Reviews
SOCIAL DRAMA MOHSIN HAMID The Reluctant Fundamentalist (Hamish Hamilton) .0.
i. i . atrium mmmwsi
Mohsin Hamid's spare. haunting second novel takes the form of a one- sided conversation struck up between a bearded Pakistani man and an American tourist in a restaurant in Lahore. Changez was once top of his graduating class at Princeton and star of the financial company Underwood and Simpson. but as he reveals over the course of an easy evening‘s conversation. l 1 September and its aftermath gradually led him to question his allegiances.
Hamid slowly and painstakingly builds Changez' shift from complacency to fury at the US government's treatment of his home country and her allies. not to mention his sense of personal alienation.
COLLECTED LETTERS
this attitude reflecting the gradually eroding sympathy towards America in the wake of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. But the plot trajectory is somewhat predictable. and there's a melodramatic turn at the end. which rather undermines the otherwise sustained quiet tone.
(Allan Radcliffe)
TEEN DRAMA STEWART] WISEMAN/ BRIGG-
Cathy’s Book (Bloomsbury) 000
It's not enough to just write a book these days. it would seem. With this quirky little multimedia project. a melange of peripheral paraphernalia is wielded to keep our involvement levels unusually high in this identity saga/crime mystery: websites. real phone numbers. a YouTube trailer and a package of clues attached to the book will help or hinder your pleasure.
Cathy is a mixed-up
LAURA 8: JUNE HIRD
Dear Laura (Canongate) 000.
Not a writer who has been known for her schmaltz, Laura Hird might have shaken up a few of her fans for a second when they heard that a book of letters penned by June, her late mum, was the next publication after last year’s raw bunch of short stories, Hope and Other Urban Tales. Fortunately, it’s easy to see the roots and inspiration behind Laura’s talents as creative sparks and an honest,
jagged sensibility shine from the pages.
The correspondence (bookended by details of the context in which it is written) kicks off from the period of Laura’s departure in 1988 to study Eng Lit in London, and is infused with the standard worries of a mother whose child has fled the nest. Was she eating properly? Was she doing enough studying and keeping the partying to a respectable level? If the clothes she has sent down don’t fit, they need to be sent back immediately (a favoured Hird senior word, usually underlined). All the while, June is on an NHS waiting list for a mitral valve replacement while fielding calls from Laura’s hopeless ex and fretting about the charlatan who is supposed to be transforming the bathroom and kitchen. As the years go by and Laura moves back to Edinburgh, her literary career still waiting to
take off, death begins to strikes the family down.
This isn’t just a moving insight into a particular mother and daughter’s close and, by natural extension, occasionally strained relationship but somehow tells the universal truth of all mothers
and daughters. (Brian Donaldson)
girl who has just been dumped by a chap she
suspects might be either
a vampire. drug baron. art dealer. master manipulator or a dead man walking or all five. When. against the advice of her superswot best pal Emma. she starts sniffing around for the whole truth. Cathy discovers more questions. leading her into ever increasing circles of danger. Kicking off like Laura Palmer's diary has been stolen by Bridget Jones before veering towards a Nancy Drew romp. the overall dizzying effect masks the rather flimsy drama. Albeit in a wildly entertaining fashion. (Brian Donaldson)
RELIGIOUS DRAMA MICHAEL MUHAMMAD KNIGHT
The Taqwacores (Telegram) 00
Originally printed on a photocopier and distributed from the back of Michael Muhammad Knight's car in mosque parking lots. The Taqwacores charts the attempts by Yusef. a punk and convert to Islam at 16. to live entirely by Muslim principles and faith. Knight's continual examinations of Islam and punk could have been interesting and energetic. but at 250 pages the repetitive conversations and contemplations slow the
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pace and largely supplant plot and character.
Yusef prays five times a day hoping to find spiritual fulfilment and. at times. succour in Muslim teachings so it's unsurprising that it shapes his life and character. However. when every party features religious debate. Yusef's every waking moment appears taken up with prayer or reflections on his faith. and each page requires consultations of the glossary of Arabic words. the book's themes become irksome. It's an educational. though not entirely pleasurable. read. (Katie Gould)
SPORT HISTORY ANDY MARTIN
Stealing The Wave (Bloomsbury) .00
For a surfer. life's major battle is mainly between board and wave. body and gravity. But often it's one surfer against another. In the 1980s the biggest surfing battle was between two
Books
men: Mark Foo and Ken Bradshaw. Foo was young. sleek, sophisticated and among the first to understand the commercial possibilities of surfing beyond the beach hut. Bradshaw was resolutely old school. a staunch. immovable force. carved from Texan granite. The pair met head on among the waves of Hawaii. and one of the greatest rivalries the sport has ever known was born.
MARTIN
Andy Martin was more than just a casual observer. Given the intimate. testosterone— charged nature of pro surfing he had access to both men as they vied for supremacy. This book bubbles with passion for the art of catching a wave. and while it's intrinsically nerdy. it celebrates two incredible, if flawed
' athletes. who. inevitably,
would have been lesser men were it not for the other. (Mark Robertson)
ALSO PUBLISHED .
5 FICTION DEBUTS
Rebecca Stott Ghostwa/k A literary spooky tale set in contemporary Cambridge about animal extremists and a 400—year-old crime for which Isaac Newton is a suspect. Weidenfe/d & Nico/son.
Fiona Campbell Death of a Salaryman The story of a Japanese businessman who loses his job on his 40th birthday and plunges headlong into a series of crazy events. Chatto 8. Windus.
Robert Low The Whale Road Charting the adventures of a Viking clan in hot pursuit of the secret stash of Attila the Hun. HarperCo/lins. KO Dahl The Fourth Man A Scandinavian crime drama about an Oslo rozzer who gets involved with the sister of a fugitive. Is he being used, we wonder? Faber.
Will Davis My Side of the Story Who could resist a merger of Adrian Mole and Queer as Folk? That’s right, no one can. Bloomsbury.
l— 1:") Mar 2007 THE LIST 27