Latest paperback releases reviewed.
A Long, Long Way Sebastian Barry Faber & Faber, £7.99
In fiction, as on television, we have become somewhat inured to the horrors of war. Open this novel just about anywhere, however, and you'll find a scene that is capable of moving you to tears. Not that it is a miserable book: there are also scenes to make you laugh out loud, and some - plenty - to make you gasp in admiration at the sheer beauty of the writing. The latter is not simply a matter of surface sheen; no amount of polish can conceal the visceral nature of Barry's intention, which is to bring the reader face to face with humanity's inhumanity to itself. The central character is an idealistic young Irishman, Willie Dunne, who enlists in the British Army during the first World War - only to find that idealism, let alone Irishness, is a considerably more complicated business than he could ever have imagined. Barry does the "slaughter in the trenches" stuff with the best of them - so well, in fact, that A Long, Long Way was shortlisted for the Man Booker prize - but this is a uniquely Irish take on that terrible story. Perhaps that's why it hurts so much.
Arminta Wallace
Freakonomics Steven D Levitt and Stephen J Dubner Penguin, £8.99
An unconventional approach to interpreting data from "rogue economist" Steven Levitt, this book seeks to answer questions not usually covered by the dismal science. The economic structure and earning capabilities of a Chicago crack gang, why sumo wrestlers and schoolteachers cheat and how a child's name can affect how they do in life are all examined in a breezy and amusing tone. More controversially, it also claims the introduction of legalised abortion in the US led to a dramatic fall in crime 20 years later. The explanations are teased out like a detective novel, using statistics but largely free of technical jargon. The authors admit they have no unifying theme behind the topics covered but the book is primarily concerned with incentives and the reasons behind people's behaviour.
Eoghan Morrissey
The Secret Goldfish By David Means. Harper Perennial, £7.99
Having dazzled with his debut collection of stories, Assorted Fire Events, Michigan-born writer David Means strikes again with further examples of his singular dark art, imaginative stories showcasing his weird, surreal, yet oddly tender flair. Nature itself is a prevailing presence for him and Means knows the weight of the tiniest detail, the passing observation. Each of the 15 stories in this menacing sack of wonders evolves into its own little universe of detached horror pitched within the possible. In the title story - the finest in a brilliant book - an ancient pet goldfish is determined to not only survive the filthy living conditions imposed by neglectful owners, but to outlive their unhappy marriage - and does.
Eileen Battersby
Strumpet City James Plunkett. Gill & Macmillan, €10.99
This is a very tidy paperback of Plunkett's lengthy 1969 novel about the Dublin Lockout of 1913. One of our major efforts at a 19th-century-realism kind of historical novel, its popularity owes much to Hugh Leonard's masterly adaptation of its documentary detail for the RTÉ television version of 1980, a debt acknowledged here by the cover which has David Kelly as "Rashers" Tierney and Brendan Cauldwell as "Toucher" Hennessy against an O'Connell Street background. The novel has also retained a literary respectability, motivated as it was by Plunkett's ambition to accommodate a treatment of all social strata, especially the two Dublins of O'Casey's slums and Joyce's middle class. While no triumphant stylist, Plunkett impressively combines a resolute empathy with the working classes, an emphasis on dramatic characterisation, a snapshot attention to societal detail, and an equally honest and humane sense of the broader movement of history.
John Kenny
Utterly Monkey Nick Laird Harper Perennial, £7.99
This five-day caper story has as chief caperer Geordie Wilson, erstwhile resident of Northern Ireland, who has fled with some loyalist swag to the temporary safety of his childhood friend Danny's home in London. The Troubles background interchanges with the more cleverly explored predicament of distraction and boredom that Danny suffers in his legal job - Laird's delectation of the humdrum workplace in parts rivals The Office. Geordie and Danny become embroiled in loyalist plans in London, and the frantic action chases towards potential mayhem at the end. The determinedly populist remit of this format from Harper is directly in keeping with the thrust of the novel itself: in a "PS" section at the end, we learn about Laird in a "Q and A", in a "Life at a Glance" and in "A Writing Life", and we can study the "Top 10 Most Played Songs (by different artists) on Nick Laird's iTunes as at 10.52 am on 4th July 2005".
John Kenny
John. Cynthia Lennon. Hodder, £7.99
Cynthia Lennon has been, according to her son Julian, "relegated to a puff of smoke in dad's life" - dad in this case being John Lennon. And so, following decades of finding "her own life", Cynthia has decided to not only finally quell the perceived notions of her being dismissed as the impressionable young girl who fell for Lennon ("then trapped him into marriage") but to spill the beans. It's as candid an account as any discerning Beatles fan could hope for; the early days in Liverpool are vividly recounted, her down-at-heel state after the marriage is poignant, and her description of Lennon's equal measures of love and spite - as well as her seething, silent feud with Yoko Ono - salutary.
Tony Clayton-Lea