Saturday Round Up

Things I have been flicking through this week.

I have not read Twilight, neither have I seen the film, but I am aware that vampires are de rigueur among certain sectors of femalekind. And goths of both sexes. A group of writers from The Onion have ganged up to write The New Vampire's Handbook which is a comprehensive, knowledgable and very amusing guide to life as a bloodsucker. Strikes me that it could be enjoyed equally by recent vampiric converts as well as those for whom Twilight is all piffling nonsense.

My favourite sections were the ones on Fangs & Oral Hygeine and the Guide to Prey (Prey Type D are not to be attacked under any circumstances as it would cause a global crisis. Prey Type D is Bono.)

Novels about rock bands are often poo (although this is a notable exception) but Big in Japan: A Ghost Story by M. Thomas Gammarino has started out promisingly and could be another rare decent stab. A struggling US band, one album in, decides to tour Japan under the misguided belief that they are bigger out there than at home. When one of their number falls for a sex worker he refuses to come home. It took a few pages to get into the style but I am going to crack on with this one. I have a feeling it might be pretty good.

An intelligent thriller based around the discovery of two lost Goya paintings, Haarlson Phillips' After Goya is as good, if not better, than a lot of the so-called blockbusters I used to have to read at Waterstone's. It is, I think, self-published, or at least it will be soon, and it surprises me that it hasn't found a mainstream publisher. For more information on the author and the book you can visit www.aftergoya.blogspot.com. 

Another interesting self-published work is Songs from the Other Side of the Wall by Dan Holloway. The day the Berlin Wall comes down, Szandi's mother walks out on her husband and child in Hungary to return to her native England. Eighteen years later, Szandi is now part of Budapest's art and music scene carving her own little bohemian niche in life. An unexpected letter, as they often do in fiction, changes everything. Some moments of genuine promise in this debut novel suggest that Holloway could have a future outside of the world of peer review sites and print on demand. He has a blog here and you can download the book for free or buy a hard copy online.

I have never been a fan of Tony Parsons so a quote from him on the cover of Get Me Out of Here by Henry Sutton is the opposite of a selling point. Nonetheless, I ploughed on. Well, for ten pages or so. The narrator is having a bad day, one that rapidly gets worse. Unfortunately he comes across as a complete dick so I stopped reading before my day got any worse as well.

The provenance of Ian Beck is most intriguing. He started out as an illustrator and is the man who created the iconic Goodbye Yellow Brick Road album cover but he is also the author of several books for children. Pastworld is his first novel for young adults and takes a not-entirely-original premise and gives is a rather spiffing spin. The year is 2048 and London has been transformed into a giant theme park, a recreation of its Victorian past. Eve has lived in Pastworld all her life and is unaware that it is just a simulation, for her it is all too real. Caleb is a tourist visiting the attraction who stumbles across a murder and ends up on the run. A little bit Truman Show, a little bit gothic horror, a little bit Victorian crime. This is a book I suspect will win over just as many adult readers as teenagers.

When everyone over 15 vanishes into thin air the small American town of Perdido Beach descends into teenage chaos. Gone by Michael Grant has been much hyped with a storming quote from Stephen King - 'I love this book' - and ads on train stations and bus shelters up and down the land. And, for once, this is a book that delivers. Not quite the new Lord of the Flies but a genuinely stark piece of fiction for older kids.

The Horn is a classic of the jazz age recently reissued by Souvenir Press. The author, John Clellon Holmes, was a friend of Jack Kerouac and there is an obvious Beat sensibility to this tale of a tenor saxophonist who gets blown away by a young upstart. Should appeal to fans of the Beats and those partial to a bit of Coltrane.

Comments

[Dan Holloway]

Scott, thank you so much or mentioning my novel. It's an honour to have a mention in the same piece as Haarlson's After Goya, which is a book I've known and very much admired since its early days.

[Haarlson Phillipps]

Many thanks for the quick flick, Scott. As well as the blog readers can check out the book website at http://www.aftergoya.com.
Thanks, your generous comments have caused a huge smile to ripple through the household.

[Haarlson Phillipps]

Thanks for your kind and generous mention Dan, I am feeling a little embarrassed.
Wishing you well with Songs from the Other Side of the Wall.¡Salut!

[Stephanie]

I am still reading Wolf Hall. Can't get into it at all. (I am doing a bit of Georgette Heyer on the side. And some John Irving.)

[Dani]

woah. Ian Beck. I had no idea. Still only remember him as author of cute picture books (in my long gone days as a childrens' bookseller). Wow.

[Henry Sutton]

Re. Get Me Out Of Here.
Thanks for taking a look but I can't help feeling you should have read a little more - might have learned something.
Best regards
Henry Sutton

[Scott Pack]

A perfectly fair point Henry, which is why I made it clear that I had only read a tiny bit. Of course, the fact that I really didn't want to read any more is some sort of indicator but I am more than happy to accept that it may have got loads better if I had ploughed on. But so many books, so little time...

[John Self]

Agreed that the quote from Tony Parsons is practically a deal-breaker - but the one from Geoff Dyer, to my mind, more than balances that out. I always meant to read Sutton's Flying so maybe this will be the one where I finally take the plunge.

[John Self]

Oh and re your status as a Cheever receiver: I'd steer clear of The Wapshot Chronicle if you haven't read any of his other stuff. (I couldn't get through it and I've read most of his other novels.) In fact, try a couple of his stories first - The Swimmer, or Reunion. Both less than ten pages long and positively sizzling.

[John Self]

I was hoping to come back here and tell you that you were a damned fool to give up on Henry Sutton's Get Me Out Of Here. However, as I've just given up on it at the halfway point (though not without stealing a look at the last chapter), I can't. Your decision to take an early bath on this one was entirely justified. This review matches my feelings pretty closely:

http://www.boomuk.net/getmeoutofhere.html

[Scott Pack]

Thank you Mr Self. My Quick Flick policy is not without its flaws and I am always wary of publicly writing a book off when I haven't read the whole thing but giving up on a book is perhaps as telling as it gets.