The latest paperbacks reviewed.
The Irresponsible Self: On Laughter and the Novel. James Wood, Pimlico, £12.99
In a second book based on his literary reviews Wood explains much about how laughter does and does not work in some major writers. The common concern of these brilliantly middle-styled essays is the "tragicomic stoicism which might best be called the comedy of forgiveness". Pieces on Cervantes, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Bellow, Franzen and Coetzee are inviting general introductions as well as microscopically close readings of individual works. Rushdie, Tom Wolfe and Zadie Smith bear the brunt of Wood's kicking critical strategies; even when he is at his most bruising, however, one can still see him lovingly choosing his boot, lacing it, polishing it for high shine. - John Kenny
Paradise. AL Kennedy, Vintage, £7.99
Hannah Luckcraft, heading for 40, no child, no love, no proper home, a ridiculous job she is about to lose, a mind full of chaos and an addiction - exactly how interesting can a drunk hope to be? Scots writer AL Kennedy sets out to liberate her anti-heroine's story from the squalor through virtuoso prose. And this surreal, candid, freefall study of a breakdown is a virtuoso performance of sorts. It is also queasily, disturbingly graphic and frequently, horrifically funny. Poor Hannah, who exists in a state of paralysed hope, also suffers from an obsessive, insane need for Robert, a fellow drunk and working dentist who eventually remembers his wife and child. If Hannah as narrator of her messy saga is almost too articulate to convince, the portrait of her grieving mother and disgusted younger brother earn this demanding, ambivalent novel moments of heartbreaking insight. - Eileen Battersby
Chekhov: Scenes from a Life. Rosamund Bartlett, Free Press, £8.99
This biography is remarkable for providing the reader with a vivid account of the time when Anton Chekhov, writer of genius and doctor by profession, was alive in Russia. It fails, however, to render the man, his feelings or sense of felt life during his short, packed 44 years. Chekhov emerges as a restless, driven, responsible person who balanced writing short stories and plays with medical practice, family obligation with the need for space. From an early age he was in poor health and this compelled him to leave his beloved Moscow and live in a number of country houses. The work reveals as much about Tsarist Russia as it does about the playwright's active social conscience. Emphasis is on place not chronology, as is demonstrated in the powerful description of Chekhov's harrowing overland journey and stay in the penal colony of Sakhalin (Siberia) and his return by sea through Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore. - Kate Bateman
Siege at Jadotville: The Irish Army's Forgotten Battle. Declan Power, Maverick House, €12.99
In September 1961 during the ill-conceived UN mission to halt the secession of the province of Katanga from the newly independent former Belgian colony of the Congo, an Irish Army company of 150 soldiers at Jadotville was surprised by a several thousand Katangan troops and white mercenaries. Under constant onslaught and bombardment, which included air attacks, the men battled valiantly and inflicted huge casualties on their attackers. A UN force sent to relieve them was beaten back. During the siege, the Irish commanding officer agreed a ceasefire, but it proved a trick and he was forced to surrender. Despite their heroic actions, over the years the "Tigers of Jadotville" have suffered from the taint of surrender. In telling the full story for the first time, former soldier Declan Power does the brave men of A Company a great service. - John Moran.
Before I Forget. André Brink, Vintage, £7.99
Don Giovanni - both opera and eponymous anti-hero - is a major motif in Brink's novel. And no wonder, for its protagonist appears to be hell-bent on emulating the Don's catalogue of conquest. Chris Minaar, ageing white South African writer and anti-apartheid activist, forces the reader to become a voyeur as he recounts his experiences with Katrien, Driekie, Daphne, Bonnie, Melanie and the rest. The ambivalent narrative tone, now clinically analytic as it dissects each sexual encounter as deftly as a forensic pathologist at work on a murder victim, now infused with quasi-drunken, self-deluding sentimentality, is unsettling, to say the least. The writing is consummately skilful; you'll keep turning the pages, but hate yourself afterwards. At least, I did. Serial seducer? Give me a serial killer any day. - Arminta Wallace
Wide-Eyed in Medialand. Denis Tuohy, Blackstaff, £9.99
When Tuohy, a budding Belfast actor, applied for a job as an announcer with BBC Northern Ireland, he knew he had little chance of success. That was in 1960 and at a time when, unless you were a cleaner, Catholics were personae non grata on Ormeau Road. However, against the odds and with a stroke of luck (two of the three interviewers were Londoners and ignorant of local customs) he was successful. And so began the career of one of the finest journalists in current affairs and the entertainment arts on British television. After his short apprenticeship in Belfast, he moved to London to work with BBC2, earning himself the nickname BBC-Tuohy. Over the next four decades his relaxed style, encompassing wit, compassion and a natural storytelling ability - all of which he brings to this memoir - became constant features in our sitting-rooms. - Martin Noonan