list.co.uk/books
FAMILY DRAMA STEFAN MERRILL BLOCK The Storm at the Door (Faber) ●●●●● Based on the true story of Stefan Merrill Block’s grandparents, Katharine and Frederick, The Storm at the Door is the fictionalised account of the trauma which lay deep in the heart of their relationship. A veteran of World War II, Frederick’s behavioural extremes (charming and affable one minute, unreasonable and alcoholic the next) finally led to Katharine helping her husband seek help in the Mayflower Home for the Mentally Ill, his boozed-up flashing on a Boston freeway the final straw. But as the details of his incarceration make
clear, it’s much easier to have someone placed into a facility than it is for them ever to be considered for release. Bleak and depressing as the scenes within the Mayflower are, this is also a
tender story about love going sour, the intricate minutiae of the pair’s life together making the separation too painful to stand. Although from time to time Block unwisely lets go of a tight rein to flamboyantly show off his literary skills, he succeeds in leaving behind a powerful testament. (Brian Donaldson)
SUPERHERO COMIC MARK WAID & JORGE MOLINA Captain America: Man Out of Time (Marvel UK) ●●●●●
Another month and yet another big-screen movie adaptation. Captain America is a peculiarly old- fashioned character, the US embodied in a patriotic soldier who risked his life taking the ‘Super Soldier Serum’ to become the ultimate warrior. He fought during WWII until becoming frozen in time saving the world, only to be thawed out years later.
And that’s where we pick up the story: Steve Rodgers has just been revived and is understandably having some difficulty getting his head round leaping forward in time by several
decades. It’s an aspect of Cap’s character that’s already been covered several times before as he adjusts to ‘the future’ and joins the Avengers. The art is nice but unexceptional; similarly the usually reliable Mark Waid feels like he’s coasting when it comes to script duties. As an introduction to the modern itineration of the character it’s a good entry point, but it could do with a touch less flag-waving sentimentalism. (Henry Northmore)
Books REVIEWS
FUTURISTIC THRILLER JONATHAN TRIGELL Genus (Corsair) ●●●●● After dealing with child murder in Boy A and a rapist in Cham, for his third novel Jonathan Trigell expands the violence to a massive scale. Set in a dystopian future London, society is segregated along genetic lines: the biologically engineered Generich and the naturally conceived Unimproved. The narrative cycles through players on both sides of the divide as a serial killer preys upon the genetically disadvantaged, and as the disparate strands are woven together in inevitable
synchronicity the killings are revealed to be a front for more sinister crimes.
Trigell goes to great lengths to inject literary allusions and philosophical musings into a book which some writers would have been content to leave as a page- turner, with mixed results. The gradually thickening plot is handled with dexterity for maximum intrigue, and the commanding use of description is almost obscene in its richness. However, the language occasionally oversteps into absurdity and literary references lack subtlety. Genus works best sticking to its roots as a laudable specimen of biopunk. (Suzanne Black)
RELATIONSHIP NOVELLA JULIAN BARNES The Sense of an Ending (Jonathan Cape) ●●●●●
Faulty memories, lifelong regrets and inconsistency between shared histories form the heart of Julian Barnes’ short and sharp new novella. As a title, The Sense of an Ending refers to the way in which his characters’ relations end messily, whether through thwarted love or lives cut short. It might even allude to the reader’s expectations of how this tale will end: the final twist may well surprise many. As a middle-aged divorcee, Tony Webster looks
back on his life and in particular, his schooldays with a clique of friends and the love he never quite had with the prickly Veronica. When she winds up with the crew’s maverick Adrian, it upsets the rejected and humiliated Tony so much he sends off an angry letter to the pair, a missive that still haunts him many years later.
A true master of his craft, Barnes’ precise and economic prose is often a delight, and he packs in some vivid characterisation, scene-drawing and emotional insight within his brief 150 pages. (Brian Donaldson)
ALSO PUBLISHED DEBUT NOVELS
Amor Towles
Described by David Nicholls as ‘a smart, witty, charming Dry Martini of a novel’, Rules of Civility (Sceptre) veers from a photographic exhibit in 1966 to a jazz bar on New Year’s Eve, 1937. In this fizzing debut by Amor Towles (pictured), both places and periods are connected through the splendidly named Katey Kontent, who will eventually realise that some chance encounters shouldn’t be left to the fates. A very different kind of debut comes from Maria Dahvana Headley, whose Queen of Kings (Bantam) heads yet further back in time, to 30BC, as Rome invades Egypt. Cleopatra lies with a snakebite having punctured her flesh, but the book asks this question: what if Cleopatra hadn’t died? Neil Gaiman is a big fan.
The tagline for Matthew Dunn’s Spartan (Swordfish) reads ‘a new breed of spy is born’. Will Cochrane is said ‘ultra-secret super-spy’, an agent whose task is to prevent an Iranian intelligence officer from launching a devastating 9/11-style attack on the West. Dunn spent five years in MI6, so should certainly know what’s he talking about. Meanwhile, Amy Waldman’s The Submission (Heinemann) takes another angle on the post-9/11 world with a novel about controversial plans for a memorial at Ground Zero.
In Anna North’s America Pacifica (Virago), a new ice age has gripped the world, leaving an island off the coast of California as the only warm place left on Earth. There, a 17-year-old girl struggles to track down her missing mother, but stumbles upon another mystery: the origins of America Pacifica itself.
(Brian Donaldson)
21 Jul–4 Aug 2011 THE LIST 39