Reviews
Books Tuvalu
HAVE YOU
READ…
Andrew O’Connor ALLEN AND UNWIN
Reviewed by J. Boyd Noah’s story is coloured by a driftnet of characters cast across the Pacific and stuck to him by spindly webs. Every relationship in this novel is tenuous. This may explain the ever-tilting and ill-making feeling of the entire book. Noah Tuttle’s life is a dull-ache. The whole-story would be a carsick journey if only you could experience
than her fair share of the Aussie version of a stiff upper lip. She exits the room with typical stoicism and this reader was left screaming ‘It wasn’t you! It was him! He’s so lazy!’ It’s almost as if his feelings are afterthoughts used to justify his tremendous inaction.
this same nausea on a flight from Melbourne to Tokyo.
The first-person narration is particularly tough when you are sharing cramped quarters with an emotional retard. Andrew O’Connor’s sometimes awkward phrasing can make living with Noah difficult as well. An over abundance of ‘jutting jaws’ and an amateur use of cliché literary tropes like the Ferris Wheel can be cringesome, but after a laborious introduction of Mami (a wealthy and cruel hotel heiress with an annoyingly over-Westernised beauty) in the beginning of his book, the Australian O’Connor comes up with an earnestly lonely story about a lazy young man teaching English in Japan. The book ends with Noah on the brink of finding his Tuvalu, the Pacific respite that will cure all his (many) ills; and it ends well. In summation, or, in the vernacular, ‘O’Connor’s debut novel is good, but’.
Noah is a young man grappling — in his own lazy way — with questions of love. His inquiry seems strictly theoretical however, given that it is nearly inconceivable that someone like Noah were capable of experiencing such a depth of feeling. Thankfully, this is not some OE tale of excessive sex with poorly constructed female characters abroad and, for variation, at home. Not only is Noah emotionally incompetent, but he is also lacklustre in the sack: prematurely ejaculating and failing to ejaculate by turns. At one point, having failed to bring their lovemaking to its ‘rightful’ end, his girlfriend Tilly says, ‘It was me.’ She is a redheaded girl with freckles and more
Shanghai Boy RANDOM HOUSE
ISSUE 16 / 31 JULY 2006
Reviewed by Michelle Coursey
The descriptions in this novel are vivid, but depressing. The city of Shanghai is largely represented as a vast metropolis full of disease, flies, humidity and poverty. A typical passage – “solid, gritty apartment blocks crammed between gritty streets filled with petrol and diesel
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Reviewed by M.Emery Transmetropolitan is a ten-volume collection of graphic novels written by Warren Ellis and illustrated by Darick Robertson. The ten volumes collect the 60 single comics that were published by DC Comics under their Helix and Vertigo Imprints. The tale is set in a dystopian future and chronicles the exploits of gonzo journalist Spider Jerusalem as he battles corruption and abuse of power that the outgoing and incoming presidents of the United States have inflicted upon the people of America. Spider is a madman of a character, prone to sudden acts of violence and excessive rants. A lot of Spider’s power is in his words as exemplified in the first story arc when he stops a riot with an article. Spider’s character is very much influenced by Hunter S. Thompson, quite possibly taking things up a notch or twelve from what Thompson got away with in his lifetime. Spider is joined in his adventures by an assortment of supporting characters, chiefly his two assistants, ex stripper/nun turned bodyguard Channon Yarrow and his editor’s goth niece Yelena Rossini. These two are known collectively as the filthy assistants and Spider has them keep his drug supplies well stocked amongst other things.
Stevan Eldred-Grigg
In this New Zealand writer’s latest novel, Manfred Morse, a middle-aged professor facing nervous breakdown, hightails it to Shanghai for a change of scene. While his father dies back home, Manfred seeks out sex and passion with young Chinese men, and finds himself at the centre of a murder enquiry when one of them goes missing.
Transmetropolitan (1997) Warren Ellis
fumes – the pavements slippery with gobs of spit – stump their way north and south”. This is constantly contrasted with the open air of the beaches back here in New Zealand – this kind of comparison takes place the whole way through. The novel has an air of malaise and dissatisfaction, but it is consistent with the general depression of the main character, so it works. READ IT IF…You are tired of city-life and want an excuse to head to the beach
Warren Ellis is well known in the comic community for crafting tales based on the future that we are all facing now. Darick Robertson has illustrated these post cyberpunk tales with immense detail; every page is crammed with references to how the world of the future will differ to the world of today. Transmetropolitan is told with wickedly black humour and a lot of that is also in the finer details of Darick’s work. The ten volumes of Transmetropolitan can be read individually or as a whole for there are many threads that tie together from the first to the last volume. All ten volumes of this series are available from Mark One on Victoria St.