Books
Reviews
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llISll )HlflAl, DRAMA ALAN SPENCE The Pure Land lCanongatei 0000
Former Scottish Writer of the Year, Alan Spence takes a leap back into fiction with a masterly epic that charts the life and loves of legendary Scotsman, Sir Thomas Blake Glover. In the latter half of the 19th century, Glover was a merchant for a European trading company in Nagasaki and would offer himself as both an industrial and revolutionary catalyst for Japan, pioneering the county’s first coal mine, dry dock and locomotive,
and even arming samurai clans against the shogun.
Acknowledged as the most famous foreigner in Japan and first non- Japanese to be awarded the Order of the Rising Sun, Glover’s second wife is accepted as having provided the inspiration for John Luther Long’s (and later Puccini’s) Madame Butterfly. Doubtless this is a yarn that could practically tell itself, but Spence offers such a thoughtful empathy to his subject, bringing together his favoured themes of Eastern philosophy and mysticism with his love of poetry, specifically haiku and tanka, that The Pure Land takes the form of exotic adventure, heartfelt romance and spiritual epic; at once almost hard to believe and utterly convincing.
The author adopts an effortless, straightforward narrative for the most part, uncomplicated in its delivery of this remarkable Scot’s travails from Bridge of Don to a feudal Japan on the cusp of international acceptance, but also adopts generational leaps, opening with Nagasaki’s annihilation at the hands of the A-bomb and closing with a latter day glimpse of the man’s extraordinary legacy. The outcome is an ambitious, human and wholly gratifying epic of life, love and derring-do. (Mark Edmundson)
CULTURAL HISTORY GIACOMO PAPI Under Arrest iGrantal 0...
It's prOfOund and potentially embarrassmg to be photographed at yoiir lowest ebb. The police mugshot is the time when the thing yOu most want to do is the only thing yOu cannot: put a hand up to block the camera‘s gaze. Who could exer torget Michael Jackson's look: that of a terrified foal”? Albeit a foal who has Suffered many years of extensive. ill-adVised plastic surgery. Others
have used the moment as a photo-op to further their cause or enhance their coolness: Jane Fonda's fist salute Or Steve McQueen's peace
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18 THE LIST :4 Aug—T Sep 2006
Sign (though the former's arrest fOr her Vietnam protesting is a tad mOre credible than the latter's for being sauced at the wheeli. But it's not only famous folk who are afforded this defining moment through the police snapper's lens. Most chilling of all here are the mugshots of Auschwitz prisoners and child prostitutes in Shanghai at the beginning of the 20th century. These are terrifying, provocative dOCUments. (Brian Donaldsonl
D VID PEACE The Damned Utd 0...
rat/3
Perhaps David Peace has to get as far away from the area he was bOrn in to write abOut it. This Tokyo-based writer has written some brutal and brilliant books abOut Yorkshire ever Since he moved away: the Red Riding Quartet lbased around the search for a serial killer which eventually ended in the arrest of Peter Sutcliffei was followed by (3884 which delved deep inSide the miners strike around the Wakefield and Orgreave areas. The books reeked of atmOSphere and probed far into the psyches of those involved.
Peace has transported himself back once again to recall in the most minute detail the rise of Brian Clough from decent footballer to legendary manager who lasted a mere 44 days at Leeds United when they were the most hated team in English football. It tells of the Joys and J€a|OUSleS triumphs and traumas of being a maverick during the 1970s whose methods left him loathed by those he needed the most.
(Brian Donaldsonl
SOCIAL DRAMA IRVINE WELSH The Bedroom Secrets of the Master Chefs {Jonathan Capei OOOO
Irvine Welsh's eighth book finds him in as coruscating and confrontational a mood as ever, althOugh there is a new morality to The Bedroom Secrets of the Master Chefs which gives it a real depth and intensin to boot. Essentially a mash up of
The plot Is §}()i"ilil anal supernatural; Skinner and Kibb, are r:.ai:; at work when Skinner manages to hex Kli)l),. so that his geek, colleague takes all his hangoxers and comedowhs lOr hint. This SOLlliClS great, but of course it doesn't go to plan, and the Symbiotic fOlElllOlthlill/ the two establish is at the core of this soihtillating novel about the pomtlessness of hate and the treachery of alcoholism,
(DOLig Johnstohei
Comics
MEXICAN SOAP OPEPA GILBERT HERNANDEZ Luba: The Book of Ofelia
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Otherwise known as the 21st book in the series which collects Los Bros Hernandez's magic realist graphic soap opera. Love 8 Poe/«'ets. the enorn‘ous prOJeCt which Siblings Gilbert. Jaime land occaSionaIly Marioi began back in the early 1980s. This one is the second of three volumes of short stories
ALSO PUBLISHED
Dianne Setterflold The Thirteenth Tale A dark mystery in the vein of Daphne du Mauriei about family seerets and the potency of sterytelling. Orion. Roger Hutchinson Ca/um Road The true story of a crofter on a remote island off Skye who fought to keep his area alive. Bir/inn.
Joel Meyerowitz Aftermath A photographic record Of the clean-up operation at GrOund Zero. Phaidon. Claire Messud The Emperor's Children The modern day Edith Wharton delivers a novel about contemporary Manhattan. PicadOr. Vikram Chandra Sacred Games A very long book indeed about the Mumbai underworld. Faber.
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