BOOK OF THE WEEK
The Future Always Makes Me So Thirsty: New Poets from the North of Ireland, edited by Sinéad Morrissey and Stephen Connolly, published by Blackstaff Press
“AND this is no longer the city you’ve read about”, concludes Emma Must’s joyful Belfast Pastoral, the poem which closes The Future Always Makes Me So Thirsty: New Poets from the North of Ireland. As this line, and the anthology’s title (taken from My Second Favourite Locked Room Mystery by Stephen Sexton) suggest, the book is less concerned with taking a long look back than with offering a platform for some of the most exiting new voices emerging from the north.
The anthology’s editors – Sinéad Morrissey and Stephen Connolly – present a generous selection of poems by writers who represent the diversity and vitality of poetry in Northern Ireland and beyond. The poets respond in novel ways to some illustrious predecessors, but each one offers a fresh perspective, sounds a distinctive note.
Here we have – to mention just a few of the contributors – Adam Crothers’s razor-sharp wit, Miriam Gamble’s offbeat humour, Manuela Moser’s moving lyricism, Paul Maddern’s powerful descriptiveness, Padraig Regan’s insight and imagination, Andy Eaton’s thoughtful observations.
Wide-ranging, colourful, invigorating – this is sure to whet your thirst for poetry.
Tara McEvoy
The Lubetkin Legacy by Marina Lewycka, published in hardback by Fig Tree
THE bestselling author of A Short History Of Tractors In Ukrainian returns to page-turning form with this addictive tale of death, (a lack of) sex, and the London property market.
Berthold Sidebottom is a failed actor, but at least he is in possession of a council flat via his mother's link with its deceased famous architect, Berthold Lubetkin – that is, until Mum unexpectedly moves beyond the final curtain and he must stage the performance of his life to a peculiarly attractive (if flea-bitten) housing officer.
Meanwhile, Violet, the girl next door, dreams of ethical accountancy from her corrupt City desk. But drama unfolds as developers set their sights on the block's cherry orchard, and Bertie and Violet must join awkward forces with a supporting cast of Ukrainians, Roma, and dodgy council staff to fend off the chainsaws.
The Lubetkin Legacy is an ode to international, multicultural London, and ultimately even the most flea-bitten come good.
Kitty Wheater
Hystopia by David Means, published in hardback by Faber & Faber
NEW York-based writer David Means is usually associated with short stories but here he makes his first foray into the "wide-open space" that a novel offers.
Hystopia is a book within a book written by troubled Vietnam vet Eugene Allen, who we discover committed suicide shortly before the story was published. This tricksy narrative takes place in an America where JFK is in his third term in office, having survived Oswald's assassination attempt and the country is struggling with a generation of psychologically traumatised war veterans like Allen.
The solution: drug-induced amnesia. When it leads to a one-man killing spree, this "solution" soon transpires to be anything but.
Opening the novel with editor's and author's notes, as well as extracts from oral narratives, shows Means's ambition to push the boundaries of speculative fiction. Hystopia is an engaging portrait of a troubled mind, which asks a lot of its reader. At times the narrative feels disjointed and disorienting. But maybe that's the point.
Rachel Farrow
The Pier Falls by Mark Haddon, published in hardback by Jonathan Cape
THIS collection of short stories by the bestselling author of The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time attempts to demonstrate the writer's versatility and range, with a mix of sci-fi, mythological fantasy and working-class social realism to boot.
Haddon's willingness to vary the genres he works in might be seen by some as brave or admirable, but collectively it's clunky. There's little evidence of theme running through the collection – which leaps from an expedition to Mars, to the confinement of a 30-stone man – other than the dark undertones each story carries, and I'm left wondering why these stories were chosen to be together and how their order was decided.
Standing alone, each story would be engaging – indeed, the titular story, about the collapse of a seaside pier, is first out of the gates and fresh. But when read in close succession, Haddon's present-tense delivery becomes a bit too monotonous and repetitive with a whiff of tedium about it.
Wayne Walls
NON-FICTION
Animal: The Autobiography Of A Female Body by Sara Pascoe, published by Faber & Faber
ARE we human, or animal? Well, a bit of both according to stand-up comic and actress Sara Pascoe. Her literary debut takes an intelligent look at behaviour and evolutionary characteristics, and asks whether our genetic make-up or cultural background defines our gender and sexuality.
It's a bold move for a comedian to release a semi-biographical memoir which offers such scientific detail – realistically we open celeb-written puff-pieces expecting fluffy, self-indulgence which aims to be the Christmas bestseller, or gather column inches (yes, My Booky Wook, we're looking at you).
In contrast, Pascoe has written a truly intelligent, interesting and well-balanced 'Autobiography of a Female Body' which uses wit to soften the blow on the scientific prose.
And that's a wonderful thing – however you should venture into reading armed with the knowledge that this is not the light read you might expect. It's a funny, frank exploration of human behaviour, and an absolute delight.
Holly McKenzie
