books
_ now been turning out great, but I fates of three fugitives from justice: he got there. The powers of religion, rewevvs utterly ignored strips for nigh on a Mick (the Stigmata Man of the title), conservation and the EC come head to decade. his best friend’s girlfriend Kathy, and head in a climax which is just crying Time Warp is his latest hostage to ill- her brother Tam. out to be seen on the big screen. Garnethi" fortt'ine, chlartingthe Iefforts gfda I . Mafson's vision olf tthe future is Hallelujah! (KK) . . mot ey, mu tI-nationa crew o o eites : terri ying, primari y ecause it is no ; Den'se M'na (Bantam £599) **** (first seen in the pages of Deadline great leap of imagination to see how ; Continued over page You can practically smell Glasgow on magazine) in getting a club night off
your fingers as the pages of this darkly the ground. That sketchy plot is the
powerful thriller flash by. That sense of template for sly political and social
place, and the permanence it creates, observation, an excess of visual and An Equal MUSIC
supports the fragile characters through verbal joking, and some sex and Wkram Seth (Phoenix House {1599) **** Denise Mina's tightly and economically (comic) violence.
plotted whodunit. Ilya's work has a wonderful, relaxed
In Maureen — who wakes up in her rhythm to it which lifestyle mag editors tiny Garnethill flat one morning to should be falling over themselves to discover her boyfriend with his throat stick in their glossy pages. As it is, this slit and his blood all over the walls — small press publication is available at
Mina has created a compelling and discerning bookshops. Be the first, and sympathetic heroine. Her own perhaps only, one in your block to get
vulnerability, her emotionally-scarred , a copy. (TJ) ‘
friends and her dysfunctional family ;
make Maureen all the more endearing ‘ ' as she refuses to become a victim of j The Advent The
inconsiderate and over~stretched g Incredu|ous Stigmata
only the occasional lapse in attention to dialogue tempering its ferocity. Some fictional characters are easily You'll keep turning those pages, not so 1 forgettable; others stay with you long much to uncover who did do it, but to after you’ve put the book down. Kelvin
policing. 5 Every nuance of character is utilised j , as the plot drives towards its end, with i KGIV'n Mason (C'tron Press £799) i ‘k ‘k *‘k
discover how brutally satisfying the Mason’s creations belong in the latter
conclusion can be. (TD) category. As dubious as the plot seems 3 at first, the fact that you can ima ine
: these people existing brings a strgng
Tlme Warp element of realism to the book. It’s also
Ilya (SIab-O-Concrete £10) he)“: ! a comedy, but one pierced with
Who in their right mind would want to l genuine horror.
be a cartoonist in our comic-illiterate Set in a futuristic Scotland where Eco-
culture? You have to question the Warriors are an all-powerful force — in
sanity of someone like Ilya who has § Big Brother fashion — it follows the
Two masterpieces of vision and hope from one of today’s most inspirational writers
_ p i etermal J ' m f. i (ff-CDCGS * °' :7 . SPl RlTUAl. ' 4 . s mme 2. WISDOM _. EXl’LORlNC " E‘gmficf 3; our Huerta . WON D ,. 'TOBELONC W _ ‘.'_ “iii if i\ - judges and public do the rest. And while Rushdie took pelters for hanging was Mei-«w ’j/g" ' (if)! “all if E, out with Bono, Seth was remaining faithful to his temporal constituency " mm?“ “'“" and reading over a chamber orchestra's doodlings at the Wigmore Hall. Then, just before we'd all forgotten, there were works of fiction to be condsidered. Seth, author of the modern classic, and ridiculously overlong A Suitable Bay, had found his red marker and produced a novel you can read in less than six months. Having lost his true love through his own making, violinist Michael sleepwalks through life, only his music keeping him going. One day he spies
There are fewer more satisfying sights in life than a literary scrap. Pitching the publication of two of the weightiest of fiction's heavyweights together seemed liked a bare naked blessing and a chance to see the busiest flying of fur since Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath got round the breakfast table.
Salman Rushdie and Vikram Seth, however, weren't taking the bait. Even the agents simply put forward the case for their man and let the Booker
I ' ‘ I Words Of WlSdom-n Beaut'fUI-n his beloved on a bus and the past comes into painful focus. It all sounds DTOfOUIHI and [(9,113] Echoes simple stuff but within the pages are genuine feelings of love, loss, ' ,’ r rediscovered love and raw despair. movmg Speaks to the SOUI Attempting successfully to elucidate in print the emotion of listening to . ~ . 4 - v LARRY DOSSEY- (TUWOT 0' music is a tricky act to pull off —just ask the NME- but Vikram Seth has RCCOVU’ “’3 WW 50", achieved it as far as it is possible. Read this and try not to weep. (Brian 1‘ 15‘ Donaldson)
wt nun ill paperback Out now in hardcover
u mm 29Apr—13 May 1999