Books I reviewed in March (and some I didn’t)

Posted on April 18, 2012 by Doug Johnstone

OK, so it’s well late for this, but I been busy, OK? Here are the books I reviewed in March, a mixed bag, to be sure.

Lisa O’Donnell, The Death of Bees (William Heinemann) – Reviewed for The Scotsman. A great coming-of-age story set in the poorest part of Glasgow, about two sisters whose parents die in the opening chapter. That sounds bleak, right? But it’s actually very funny in places.

George Dyson, Turing’s Cathedral (Allen Lane) – Reviewed for Scotland on Sunday. A kind of strangely lopsided book about the invention of the modern computer, which was big on boring detail but not so good at seeing the bigger picture.

Dan Rhodes, This is Life (Canongate) – Reviewed for the Big Issue. A new Dan Rhodes is always a welcome treat. This is a nice, offbeat love story set in Paris and full of delightfully weird scenarios and some truly fantastic deadpan comic writing.

Walter Mosley, All I Did Was Shoot My Man (Weidenfeld & Nicolson) – Reviewed for the Big Issue. Just look at that title. That’s a motherfucking book title, huh? The book very nearly lived up to it. I love Mosley’s stuff.

Jo Nesbo, Phantom (Harvill Secker) – Reviewed for The Independent on Sunday. I read lots of reader reviews saying this was fast-paced. Really? Felt slow to me in places. Good plot later on, but it’s basically Jason Bourne in Oslo. Some of the prose is dire.

Ron Rash, The Cove (Canongate) – Reviewed for The Independent on Sunday. Wonderful book, set in the rural badlands of America, about a seemingly cursed family and their woes, in the wake of paranoia about wartime German spies. Lyrical and moving. Seek it out.

Karl Ove Knausgaard, A Death in the Family (Harvill Secker) – Reviewed for the Big Issue. A novel-as-memoir sensation from Norway, it’s full of beautiful, brave, honest writing about a truly fucked up family.

Tim Weiner, Enemies (Allen Lane) – Reviewed for the Big Issue. The history of the FBI. Author is a veteran reporter on this stuff for a lifetime, and it shows, a really comprehensive guide to accompany his history of the CIA which came a couple of years before.

Aaaaaand, as per usual, the list of books-to-be-read gets longer and longer. This month, these little beauties were added to the top of the teetering pile:

John Lanchester, Capital (Faber)
Joe R. Lansdale, Edge of Dark Water (Mulholland)
Chris Pavone, The Expats (Faber)
Mark Leyner, The Sugar Frosted Nutsack (Little Brown)

If you’ve read any of these titles, gimme a shout, whydontcha?

Aye so, only two weeks till April’s books round up.

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Eye o’ the Dug

Posted on April 13, 2012 by Doug Johnstone

Friday tune time. I’m off to the Eye o’the Dug Festival this weekend in St Andrews, so here’s a cheeky wee bit of The Pictish Trail to get in the mood. If you’re reading this, Johnny, stay calm, dude, it’ll all work out!

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A couple more Hit & Run press nibbles

Posted on April 10, 2012 by Doug Johnstone

A couple more Hit & Run press nibbles to slap up here, folks.

Firstly, here I am comparing myself to Hollywood stars and rock gods over at Malcolm Holt’s A Bit on the Side blog, rather arrogantly. Also answering a few questions in less of a dickish manner.

And Our Book Reviews gave H&R a fantastic review, courtesy of Maryom, who described it as ‘unputdownable’, which is as clumsy and heart-warming a compliment as I’ve had all day.

More reviews coming soon, so I’m told.

Dx

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ATTENTION Good People of Dundee!

Posted on April 10, 2012 by Doug Johnstone

Like it says, ATTENTION good people of Dundee. I am coming to do an event in your fair city THIS THURSDAY with the fantastic authors Tony Black and Caro Ramsay. It’s at 7pm at the Steps Theatre and it’s free but ticketed. You can reserve a ticket by calling the Central Library on 01382 431500. If you don’t believe me, look here.

The evening is being hosted by fellow writer Russel D Maclean. I dunno exactly what form this event will take, but I can assure you there will be honest-to-goodness plain speaking and some playful japery to boot.

COME!

Dx

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‘They’re just humans with wives and children.’

Posted on April 6, 2012 by Doug Johnstone

Friday tune time. Flaming Lips’ ‘Race for the Prize’. I fancy having this played at my funeral. Do You Realize? probably makes more sense lyrically, about life and death and love and all, but there’s something about this tune, the crazy synth riff, Steve Drozd’s drumming (I know, he’s not drumming in this version below), Wayne’s feeble voice – ach it all makes my heart sing.

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What’s your dick like, homie, what are you into?

Posted on March 30, 2012 by Doug Johnstone

Friday tune time. Someone posted this a few days ago on Facebook with that annoying apologetic thing of ‘I know I’m miles behind everyone, and you’ve all moved on to something else, but I like this etc’ schtick. It was the first time I’d seen it.

So anyway, who gives a fuck if all the twats have moved onto something else, this is mesmerising and awesome rap. Easily the freshest sound I’ve heard in ages. Check it:

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Dead dogs and drunk drummers

Posted on March 29, 2012 by Doug Johnstone

Aye so, had a good chat with Ali Braidwood over at his Scots Whay Hae blog. We went to the pub and recorded ourselves talking shite. Then we killed some dogs and went home.

Read all about it and, more importantly, listen to our full-throttle blether here. Go on.

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‘Something in my veins, bloodier than blood…’

Posted on March 23, 2012 by Doug Johnstone

I once had a crazy idea to write a book of interconnected short stories all based on Wilco lyrics. Wilco are a fucking amazing band. That book remains unwritten, but I did write a story called ‘Bloodier Than Blood’ for Gutter magazine a while back, so maybe I could get round to it one day.

Here is the song that title is ripped off from, enjoy!

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(Not) lost in translation – Nesbo v Knausgaard

Posted on March 22, 2012 by Doug Johnstone

OK, so I recently reviewed the new Jo Nesbo book, Phantom, for The Independent on Sunday. You can read that review here. The basic gist was that the guy can do plot, but some of the line-by-line prose was truly horrible. I noticed that Ian Rankin said something similar on The Review Show at the weekend there. He also, like me, mentioned that the book was basically Jason Bourne in Norwegian cop disguise. Great minds, and all that.

Ian said on the show that the prose thing might be a case of being ‘lost in translation’, which is generous to Nesbo, but a double-edged sword, as I’m sure Don Bartlett, who translated the book into English, doesn’t like the implication that his work was shonky.

Anyway, I then read Karl Ove Knausgaard’s memoir-novel A Death in the Family, reviewing for The Big Issue magazine. Same publisher, same translator from Norwegian to English. And some of the line-by-line prose is simply stunning – beautiful and lyrical yet without losing an ounce of clarity or vision. A really classy piece of writing.

Of course, it’s impossible to really tell without knowing both languages fluently, but my hunch is that Bartlett is probably a very fine translator, and that perhaps in the case of Nesbo, his source material wasn’t, ahem, what it could’ve been. I’m guessing, of course. If that was the case, that must be incredibly frustrating as a translator.

Aye so, this is just an observation, really. Any thoughts, throw them at me. Go on.

I’m off to learn Norwegian.

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Human remains found on Salisbury Crags

Posted on March 20, 2012 by Doug Johnstone

Soooooooo. Been meaning to post this since I saw it last week. Apparently, human remains were recently found on Salisbury Crags in Edinburgh. This shows, ahem, a great deal of similarities to a certain crucial plot point in Hit & Run. If it helps any, I swear I was washing my hair that night.

This is an example of that weird serendipity that happens when writing fiction. After Tombstoning came out, I remember, they found evidence of a guy living in the caves of Arbroath cliffs. Similarly, the first ever murder on Islay occurred about the time Smokeheads came out.

Maybe I need to write that I win the lottery in the next book. That would do. In actual fact, the novel I’ve just finished contained two graphic depictions of burglaries. My own house was burgled three weeks ago, after I’d written the scenes. Ho hum.

So yeah, more on these ‘human’ remains when I hear. If it turns out to be Edinburgh biggest crime lord, I am gonna fucking freak.

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