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Books, Reviews and Brian Donaldson

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Alan Warner - The Deadman's Pedal

Alan Warner - The Deadman's Pedal

Evocative and personal rural drama from the Morvern Callar author

(4 stars)22 May 2012

In a literary career which has played down the overly autobiographical tendency (all that writing from a female perspective malarkey for one thing), The Deadman’s Pedal seems far and away Alan Warner’s most personal fiction to date. We return to the…

Ewan Morrison - Tales from the Mall

Ewan Morrison - Tales from the Mall

A wealth of information and anecdotes drawn together to paint a funny, scary portrait of our times

(4 stars)22 May 2012

As Ewan Morrison notes in his introduction, the shopping mall is a potent symbol of the homogenised world in which we live now. You could look at images of shopping centres in Dundee and Dresden and chances are you won’t be able to tell them apart. The…

Russell Kane - The Humorist

Russell Kane - The Humorist

A gory black comedy from the restless comic

(3 stars)24 Apr 2012

(Simon & Schuster) Anyone familiar with Russell Kane’s stand-up comedy won’t be surprised with his debut dip into literary fiction. The winner of the 2010 Edinburgh Comedy Award might be a restless spirit on stage, but his number one priority is the…

Iain Banks - Stonemouth

Iain Banks - Stonemouth

The spiritual follow-up to The Crow Road is slightly flawed, but still a page-turner

(3 stars)27 Mar 2012

For those Iain Banks fans not overly keen on his sci-fi work, it will be a blessed relief to see no mention of a middle initial ‘M’ in his name here. For those who loved the prickly relationships and family machinations in the smalltown Scotland of The…

Gavin Pretor-Pinney - Clouds that Look Like Things

Gavin Pretor-Pinney - Clouds that Look Like Things

Occasionally unconvincing gallery of cloudy lookalikes

(3 stars)27 Mar 2012

(Sceptre) As founder of the Cloud Appreciation Society, Gavin Pretor-Pinney knows more than a thing or two about cirrus and cumulus. And all the other ones. The trouble with this collection is that some of the pictures are, frankly, not very…

Tom Perrotta - The Leftovers

Tom Perrotta - The Leftovers

The measured delivery of this fantastical story results in impeccable satire

(4 stars)28 Feb 2012

(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…

Jeet Thayil - Narcopolis

Jeet Thayil - Narcopolis

Bombay-centric social drama with tangible atmosphere but little narrative drive

(3 stars)1 Feb 2012

(Faber) Narcopolis begins and ends with the word ‘Bombay’. Although several individuals vie for centre stage in poet Jeet Thayil’s debut novel, the main character here is India’s most densely populated city. Viewed as a solemn and dangerous hive…

Marcus Berkmann - A Shed of One’s Own

Marcus Berkmann - A Shed of One’s Own

Occasionally hilarious, occasionally turgid treatise on middle-age

(3 stars)5 Jan 2012

(Little, Brown) What is middle-age? Is it a fixed number or a fluid miasma of values, outlooks and opinions? Marcus Berkmann, probably correctly, believes it could strike at any time (you could even get a middle-aged teenager) but is perhaps more…

Simon Armitage - The Death of King Arthur

Simon Armitage - The Death of King Arthur

The Yorkshire poet follows his Gawain translation with another medieval epic

(4 stars)12 Dec 2011

(Faber) In 2006 Simon Armitage embarked upon the commissioned task of translating Sir Gawain and the Green Knight for a modern audience. Encountering some resistance from the ‘lady on the desk’ at the British Library when he requested a peek at the…

Douglas Coupland & Graham Roumieu - Highly Inappropriate Tales for Young People

Douglas Coupland & Graham Roumieu - Highly Inappropriate Tales for Young People

Pacy but insubstantial short story collection

(3 stars)12 Dec 2011

(Heinemann) For anyone who has a glance at the cover of this book and believes that all they have spied is a cute illustration aimed at kids might want to take a closer look. It suggests that reading this collaboration between Generation X writer…

Sarah Hall - The Beautiful Indifference

Sarah Hall - The Beautiful Indifference

The Booker nominee delivers a short story collection with an eye for spectacular imagery

(4 stars)15 Nov 2011

(Faber) Four books into her literary career and a Booker nomination in the locker (for 2004’s The Electric Michelangelo), Sarah Hall is being touted as one of the key British voices of her generation. There is little doubt that she can weave some…

Umberto Eco - On Ugliness

Umberto Eco - On Ugliness

Entertaining collection of art history essays edited by the Italian author

(4 stars)15 Nov 2011

(MacLehose Press) Just as notions of beauty are very much in the eye of the beholder, what constitutes ‘ugly’ can be viewed differently across centuries and continents. Football teams who ‘play ugly’ might still end up as winners, while being told by…

Don Delillo - The Angel Esmeralda

Don Delillo - The Angel Esmeralda

Challenging but ultimately rewarding collection of short stories spanning the author's career

(4 stars)18 Oct 2011

(Picador) Is anyone ever truly happy in a Don DeLillo universe? As the astronaut narrator of ‘Human Moments in World War III’ puts it, ‘happiness is not a fact of this experience’. The profundities and quandaries of existence weigh down mightily upon…

The Midnight Beast - Book At Us Now

The Midnight Beast - Book At Us Now

Unfunny pop-parody book designed to cash in on upcoming TV fame

(2 stars)18 Oct 2011

(Coronet) ‘We mock the living hell out of stuff for a living,’ claim London pop parody trio The Midnight Beast. Even in this disposable age, simply poking fun at more talented people can only stretch so far before the game is up. Success rarely…

Christopher Hitchens - Arguably

Christopher Hitchens - Arguably

Stellar collection of essays from the outspoken journalist

(5 stars)16 Sep 2011

(Atlantic) As Christopher Hitchens movingly concedes in the intro to Arguably, he writes each new slice of social, political and cultural commentary as though it may be his last. While others would have disappeared within their shell at having…

Susan Hill - The Woman in Black

Susan Hill - The Woman in Black

Sinister ghost story with an already-established pedigree

(4 stars)16 Sep 2011

(Profile) As the longest running stage production in Britain after Aggie’s Mousetrap, Susan Hill’s The Woman in Black clearly has an icy grip on the theatre-going public. And with news that this classic ghost story will make it onto the big screen in…

Julian Rothenstein (ed.) - The Redstone Book of the Eye

Julian Rothenstein (ed.) - The Redstone Book of the Eye

Art history book with an eye for detail

(4 stars)16 Sep 2011

(Square Peg) Having started Redstone Press in 1986, Julian Rothenstein has produced endlessly inventive diaries, large-format postcards and psychological guides. With The Redstone Book of the Eye, he peers deep into the subject’s iconography and…

Julian Barnes - The Sense of an Ending

Julian Barnes - The Sense of an Ending

Economically-told novella from the master storyteller

(4 stars)21 Jul 2011

(Jonathan Cape) Imprecise memory, lifelong regrets and the inconsistencies between shared histories are at the heart of Julian Barnes’ short and sharp new novella. As a title, The Sense of an Ending refers to the way in which his characters…

Stefan Merrill Block - The Storm at the Door

Stefan Merrill Block - The Storm at the Door

Fictional biography of Block's grandparents' struggles with mental illness and institutionalisation

(4 stars)21 Jul 2011

(Faber) Based on the true story of Stefan Merrill Block’s grandparents, Katharine and Frederick, The Storm at the Door is the fictionalised account of the trauma which lay deep in the heart of their relationship. A veteran of World War II…

John Hegarty - Hegarty on Advertising

John Hegarty - Hegarty on Advertising

'Turning Intelligence into Magic' with a history of the cut-throat industry

(4 stars)29 Jun 2011

(Thames & Hudson) As the man behind the iconic adverts for Levi 501s (Nick Kamen in his boxers), Audi (‘Vorsprung durch Technik’) and Barnardo’s (a baby jacking up on heroin), John Hegarty is better placed than most to discuss the perfect campaign.

Alan Hollinghurst - The Stranger’s Child

Alan Hollinghurst - The Stranger’s Child

Sprawling 1913 family epic leave reader underwhelmed

(3 stars)28 Jun 2011

(Picador) When it comes to keeping his fans waiting, Alan Hollinghurst has got it down to a very fine art. It’s seven itchy years since the London writer scooped the Booker Prize for The Line of Beauty and this resultant beefy doorstopper proves…

Ali Smith - There but for the (review)

Ali Smith - There but for the

The author's new novel deals wittily with the difficulties of modern communication

(4 stars)23 May 2011

(Hamish Hamilton) You rarely get bombs or tornados or motorway pile-ups in Ali Smith books, but the results of inner turmoils within her characters can often be just as devastating. In There but for the, nuances and shades and intricacies stack on…

Jon Ronson - The Psychopath Test (review)

Jon Ronson - The Psychopath Test

An examination of craziness by the hapless humourist

(4 stars)17 May 2011

(Picador) About halfway through his new book, Jon Ronson has a revelation. Having spent time with the likes of ‘Tony’ (a violent offender who faked a bit of madness in order to get a lighter jail term but ended up being slung in Broadmoor among the…

EMABARGOED TIL 28/04 Alan Bennett's short story collection 'Smut' is undoubtably dirty, but disappointingly dry

Alan Bennett - Smut

Short story collection undoubtably dirty, but disappointingly dry

(3 stars)28 Apr 2011

(Profile/Faber) In an interview last year, Alan Bennett (76), admitted that as he grew older he cares less and less what people think about him. He wasn’t referring to beastly reviewers and their beastly reviews, but to those who might be shocked at…

Scenes from an Impending Marriage (A Prenuptial Memoir), by Adrian Tomine

Scenes from an Impending Marriage (A Prenuptial Memoir), by Adrian Tomine

A witty graphic novel with indie sensibilities

(4 stars)13 Apr 2011

(Faber) In February, Adrian Tomine launched the US publication of Scenes from an Impending Marriage (A Prenuptial Memoir) via an onstage conversation with Leanne Shapton. Her last book, Important Artifacts, was the mainly photo-led story of a…

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