Your week between the covers

08/06/2010

From the end of the universe to a timely memoir... all life is here

Our Tragic Universe Scarlett Thomas (Canongate)
Chosen Lesley Glaister (Tindal Street Press)
King Death Toby Litt (Penguin)
Binky Brown Meets the Holy Virgin Mary
Justin Green (Atlantic)
Closing Time: A Memoir
Joe Queenan (Picador)

Like buses, you wait ages for one book with black edging on the pages to come along, and then two come at once. OK, maybe not, but it’s a strange stylistic quirk on the part of our first two novels, and an odd coincidence that gives them a sinister feel before you’ve even turned a page.

First is Toby Litt’sKing Death. The story matches the sinister title and black-edged pages, being an icily-cold thriller about a couple, Kumiko and Skelton, who witness a human heart being thrown out a window while travelling on a train. The pair’s different reactions to this incident take them on a weird trawl through the seamier side of London, winding up at Guy’s Hospital in the company of an infamous dissection lecturer. Litt is a wonderful literary magpie, flitting around in style and subject matter, tackling everything from ghost stories to post-modern fiction, from sci-fi to road trips, and this immersion in thriller writing is just as successful as previous experiments, a clinical and compulsive piece of storytelling that shows the author to be a great wordsmith whatever the genre.

Our second dark-edged tome is Scarlett Thomas’Our Tragic Universe, the follow up to her The End of Mr Y. Similarly tackling big ideas while also negotiating a labyrinthine plot, Our Tragic Universe follows Meg, a struggling writer, as she gets to grips with the end of the universe, the beast of Dartmoor, the science of time and some fairies. If all that sounds nonsensical, it is to a degree, but Thomas is a confident and persuasive writer who combines lucid prose with craftsman-like plotting to create a readable if somewhat outlandish story.

More conventional fiction next with Chosenby Lesley Glaister.The 12th novel from the author, it’s a fascinating examination of the seductive power of religious cults, as we read of Dodie, who crosses the Atlantic to save her brother from the mysterious Soul Life Centre. Drawn into the commune against her instincts, she has to fight for her survival and that of her baby boy. Told in understated yet sometimes lyrical prose, Chosenis an intriguing look at how the past shapes us, and what it is that drives the human desire for belonging.

Altogether weirder is a hardback reissue of Justin Green’sBinky Brown Meets The Holy Virgin Mary. A landmark graphic novel from the 1970s, it was apparently hugely influential to a generation of artists, telling a bizarre and surreal coming-of-age story in which Binky struggles to reconcile adolescent urges with religious doctrine. Veering from the touching to the profane, it’s a unique piece of work.

And finally another coming-of-age story, this time Closing Time, a memoir from American film journalist Joe Queenan. Thankfully steering clear of the misery memoir stereotypes (apart from the awful cover), it’s an insightful look at the complex relationship between children and adults –poignant and funny in equal measure.