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‘i.’ 2' /;‘l blaltlt I: SUSIE MAGUIRE Furthermore
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FAMll..Y DPAMA WILL EAVES Nothing to Be Afraid Of
Picador, 0000
Earl»; or: in trio latest novel by Tunes Literary Supplement arts edttor
(IF/Mia”? l")HAt’.lA RODGE GLASS No Fireworks trat ,ézr. Q...
Will Faves. an unexpected seismic ll(:lli(}l‘ hits the theatre in which young. étlil'£t(ltl‘.‘(3 sister Martna Citation is treading} the wants as an tip-and- ()(Jlltzlltj{1(ll'tit,‘3. ‘.‘."ltt') says actors don't think
they're the centre of the
world? Yet the earthquake is the signal tor similar stirrings in the relationship between Martha arid
her Circle of fellow thespians; not least older. less attractive Sister Alice. who now ntoonltghts as a pseudortyntous drama critic (once tittenxtewng Martha by phone in a 'l‘.igh-pitcl‘ted secretarial accent' as cover). Then there are the showbiz legends and sons of hypnottsts to yet further flesh Out the eventual revelations of some very strange people.
As such, Eaves' prose takes a dBCIdedly polite. middle-Class tone. Yet it's also warm and comfortable to read. and often as cracklineg elocnient as the dense plot. One to recommend. althOugh performers themselves may find it Qtitte unmissable.
(DaVld Pollock;
Not content to subsist on his reputation as a promising young writer with a sickeningly bright future, Rodge Glass has produced a fiction debut dealing with the granddaddy of all literary issues. No Fireworks is, quite literally, a matter of life and death. Glass’ narrator is Abraham ‘Abe’ Stone, Jewish history teacher and burgeoning alcoholic, whose three marriages spawned one son, Nathan, himself nurturing a gambling addiction, and a precocious 14-year-old granddaughter Lucille. Four generations of the same family have existed together in disharmony under the same ramshackle roof until the death of Abe‘s iconoclastic mother Evelyn. This event is the catalyst for Nathan’s long-suffering wife Arabella to bail out on her dysfunctional family while pathetic Nathan takes to his bed. Meanwhile, Abe is forced to do a spot of timely soul searching when his dead mother starts addressing him and sending letters of advice from beyond the grave. The bewildered patriarch’s quest into why his life has been so inactive, so wasted, is aided by Lucille, expelled from school
for knifing a schoolmate and lifelong friend Henry.
Glass’ engaging debut deals with perennial questions of self-knowledge, life and death, personal belief systems and belonging with warmth and humour. The gallery of characters, from increasingly deranged Evelyn to the kindly Henry, are memorably larger than life, but it is the protagonist Abe’s movingly comical journey of self-discovery that’s the greatest pleasure for the reader. (Allan Radcliffe)
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' r. I" THE LIST 33