BOOKS REVIEW continued
MUSIC BIOGRAPHY Martin Huxley Errrrrern: Crossing The Lin (Plexus £8.99)
MARTIN HUXLEY
Anyone wrth one eye and partral hearrrrg knows of Ernrnem, hrs grumpy lrttle krpper' gettrng more exposw‘e than Brrtney Spears' thrghs last year. Whrle hrs musrc remarns captrvatrng, hrs pr'rvate lrfe rs a sorry tatter and thrs (lernsy report attempts to detarl the Irfe, loves and, most often, hates of Marshall Bruce lvlathers lll
After a hrref rundown of hrs forrnatrve years, thrs gurckly degenerates rnto a strrng of arrest sheets and lawsurts, the star's erratrc temper provrrtg to be hrs own worst
enerr‘y There s III: e coric as on For arvy actual thought g as to or how he rs successfu: and t) rnuCl‘ a." analysis as you: 3.0;. r: f' ":1 " the pages of neat o' Sn‘rasr: riffs
Crossrng The Lrne glrbly repor s bat ne‘er guestrons ":rs rrirsog‘,/r'“,’, l‘rovnophob a and Iyrrca‘ psycr‘otrc outbursts Sure he’s a great rhymer, but that doesn't excuse rind beng a dick, and a book abOut a ore-t .s"'t ‘an readrng Mark Robertson
FICTIONAL MEMOIR
William Kowalski Eddie’s Bastard (Black Swan £6.99)
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erlram Kowalskr rs a born storyteller Thrs rs a book whrch mrght flow, rnexorably by, chartrng aloner chrld's rrte of passage rn rural Pennsylvanra But wrthrn hrs steady pace, Kowalsk: frnds all manner of warmrng backwaters rn whrch to pause and bask awhrle, before returnrng to the marn thrust of hrs yarn Ideas are dangled brrefly before the reader, leavrng them to tantalrse only to be tred up chapters later
It’s a delrghtful story too, tellrng of yOung Brlly Mann as he sets about the task of frndrng out who he rs and how he came to be deposrted rn a basket on hrs grandfather's doorstep at an early age wnh the srmple note, ‘Eddre's bastard', attached.
If some of the sub-plots are a mrte too folksy for comfort and the phrlosOphrsrng has a tendenCy towards the lumpen, therr conclusrons always satrsfy. (Thom Drbdrn)
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98 THE llST 5 ran—I8 200‘:
FUTURISTIC DRAMA
Melvin Burgess Bioodtlde (Penguin £5.99)
MELVIN BURGESS
London rs a ravaged, scarred, post- apocalyptrc nrghtmare The drvrde between rrch and poor rs more pronOunced than ever and two warrrng famrlres presrde over the crty Val Volson, the leader of one trrbe, seals a truce between the groups by offerrng hrs fourteen-year-old daughter Srgny's hand rn marrrage to arch enemy Conor
Essentrally a book armed at teenagers, Melvm Burgess (author of fabulously successful Junk) sets out Wrth what threatens to be a Mad Max-by- numbers style caper But rnstead, through the rntroductron of numerous characters and sub-plots, he weaves an old-fashroned, almost Tolkren-lrke web
The fundamental bones of contentron rn the story are standard crrme genre fare, trust, honour, loyalty and betrayal are famrlrar enough rn any gangster tale but thrs rs told from the pornt of vrew of the unernpowered wrthrn the organrsatron, grvrng the story a healthy whrff of tensron and suspense Somethrng everyone wrll appreCIate (Mark Robertson)
DRUG FICTION Jo-Ann Goodwin Danny Boy (Bantam £6.99) tr
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Is anyone else srck to the back teeth of badly wrrtten, grrtty, post-Trarnspottrng stones of drug-addled vrolence and
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DIARY ANTHOLOGY
Irene & Alan Taylor eds The Assassin's Cloak lCa'tor‘tmte {25)
THE ASSASSIN’S CLOAK
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Ir'r'rrt‘ (“Ill xii/.111 'Ilry/rn'
Drpprrrr; rnto sorrreone’s rrra'y (an or- the begrrtrrrng of an r'r‘atxrat on M the lrrect'ress, the rrrrrrreriafr- and the delrr roars l‘rrrf o‘ rl!;< "tress I»: does rt To see the .‘.<)rirf i'tr‘r)_rr;l. anotl‘rer's eyes can be the r: osf refreshrng and enlargrrrg o‘ experrences, and that Is what the best drarrsts allo‘x; you to (It), tn. rnto therr coterre, ieitrrrg you. rr or tl‘err gossrp, therr great t'.r,;.r;"‘_s or profound prxrlrnophres
Thrs purerghty arftho'orlry ar\ extraordrnary mo of drawsts Boss/- the posturrng pengurrr, Kafra the mo monkey, Barbara Pyrrr flutterrrrg air/sf her aviary, ‘v/rrgrrr:a Woolf Lair) .' r; wrth keen eyes from her Ioffy perv , and a cacophony of ot'r‘ers, ClamOurrng for niiHliII/X’
There rs much here to r-"ferfa the delrgntful revelatro' s a“ r 'rarar fer and hrstory, but the sheer ' oer of drarrsts mrlrtates agarns‘. any sort of relatronshrp between art" or a' r: reader, and that rs a star" e “Julre I/lorrrcer
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Continued over page
STAR RATINGS
Unmrssable
- s r r Very good
- r r Worth a shot
Below average
1 You've been warned