FICTION PICK OF THE WEEK Rare Singles Benjamin Myers, Bloomsbury, $32.99 This novel features an unlikely friendship forged through music. Benjamin Myers has enviable range as a writer.
His last novel, Cuddy , was experimental and poetic in tone, its Yorkshire stories echoing across time, each tangentially linked to the life of St Cuthbert, an insular seventh-century monk. Rare Singles is also set in Yorkshire, but there the similarities end. This one features an unlikely friendship forged through music.
A forgotten soul singer on the skids, Bucky Bronco, travels from Chicago to Scarborough to headline a soul-music festival. He isn’t sure he can; Bucky hasn’t performed in decades. His taste of success came 40 years ago and now he’s addicted to opioids, avoiding his past, scrambling to make ends meet.
Unfortunately, he leaves his drugs on the plane, but when middle-aged Dinah agrees to chaperone Bucky (soul music being a respite from her boring job, awful husband and stoner son) they become a source of inspiration to the other. It’s a charming literary pick-me-up, deftly told. The Crag Claire Sutherland, Affirm Press, $34.
99 Claire Sutherland’s debut novel is a literal cliffhanger. With the rise of parkour and indoor climbing venues, rock climbing has experienced something of a renaissance. Claire Sutherland draws upon the vertiginous power of climbing in the natural world for her debut thriller.
Experienced climber Skye finds the body of a young woman with injuries suggestive of a climbing accident. Only trouble is, the location is kilometres distant from the nearest cliffs, at Mount Arapiles in Victoria’s Wimmera. As the police investigation proceeds, they draw upon Skye’s specialised knowledge and skills to assist, but if the victim was murdered rather than fell, and the killer is still at large among them, dangling from cliffs mightn’t be the safest place to be.
Sutherland needs to work on distinguishing character and voice better, but it’s otherwise a solid and involving debut thriller, putting an Australian spin on the sort of literal cliffhanger that’s been popular since North by Northwest , as well as tapping deeper social fears. By Any Other Name Jodi Picoult, Allen & Unwin, $34.99 Jodi Picoult’s latest novel explores the theatre industry and arts criticism.
Emilia Bassano has been speculated to be the Dark Lady of Shakespeare’s sonnets. We know from history that she was educated and an accomplished published poet, and interest in reversing her historical erasure, notably Morgan Lloyd Malcolm’s recent play Emilia , has been growing. I’m not sure Jodi Picoult’s immense novel By Any Other Name , which suggests Bassano might have written Shakespeare’s plays, isn’t counterproductive.
The narrative is split between Bassano’s eventful life and the much less interesting trials of her descendent, Melina. A playwright wounded by a negative review from a prominent theatre critic, Melina writes a play a bit like Malcolm’s and has it promoted under a male pseudonym. The contemporary narrative strand is annoying.
No question sexism still exists in the theatre industry, and in arts criticism. Still, Melina’s story feels like a distraction, overburdening what’s otherwise a vivid and expansive historical novel that Picoult’s fans should enjoy. The Book of Elsewhere Keanu Reeves & China Miéville, Del Rey, $34.
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