MON
MAR
7.00PM
TUE
MAR
7.00PM
THU
MAR
7.00PM
FRI
10
MAR
I—ZPM
TUE
MAR
7.30PM
\\)\'I‘1CRS'I‘ON Ii'S
95 THE LIST 2—16 Mar 2000
Authors at
Waterstone’s
in March
East End
TARCHIN GYATSO
Presents a wonde
the Buddhist fdit .
West End
ADRIAN GILBERT
l insight into
Signs in the Sky: Prophecies for the end of an age (Bantam £17.99)
East End
ROBIN HOBB
Ship of Destiny (Voyager £17.99)
West End
TONY PARSONS
Man and Boy (HarperCollins £6.99)
George Street
MICK ASTON
Mic/2’s Archaeology (Tempus £12.99)
Assembly Rooms
LYNNE FRANKS
One of the most recognised faces
in the world of PR
George Street
CHRIS DOLAN
Ascension Ddy (Headline £9.99)
BOOKS REVIEWS continued
83 George Street, Edinburgh tel: 0131 225 3436
West End, 128 Princes Street, Edinburgh
tel: 0131 226 2666
East End, 13—14 Princes Street, Edinburgh
tel: 0131 556 3034/5
Julie Alpine
.’ make things even easier, we follow the
MODERNIST SCI-Fl David Mamet
Consider yourself: Wilson David Mamet is something of a Luddite. He likes technology, but strictly design classics; not computers and mobiles, but typewriters and Swiss army knives. He produces his best work in a log cabin in the woods, so why has Mamet written a science fiction novel?
Naturally, it's not the science fiction of William Gibson or Arthur C. Clarke, but it might be Kurt Vonnegut. Hundreds of years into the future, after The Cola Riots, the Internet Crash and the colonisation of Mars, an academic attempts to piece together Earth's now deleted past. Wilson comprises the academic’s best, though fruitless, efforts through notes. errata. commentary and more notes.
Mamet’s friends and associates have probably summed this venture up best: 'impenetrable' (wife), ’unpublishable’ (agent). It is not an easy read, but then neither was Tristram Shandy, the tome which Wilson has been compared to. In fact, Mamet the novelist takes his cue from formal experimentation, proving that he's a modernist at heart.
Not that there isn't the satisfaction of wit to be gleaned from his book. Take the opening line: ‘It must be noted that the phrase “it goes without saying" can be applied only to those things which are about to be conclusively demonstrated to require utterance.’
That‘s a joke, isn't it? The whole line goes without saying, but was said nevertheless. You might think the same of the whole of the book. Mamet probably does. (Miles Fielder)
a fully paid-up member of society. It's a long and tortuous road, very much in the vein of Kathy Burke’s sitcom Gimme, Gimme, Gimme; the main character in Julie Alpine’s debut
CONTEMPORARY FICTION
Sensible Shoes (Citron Press £7.99)
. 1k at also suffers from delusions of self— In chapters no longer than five pages
worth and shares her flat with a gay bloke. Here though, the humour IS a bit thin on the ground.
Opening with Kelly writing her mid- 20's wish list — a charming, wealthy
with bold type and short paragraphs to
journey of one Kelly Stewart, as she sets out on the road towards becoming
' suounv my? . ~ :msucnoumnn