Book of the Month Part One
Whoops! Why Everyone Owes Everyone but No-One can Pay
by John Lanchester
There’s probably a word in German for that feeling you get when you can understand something while it’s being explained to you, but lose hold of the explanation as soon as it stops. A lot of writing about the credit crunch has that effect: you can grasp it while it’s going on, and then as soon as it’s over, you can no longer remember the difference between a CDO, a CDS, an MBS, and a toasted cheese sandwich. Whoops! makes it possible for all of us to grasp how we found ourselves in this predicament. What went wrong? In 2000, the total GDP of Earth was $36 trillion. At the start of 2007 it was $70 trillion. Today that growth has gone suddenly and sharply into decline, with an effect roughly resembling that of putting a car into reverse while doing seventy down a motorway. John Lanchester travels with a cast of characters – including reckless banksters, snoozing regulators, complacent politicians, predatory lenders, credit-drunk spendthrifts, and innocent bystanders to understand deeply and genuinely what is happening and why we feel the way we do.
“The route map to the crazed world of contemporary finance we have all been waiting for. John Lanchester’s superb book is everything its subject – the 2008 crash – was not: namely lucid, beautifully contrived, comprehensible to the reader with no specialist knowledge – and most of all devastatingly funny. I urge you to read it.” Will Self
“Explains the madness of modern capitalism with razor-sharp insight, brilliant clarity and a refreshing dose of humour. A great book.” John O’Farrell
“Endlessly witty, but the wit is underpinned by a tremendous, unembarrassed anger and moral lucidity. A superb guide which will turn any reader into an expert within the space of 200 pages.” Jonathan Coe
“This is what George Bernard Shaw might have called An Intelligent Person’s Guide to the Crisis of Modern Capitalism, and everyone ought to read it.” Robert Harris, Sunday Times
“To make the financial sector more responsible, more people must understand what went wrong. As far as the literate British layman or woman is concerned . . . the process starts with reading this book“ Andrew Martin, The Telegraph
Book of the Month Part Two
Bury Me at the Marketplace: Es’kia Mphahlele and Company – Letters 1943-2006
When Chabani Manganyi published the first edition of selected letters twenty-five years ago as a companion volume to Exiles and Homecomings: A Biography of Es’kia Mphahlele, the idea of Mphahlele’s death was remote and poetic. The title, Bury Me at the Marketplace, suggested that immortality of a kind awaited Mphahlele, in the very coming and going of those who remember him and whose lives he touched. It suggested, too, the energy and magnanimity of Mphahlele the man, whose personality and intellect as a writer and educator would carve an indelible place for him in South Africa’s public sphere.
That death has now come and we mourn it. Manganyi’s words at the time have acquired a new significance: in the symbolic marketplace, he noted, ˜the drama of life continues relentlessly and the silence of death is unmasked for all time’. The silence of death is certainly unmasked in this volume, in its record of Mphahlele’s rich and varied life: his private words, his passions and obsessions, his arguments, his loves, hopes, achievements, and yes, even some of his failures. Here the reader will find many facets of the private man translated back into the marketplace of public memory.
Despite the personal nature of the letters, the further horizons of this volume are the contours of South Africa’s literary and cultural history, the international affiliations out of which it has been formed, particularly in the diaspora that connects South Africa to the rest of the African continent and to the black presence in Europe and the United States.
This selection of Mphahlele’s own letters has been greatly expanded; it has also been augmented by the addition of letters from Mphahlele’s correspondents, among them such luminaries as Langston Hughes and Nadine Gordimer. It seeks to illustrate the networks that shaped Mphahlele’s personal and intellectual life, the circuits of intimacy, intellectual inquiry, of friendship, scholarship and solidarity that he created and nurtured over the years. The letters cover the period from November 1943 to April 1987, forty-four of Mphahlele’s mature years and most of his active professional life. The correspondence is supplemented by introductory essays from the two editors, by two interviews conducted with Mphahlele by Manganyi and by Attwell’s insightful explanatory notes.
Correspondents include:
Lionel Abrahams, Chinua Achebe, Andre Brink, Adrian Donker, C J (Jonty) Driver, Nadine Gordimer, Andrew Gurr, Langston Hughes, Stuart James, Chabani Manganyi, Njabulo Ndebele, Isidore Okpewho, James Olney, William Plomer, Jenny Stein, Peter Thuynsma, Norah Taylor, Phillip Tobias, Charles van Onselen and Nick Visser.
We have 3 copes of this wonderful book to give away. To be entered for the draw, send us an email to booklounge@gmail.com.
Many thanks to Wits University Press.
April is Music Month
A quick glance through our shelves recently reminded us of the wealth of wonderful books about music. There are the fantastic photographic records of groundbreaking scenes (Grunge, Krautrock) written by the people who helped to create them and illustrated by some of the best photography available of the movers and shakers. Then there are a slew of great biographies of great artists – we’ve already highlighted Patti Smith’s new memoir, but there are also great memoirs by The Talking Heads’ David Byrne (The Bicycle Diaries – itself based on Tropicalia founder Caetano Veloso’s indispensable Tropical Truth), Billy Bragg and Don Henley of the Eagles. But it is the more quirky books that really stand out: Mingering Mike was a Vietnam vet who set up an imaginary label to rival Motown: he created more than 50 LP’s and numerous singles… all without ever recording a note of music. Instead, he created cardboard LP’s, complete with intricate cover art, tracklists, entire rosters of musicians and vocalists etc.: at once poignant and inspiring, this is one obsessed but talented man’s testament to his own dream. Then there is the collection of beautiful sketches and collages Louis Armstrong made to keep himself busy on tour, and collected in Satchmo, and many many more.
We of course still have an exclusive collection of indiepop cd’s to sell, and these have now been supplemented by some beautiful neo-folk and freakfolk supplied by the folks over at Kurse Music.
To make it even more tempting, Ross Campbell of Benguela and Open Records has kindly arranged copies of experimental rockers Black Milk’s Summer Eye cd as well as dark electronica act Enkeleen’s Ek is Legio to give away. For the month of April, then – or while stocks last – the purchase of any book from our music section, or any cd will also get you a free copy of one of these cd’s.
Non-fiction to amaze and inspire…
Testing Democracy: Which Way is South Africa Going? (Idasa’s Democracy Index)
edited by Neeta Misra-Dexter and Judith February
Since the 1980′s IDASA has probably done more than any other institution to foster and interrogate democracy in this country. This third installment of their Democracy Index series continues to provide indispensable food for thought for anyone interested in the state of the nation. It consists of two parts: the first is a collection of essays by various leading experts around themes such as the single-party state, development policy, civil society, public and government institutions and so on; the second starts with a 100 question scorecard rating various aspects of our democracy, followed by five more in-depth examinations of various aspects of democracy.
This is a thorough and well-researched, but accessible and readable volume that provides a wealth of information and a wonderful (if sometimes disquieting) panoramic overview of the political direction in which our society is heading.
Splendour & Squalor: The Decline and Fall of Three Aristocratic Dynasties
by Marcus Scriven
From stunning stately homes to the prisons of wartime Britain; from the House of Lords to Edwardian asylums; from the Ritz and the Dorchester to East End pubs, Splendour and Squalor tells the stories of three of Britain’s most illustrious aristocratic dynasties and of the black sheep who brought them down. They kept monkeys in West End hotels, and rent-boys in Deauville and Kensington. They spiced up life in pre-war Britain by patronising illegal gaming clubs and staging elaborate five-in-a-bed sex in stately homes. They used firearms with convincing disregard for their own and others’ safety and drove their Rollses and Bentleys with apparently suicidal intent. They acquired yachts and helicopters as they shipped the family silver to California and disposed of Old Masters at auction. They married frequently and unsatisfactorily, humiliating their wives and always withholding from them dynastic secrets of schizophrenia and insanity. Lacking the energy and appetite to do so, they rarely developed their talents. Carpeting their lives with deceit, they sought consolation in ferocious expenditure, funding narcotic and alcohol-fueled blow-outs. They ignored the advice of sane relations, shrugged off trustees, and experimented with burglary, shop-lifting, vagrancy and fraud. Their primary, possibly sole, accomplishment was to drag down their families with them. They were the black sheep of aristocracy and this is their story.
“A highly entertaining tale of decadence and debauchery.” Tatler
“Scriven…treads a fine line between elegy and disapproval. By pitching his tone right, and providing plenty of juicy details, he has produced a work of wide appeal.” Observer
“A witty, gossipy and profoundly researched portrait of four particularly dysfunctional 20th century aristocrats.” Sunday Times
“Salutary reading for these cash-strapped times.” Independent
“Compelling…so riveting that it is hard to put down.” Scotsman
Howard’s End is on the Landing: A Year of Reading at Home
by Susan Hill
“The journey began in the old farmhouse where I live, surrounded by the gently rising hills and graceful trees, the hedgerows and flower borders and orchards and old stone walls, the deer and birds and hedgehogs and rabbits, the foxes and badgers of Gloucestershire. I climbed two flights of elm-wood stairs to the top landing in search of a book, and found myself embarked on a year of travelling through the books of a lifetime.”
Early one autumn afternoon in pursuit of an elusive book on her shelves, Susan Hill encountered dozens of others that she had never read, or forgotten she owned, or wanted to read for a second time. The discovery inspired her to embark on a year-long voyage through her books, forsaking new purchases in order to get to know her own collection again. A book which is left on a shelf for a decade is a dead thing, but it is also a chrysalis, packed with the potential to burst into new life. Wandering through her house that day, Hill’s eyes were opened to how much of that life was stored in her home, neglected for years. Considering everything from Macbeth and The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy through Virginia Woolf, Dickens and Roald Dahl, Howards End is on the Landing charts the journey of one of the UK’s most accomplished authors as she revisits the conversations, libraries and bookshelves of the past that have informed a lifetime of reading and writing.
“A totally beguiling, utterly persuasive, argument for reimmersing yourself in literature’s past...” The Times
“An eloquent advocate [for] the virtues of wide-ranging, deeply felt and considered reading… to be cherished.” Michael Arditti, Daily Telegraph
“Evoked with precision and grace…beguiling.” Victoria Glendinning, Spectator
“An eloquent advocate [for] the virtues of wide-ranging, deeply felt and considered reading… to be cherished.” Michael Arditti, Daily Telegraph
“Evoked with precision and grace…beguiling.” Victoria Glendinning, Spectator
“Both a passionate reminder of the importance of reading and a revealing glimpse of a writer’s life.” Observer
“Delightful…an idiosyncratic commingling of fiction, non-fiction and poetry…Hill has a voracious and varied appetite.” New Statesman
Strength in What Remains
by Tracy Kidder
Deo arrived in America from Burundi in search of a new life. Having survived a civil war and genocide, plagued by horrific dreams, he comes to New York with two hundred dollars, no English and no contacts. He ekes out a precarious existence delivering groceries, living in Central Park, and learning English by reading dictionaries in bookshops. Then Deo begins to meet the strangers who will change his life, eventually pointing him in the direction of Columbia University, medical school, and a life devoted to healing.
Pulitzer Prize Winner Tracy Kidder breaks new ground in telling this unforgettable true story as he travels with Deo, looking back over a turbulent life in search of meaning. Strength in What Remains is an inspiring account of one man’s remarkable journey of suffering and survival, and of the ordinary people who helped him turn his life around. The book was Amazon.com’s Best Non-Fiction Book of 2009.
“Kidder’s uplifting true story…just may restore your faith in humanity.” People
”The book encourages a general hope that individuals can transcend even the greatest horrors.” Wall Street Journal
Unpacking My Library: Architects and Their Books
Architecture and books share a common agenda: both are of the present, but meant to last long into the future. This was the inspiration behind an exhibition of architect’s libraries that forms the background to this fascinating little book. With photographs of the libraries of 12 leading architects, as well as brief interviews with them regarding their relationships with books, this is a feast for architects as well as lay bibliophiles. It is introduced with Walter Benjamin’s classic essay “Unpacking my Library: A Talk about Book Collecting” which is indispensable reading for anyone who has ever bought and loved a book, and beautifully illustrated thereafter with snapshots that show the diversity of interests and personalities of the architects featured, but also – cumulatively – provides a wonderful window into the intellectual and emotional terrain of present-day architecture.
A History of Arctic Exploration: Discovery, Adventure and Endurance at the Top of the World
by Matti Lainema and Juha Nurminen
With the character of the Arctic in a dramatic state of flux, and arguments over sovereignty once again rising to the surface, it is timely that a history of the exploration of this remote region be published. Wide-reaching in its scope and beautifully produced with artworks, maps and charts from the Nurminen Foundation and numerous European museums, private collections and archives, this is a full account of the many explorers from both East and West who attempted to find the North-West and North-East Passages, and to chart and document the region, to enable the mythical North to gradually take shape and become part of the world picture. The story of man’s skill and initiative in bringing an understanding to such an inhospitable part of the globe is described through the daring adventures of Viking sailors such as Erik the Red, navigators Barents and Bering, and explorers of the wilds such as Chelyuskin and Franklin. The stories of those disastrous voyages in search of the North-West and North-East Passages are also presented in detail. The journeys of the great scientific explorers – Cook, Nordenskiold and Amundsen – remind the reader of the bravery of those who set their sights towards the uncharted North. Bravery and endurance were not sufficient for the almost incredible feats of Nansen and Peary. Success in extreme conditions was only achieved by those expeditions that appreciated the ferocity of nature and took example from the indigenous peoples – those who had lived in the North long before the coming of the Europeans. This is a meticulous and engrossing history on an extremely topical subject, and a beautiful book too.
Lords of Finance: 1929, The Great Depression and the Bankers who Broke the World
by Liaquat Ahamed
This has happened before. The current financial crisis has only one parallel: the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and subsequent Great Depression of the 1930s, which crippled the future of an entire generation and set the stage for the horrors of the Second World War. Yet the economic meltdown could have been avoided, had it not been for the decisions taken by a small number of central bankers. In Lords of Finance we meet these men – the four bankers who truly broke the world: the enigmatic Norman Montagu of the bank of England, Benjamin Strong of the NY Federal Reserve, the arrogant yet brilliant Hjalmar Schacht of the Reichsbank and the xenophobic Emile Moreau of the Banque de France. Liaquat Ahamed tells their story in vivid and gripping detail, in a timely and arresting reminder that individuals – their ambitions, limitations and human nature – lie at the very heart of global catastrophe.
“Absorbing [and] provocative, not least because it is still relevant.” Economist
“Highly readable… [Ahamed] cannot have foreseen how timely his book would be.” Niall Ferguson, Financial Times
”Superlative…a subject of real fascination…Lords of Finance has the flair and wisdom to find a wide readership on the strength of its main ideas.” New York Times
“Compelling and convincing…humanises the world’s descent into economic chaos.” Sunday Times
The Harvard Psychedelic Club: How Timothy Leary, Ram Dass, Huston Smith, and Andrew Weil Killed the Fifties and Ushered in a New Age for America
by Don Lattin
This book is the story of how three brilliant scholars and one ambitious freshman crossed paths in the early sixties at a Harvard-sponsored psychedelic-drug research project, transforming their lives and American culture and launching the mind-body-spirit movement that inspired the explosion of yoga classes, organic produce, and alternative medicine.
The four men came together in a time of upheaval and experimentation, and their exploration of an expanded consciousness set the stage for the social, spiritual, sexual, and psychological revolution of the 1960s. Timothy Leary would be the rebellious trickster, the premier proponent of the therapeutic and spiritual benefits of LSD, advising a generation to “turn on, tune in, and drop out.” Richard Alpert would be the seeker, traveling to India and returning to America as Ram Dass, reborn as a spiritual leader with his “Be Here Now” mantra, inspiring a restless army of spiritual pilgrims. Huston Smith would be the teacher, practicing every world religion, introducing the Dalai Lama to the West, and educating generations of Americans to adopt a more tolerant, inclusive attitude toward other cultures’ beliefs. And young Andrew Weil would be the healer, becoming the undisputed leader of alternative medicine, devoting his life to the holistic reformation of the American health care system.
It was meant to be a time of joy, of peace, and of love, but behind the scenes lurked backstabbing, jealousy, and outright betrayal. In spite of their personal conflicts, the members of the Harvard Psychedelic Club would forever change the way Americans view religion and practice medicine, and the very way we look at body and soul.
Storms of My Grandchildren: The Truth about the Coming Climate Catastrophe and Our Last Chance to Save Humanity
by James Hansen
In Storms of My Grandchildren, Dr James Hansen – a leading scientist on climate issues – speaks out for the first time with the full truth about global warming. The planet is hurtling more rapidly than previously acknowledged to a climatic point of no return. Although the threat of human-caused climate change is now widely recognised, politicians have failed to connect policy with the science, responding instead with ineffectual remedies dictated by special interests. Hansen shows why President Obama’s solution, cap-and-trade won’t work; why we must phase out all coal, and more if our children and grandchildren are to avoid global meltdown. This urgent manifesto bucks conventional wisdom (including the Kyoto Protocol) and is sure to stir controversy, but Hansen – whose climate predictions have come to pass again and again, beginning in the 1980s when he first warned Congress about global warming – is the single most credible voice on the subject worldwide. Hansen paints a devastating but all-too-realistic picture; but he is also an optimist, showing that there is still time to do what we need to save the planet. Urgent, strong action is needed to save humanity – and our grandchildren – from a dire fate more imminent than we had supposed.
“When the history of the climate crisis is written, Hansen will be seen as the scientist with the most powerful and consistent voice calling for intelligent action to preserve our planet’s environment.” Al Gore
“Jim Hansen is the planet’s great hero. He offered us the warning we needed twenty years ago, and has worked with enormous courage ever since to try and make sure we heeded it. We’ll know before long if that effort bears fruit. If it does, literally no one deserves more credit than Dr. Hansen.” Bill McKibben
Running the Numbers: An American Self Portrait
by Chris Jordan
Statistics can be daunting and dry: 1,000,000 trees cut down every year; 9,000,000 American children without health insurance; 2,000,000 plastic bottles used every five minutes; 2,300,000 adults incarcerated in U.S. prisons. Renowned photographer Chris Jordan brings these staggering numbers to life in manipulated digital photographs that are at once alluring and shocking. A landscape of toothpicks, each representing a felled tree, stretches into the horizon; a looping maze of plastic cups reveal how many are used each day on airplane flights; fashioned from soda cans, a replica of a Seurat masterpiece becomes a lesson in waste; and thousands of Barbie dolls – representing the number of breast augmentations performed each year – combine to depict a woman’s torso. Filled with astonishing images of surprising beauty, this book, manufactured from recycled materials, helps us grasp visually the potential consequences of our culture of waste. Stunning.
Chris Jordan’s work has been widely exhibited in the United States and Europe, and was recently shortlisted for the first annual Prix Pictet in Paris. His recent exhibitions include In Katrina’s Wake: Portraits of Loss from an Unnatural Disaster.
My Natural History
by Simon Barnes
Simon Barnes, the well-known sportswriter, is also a life-long animal lover. And a fantastic writer. My Natural History is a charming autobiography that looks back on his life in reference to his interest in animals. Each chapter of the book focuses on a certain animal that was important to him at a stage of his life.. One of the constant themes in Barnes’ life is his attempt to really ‘see’ the wildlife around him, even in the city. This is a book that will interest animal lovers (especially birdwatchers), as well as people interested in the animal that is us. All those who ever enjoyed the writing of Gerald Durrell, please step forward…
Smile or Die: How Positive Thinking Fooled America and the World
by Barbara Ehrenreich
This brilliant new book from the author of Nickel and Dimed explores the tyranny of positive thinking, and offers a history of how it came to be the dominant mode in the USA. Ehrenreich conceived of the book when she became ill with breast cancer, and found herself surrounded by pink ribbons and bunny rabbits and platitudes. She balked at the way her anger and sadness about having the disease were seen as unhealthy and dangerous by health professionals and other sufferers. In her droll and incisive analysis of the cult of cheerfulness, Ehrenreich also ranges across contemporary religion, business and the economy, arguing, for example, that undue optimism and a fear of giving bad news sowed the seeds for the current banking crisis. She argues passionately that the insistence on being cheerful actually leads to a lonely focus inwards, a blaming of oneself for any misfortunes, and thus to political apathy. Rigorous, insightful and bracing as always, and also incredibly funny, Smile or Die uncovers the dark side of the ‘have a nice day’ nation.
“…fascinating, very funny and wholly convincing…A stunningly good a highly entertaining and alarming read. ” Sunday Times
Sharp Suits
by Eric Musgrave
They say the clothes maketh the man. The suit is still the uniform for millions of men who wear it to work, but, in its bespoke form, it is also a luxury status symbol for men. On every continent, the sober suit is the chosen dress code of presidents and diplomats, business leaders and law makers. At its most classic, the suit is respectable. Sharp Suits looks at the fascinating history and evolution of the modern suit from the days of 19th century bespoke to the mass industrialisation of the early part of the 20th century. We see how the uniform of the ruling classes became the utilitarian outfit of the worker. This fascinating collection shows movie stars and rock stars, heroes and villains, philanthropists and gangsters – each of them making the suit their very own. A history of male attitudes and styles, and a beautiful book.
Fiction and more…
A Beautiful Place to Die
by Malla Nunn
When an Afrikaans police captain is murdered in a small South African country town, Detective Emmanuel Cooper must navigate his way through the labyrinthine racial and social divisions that split the community. And as the National Party introduces the laws to support the system of apartheid, Emmanuel struggles to remain a good man in the face of astonishing power.
Malla Nunn brilliantly portrays the claustrophobic paranoia of a small town in South Africa in the 1950s in all its social and racial complexities – the wedges that drive everyone apart and the base instincts that unite all, regardless of skin colour.
”A terrific page-turning debut. Clever and multi-layered in its portrayal of the people and landscape of apartheid South Africa. I loved it.” Minette Walters
“Remarkable.” Literary Review
“A first crime novel of considerable power .” Sydney Morning Herald
The Blasphemer
by Nigel Farndale
On its way to the Galapagos Islands, a light aircraft ditches into the sea. As the water floods through the cabin, zoologist Daniel Kennedy faces an impossible choice – should he save himself, or Nancy, the woman he loves? In a parallel narrative, it is 1917 and Daniel’s great grandfather Andrew is preparing to go over the top at Passchendaele. He, too, will have his courage tested, and must live with the moral consequences of his actions. Back in London, the atheistic Daniel is wrestling with something his ‘cold philosophy’ cannot explain – something unearthly he thought he saw while swimming for help in the Pacific. But before he can make sense of it, the past must collapse into the present, and both he and Andrew must prove themselves capable of altruism, and deserving of forgiveness. The Blasphemer is a powerful story about conditional love, cowardice and the possibility of redemption – and what happens to a man of science when forced to question his certainties. It is a novel of rare depth, empathy and ambition that sweeps from the trenches of the First World War to the terrorist-besieged streets of London today: a novel that will speak to the head as well as the heart of any reader. Highly recommended.
“A great achievement…To take on the First World War as many have done and make it fresh is remarkable.” Melvyn Bragg
“Beautiful…Farndale’s elegant prose…and wise tolerance with which he views…characters lend his exhilarating novel a tenderly redemptive afterimage.” Sunday Telegraph
“Beautiful…Farndale’s elegant prose…and wise tolerance with which he views…characters lend his exhilarating novel a tenderly redemptive afterimage.” Sunday Telegraph
Generosity
by Richard Powers
Powers has been one of the giants of the American literary scene for some time now (The Echo Maker won the US National Book Award) and Margaret Atwood has compared him to Herman Melville, but has never been as well known in the rest of the world as perhaps he should be. His latest novel, Generosity, toys with the genre of speculative fiction as he imagines a world in which a genomic race is on to find the biological determinant of happiness. Thassa Amzwar, a young Algerian immigrant to Canada, appears to be the perfect example of happiness. Despite being subjected to some dreadful experiences, she appears to be constantly happy. When she lands on the radar of a leading genome-mapper, she becomes a national celebrity with desperate results. Generosity is an ambitious but ultimately rewarding novel that will surely add to Powers’ reputation beyond North America.
“Powers is one of the best writers working now, and Generosity is full of agile sentences and odd characters. It features a young woman who is always simply happy; this strikes all the other characters as being so unusual that she soon comes under the scrutiny of scientists and the media.” Audrey Niffenegger, Guardian
“Compulsive…Powers persists in an heroic attempt to be that mythical being, a modern Renaissance man, as at home in the language of science as in the laboratories of literature…[Generosity is] a meditation on the human condition“ Observer
“Compulsive…Powers persists in an heroic attempt to be that mythical being, a modern Renaissance man, as at home in the language of science as in the laboratories of literature…[Generosity is] a meditation on the human condition“ Observer
“Powers, whose previous novel, The Echo Maker won the National Book Award, has always been adept at exploring the problematic frontiers of contemporary science. Here, his acuity and satire are as sharp as ever, allowing him to deconstruct brilliantly the commercially charged world of genome mapping, where Brahmins are well on the way to patenting and controlling the stuff of our being…What really makes Generosity tick, however, are its characters, who are as multifaceted and alive as any Powers has ever created.” Sunday Times
The Pregnant Widow
by Martin Amis
The title of Martin Amis’ latest is drawn from Alexander Herzen’s idea that, when one era dies, there is a period of uncertainty and adjustment before the new can be born: this interregnum is like a widow, bereft of the old certainties, but not yet able to give birth to the new. Through the eyes of Keith, a successful advertising man close to his own age, Amis looks back from the present to such a period; specifically, a few months in the early 1970′s, when Keith’s younger self (then a promising poet) was trying to come to terms with the (counter)cultural revolution in mores inaugurated by the Sixties. The focus is squarely on the sexual revolution, and the new aggressive sexuality of “girls who want to act like boys”. As part of a group of friends who have managed to secure an invitation to spend the summer at a relative’s castle in Italy, it is not just the somewhat late blooming Keith who is struggling to adjust: all the characters (male and female, young and old, gay and straight) are trying to adjust to the new morality. There is a rich seam of both satirical humour and genuine pathos for Amis to mine here, and he does so with plenty of his usual panache, wit and verve. Almost as an aside, there is also much enjoyment to be had from the frequent and irreverent literary discussions: Keith is studying literature, and the novel itself draws explicitly on Kafka, Lawrence and the nineteenth century realist novels Keith wades through. In short – this is Amis at his inimitable best, and a great read.
Flashback Hotel: Early Stories
by Ivan Vladislavić
Two sought-after collections of short stories by Ivan Vladislavić are brought together and made available in this new volume. Vladislavić’s abilities as a master of understatement and brevity are brilliantly demonstrated in these stories from Missing Persons (first published 1989) and Propaganda by Monuments and Other Stories (1996), featuring the two stories that won him the Thomas Pringle Award. Ivan Vladislavić is one of South Africa’s foremost writers, and this collection is testament to his skill and range as a writer. He has won many awards for his varied body of work – including the Olive Schreiner Prize, the Sunday Times Fiction Prize and the Alan Paton Award.
“Vladislavić is a rare, brilliant writer.” Sunday Times
“His art is about loosening the terrible grip of a world of dead images and opening the flow of new perceptions and fresh understanding.” Sunday Independent
The Long Song
by Andrea Levy
You do not know me yet. My son Thomas, who is publishing this book, tells me, it is customary at this place in a novel to give the reader a little taste of the story that is held within these pages. As your storyteller, I am to convey that this tale is set in Jamaica during the last turbulent years of slavery and the early years of freedom that followed.
July is a slave girl who lives upon a sugar plantation named Amity and it is her life that is the subject of this tale. She was there when the Baptist War raged in 1831, and she was also present when slavery was declared no more. My son says I must convey how the story tells also of July’s mama Kitty, of the negroes that worked the plantation land, of Caroline Mortimer the white woman who owned the plantation and many more persons besides – far too many for me to list here. But what befalls them all is carefully chronicled upon these pages for you to peruse.
Perhaps, my son suggests, I might write that it is a thrilling journey through that time in the company of people who lived it. All this he wishes me to pen so the reader can decide if this is a book they might care to consider. Cha, I tell my son, what fuss-fuss. Come, let them just read it for themselves.
Parrott and Olivier in America
by Peter Carey
Peter Carey’s new novel is a picaresque yarn following the adventures of the French nobleman Oliver de Garmont and his English servant Parrot, as they venture to the new American Republic to examine the great social experiment of democracy being conducted there. The year is 1830, and France is still suffering the prolonged death of its ancien regime and in desperate need of new ideas of governance. Olivier is strongly based on Alexis de Tocqueville*, author of the famous Democracy in America, but Carey has taken a lot of liberty in fictionalising him – thus his mission is almost derailed when he falls in love (unlike Tocqueville), and this love story forms the backbone of the novel. However, it is the character of Parrot which really makes this novel as entertaining and interesting as it is. This is a great glimpse into a forgotten past, and simultaneously an eerie prognostication of the current state of America.
* For more on Tocqueville, have a look at Hugh Brogan’s masterful and wonderfully readable Alexis de Tocqueville: Prophet of Democracy in an Age of Revolution which has also just appeared in paperback.
Little Hands Clapping
by Dan Rhodes
Dan Rhodes has always managed to combine a fine quirkiness with a poignant humanity in his best work, and Little Hands Clapping is a wonderful example. Set largely in a “Museum of Suicide” run by a rather grisly old man, this is simultaneously a very funny black comedy, a meditation on sadness and a beautiful love story: in short, just about everything one can expect from a novel. The characters – even the minor one – are beautifully drawn and the story embroidered with fantastically entertaining asides. A genuinely delightful novel.
Contact
by Jonathan Buckley
Dominic Pattison’s life is one of level contentment: his marriage has proved happy and durable; his business, too, is successful. And then Sam Williams, a builder and ex-squaddie, enters his life. Sam claims to be his son. Yet is Sam who he says he is? After almost thirty years, Dominic can remember little of the affair with Sam’s mother. His instinct is to recoil from this aggressive and volatile stranger, who could, with just a few words, take his life apart. But Sam refuses to be dismissed. With its deft switches of sympathy between menaced ˜father’ and rebuffed ˜son’ and its exploration of the intricacies of memory, Contact will resonate long with its readers.
“A thoughtful and unsettling novel in which anxieties and insights slowly acrete.” Times Literary Supplement
Even the Dogs
by Jon McGregor
Jon McGregor’s first two novels (If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things and So Many Ways to Begin) were ambitious, beautifully written, high-concept masterpieces, with a fine eye for the lyrical in the everyday. This latest novel is far more circumscribed in scope – and much darker – but is every bit as good. In a dual narrative, McGregor lays out the aftermath of the death of Robert, the central figure in a community of junkies and other down-and-outs. On the one hand we have the coldly clinical procedures with which the authorities examine and handle the deceased; on the other, we have the testimonies of Robert’s circle, as the effects of his death ripple through their community. There are six characters, each of whom narrates a chapter, and each beautifully constructed through narrative voice. What they have in common is a heroin habit, and this novel is bound to be a classic of addiction literature to set next to the work of Hubert Selby Jr., and novels like Infinite Jest. McGregor’s sparsely fragmentary style and the elliptical, spiral structure of the narrative beautifully echoes the desperate cycle of this all-consuming ‘habit”‘ His eye is merciless, and this is not a comfortable read; what makes it a great novel is McGregor’s refusal to moralise, the deep sympathy with which he draws his characters, and the flashes of lyricism he finds in even the bleakest landscape – rather like the flowers blooming unexpectedly through the cracks of the blasted urban landscape on the beautifully designed cover. McGregor is a fantastic writer and this is a brilliant, if discomfiting, novel.
In a Strange Room
by Damon Galgut
A young man takes three journeys, through Greece, India and Africa. He travels lightly, simply. To those who travel with him and those whom he meets on the way – including a handsome, enigmatic stranger, a group of careless backpackers and a woman on the edge – he is the Follower, the Lover and the Guardian. Yet, despite the man’s best intentions, each journey ends in disaster. Together, these three journeys will change his whole life. A novel of longing and thwarted desire, rage and compassion, In a Strange Room is the hauntingly beautiful evocation of one man’s search for love, and a place to call home.
“The most intense and passionate novel to date from Man Booker-shortlisted author Damon Galgut: the bold, fresh voice of South African fiction.” Observer
“A great pleasure… Damon Galgut’s book is the best I have read to come out of the new South Africa.” Allan Massie, Scotsman
The Tattoo Artist
by Jill Ciment
Canvas is often seen as white stretched linen or a wall in Lower Main Road Woodstock, but Jill Ciment introduces us with vivid prose-like narrative to the skin as canvas in the mesmerising novel, The Tattoo Artist.
Set in the 1920s in the avant-garde art scene in New York we meet Sara, a young aspiring artist, and her husband-to-be, Phillip, who is part of the elite world of art and social extravagance. When the Depression starts to effect the life of indulgence they lead, they take up an offer to gather masks in the South Seas on a small island, Ta’un’uu for a week.
Here the story unfolds when they become stranded and end up living on the island for 30 years before returning to what was once their home, New York City. Jill Ciment cleverly weaves the story of the young couple through the inky world of traditions and culture not known to western minds. Sara learns the art of tattooing, of storytelling in ink, using her body as the canvas, as the journal to record her life. The reader feels included in a secret world of unknown art and the inner workings of love and hope and ultimately survival of self.
Jill Ciment’s autobiography, Half a Life, is also available. Her writing style is both lyrical and stark. She tells of her mother’s struggle to bring up 4 children with an emotionally absent father and their plans and schemes to get ahead. She shows no regret or remorse, rather an honest account of a screwed-up life that still leads to the celebration of her own success. Highly recommended for fans of A.M. Homes or Miriam Toews.
Welcome to the Bookery...
We are extremely happy to intoroduce our new neighbours in Roeland Street - The Bookery - and hope you will support the amazing work they do...
At 20 Roeland Street, where Charly's Bakery used to be, the non-profit organisation Equal Education (EE) has just opened 'The Bookery', a branch of its national 'Campaign for School Libraries'. The Bookery is the home of the EE book drive, where a handful of volunteers are doing their bit to address the 13% of South African public schools which have an existing library space but no books. Over the course of the next few months, it is their hope to bring in as many books, suitable for either primary or secondary school learners, as possible; books that are not only in good condition, but are also not too out-of-date. Once a well-balanced collection (three books per learner per school) has been accumulated, The Bookery staff will be sorting the books while helping the librarian-in-waiting establish a book-loaning system.
All recipients of their donations must have both an existing library space and a committed member of staff willing and able to take on the role of librarian. These prerequisites are in place to ensure that the project is sustainable. During the collection process, The Bookery works closely with the educators and learners from each school. This helps them to gauge the appropriate level of the books, as well as to determine exactly which books are of interest to the school's readership. The first recipient is set to be Thembelihle High - a Khayelitsha school of more than 1000 learners; their librarian will be Mrs Hlomela.
Please help The Bookery stock empty libraries either by making financial donations or by dropping off books which needy primary or secondary schools can use. Contact Rich on rich@equaleducation.org.za or call him on 021 461 4189 or 076 593 9310.
The Things They Said...
"Always speak the truth, think before you speak, and write it down afterwards." Lewis Carroll
"It is a fine thing to be honest, but it is also very important to be right." Winston Churchill