Reviews
llCIIONAL MEMOIH DAVE EGGERS What is the What
Hamish Hamilton) 0000.
The world is a hard, cruel, unfair place and nowhere is that more starkly contrasted than when comparing the third and first worlds. Valentino Achak Deng is a Sudanese refugee who escaped the starvation, murder and civil war in his homeland to make it to Atlanta. There he found the civilised first world was arguably just as perilous as the third, with similar struggles in different contexts. While the ever prolific Dave Eggers’ list of titles and side-projects grows, he is still best known for his fictionalised memoir, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius and this book is arguably the first work he has done to compare. What is the What also comes under the fictionalised memoir umbrella, with Valentino’s story told orally to Eggers who built a novel from it. The story itself traverses the Atlantic from Valentino’s new home, where he is attacked and robbed, to his journey across the deserts of Sudan where he walks, as part of a convoy of hundreds of boys to get to Ethiopia, and what he hopes will be safety. If this sounds more than a little harrowing, well it is. Eggers has constructed a dense, intense but moving fable filled with vivid, flawed characters. There is an unerring spirit about Valentino and his story is one that is often so strange it must be true. We can learn much from a book like this but we are never browbeaten, and that is one of its most brilliant qualities. (Mark Robertson)
SOCIAL SAl IRET. MICHAEL CHABON
The Yiddish Policemen's Union lFourth Estate) .00
Michael Chabon's long- awaited seventh novel splices together a comic noir detective story and an alternative history of America. After the collapse of Israel in 1948. European Jews settled in the Sitka District of Alaska. but that was 60 years ago and the USA wants it back. ‘Reversion' is nigh. and the possible Messrah is both a miracle worker and gay drug addict. Suffice to say that certain ultra orthodox gangster elements decide that the situation needs improvement. by way of conspiracy and murder.
It takes a rooted swagger to write this kind of stuff. but Cliabon reaches beyond notions of race to involve American brgwrgs in the climactic act of terrorism. lhis is certainly his most
controversial book to date and won't be for everyone. However. Chabon turns in some finely-tuned portraits of people on the edge. which enriches the Chandler-style mystery story and liurnanises the political theme of eXile. tHannah Adcocki
POI l'llCAl comr by GARY
SHTEYNGART
Absurdistan iGrantar 0.00
Sarcasm and cynicism can be an incredibly tryingcombination in a person. But when it comes to the main protagonist in Gary Shteyngart's second work. it only serves to make him more likeable. This incredibly engaging novel is the
story of Misha Vainberg.
a NYC-obsessed. self- proclaimed ‘tat Russian Jew' With a penchant for rapping and a dark sense of humour similar to that of Peep Shows Mark Corrigan. We follow his search for love and a Belgian passport to an oil-rich former SoVIet republic called Absurdistan where ciVil war is rife and the country is awash With warlords and greedy US tycoons.
Shteyngart's compelling Wit and colourful descriptions expose modern Russia's consumerist heart and thirst for exploiting small
ms. 341%
countries ‘.'.’li|l(} commenting on American hypocrisy. A deeply lunny and intelligent take on Q 1 st century troubles. Absurdistan ‘.'.’l“ have you in stitches from start to finish.
(Camilla Piai
er Ack coMi-nv TORSTEN KROL
Callisto iAtlantici 0...
Authors don't come more enigmatic than Torsten Krol. He lives in Queensland. Australia and Callisto is his second UK release. And that's about all that's known of him since he refuses to
reveal his identity further. even to his publishers. Not that they likely care. so long as novels like this a brilliantly succinct. dry and subtly hilarious comment on modern morality ~ keep coming. Set in backwater Kansas. it charts the trayails of loveably simple hick Odell [)eefus. When his car breaks down on the way to enlist for the US Army. he's taken in by a random local. triggering a bi/arre series of events that sees him stumble helplessly from ‘.'.':tiess patriot to America's mos‘. 'i.'.'anted man. Full of death. drugs. terrorism and corpse hiding. it':: as black as night. but even as Deefus drifts right to the ugly core of contemporary America. Kr‘ol's devilishly sharp pinpricks of humour always keep the tone sufficiently lltllll. Whoever said you shouldn’t tiust stranger's? iMalcoim Jacki
(Elli lllltAl ME’MUIH SARFRAZ MANZOOR Greetings From Bury Park
(Bloomsburyi .0.
Journalist and broadcaster Saifra/ Man/ooi y‘ras two years old when he and his mother and three siblings arrived in l uton from i ahor‘e to iorn his father. It was the mid
'i'()s. and the independent minded and resolutely British Sarfra/ was to spend the best part of the next 20 years butting horns ‘."/llll his proud. strict. though often self contradicting Muslim father.
fiafik
SARFRAZ MANZOOR e"
Man/oor's memoir is an affectionate. at times amusing insight into the contradictions oi seconti-generation lives. the account of the prodigal son's relationship y'rith his father and desire to make him proud. being particularly engaging. Yet. Man/oor the youiigers account of his escape from the strict confines of race and religion into American television the music of Hutce Springsteen and other popular culture. feels somewhat familiar. and causes the narrative to descend into the kind of nostalgia test that has kept so many backs in work over the last decade. iAllan HtttkillliOI
S
ALSO PUBLISHED
5 EUROPEAN THRILLERS
Arnaud Delalande The Dante Trap A French thriller set in 18th century Venice. where folk are being horribly dispatched in the style of the /I7f8fl70 torments. l/Veidente/d & Nico/son.
Ake Edwardson Frozen Tracks Some nasty things are happening to university students in Gothenburg. and DC! Winter is determined to get to the root of it. Harv/ll Sec/(er:
Frode Grytten In the Shadow of the River A Norwegian crime novel about a iourno looking into a death which has OCCurred in a small town where racial tension is high. Abacus.
Martin Cruz Smith Stalin's Ghost ls it possible that Big Joe‘s ghost could be haunting the Moscow Metro? Arkady Renko investigates. Macmillan.
Eugenio Fuentes The Blood of the Angels From Spain. a man in crisis discovers that a gun has been stolen form the safe deposit box which contained his late mum effects. What can it all mean? Arcadia.
' THE LIST 29