlson Ong’s story progresses through a series of character portraits where the investigation is related through the eyes of the various individuals involved. For instance the manageress of the Blue Angel is the whiskey drinking Rosa Misa. She’s a former singer, who saw her dreams crushed and with the help of Antonio Cobianco opens the bar where patrons can come, relax and listen to live music. When the investigation begins she is initially resistive and insists that nothing untoward have ever take place in her bar.

Rosa’s daughter Rosemarie, is a former reporter who assists Ledesma in his investigation. As with many of the characters through Rosa Misa and Rosemarie we come to learn of the many hopes and aspirations of Filipino society. The mother has dragged her daughter to Manila with the hope of making it big inevitably she fails and is left embittered, wondering what could have been.

The character Antonio Cobianco is a wealthy Chinese trader who in the late 1940’s fled Communist China. Unmarried, his brother and his wife came to Manila after him. Cobianco set up shop in Binondo and became a successful merchant.

I have to be honest and say that initially I found the manner of telling the story through various characters and their histories very confusing, I would have preferred the story to focus on one character, Inspector Ledesma for example. However once it got used to Ong’s method I found that it added another dimension to the novel and the reader was able to learn more about each character and their motivations.

Also a few cultural references had me wondering and I had to enquire from more informative sources as to what was meant by the writer.

Blue Angel, White Shadow touches on many issues. For example it comments on police corruption as well as the disintegration of civic society. Also we learn about the place of the Chinese community in the Philippines and how it interacts with the larger society.

Nostalgia also plays a big part in the novel and Charlson Ong has gone on record as saying that he’s a big Jazz fan and a great admirer of bee bop musicians such as John Coltrane. But there’s also a nostalgia for Binondo and a looking back with longing for the better days of Manila’s Chinatown.

As for the investigation, well I have to say that the perpetrator was a character I’d least suspected. Blue Angel, White Shadow is a wonderfully written, though provoking crime novel for which Charlson Ong won The Philippines 2011 National Book Award.

Needle In A Haystack by Ernesto Mallo

2012-04-17T06:27:00.001+01:00

Argentina 1979 and the military junta are firmly ensconced in power. The authorities are paranoid and see enemies everywhere with ex-judicial executions and kidnappings of suspects being the norm. The dirty war against terrorism is in full swing, violence reigns supreme and on one is asking any questions.

Against this backdrop writer Ernesto Mallo introduces the reader to Superintendent Lascano. In many respects police inspector Lascano is a typical Chandleresque hero, he’s a loner with his own demons who battles his superiors and operates on with his own moral code. His wife died in a car crash and but for his friend, forensic scientist Fuseli, Lascano would long ago stepped over the edge.

The novel opens with the report of two bodies lying on a dirt road in a Buenos Aires suburb. Superintendent Lascano is sent to investigate. Trouble meets him from the outset when instead of two bodies he discovers three. Two of the deceased are young and are obviously victims of the junta. However the third is middle aged and bears none of the scares of a tango with the authorities.

A love interest in the novel takes the form of Eva a member of the Montoneros guerrillas. When her guerrilla cell is broken up by the authorities Eva escapes and finds sanctuary in a building which unbeknownst to her also serves as a brothel. The brothel is raided by Lascano and Eva is discovered by the superintendent who is struck by the resemblance between her and his deceased wife. Eva evades detection and lives, for a time, in Lascano’s apartment.

If there’s a recognised villain in the story it comes in the form of army Major Giribaldi. Garibaldi is a willing servant of the junta. He takes part and supervises many of the disappearances which take place in the country. He is totally without principle and sees himself as a patriot and defender of the country.

As Lascano commences his investigation he discovers that the victim was a moneylender who had in the past survived Auschwitz. The victim, Bitterman, has a lucrative business lending money for which he charges exorbitant rates of interest. Bitterman’s business is thriving, he charges exorbitant rates of interest for his loans and as Lascano is told there’s a list of people who would have been more than willing to kill him.

Because of the involvement of one of the Buenos Aries elite Lascano is warned off the case by Giribaldi and it is when he refuses to heed the majors threats that life for the superintendent takes a rather nasty turn.

What gives "Needle" an air of authenticity is the fact that the author Ernesto Mello, as an ex-subversive, knows what he’s talking about. Love is taken on the run and loved ones can disappear in a moments notice. He has endured the trials and tribulations of fighting the junta. He witnessed at first hand torture and imprisonment at the hands of the military.

The one negative aspect of the novel is the dialogue which is ran together. At times this is confusing and some people will find it hard to follow. It’s a strange devise but I suppose it is a matter of style.

"Needle In A Haystack" as well as being a crime novel can be said to be a sociological and psychological exploration of Argentine society as it endures the horrors of the junta.

Keeper of the Flame - Josef Skvorecky

2012-04-02T22:17:00.000+01:00

A touching portrait of Czech writer Josef Skvorecky as he returns home in 1990 after living in exile in Canada for twenty one years.

Josef Skvorecky was born in Nachod, Czechoslovakia in September, 1927. For two years during World War II he worked in a German aircraft factory. When the war ended he travelled to Prague where he enrolled in the Faculty of Medicine in Charles University. However after his first term Skvorecky moved to the Faculty of Arts where he studied Philosophy and in 1949 he graduated.

He continued his studies and in 1951 gained a PhD in Philosophy. Between 1952 and 1954 he carried out military service in the Czechoslovakian army.

Skvorecky wrote his first novel The Cowards in 1949 though it would remain unpublished until 1958. Czechoslovak authorities subsequently banned The Cowards. The editor of the company that published it was arrested then subsequently sacked.

Following the Soviet Invasion of Czechoslovakia and the repression of the Prague Spring Skvorecky and his wife Zdena Salivarova went into exile in Canada.

While resident in Toronto he founded, along with his wife, 68 Publishers, which over the next twenty years published books banned in Czechoslovakia. Dissident writers such as Vaclav Havel, Milan Kundra and Ivan Klima all had their work published by the Skvorecky’s at a time when they were unable to do so in Czechoslovakia.

Along with The Cowards, Skvorecky’s best known works translated into English include The Miracle Game, Miss Silver’s Past and The Engineer of Human Souls. He also wrote four collections of short stories featuring Detective Lieutenant Boruvka of the Prague Homicide Bureau. His non-fiction includes the collections Talkin’ Moscow Blues and All the Bright Young Men and Women.

Much of Skvorecky’s work deals with the effects of totalitarianism and the repression of both the Nazi and Communist regimes. His work also touches on the experience of living in exile, the wonder of jazz and cinematography.
Josef Skvorecky died in Toronto on January 3rd, 2012.

The Woman In Black by Susan Hill

2012-03-20T22:02:00.000+00:00

What is it about horror stories that we find so captivating? Why do readers lap up stories of ghosts, witches, warlocks and goblins year after year after year? When you stop to consider it this need to be frightened is totally irrational and yet horror stories continue to entertain. The Woman In Black effortlessly fits into this category and its fame is secured as it has now been adapted for the big screen.

The novel beings on a Christmas Eve with Arthur Kipps and his wife Esme and stepchildren sitting around the fire celebrating the season. They decide to begin relating ghost stories calling it part of an ancient tradition. Arthur declines taking part and after listening in silence to tales of ghosts and monsters decides he needs some fresh air. Arthur has his own story to tell but it is most definitely not for festive amusement.

The memory of his story weighs heavily upon him and Arthur decides to record his supernatural experience. The tale begins many years earlier when as a young man working in a firm of solicitors in London he was dispatched to the north east coast of England. His destination is the farming town of Crythin Gifford where he is to sort out the papers belonging to a recently deceased client of the firm, a reclusive widow named Alice Drablow.

Arthur attends Mrs. Drablow funeral, a pathetic affair, where he notices standing at the back of the church a mysterious woman dressed in black. He enquires as to who she could be but is fobbed off and given mysterious half answers. Shortly afterward Arthur decides to visit Mrs. Drablow’s home, and organise her papers.

Situated several miles outside the town Mrs. Drablow’s residence was Eel Marsh House an isolated mansion situated at the end of Nine Lives Causeway. Access along the causeway is restricted and it can only be accessed once the tide recedes in the morning.

Because of a change in the weather Arthur is forced to stay the night in the house. Out of the mist which surrounds the causeway he hears the terrified whining of a drowning pony and the plaintive and increasingly faint cries of a young child. It is the beginning of Arthur’s ghostly experience and one which will haunt him for the rest of his days.

Although written in the 1990’s the book reads as if it was an old fashioned Victorian ghost story. This is a credit to the writer, Susan Hill and that she can maintain this throughout without inadvertently lapsing into a modern prose style is nothing short of astounding.

The Women In Black consists of 150 pages and needs not one more. Susan Hill implies the terror of Eel Marsh House and the genuinely frightening atmosphere that permeates throughout. Through vivid descriptions of the deceptively peaceful Eel Marsh House she dispenses with the need for spine chilling, blood drenched vampires and monsters. Its pitch is just right and it’s been a long time since a writer was quite literally able to make the hairs on the back of my neck stand upright.

With an ending that is truly horrific and heart wrenching it is no cliché to say that The Woman In Black is a story which will stay with the reader long after they’ve read the last page.

The Informer by Liam O'Flaherty

2012-03-03T18:45:00.000+00:00

Dublin in the 1920’s. Post war of independence. Post civil war. A charismatic and ruthless leader of a left wing revolutionary organisation. Social disintegration. Vice and drug addiction. Idealism, and betrayal. Love and murder. Such are the components of Liam O’Flaherty’s The Informer.

The novel begins with gunman Francis Joseph McPhillip, returning to Dublin for the first time since murdering the leader of the Farmers Union the previous October during a farm labours strike. It is now mid March and McPhillip has spent the previous five months hiding out in the Wicklow Mountains. He returns to Dublin with a price on his head and suffering from consumption.

It is just before six in the evening and McPhillip seeks out his old comrade Gypo Nolan in the Dunboy Lodging House in Dublin. Gypo is an ex-policeman who accompanied McPhillip on many exploits. Together the two were known as The Devil’s Twins.

Gypo has fallen on hard times. After the murder of the president of the Farmers Union he was expelled from the Revolutionary Movement. He is homeless, penniless and but for the opium addicted Katie Fox, friendless.

Seeing that his old comrade is desperate to return to his family, Gypo sees an opportunity. He sets up McPhillip, telling him his all is well, his parents house is safe, the police have long ago given up keeping watch. They part and immediately afterward Gypo informs the Police of McPhillip’s arrival in Dublin and his subsequent location.

Armed with this information the authorities surround the McPhillip family home and Francis McPhillip is killed while attempting to escape. For providing information which leads to the death of his old comrade, Gypo Nolan receives the grand sum of £20, quite an amount in the Dublin of the time.

From here the man focus of the novel is Gypo, the informer. Gypo suddenly realises the full extent of his actions. He is outside society. He was dismissed from the police force, expelled from the Revolutionary Organisation and now has betrayed his friend. It would be no exaggeration to say that Gypo, through his actions, has found himself on the very margins of society.

One of the most fascinating characters in the novel is Commandant Dan Gallagher. Intelligent, brave, charismatic, ruthless, Gallagher will stop at nothing to bring about his goal which is the bringing the about of an armed revolution. But first Gallagher is more concerned with catching and dealing with the informer. When Gallagher and Gypo meet, their clash of personalities and subsequent outcome, is outstanding.

It soon becomes apparent that O’Flaherty knows the criminal underbelly of Dublin and the people who reside there. At times the descriptions of the city mirror the inner turmoil his characters endure. While his detailed retelling of a drunken Gypo’s time spent in a bordello is both colourful and memorable. So vivid and recognisable are its characters and descriptions of Dublin that reading The Informer now it is hard to appreciate that it was first published in 1925.

The Informer is not an easy read, but it is a memorable one and may best be described as being an expressionist novel. All the action takes place over twelve hours which may account for it’s relentless intensity. The Informer by Liam O’Flaherty without doubt deserves to be read by as wide an audience as possible.

The Scar by China Mieville

2012-02-16T17:04:00.000+00:00

Imagine a vast floating city. A place of legend ruled by a pair of enigmatic scarred lovers. It is a place where the past counts for nothing and the only things required of its citizens are secrecy and absolute loyalty. This city has travelled across oceans for hundreds of years using piracy as a means of maintaining its existence. Such a city exists it’s name is Armada and is the main setting for The Scar, the second in China Mieville’s series of New Crobuzon novels.

The novel opens with translator Bellis Coldwine sailing in The Terpsichoria, to Nova Esperium, New Crobuzon’s colony. Bellis is distant, cold and haughty. She doesn’t suffer fools gladly and with one exception refuses to fraternise with her fellow passengers.

As the journey progress The Terpsichoria receives new passengers in the form of prisoners who are on their way to a life of penal servitude in Nova Esperium. Numbered among the prisoners is Tanner Shack. Like most of the prisoners, who live in appalling conditions on the ship, Tanner Shack is remade. Meaning genetic limbs have been grafted onto his body.

The voyage for the most part takes place without incident until Bellis’s services as a translator are called upon. She must accompany The Terpsichoria’s captain as he journeys beneath to sea to carry out trade negotiations with the Cray people who reside there. Negotiations continue without incident until the Captain questions Cray officials about what suspiciously sounds like a mobile oil rig which has mysteriously vanished. Things take a further turn for the worse when the Cray people produce Silas Fennec a human carrying an official documentation from the New Crobuzon government giving him authorisation to commandeer any state registered vessel. The Terpsichoria’s captain agrees however reluctantly to obey the state’s ruling and Fennec orders him to sail back to New Crobuzon immediately.

As The Terpsichoria engages on its return journey it encounters pirates from the Armada. The captain and his officers are killed and passengers, prisoners and ordinary crewmembers are told that the past is over, everyone is equal so long as they show loyalty to their new rulers in Armada.

From here the novel could quite easily develop into A Pirates of the Caribbean style swashbuckling adventure on the high seas. Nothing could be further from the truth. As the novel progresses we learn that Armada is much more than a floating den of pirates. It contains a library, scientists, a thriving commercial sector amongst things. It is divided into a number of districts which are semi independent.
The most important district on Armada is Garwater which is ruled by the enigmatic couple known only as The Lovers who are the effective rulers of the ocean city. The Lovers have other plans other than marauding the high seas. These plans are only shockingly revealed as the novel progresses.

The real power behind The Lovers is the mysterious Uther Doul. Doul is perhaps the most interesting characters in the novel. He comes across as a merciless killer whose loyalty to Armada is absolute. Although Doul relates his personal history to Bellis it is what he leaves out which is intriguing.

Some chapters in the novel are genuinely frightening. At one point several members of the Armada land on an island solely inhabited by mosquito people. The scenes involving the Armadians fighting the islands mosquito women would grace any horror fiction.

Characters in the novel have a habit of meeting untimely and grizzly ends and l are dispatched in a merciless blood thirsty fashion. Fluffy loveable characters are notably absent in China Mieville’s world. One of the more memorable characters is The Brucolac, a vampire who contains all the characteristics of those fabled horrors.

There are subplots aplenty in this novel and I won’t spoil it for the reader and reveal them. Suffice to say that Silas Fennec is much more than he seems and really not to be trusted by anyone. Least of all Bellis Coldwine.

The Scar is not an easy read and I have to admit that this is my second attempt at this novel. But the rewards are many. The pallet on which Mieville paints his tale is gigantic in scope and intricate in detail. Mieville has a passionate love affair with the English language and creates whole terminology for his World. Sit back and enjoy the sheer inventiveness of most amazing voices currently working in genre fiction.

Korean artist Rimi Yang

2012-02-03T06:37:00.002+00:00

The four paintings below are by Korean born artist Rimi Yang. Yang studied in both the Los Angeles Academy of Figurative and The Otis College of Art and Design. Later she also studied in Italy in the Florence Academy of Art.

Yang’s work is celebrated for its vibrant use of colour, and her paintings are said to be intuitive, instinctive balancing acts of contrasts. Yang is not afraid to borrow images from both Eastern and Western artistic masters. The influence of Japanese artist Eizan and the classical Ingres are paramount.

While drawing inspiration from the past Yang also looks to create her own individual voice by mixing various techniques from different styles. Her work is said to "Celebrate the creative duality that exists in life....she revels in the confusion mankind creates in its attempt to order the un-orderable and to explain the unexplainable".

The work of Rimi Yang exhibited last year in the Sol Art Gallery Dublin.

Orange Kimono

Queens Marriage

Memory of an Angel

Lady in a Blue Dress

The Passenger by Peter Wild

2012-01-22T19:16:00.003+00:00

"To sleep: perchance to dream". What do you suppose would happen if you slept for fifteen years? What would you miss? What great events in the world would pass you by? What would happen to your coterie of friends? After all you wouldn’t be there to witness the many changes in their lives. How would your absence effect your family?

This is the premise for Peter Wild’s debut novel The Passenger, the story of Whitlow a man who falls asleep one night in Stockport city centre only to wake up fifteen years later to a world that has changed.

The Passenger begins with Whitlow waking up one morning surrounded by a bunch of teenagers one of whom throws a half eaten beef burger in his direction. He finds himself rescued by a woman, who unbeknownst to him, turns out to be his wife.

The woman, Ruth, with a baby in tow, bundles Whitlow into her car and takes him home where she feeds, washes and cares for him and re-introduces him once more to his family. She gives him a notebook, which is apparently written by Whitlow during periods when he was lucid and in the bosom of his family.

As he reads the notebook Whitlow learns that this is not the first time he has disappeared only to reappear disorientated and lost. Whitlow discovers that his disappearances began one night when he stormed out of the house he shared with his girlfriend Connie. In Stockport town centre he had an encounter with a bunch of drunken men and women one of whom flashed her breasts at Whitlow causing Whitlow to run in terror.

Council workers on a clean-up detail find him coiled up asleep beside a bridge. No matter how hard they try they are unable to wake him. A story about a sleeping man appears in the local newspaper about the sleeping man from where the story snowballs and endorsed by the local mayor Whitlow, for a while, become a tourist attraction.

Reading the notebook Whitlow discovers that he was part of a band called The Sleeping Men who, released three albums and were successful for a while. He discovers that he has a wife, children and a job at which he is successful.

One of the many strengths of The Passenger is that it is populated by believable characters. For example Stacy Shenanigan, she of the bared breasts, finds notoriety on the back of the story of Whitlow’s fame. She appears on page three, and later on for example, Celebrity Big Brother. Another character of note is Connie, Whitlow’s erstwhile girlfriend who launches a media career for herself and goes from regional reporter to presenter on just about every programme of note in America.

As the story unfolds Whitlow learns his history via the notebook and the novel is told in alternate chapters. We see Whitlow emerged from his most recent disappearance and in the following chapter the earlier Whitlow relating his story. This turns out to be a magical device and the reader can really relate to Whitlow as amidst his disorientation he slowly unearths his hidden story.

The Passenger by Peter Wild is flawless rock n roll of a novel, with references to The Smiths, The Fall and Talking Heads amongst others. Without doubt it will be the literary debut of the year.

Grey Souls by Philippe Claudel

2012-01-06T21:56:00.002+00:00

"Grey Souls" by Philippe Claudel opens in December 1917 with the discovery of the corpse of ten year old Belle de Jour just outside a small town in rural France. A swift investigation is undertaken resulting with the arrest and execution of two deserters from the French army. As far as everyone is concerned the perpetrators are caught and dealt with and the case is closed.

But nothing is as it seems, nothing is that cut and dry. The narrator of the story, a police investigator, who remains un-named relates the story of the murder from twenty years in the future when Europe is once more faced with conflict and death.

Slowly and subtly the story behind the murder and the characters involved is told. Central to the case is the Public Prosecutor Destinat. From the beginning the narrator suspects that Destinat is the murderer. The Public Prosecutor is a tragic figure. His wife Clelia died not long after their marriage, and widowed and without an heir he effectively withdrew from the world emerging only to go into the court or for Sunday mass. He is one of the many grey souls which populate the novel.

Lilia, the school teacher is another grey soul who wanders through the novel. She turned up in the town one afternoon without explanation and immediately took up the post of teacher. Lilia is charming and polite, smiling and sincere. But is also distant no one really comes close to her. Her life and subsequent death remain a mystery which is only solved at the conclusion.

It is the narrator himself who perhaps is the greatest mystery. At the start he comes across as being an innocent he is simply one of the crowd. Piece by piece his story is told till by the end the reader is perhaps less sympathetic than previously.
One of the novels strengths is the manner in which minor characters are vividly created. Characters such as Old Barbe, the caretaker who appear for only a few pages are given equal descriptive importance as Destinat and Lilia.

A melancholic atmosphere permeates through the novel, good turns to evil and daylight is driven from the land. Everything and everyone is cloaked in ambiguity. As the narrator is told,

"Nothing’s black or white. And it’s the same with souls. You’re a grey soul, like the rest of us."

Despite the bleak subject matter "Grey Souls" is a novel which is well told, lyrical and enjoyable. The twists at the end are totally unforeseen and will only add to, rather than detract from, its appeal.

Heart of Tango by Elia Barcelo

2011-12-23T10:18:00.000+00:00

I have to admit I’m out of my comfort zone reviewing "Heart of Tango" by Elia Barcelo. I don’t normally read love stories I generally avoid them like the plague, read the blurb and pass on. That’s all the more reason why I was pleasantly surprised with "Heart of Tango".

The novel begins with a tango aficionado named Rodrigo attending a late night dance in Innsbruck. He has low expectations about meeting someone, his only desire is to dance. He gets much more than he bargained for when he encounters a mysterious woman whom he dances. At the end of the night she leaves without saying a word to him. Rodrigo returns to his hotel room distraught resigned to the fact that he will in all probability never see this woman again.

To his amazement he discovers that the woman slipped a calling card in his pocket. The address on the card is in the La Boca area of Buenos Aires. Rodrigo feels compelled to travel to Argentina and track down this mysterious dancer.

Here the novel’s direction changes and leaves the world of Mills and Bloom behind. We are brought mysteriously back to Argentina of the 1920’s where tango was all the rage. Buenos Aires is displayed warts and all. It is a city of immigrants, of poverty and ignorance. It is a place tango bands battle for fans and everyone seems to carry a knife.

The novel is told from numerous points of view. Rodrigo, the woman he meets, and her husband amongst others. Its structure is easy to follow and really shouldn’t present any problem to the attentive reader. The novel or rather novella, there are only 180 pages, races along with all the rhythm of a well danced tango.

As the story moves once more into the present where a woman meets a mysterious stranger at a Tango dance. He vanishes without saying a word but leaving her a calling card with an address in the La Boca area of Buenos Aires. Again she feels compelled to go the city and search for this mysterious lover.

Here the story could degenerate into romantic predictability and it is to the credit of the writer that it doesn’t. In fact there’s a nice supernatural twist at the end which to be honest I didn’t see coming.

In the Heart of Tango there’s no manifesto about the liberation of South America. Neither is it a primer for the abolition of poverty. "Heart of Tango" is a book full of tragedy, longing and love, told by a master storyteller.