When Will There Be Good News?

'A coincidence is just an explanation waiting to happen.' So says Jackson Brodie, as if in anticipation of some of the reviews of Kate Atkinson's When Will There Be Good News?

There are a lot of coincidences, but nothing that wouldn't seem out of place in any newspaper crime story. As the old cliché goes truth is always stranger than fiction ...

And anyway the writing is so fine that you don't really care if Jackson's martian cousins had landed in Ms MacDonald's garden in Musselburgh instead of the runaway GNER intercity express of the novel.

For me the first Jackson novel was just a little bit twee and the happy ending wrapped things up a bit too neatly. Atkinson seemed a little unsure of her departure from the cosy world of literary fiction and it took a while for her to find her feet with the crime elements of the story. The second one was more believable and the writing was tighter.

This time everything comes together beautifully – the writing is taught and noir-ish, the multiple narrator perspective works brilliantly, giving different viewpoints and pushing the narrative onwards, and the different layers of the story reveal themselves spectacularly.

The ending seems to suggest that there may be a few more adventures for Jackson still to come, but if not I am sure that Reggie could step in and take over the franchise.

Song for Sunday

The Sundays – Here's Where the Story Ends

Ceremony x 3

1 Galaxie 500


2 Radiohead


3 and the original version ...

Books of 2008

Complete list is in the sidebar on the right (scroll down a bit) and can only be described as a very poor effort, with a total of only 26 books (one a fortnight). Not helped by only reading 16 pages of Kafka on the Shore between December 1 and December 31 ...

Top 10
1 In Another Light – Andrew Greig
2 The Testament of Gideon Mack – James Robertson
3 Sputnik Caledonia – Andrew Crumey
4 Miracles of Life – JG Ballard
5 Slicing the Silence – Tom Griffiths
6 Riddley Walker – Russell Hoban
7 Midnight in Sicily – Peter Robb
8 Wildwood – Roger Deakin
9 The Wild Places – Robert MacFarlane
10 One Good Turn – Kate Atkinson

Statistics
Fiction: 15 titles
Non-fiction: 11 titles
Number of authors: 26
Male authors: 21
Female authors: 5
Books published in 2008: 5
Books published in 2007: 8
Books published in 2006: 5
Books published in 2005: 5
Books published 2000-04: 2
Books published 1990-99: 0
Books published 1980-89: 1
Books published before 1980: 0

Song for Sunday

Emiliana Torrini – Big Jumps

Dedicated to to my friends Norman and Neil (and, of course, their respective partners – Shona and Julie) who have both announced recently that they are getting married!

The Book of Other People

I know its for charity, but the problem is it just isn't very good. I had high hopes, admittedly. A handsomely designed hardback with twenty-three short pieces on the theme of character, containing work by some of my favourite novelists – David Mitchell, Hari Kunzru, Jonathan Safran Foer, Dave Eggers and Colm Tóibín – and a supporting cast of other interesting writers that I had either enjoyed before or wanted to know more about – A. L. Kennedy, ZZ Packer, Andrew O'Hagan, Zadie Smith, Nick Hornby, Toby Litt and A.M. Homes. What could go wrong ...

David Mitchell's Judith Castle was the first big disappointment. I haven't read anything by David before that was less than brilliant, but this is pretty shallow and tedious with a punchline that you can see coming from less than half-way through.

Rhoda, Jonathan Safran Foer's Jewish granny stream-of-consciousness, has its moments, but is a long way from the best of his writing. Andrew O'Hagan's Gordon (yes, that Gordon) is a great idea, which doesn't quite come off, while Dave Eggers' Theo is a throwaway idea stretched and meandering way beyond the point where it was interesting.

The two best stories for me were Colm Tóibín's affecting Donal Webster and A. L. Kennedy's genuinely unsettling Frank. Both create vivid and believable individuals who find themselves in situations that you desperately want to know more about.

Anyway it is for a good cause – www.826national.org (unbelievably they even get the website wrong in the introduction) – and I hope the book raises them lots of cash. However, if you want to read something captivating and amusing I would suggest you try the letters to President Obama written by some of the students supported by this organisation instead.

American Journeys

On the United States of America my senses swing like a door with no latch. They are moved by fierce gusts and imperceptible zephyrs. Love and loathing come and go in about the same proportion.

... thinking that it was in the 'nature' of America to be brutal, racist and imperialistic, a paradox appears. The Freedom Marchers had been Americans. Martin Luther King was American. Sidney Perelman was American. Mark Twain was American. Portnoy was American. Louis Armstrong, Bob Dylan, William Appleman Williams, Herbert Marcuse and Robert Crumb were all American. Our jeans were American. The most articulate critics of America - the most articulate people on earth, and the most liberal - were American. The America of my most avid anti-American phase was the America of my first rational adult heroes. That paradox, greatly modified though it is, animates me still.

Although Don Watson is talking about Vietnam and a different generation of Americans, I know exactly what he means. My heroes would be Jack Kerouac, Bruce Springsteen, Tom Cruise in Top Gun and Bob Mould; the Prince of Darkness would be Ronald Reagan. Even so it is uncanny how well he articulates the schizophrenic relationship most of the inhabitants of the rest of the world has with America.

The introduction to Don's American Journey contains some of the best writing you will find about the USA. The account of his travels is fascinating and entertaining, but doesn't quite match up to the power, clarity and simplicity of his initial thoughts.

It starts well, with a visit to New Orleans soon after Hurricane Katrinia, where he seems equally bemused by the inept government response and by the religious volunteers who stepped in to fill the void. The journey loses a bit of focus after that and, although he is an interesting travel companion, what he encounters isn't always that interesting. The historical detail is excellent, there are some wonderful asides and he does visit some fascinating places that don't often figure in travel itineraries, but if I was feeling uncharitable I would say it often felt more like a publisher's advance in search of an odyssey rather than the other way round.

But don't let that put you off. It is still a great read, even it doesn't quite live up to the promise of the first thirteen pages. And Watson is particularly good on America's mind-boggling contradictions, its immense diversity and intricate social structures. He also captures the spirit of the populace's optimism and potential, as he says: 'one also sees startling unselfconscious acts of grace and generosity that might only be possible when something childlike and raw remains in the spirit of the place'.

Song for Sunday

Franz Ferdinand – Call Me

Sublime and ridiculous ...

Song for Sunday

TV on the Radio – Heroes

Heroes, Villians & Velodromes

It's a great story, well told. The rise of Team GB from the back markers of world track cycling to the all-conquering heroes of Beijing.

The subtitle on my copy is 'Chris Hoy and Britain's Track Cycling Revolution' and although Chris does feature prominently (even more so in the reprinted version below, hastily rushed out for Christmas gift sales) there is plenty about the other team members and also the back room staff who played such a key role in the transformation.

I was particularly happy to see so much prominence given to Craig MacLean and his achievements, which even though not quite up to three golds in one Olympics still helped to pave the way for Chris. My favourite story from the book concerns Craig and the opening of the Craig MacLean Leisure Centre in Grantown-on-Spey, near where I grew up:

MacLean was flattered. And after he cut the ribbon, he was presented with a large painting commissioned to mark the occasion, done by a local artist, who'd worked from a picture of MacLean in action. Or it was supposed to be MacLean. But as MacLean studied the painting he realized it wasn't. It was Chris Hoy. 'Typical,' says MacLean with a wry smile.

My only complaint is the US spelling used throughout and all the nasty 'z's (see quote above) that permeate the text. I am guessing that HarperCollins didn't choose this convention because they are expecting thousands of US sales and assume that it is standard policy across all their titles now. Oh well, my hatred of Rupert Murdoch had been waning recently so it's good to find yet another thing to add to his list of crimes ...

Song for Sunday

Tanya Donnelly – Keeping You

Happy Valentine's day my love!

GenderAnalyzer

We guess http://geographyofhope.blogspot.com/ is written by a woman (53%), however it's quite gender neutral.

Hmmm. Try it out on you favourite blogs here.

the Boat

the Boat is an interesting book and there's no doubt that Nam Le is a talented writer, who may well go on to great things. Unfortunately, the stories in this collection don't live up to all the hype and, for me, although there are some small precious gems within the book there are just too many gaps and holes for the writing to work.

He sets out his background and dilemma early on in the first story, Love and Honour and Pity and Pride and Compassion and Sacrifice:

'It's hot,' a writing instructor told me at a bar. 'Ethnic literature's hot. And important too.'

And then on the next page his fictional friend tells him:

'You could totally exploit the Vietnamese thing. But instead you choose to write about lesbian vampires and Colombian assassins, and Hiroshima orphans – and New York painters with haemorrhoids.'

Sadly I didn't find the lesbian vampires, but all the other characters are present and correct. And that for me is the main problem. While the writing is virtuoso the stories aren't up to snuff. They all read like experiments for his creative writing course (that also crops up in the first story), and I am sure they got good marks, but most left me with a feeling that I only had tiny fragments of what was really happening in these imaginary worlds and these specks weren't enough to bring them into focus.

Even the heartbreaking final story about Vietnamese refugees trying to escape on a fishing boat that breaks down suffers from this problem. The description is superb and the situation is all too vivid, but the characters are obscured and they seem to richochet off each other rather than connecting as they should.

Song for Sunday

Buffalo Tom – Late at Night

Two of my favourite things: Buffalo Tom and My So Called Life. If you don't know either please (I'm asking nicely) go and get the DVD box set and Big Red Letter Day. You'll thank me later ...

Song for Sunday

White Lies – Death

Song for Sunday

Okkervil River – Lost Coastlines

Don't worry about the banjo, just give it a minute or two ...

Doors Open

Mike Mackenzie feels like a minor character in a Rebus mystery. He's an intriguing creation, but his Edinburgh is much flatter, more two-dimensional and much less interesting than the one Rebus inhabits.

The other characters are all recognisable representations of their real-life counterparts, but for me none of them came to life the way that Rebus and Shiv did.

The plot is fine and the action hammers along at a cracking pace, but there is something missing. Maybe it's me. Maybe I don't want to accept that Rankin's moved on, left Rebus behind, gone for good. It is an enjoyable read, but (another caveat) I just couldn't find the heart of these characters and I suspect it was a struggle for the author too. The perfect little details that rounded out Rebus and made those stories palpable just aren't there and the impression I am left with is of too much time spent making sure that the plot worked and not enough time spent making sure that the characters did.

Love is a mixed up thing

Love is a Mix Tape is a book about music lists, mid-90s alt-rock and sudden death, written by a self-confessed craven hermit. How could anyone who had actually read (or, let's be honest, even skimmed) the manuscript think that the cover above was going to be a good idea? The overall effect is topped-off by a lovely gold spine, with title reversed out in white.

I had read some mildly-positive reviews and almost bought a copy a year or two ago when it had the original trade paperback cover, but for some reason I resisted. When I saw the mass market version in a well-known discount bookstore a few weeks ago I almost didn't recognise it, but once I had made the connection was sufficiently interested to lash out and spend $5.

It isn't as bad as you might imagine from the cover – there are some good lines ("does your boy-friend wear glasses", "no a walkman") and touching passages – but overall it is not good.

It was probably never going to be the easiest commission, but how could it go so badly wrong? I can almost see the sales and marketing meeting:
Sales expert "hmmm, the trade paperback didn't take off like we expected, even with some good reviews and catalogue placement"
Marketing expert "what we need is a completely new direction ... can we try to tap into a slighty wider market than mid-30s, sad loser, music obsessives?"
Sales "great idea – lets go for the girlfriends of mid-30s, sad loser, music obsessives as well!"
Marketing "excellent – I'll see what we can come up with"

However, I really should have guessed from the titles of books advertised on the last few pages – Alice in La La Land, The Shoe Queen, Gucci Mamas and Not Meeting Mr Right ...

Song for Sunday

Frightened Rabbit – Heads Roll Off

More rich pickings from other peoples best of 2008 lists (last week's was the top tune in The Observer's end of year list). This week comes courtesy of my favourite blog-before-blogs-were-invented The War Against Silence. It means I am generally a year behind all the cool kids, but for someone of my advanced age and declining critical faculties I still feel that's not too bad.

My list is on its way ... promise.

Pittenweem to the Rock'n'Roll Dream (2008 in Mix Tape form)

The Rip – Portishead
If You Want Me – Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova
Quicksand – Dot Allison
Air – Expatriate
The Sun Smells Too Loud – Mogwai
Half Asleep – School of Seven Bells
Paper Planes – M.I.A.
Strange Overtones – David Byrne and Brian Eno
One Night On Earth – The Veils
Blue Plastic Bags – Malcolm Middleton
The Sixth Stone – Aidan Moffat and The Best-Ofs & Ian Rankin
If Looks Could Kill – Camera Obscura
Visitor – Nina Kinert
Driver, Surprise Me – The National
Down On the Ground – British Sea Power
Polmont On My Mind – Glasvegas
The Girl Is My Gun – Gersey
That Leaving Feeling – Stuart A. Staples

Anybody lucky enough to have a copy – hope you are enjoying it! If you don't then feel free to join in at home and make your own (or send me 5 good reasons why you should get one and I will put one in the post).

Song for Sunday

Happy 2009. Holiday hiatus over. New Year resolution is to write more regularly ... we'll see.


MGMT – Time to Pretend

The proper video is great and the cover version by Patience Hodgson and Broderick Smith on last night's RockWiz is also worth a look.

Song for Sunday

Song for Sunday

Daddy

Button number one's portrait of daddy. It is pretty lifelike, apart from the nose ...

Top 10 concerts

As promised ...

1 R.E.M. – Green World Tour 24 May 1989, Glasgow Barrowlands
I think I've said everything I need to in this post.

2 Bruce Springsteen – Tunnel of Love Tour 21 June 1988, Villa Park Birmingham
I had finished my first year at university, spent a week or two helping a friend decorate his new flat, which would also be my home for the next three years, and before I headed home for my summer job I took the overnight coach down to Birmingham to see Bruce. As far as I can remember this was my first and last visit to Birmingham. I arrived in Birmingham at about 7am, hung around all day waiting for the concert and then caught the overnight coach back to Edinburgh. Sounds like a lot of effort, but I have to say it was worth every penny and every minute of discomfort on that coach. If I had had any money left I would certainly have stayed for the second concert the day after ...

3 Idlewild – Dingwalls 1998(?), Camden
I could have picked anyone of about five Idlewild gigs, but this one stands out for many reasons ... I went with one of my best friends, who was good friends with their photographer and knew all the band. Afterwards we ended up drinking all the bands booze (well tried to) and for some reason I purloined a t-shirt. I remember trying it on at Waterloo station while we were waiting for one of the very infrequent trains to Clapham Junction at 3am and discovering that it was a small female skinny-fit!

4 U2 – Joshua Tree Tour 30 July 1987, Glasgow S.E.C.C.
17-years-old. First big rock show. Summer between school and university. How could it not be brilliant? (Support was from the Waterboys who were at the apex of their fairly feeble trajectory ... Apologies Sam, but it's true.)

5 Interpol – Turn out the Bright Lights Tour 8 August 2003, Corner Hotel Melbourne
The bass amp was buggered, kept surging in and then dying about five seconds later, and the rest of the sound wasn't a lot better. Even so they were the epitome of cool and played a perfect set that made me believe in the possibilities of a classic two guitars, bass and drums rock band all over again.

6 Blue Aeroplanes – King Tuts 19 October 1990(?), Glasgow
Starting with the sound of 747 taking off played at the original volume, they proceeded to play one of the most inspired sets I have ever seen. In my memory there was about ten of them on stage and, of course, at least seven of them playing guitars – only Wotjek, the drummer and Gerald didn't. If you don't believe me check the list of band members ...

7 Mogwai – The Astoria 25 January 1999, London
All the details escape me totally, but what is still vivid is the sheer concentration and precision with which they created the most amazing, emotional, poignant, revelatory noise. Probably the loudest gig I've ever been to, the alternating feelings of your breath being sucked from your lungs by a monstrous steamroller of sound to the caress of the sublimest, delicate melody will always remain.

8 Belle and Sebastian – Union Chapel 28 July 1997, Islington
And on the guest list no less. I think this might have been one of their first London gigs and, to be honest, they were a complete shambles. All the hippest London kids, with their best 'come-on impress me' pants on and they didn't even seem to know who should be playing which instrument for most of the songs. Unbelievably all the interminable inter-song faffing and shy-weegie-janitor-schtick didn't make a blind bit of difference and every song they played seemed to have been dropped perfectly formed into their laps by fey-indie-pop-genius-angels.

9 Laurie Anderson – Hamer Hall 15 February 2003, Melbourne
Mad bird. Great show.

10 Prolapse – Camden Crawl II 19 September 1996, The Monarch Camden
It is hard to put my finger on what was so magic about Prolapse. Their live show was like watching the most ill-matched couple you can imagine having a massive post-pub domestic on stage, backed by your favourite left-field indie pop band. I could never understand why they weren't on Top of the Pops every week ...

And just outside the the top 10:
Afghan Whigs – 13 February 1994, The Venue Edinburgh
Don't know what happened, but at this point in time I reckon they were pretty much the best live rock band in the world.

My Bloody Valentine – Roller Coaster Tour 25 March 1992, Glasgow S.E.C.C. (with The Jesus and Mary Chain, Blur and Dinosaur Jr)
Same chord. 25 minutes. I thought it was awesome, most people seemed to think the bar was a better option.