GEN x PAPERBACK

Girlfriend In A Coma Douglas Coupland (Flamingo £6.99)

**

Douglas Coupland has many talents ? as a thinker of late 20th century civilisation and as an imaginative

1 writer in elucidating his passions.

The role of the individual within

, society, the fluidity of time and the technological means by which the human race can progress or

otherwise - are themes he has tackled before and wrestles with

again in Girlfriend In A Coma. Plot,

; characterisation and plausibility are not chief among his tools.

2 It's 1979, and a set of High School

kids are distraught when their

friend Karen slumps unconscious and remains so for the best part of

twenty years. During this time she

gives birth, having lost her virginity : to Richard hours before collapsing.

Richard, meanwhile, drifts between careers and ends up an alcoholic wreck and unreliable father. Two of her friends become shambling junkies. Another becomes a doctor but is unconvinced of her own will to survive. Aided by the ghost of another pal, Jared, Karen awakes before the citizens : of the world fall in to a deathly slumber. This merry band are left to formulate a plan by which We can save Ourselves. Doubting Coupland as a writer who can script cracking dialogue and concoct startling imagery whilst juggling a myriad of ideas is a losing task. To claim that he can pull it all off wonderfully is less certain. He clearly . wants to be seen as an end of century Orwell or Huxley. Here, he is a wordy Ray Bradbury. For his characters can talk. And talk. And they talk. Until, like the novel's supermarket looters, they are blue in the face. This geek won‘t be inheriting the earth. (Brian Donaldson)

Pulp’s record company of keyboardist Candida Doyle playing suggests that women’s music isn’t treated SGTIOUSIY. Exploring alternative scenes, Bayton's well-argued book concludes that some diversion on the manager/agent/rec'ord company route is essential for mainstream recognition. In particular, she recommends the largely ignored Musician's Union as a means to advance the velvet revolution. (DLP)

CRIME FICTION Night Mares

Manda Scott (Headline £9.99) ****

Manda Scott

OK, so the title may be the worst pun you’ve stumbled upon since the morning's tabloids, but don’t allow yourself to be put off. Glasgow—born Manda Scott’s second novel her

debut, Hen ’s Teeth, was the sole British nominee in last year's Orange Pri/e

has Dr Nina Crawford as a passionate, dedicated and vulnerable martyr to her veterinarian profession,

When horses in her (are start and cannot stop dying, she takes it all to heart, and help from her friend and therapist Kellen Stewart does little to stem her grief, As Crawford's personal life stalls, trips and crumbles before her, it becomes eVIdent that it is not only the gee-gees that are in peril

With a keen eye for the details in the surgery room and the minutiae of human relationships, as well as a fine ability to create the essential tension, Manda Scott is becoming a stand-out in the increasingly busy field of Scottish crime writing. (BD)

GONZO CRIME

Blast From The Past

Kinky Friedman (Faber £9.99) it it t i For those unfamiliar With the Kinkster, the arrival of his e eventh novel may hardly be an occasion for line dancing in the streets, Your loss Tans of the JeWish Texan Country 8r Western singer turned private dic k Will be happy as Larry Hagman at Sue Ellen's funeral Hard—boiled but soft of centre, a lover of cats, Jameson’s whiskey, Cuban cigars and Iemrnes of the fatale persuasion, Kinky pens a unique brand

of cartoon noir With exrstential

overtones, irresistible characters and

murderous one-liners.

Sure, the plots are the stuff of convention, but it's the extended gags and champion chut/pah we savour.

Continued over page

Watcrstonc’s Edinburgh

SAT

21

NOV 1-4 PM

MON

23

NOV 7.00 PM

THU

26

NOV

8.00 PM FRI

27

NOV 7.30 PM

MON

30

NOV 7.30 PM

TUE

DEC 7.00 PM

THU

DEC 7.00 PM

WATERSTONE'S

BOOKS

Authors at Waterstone’s

in November &

December WEST END

MUNRO’S CD DEMONSTRATION WEST END

PATRICK MOORE

TH E PLEASANC E

COLIN BAXTER

France (Colin Baxter Photography £20)

GEORGE STREET

SEAN O’BRIEN AND DON PATTERSON

Firebox (Picador £9.99 & £16.99) ASSEMBLY ALIVE!

JOHN SUCHET

WEST END PAT CADIGAN AND

ROBERT HOLDSTOCK

Tea From An Empty Cup (HarperCoIlins £5.99) Gate of Ivory (HarperColIins £6.99)

EAST END

ROBERT RANKIN

Apoca/ypso (Transworld £16.99)

8% (ieorge Street. Edinburgh

tel: 0| ii 223 S-I S6

\Ves‘t find. [28 Princes Street. lidinburgh tel: 01 5] .326 2666

lias‘t Iind. lS-I-i Princes Street. Edinburgh tel: ()1 SI 336 SUM/3

1‘) Nov 3 Dec 1998 THE “ST 117