BAD BOY DRIVE
THE FIRE GOSPEL
BY ROBERT SELLERS
BY MICHAEL FABER
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David Lynch’s 2001 film added much to the surreal and schizophrenic nature of Mulholland Drive, a long and winding beauty spot outside Hollywood, and home to many of the movie industry’s iconic characters, including legendary lotharios Warren Beatty, Marlon Brando, Jack Nicholson and Dennis Hopper -thus, allegedly, lending the stretch of road the star-struck sobriquet ‘Bad Boy Drive’. Sellers is in no way subtle about setting the scene, with a seeming endless supply of quotes from (often anonymous) Hollywood insiders leading him to declare early on that this was the “epicentre of the era’s drug-soaked social scene” and that the aforementioned were “men for whom rules did not apply.” The book does provide entertaining back stories, shedding, for example, new light on Brando’s early career struggles, but the purpose of the whole thing seems to be to strongly reinforce perceptions of the men that we already had. Sellers’ prose is generally lowest common denominator, rendered in this case as sycophantic hero-worship. Ultimately, a bit dull. [Paul Mitchell]
Remember The Da Vinci Code? Consider this the antidote. In The Fire Gospel Michael Faber has fun satirizing that book and its horrible ilk. His plot involves a translator called Theo Gripenkerl stumbling (almost literally) onto some ancient scrolls in Aramaic, the language he happens to be expert in, while in Iraq. This sort of luck may seem familiar to readers of bestsellers. Then the scrolls turn out to be a fifth gospel, but it’s written by a total bore, and is too short to publish by itself. Nonetheless, Theo finds a publisher who makes him pad out the text with an overdone, hysterical account of its discovery. Despite the obvious deficiencies, any news about Jesus sells, and so the book flies off the shelves. And there Grippin’s (he has to change his name) troubles begin. This is a very amusing book, for anyone who thought too much fuss was made over The Da Vinci Code or its imitators. It targets the publishing industry more than anything else, and though it’s short its worth picking up. [Keir Hind]
OUT NOW. PUBLISHED BY PREFACE PUBLISHING. COVER PRICE £17.99
RELEASE DATE 2 JUL. PUBLISHED BY CANONGATE. COVER PRICE £7.99.
LENNOX BY CRAIG RUSSELL
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DON’T RHYME FOR THE SAKE OF RIDDLIN’: THE AUTHORISED STORY OF PUBLIC ENEMY BY RUSSELL MYRIE
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Lennox is, we are promised, the first book in a series about a ‘fixer’ in 1950s Glasgow, by author Craig Russell who once served as a police officer in Scotland. It’s odd then that his protagonist is not in the police – Lennox is some sort of shady middleman, and the plot of the book involves him having to solve a murder he’s a suspect in. Naturally, the police and various criminal elements get in his way, and he plays them off entertainingly against each other. The problem with the book is that the setting is incredibly overdone. Lennox seems to have a geography fetish, and a road map will help readers in passages like: “I swung across the Albert Bridge. Crown Street was empty of cars. From here he could have taken the Carlisle road or…” and it goes on. References to the fifties are similarly laboured: “I found myself thinking that if newly appointed General Secretary Dag Hammarskjöld...” is not the language of a Glasgow hard man. Or anyone else. A pretty good crime thriller, if you can ignore the odd laughable detail. [Ryan Agee]
This is a fairly standard biography that’s lifted above the norm by having a fascinating subject. Public Enemy are one of the greatest hip hop acts ever, and that’s because they (and Chuck D in particular) actually had something important to say. They thrived on rapping about political or public issues, and created huge controversy as a result. This is an authorised biography, which is usually a sign of an anodyne, cleaned up story. But Public Enemy have nothing to hide, and their collective contributions to the book almost always seem open and honest, down to (mercifully briefly) discussing Flavor Flav’s child support payments. The author occasionally overcooks his writing, like when he describes The Bronx as ‘the borough that mothered this rap shit.’ He’s usually more controlled and his contribution as a researcher outweighs any occasional lapses. It’s aimed at existing fans, but PE’s story is compelling enough to have some crossover appeal. [Ryan Agee]
RELEASE DATE: 2 JUL. PUBLISHED BY QUERCUS. COVER PRICE £12.99.
RELEASE DATE: 18 JUNE. PUBLISHED BY CANONGATE. COVER PRICE £9.99 PAPERBACK.
SUM
DAISYCHAIN
BY DAVID EAGLEMAN
BY GJ MOFFAT
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This slim volume is a cult book waiting to happen. For starters, David Eagleman is described on the jacket as a ‘neuroscientist and writer’, a curious combination. The book itself is very curious. It’s made up of 40 short stories, all of which feature a different afterlife, and they’re only linked by all being written in the same style – second person, and summarizing a vast concept. So here you may die and find yourself in a waiting room before you can properly get to heaven, or elsewhere. You’ll only be released when you are forgotten on earth – and so will all the others waiting there. Or, we are all the product of one sentient elementary particle rushing about incredibly rapidly. Or, as in the title story, your afterlife is the sum of your experiences and so you take all of the times you were hurt one after another, then all of your sleep, then all of your boredom, and so on. It’s a very clever book, perhaps too clever by half in places, but it’s fun to dip into over time. [David Agnew]
This is Moffat’s first novel, and it shows. Daisychain focuses on the trials of Logan Finch, and the death of his former lover and long lost daughter, set against the standard post-industrial cityscape of Glasgow. Any Scottish writer carving out their niche in crime fiction is bound to come up against the big guns of Rankin and MacDiarmid, but Moffat’s constant need to prove his credentials gets tiresome. Continually overegging the detail, he often crosses the line between forensically accurate and falls into irrelevant rattling off of facts, and is at pains to establish the thriller as a literary work, with unnecessary references to Burns and To Kill a Mockingbird. Daisychain feels most natural when utilising the procedural language of the police force, and once the reader gets past Moffat’s occasionally clunky prose, we are treated to a taut, fastpaced thriller with a precise plot of (mostly) believable characters. Stick with it and be rewarded with twist upon twist, and a final resolution that warrants looking forward to Moffat’s subsequent, and hopefully a little more refined, offerings. [Caroline Crew]
OUT NOW. PUBLISHED BY CANONGATE. COVER PRICE £9.99.
OUT NOW. PUBLISHED BY HACHETTE SCOTLAND. COVER PRICE £12.99.
Edinburgh’s
Music and Audio Library a world of music … Answer the following and you could win an iPod shuffle or vouchers for Avalanche Records: 1. Which Cuban Collective, produced by Ry Cooder, had one of the best selling ‘world’ recordings in the 1990’s? 2. World’s best known Fado singer with an interesting coiffure? 3. Who sang about Sunshine on Leith? 4. Which Bollywood composer shot to international fame with his music for Slumdog Millionaire? 5. On what famous American Road are you guaranteed to ‘get your kicks’? Answers can be found on our blog at: http:// talesofonecity.wordpress.com or come into Edinburgh’s Music and Audio Library and find out for yourself! E-mail your answers with contact details to: central.music.library@edinburgh.gov.uk by 24 July. Edinburgh Music and Audio Library 9 George IV Bridge Edinburgh www.edinburgh.gov.uk/libraries http://talesofonecity.wordpress.com Why not check out our wide range of travel books available throughout all Edinburgh City Libraries?
Largest music library in Scotland • Order and collect music via any library • Diverse • Specialist • Knowledgeable staff
JULY 2009
THE SKINNY 29
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