Good Book Guide 5 - September, 2002: archive
Discuss my book selection in the Forum - and add you own recommendations.
Reviews.
The Man who Walks. Alan Warner. Cape.
Warner's surreal story has surely provoked a higher word count in comment than it?s own length already. The pleasure I gained comparing reviews provided some compensation for the suffering involved in actually finishing this novel. There are images here I'm having serious difficulty forgetting. Thanks a lot Alan! Although the final pages are almost as inspired as the opening ones, I wish I'd abandoned this book half way, while I was still thrilled and laughing out loud, in spite of the abundance of crap with which its pages are splattered. But being thorough, sticking with it, I found myself veering towards, though not in total agreement with, the "trash without the conviction or passion of good trash" school. In parts it is an "immense delight" as Ali Smith claims. "Paulette spent so long in bed her nail varnish matched her pyjamas" , "an eidetic country made of memory alone." To say that of the entire book seems odd, when ideas that managed to escape being flogged to death are insufficiently thought through. The Man who Walks started life as a short story with potential. It's a great theme, the alienation from and contempt for the "settled community" experienced by a non-member. As an old granny, I hope Warner returns to it twenty years on, taking more care.
Find it at Amazon: The Man Who Walks
Scots Wha Hae Tae. Alasdair Anderson, Douglas McNaughton and Martin Coventry. Goblinshed.
Light relief after Warner, this jolly little book will bring a smile to the sourest face. Those cousins in Toronto would surely welcome it for Christmas. There's nothing deep of course, it's all parodies and mickey taking, but any new light shed on the history of our ancient nation is welcome. If you want to know your Jameses or how the CSA pursued Jock Tamsan, and what the Romans never did for us, or if you seek further explanation of the Synod of Whitby , buy this book. Alternatively you can subscribe to the "Hot Scot Talk" chatline with its guaranteed hard-core Scottish conversation. (Nice weather but we'll pay for it?0891 111701, aye changed days right enough?0891 170 100).
Find it at Amazon: Scots What Hae Tae!: Wha's Like Us? Damn...
The Scottish Enlightenment. Alexander Broadie. Birlinn.
Broadie is professor of Logic and Rhetoric At Glasgow, the chair once occupied by Adam Smith. In the eighteenth century "Scots produced works of genius in chemistry, geology, engineering, economics, sociology, philosophy, poetry and painting." David Hume and Adam Smith are simply the best known names in a group who thought their way across frontiers and on to new intellectual worlds.
This book, the first for the general reader, explains how influential the doctrines of Enlightenment were, for example, on the writings of Karl Marx and the American Constitution. New traditions were created which animate and inspire the world and Scotland even now. Broadie's canvas is wide, from civil society and religion, to the arts and sciences and his optimistic conclusion, that we Scots still live in an Age of Enlightenment, is well argued. I am taking my time with this book. It's a great reference, not a quick read.
Find it at Amazon: The Scottish Enlightenment
Scotlands of the Mind. Angus Calder, Luath.
It's an ambitious title. After the controversy in the columns of the Herald, I wondered what this "collection of essays exploring the Scottish psyche through a range of historical, literary and cultural interests that have shaped the Scotland of today" was all about. One glimpse at the index is enough to see what fun it must be, being a "cultural historian" like Calder and posing questions like "Does Scotland as a nation have any real existence?" Continuing the tradition described above, his answers range from intriguing to predictable. This volume is as dotted with comparative analyses as a border hill with sheep. And it not only sets the record straight on Knox and offers an opinion on "tourocracy" but also revisits Prebble, the Empire and John Maclean et al. We can't have too many invaluable insights into the Scottish psyche.
Find it at Amazon: Scotlands of the Mind
Kartography, kamila shamsie, Bloomsbury.
Karim and Raheen, best friends whose parents were once engaged to each other, enjoy a privileged, chauffeur driven childhood in Karachi in the years after the civil war of 1971. In this gated society, where people are more interested in parties than politics, Karim's problematic Bengali heritage is rarely commented on. Karim moves to London and we follow Raheen to the USA. Back home and reunited in the 1990s, they slowly explore the guilty family secrets and their love for one another. Mapping--geographical, political and emotional, is central to the book.
Only an insider like Shamsie could analyse Pakistan's highly stratified bourgeoisie society this well. Civil unrest gets in the way of one's manicure and is such an inconvenience! The squalid lives of the less well off are glimpsed occasionally through car windows and her characters escape unscathed from a threatening encounter with the underclass, similar to the triggering incident in the "Bonfire of the Vanities".This seems almost anachronistic to the western reader. While capitalising on her literary upbringing, Shamsie seems to be as well aware of its limitations as she is of the absence of democracy in Pakistan. Described as the Jane Austen of Karachi, she is a name to watch.
Find it at Amazon: Kartography
Recommendations.
Austerlitz. W G Sebald. Penguin.
I devoured this on holiday, the best book I've read all year. It fascinated me from the outset, when the narrator meets Austerlitz and listens to his thoughts on the architecture of stations, fortifications and prisons. The story once started can't be stopped. It has only one break and is punctuated with images, not paragraphs or chapters. A devoted photographer, Sebald didn?t caption the illustrations. Their meaning is in the surrounding text. We consider for ourselves whether they are "true". And this is how he writes, determined to make the point with implication and suggestion. I have not read such a powerful account of the devastation wrought by the dispersal of the Jews from Prague and their treatment by the Nazis. Only a few books like Cold Mountain give such an intense sense of place. Even rarer are those dealing with the relationship of buildings to their history. The hypnotic description of how Austerlitz discovers the streets where he was born is superb, as is the Paris Library section.
Sebald published four books in translation since 1996, the Emigrants, the Rings Of Saturn, Vertigo and Austerlitz. He was reluctant to call his books novels and developed a new literary form, part hybrid novel, part memoir and part travelogue, often involving the experiences of one "WG Sebald." He courted controversy by stating "I don't think one can write from a compromised moral position". Last December he died in a car crash in East Anglia. Thanks Huw, for the recommendation.
Find it at Amazon: Austerlitz
Obey the Giant. Rick Poyner, August Birkhauser.
Rick Poynor, founder editor of Eye, is the author of seven books, including Design Without Boundaries (1998). In this essay collection, he questions what it means now that companies, advertisers and designers have co-opted the self-referential "Irony" of the last decade. He scrapes away the seductive surfaces of visual culture to reveal the reality beneath and provides a critical insight into the changing dialogue between advertising and design. Other essays address the topics of visual journalism; brands as religion; the new solipsism; graphic memes; the pleasures of imperfect design; and the poverty of "cool".
The world dominance of huge corporations is invariably expressed by visual means. At a time when challenges to mono-culture dominate the global agenda, this book sheds light on alternative ways of engaging with design. It will appeal to anyone with an interest in design, advertising, cultural studies, media studies, and the visual arts.
Find it at Amazon: Obey the Giant: Life in the Image World
Stencil Graffiti Tristan Manco Thames and Hudson.
Whereas our own Glaswegian vandals prefer to stick with the familiar and have made few advances since the days of chalk and tongs ya bass, the tunnels and walls of distant cities are graced with cutting edge stencil graffiti. You may spot the odd stencil like worldcom here, and we have some quality art around, the walls near Charing Cross for example. Although the Arches hosted work by the revered Banksy, our tunnels are daubed with backward looking slogans and character references out of keeping with the new Scotland. Glaswegian street art has been described as "not very creative". The CCA and Clydebank are further apart than the 62 bus route. Here's hoping that street artists from Partick to Polmadie will look to existencilism and beyond for inspiration!
Find it at Amazon: Stencil Graffiti
The Glasgow Boys. Billcliffe. John Murray.
This paperback came out this year, but the first edition of the Glasgow Boys came out in 1985. It was at the end of the 19th century when Glasgow was the Second City, that Crawhall, Guthrie, Paterson, Lavery et al were painting, and though they went through a trough of neglect, their reputations are now unassailable. Without them we would not have had the Colourists, or CRM or the "girls" or the art that is happening now. The prints are wonderful and so much of the commentary is fascinating in this book. How the snooty attitude adopted by the Edinburgh based RSA to Glaswegian painters sent them to London and back again, more confident than had they stayed at home. The story of the "Scottish Art Review". An essential addition to the library.
Find it at Amazon: The Glasgow Boys: The Glasgow School of...
Cowboys are my Weakness. Pam Houston. Virago.
I haven't time or space to cover all the books I want and many have to wait, but this wonderful short story anthology has been in the pile long enough. It is about how women relate to each other, to men and to the great outdoors and should appeal to the Scots penchant for all things country and western.
Houston knows how much it matters whether people are married or single. The title story is great but "How to talk to a hunter" is the best. It's been imitated by numerous writers but never matched. She more than deserves the reputation she's carved for herself in American writing.
Find it at Amazon: Cowboys Are My Weakness
Events coming up.
Ottakars have Mel B at lunchtime on the 6th, talking about "Catchafire."
Borders Irvine Welsh on the 11th is cancelled. Ticket holders are asked to get in touch with the store.
Thursday 26th 7pm. Launch of a new anthology of Scot's writing, Things can only get Bitter.
Giles Foden is coming in October.
Every Saturday at 11am, there is children's storytime for 3-8 year old.
Waterstones Sauchiehall St. LULU Monday 21st October 6pm AL KENNEDY Wednesday 23rd October 7pm.
CM September 02.
Archive: Book Guide 4
Discuss my book selection in the Forum - and add you own recommendations.
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