Your week between the covers

24/05/2010

Andrew O'Hagan and his Marilyn Monroe obsession and a classic ride to Palookaville

The Stars in the Bright Sky
Alan Warner (Jonathan Cape)

The Life and Opinions of Maf the Dog, and of his friend Marilyn Monroe
Andrew O’Hagan (Faber) 

The Ice Age
Kirsten Reed (Picador)
 
The Price of Altruism
Oren Harman (The Bodley Head)

George Sprott (1894-1975)
Seth (Jonathan Cape)


Since the publication of Morvern Callar in 1995, Alan Warner has proven to be a diverse and experimental writer. His sixth book, The Stars in the Bright Sky, sees him revisiting the exuberant characters of his third novel, The Sopranos – the small-town schoolgirls now grown to young women, but still full of the irrepressible energy of youth.

The six girls are stuck in Gatwick at the start of the21st century, awaiting a flight to a holiday that never seems to materialise. Once again the focus is Manda, a foul-mouthed, offensive whirlwind of a character, who nevertheless reveals a softer side. Despite its static nature, Warner’s deft tale is propelled forward by his pinpoint characterisation and pitch-perfect dialogue, in what is the author’s most accessible work to date.

Andrew O’Hagan is, normally, a much more serious writer, so his latest novel is an extraordinary departure. The Life and Opinions of Maf the Dog, and of his friend Marilyn Monroe, is an over-the-top, camp comedy romp with a bittersweet edge, telling the story of Marilyn Monroe through the eyes of her dog Maf, who was a present from Frank Sinatra. O’Hagan has a lot of fun with his dog narrator, and his restless intelligence shines through, with our canine chum offering meditations on the nature of fame and art, the history of literature and more besides.

The story flirts with whimsy a little too much, but on the whole O’Hagan has produced a funny, entertaining yet also poignant love letter to America’s golden age.

More serious fiction comes in the form of The Ice Age, the debut of Aussie-based American writer Kirsten Reed. A stripped-down and icy coming-of-age story in which a young girl and an older man travel across America, it creates a wonderfully tense atmosphere throughout but feels a little empty of meaning.

A strange novel, but a book that shows promise for the author’s future.

Next up, the remarkable life story of George Price, an eccentric 20th century American scientist and thinker who spent his life searching for the origins and justifications of kindness in nature. The Price of Altruism by Oren Harman casts a light on his forgotten story, a fascinating trawl through the borderland where science and society intertwine.

Price’s life ranged from developing the atomic bomb to homelessness and poverty, in a tale that tries to get to the heart of what makes humans and animals be kind to each other.

Rather less epic is George Sprott (1894-1975), a graphic novel by Seth, which was first serialised in the New York Times Magazine.

Seth is most famous for his Palookaville comics, and this work has a similar sense of detached melancholy, telling of the ageing host of a long-running Canadian TV programme, who rambles over footage from the Arctic Circle.

The illustrations are precise and nostalgic and the story is revealed with subtlety and skill. More moving than you might’ve expected.