The latest paperback releases reviewed
Kieron Smith, BoyBy James Kelman
Penguin, £8.99
Bold, brave and honest to his realist's fingertips, there is only one James Kelman. Although he had already written great novels such as A Disaffectionand the 1994 Booker prize-winning How Late It Was, How Late, here is his masterpiece, a powerfully vivid story written from a boy's viewpoint. Young Kieron battles the world sustained by the love of his grandparents, who consistently compensate for a distracted mother with social ambitions and a father who simply doesn't care. As ever with Kelman the magic lies in a lyric, rugged Scots voice. His big novel takes the reader by the hand and heart through a boyhood odyssey. Predictably overlooked by last year's Booker judges, it is a virtuoso performance. Should recessionary caution limit your book buying, reach for no other paperback and experience the art of an uncompromising original who has grasped that true fiction lives, breathes and feels. Eileen Battersby
Short Stories
By Patrick Pearse
University College Dublin Press, €20
That Pearse's two collections of stories in Irish, Iosagán and Other Stories(1907) and The Mother and Other Stories(1916), are now brought together under the worthy "Classics of Irish History" banner is itself a crucial judgment about the literary value of this contentious figure. For, aside from the natural tendency to assimilate every aspect of Pearse to his historical significance, it would be difficult to make an argument for these stories as standalone works of fiction. Their determined fidelity to folk narrative notwithstanding, they simply are not very compelling. It is therefore to the credit of editor Anne Markey, in repackaging the first translation of all 10 stories (by Belfast poet Joseph Campbell), for the Collected Works(1917), that this volume feels so substantial. Markey's lucid introduction is especially good in discussing Pearse's unities of theme, characterisation and setting, and his nevertheless considerable development between his two collections. John Kenny
Crusoe’s Secret
By Tom Paulin
Faber £12.99
Paulin believes the critic is a performance-artist who should provide “disinterested pleasure” but his method is to call up literary connections while drawing the eye towards a political context – sometimes the actual politics of the day. In the last essay, a tribute to Edward Said, Paulin cites Said approvingly on Yeats: “who articulates raw vision of a people suffering under the dominion of an off-shore power”.
A difficulty with the essays is that as readers we cannot query the elisions or ask, after coping with a rugged, chain-linked sentence, "who does the last 'he' refer to?" Nonetheless, once immersed in these essay-reviews, readers will enjoy original, provocative samples of close readings from the canon: Shakespeare, Sheridan, Synge, Milton, Marvell, Bunyan, Richardson, Joyce and, his own favourite, Hazlitt. Paulin relishes the dissident performer-critic role. Kate Bateman
The Reserve
By Russell Banks
Bloomsbury, £7.99
The only way to read this daft yarn about rich people playing at being frontier woodsmen in 1930s up-state New York is to imagine that the Coen Brothers have purchased the rights. Then you might not notice that the loudmouth artist central character, Jordan Groves, who enjoys landing his biplane on other people's property, is ridiculous. You may even miss that anti-heroine Vanessa Cole, too beautiful to be fully human – and she's not human – is a caricature Katharine Hepburn. If this novel is a mess, its only redeeming element a murder that should never have happened, the real tragedy is that it misrepresents Russell Banks, one of the finest American writers and author of Affliction, The Sweet Hereafter, Rule of the Bone, The Darlingand The Angel on the Roofcollection. All The Reservehas going for it is the lakeside scenery, the woods and smart- alec dialogue. Banks has written many intense, passionate books, why he flounders so unconvincingly here is a mystery. Eileen Battersby
We-Think
By Charles Leadbeater
Profile Books, £8.99
We-Thinktraces the revolution the internet has unleashed on mankind and dissects the opportunities it offers for the future. Leadbeater's thesis emerged from a unique process as the author invited people to contribute to the book through internet blogs and chat rooms. We-Thinkrelates the genesis of the internet to the counterculture of the 1960s and argues a similar spirit, allied with modern technology, could lead to novel forms of post-industrial social organisation. From YouTube to Wikipedia, the internet offers new chances for people to become part of a wider community, and these opportunities may transform the way we produce, consume and share. The book is a balanced mix of debate and anecdotal evidence that is accessible to a diverse audience, not just technophiles. Expertly fusing philosophy and observation, Leadbeater depicts a world enriched by the creative and innovative possibilities of the internet and a more open, egalitarian and democratic society. Rory Tevlin