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New
books reviewed by
Myfanwy Tristan, Stephen Drennan and Simon Ounsworth.
Wild
Ginger
by Anchee Min
Women's Press pbk £10.99
 The
convictions of kids run strong; which is why Chairman
Mao had school lessons suspended in 1970s China and the
recital of his quotations put in their place. The result
was a generation of zealots who, with the cruelty particular
to youth, turned in both friends and family if they were
perceived as not sufficiently dedicated to the cause.
Such
daily insanities of the Cultural Revolution - insanities
which become the norm to children who remember no different
- are the subject of this simple but affecting tale. At
the age of twelve, Wild Ginger and her schoolmates are
taught that love exists only for the bourgeoisie. They
believe it intellectually, but within a couple of years,
the hormonal changes in their bodies are pleading a different
case, and it is the conflict of heart and mind that ultimately
leads to disaster.
A
moving reminder of the individual tragedies caused by
Mao's sweeping, impersonal reforms. MT
Trash
- The Graphic Genius of Xploitation Movie Posters
by Jacques Boyreau
Chronicle pbk, £14.99
Chronicle come up trumps again with a ton and a half of
"blood-curdling color" advertisements for some
of the most lunatic films imaginable. Trash leads you
from the paddle-wielding bully of Corman's Sorority Girl,
through Primal Scream-namechecked Vanishing Point, ratsploitation
flick Willard, hippie-era Psych-Out, and black vampire
horror Scream Blacula Scream, to a poster for a nudism
pic where underwear's been overprinted to dissuade Junior
from asking awkward questions.
Underground
cinema archivist Boyreau keeps a low profile, allowing
this garish cornucopia centre stage: blood-dripping cleavers,
tuff bikers, screaming mouths, machine gun-totin' hookers
and a soapsud-caked Jayne Mansfield whet one's appetite
for three-in-the-morning teevee thrills. Whilst the odd
missing edge irks, overall this Trash deserves your cash.
SD
The
Hundred and Ninety-Nine Steps
by Michael Faber
Canongate pbk, £6.99
Part historical detective story, part romance and part
psychological character study, this latest offering from
Scottish-based literary hotshot Michael Faber packs a
lot into its 114 sparsely-worded pages. It's the story
of Si'n, a thirty-something archaeologist frozen into
a state of numb hopelessness by physical and emotional
trauma, and her gradual reawakening following a chance
encounter with a man and his dog while digging up the
medieval dead in Whitby. The tentative relationship that
results is the pretext for an extended meditation on the
difference between life and mere existence. Although Faber
is occasionally guilty of borrowing his protagonist's
trowel and laying on the symbolism with it ("Have
you ever been dead, Mack?" asks Si'n at one point,
before explaining that she was briefly clinically dead
following an accident) this is nevertheless an exceptional
work - a novella whose brevity and lightness of tone belie
real seriousness of purpose. SO
Owls
Do Cry
by Janet Frame
Women's Press Classic pbk £6.99
 Frame's
New Zealand is not the sun-soaked paradise that many of
us dream of. Her characters live in a society racked with
misery, poverty and insanity, in a mill town that could
well have been plucked from Industrial Revolution Britain.
The story is told, in turn, by members of an ill-starred
family: a son, given to epileptic fits; his sister, confined
to a mental hospital; and a second sister whose overweening
desire for social mobility is as debilitating as her siblings'
defects. Poignantly, the unlovable yearn for love. The
father yearns for a dead daughter. Everyone uncovers their
deepest desires only to reveal, to the reader if not to
themselves, that they can never be met. Frame's prose
is disjointed, ethereal and interspersed with strange
musings. Laying down the book is like waking from a dream
in which all one's hopes have been dashed. MT
The
Brush Off
by Shane Maloney
Canongate Crime pbk £9.99
What's this - a Labour spin-doctor called Whelan who doubles
up as a wise-cracking crime fighter? Surely some mistake?
Thankfully we can all relax, because this isn't Gordon
Brown's oily ex-sidekick Charlie's latest ill-judged attempt
at a career relaunch, but a long overdue first British
outing for Shane Maloney's likeable Ozzie hero Murray
Whelan. This time around, the domestically-challenged
political fixer finds himself plunged headfirst into the
Australian arts scene - a world for which he has about
as much natural affinity as Sir Les Patterson. And guess
what: before he knows it he's up to his neck in corpses
and antipodean temptresses.
None
of which could be described as exactly genre-busting -
but then who ever bought into a mystery series looking
for an avant-garde literary challenge? Maloney deploys
the tried and tested formulae with expertise and a distinctly
Australian energetic enthusiasm. And that's all you really
need to know. SO
copyright New Insight 2002
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