Books - book reviews and events

News Why Leeds Shop OK Comics Needs Your Help

Jared Myland, owner of OK Comics in the Thorntons Arcade urges comic fans to get down and support his store

“People who have visited OK Comics over the last couple of weeks will have noticed scaffolding outside our shop. Thorntons Arcade, just off Briggate in the middle of Leeds, is being renovated.

“The work was due to start in February when it would have least effect on the businesses. It was scheduled to last for six weeks in total. The work was to be carried out in three stages, two weeks per stage, this hasn’t happened.

“The ongoing work, the presence of scaffolding, workmen, dust and noise has had a massive negative effect on the amount…

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Book Review When Skateboards Will Be Free

by Said Sayrafiezade

Children have a habit of seeing things in ways that bemuse adults. Under some circumstances, the opposite is also true. Children will stare open mouthed and completely bewildered, unable to grasp what adults take for granted.

It’s a rare thing to be able to see things from this outside angle, but Sayrafiezadeh accomplishes the task with humour and intelligence.

The son of a prestigious figure in the socialist workers party in the USA in the 70s and 80s, Sayrafiezadeh is born into the political world of Lenin, Trotsky and Marx with no real grasp of why things are the way…

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Book Review Misadventure

by Millard Kaufman

Millard Kaufman’s debut novel, Bowl of Cherries, was published in 2008 when its author was 90 years old. Although it was his first novel, he was no stranger to the writing world, already having a successful Hollywood screenwriting career behind him – his best work was arguably 1954’s Oscar-Nominated Bad Day at Black Rock.

His second novel, Misadventure, was released in the US last year, and unfortunately Kaufman passed away shortly afterwards. It’s a completely different animal to the obtuse comic fiction of Bowl of Cherries.

A young real estate agent is hired by a dejected wife to murder her…

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Book Review And The Land Lay Still

by James Robertson

Mike Pendreich has amassed a collection of photographs taken by his famous father, Angus, and is putting together an exhibition for the National Gallery of Photography in Edinburgh. Interspersed in Mike’s narrative of his own efforts to become a photographer, are the stories of the people in Angus’ work.

Robertson’s epic tale of Scottish life is told through the eyes of Don Lennie, a working man with two sons who take very different paths. Woven into the story is Lennie’s friend, Jack Gordon who, haunted by his PoW past in a Japanese labour camp, disappears only to be caught by…

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Book Review Oil on Water

by Helon Habila

Rufus is an ambitious young journalist on the search for the ‘perfect story’. When the wife of an oil engineer is kidnapped within the political minefield of a corrupt Nigeria Rufus thinks this could be his chance. Along with his long time hero turned alcoholic Zaq, their story becomes more dramatic and dangerous than either of them could have imagined.

Habila’s third novel, though at times disappointingly predictable, manages to demonstrate this clearly talented author as a master of storytelling. The use of first person narrative allows an at times harrowing writing style which manages to be both personal and…

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Book Review On Balance

by Adam Phillips

The most recent publication by psychoanalyst Adam Phillips is fundamentally an investigation into excess; how it is defined and perceived by people. Tackling everyday displays of excess such as gluttony and sexual appetite, he discusses the ways in which these are measured and judged by others, and why. Constructed as a series of essays and talks, laced with references to the works of Freud, it is a logical and fluid narrative on an abstract topic.

There are some repetitive moments, and at times ideas may seem farfetched, however this is part of the appeal of the book. It…

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Comic Effect Revolver

Fortnightly news from the world of graphic novels

We’ve all had day dreams about being a heroic survivor of a devastating apocalypse, haven’t we? Deep down we all kind of know that the only thing holding us back from greatness is our job, our bills, our boring commute, Ikea furniture, suicide inducing colleagues and all the other facets of day-to-day life.

It’d be great to drive through a shop window to loot what you need, knowing that you’re doing the right thing. It’d be great to team up with like-minded survivors, band together to forge a bold new society out the rubble. Wouldn’t it? No? Just me then.

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Comic Effect Scott Pilgrim 6

Fortnightly news from the world of graphic novels

Scott Pilgrim, the epic series of rom-com beat-‘em-up graphic novels by Bryan Lee O’Malley, has finally come to a close with the release of Volume 6, Scott Pilgrim’s Finest Hour (4th Estate, £7.99). If you’ve already read the first five books, you don’t need my recommendation to finish up. If you haven’t read them but a film trailer you’ve seen somewhere has you thinking, ‘I’ve heard of that Scott Pilgrim bloke…’ this is why you should read the whole lot: it’s awesome.

Sorry, ‘awesome’ doesn’t seem that appropriate for the book review section of a respectable magazine like Leeds Guide,…

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Book Review Elliot Allagash

by Simon Rich

Like a demented cross between The Catcher in the Rye, Napoleon Dynamite and Arthur, Elliot Allagash is a coming of age tale set in the fertile fictional playground that is high school America. The usual suspects are in attendance: the geek protagonist, the Most Popular Girl In School, the ‘normal’ female friend, quirky teachers, and son on.

Into this ho-hum mix Simon Rich tosses the piquant Elliot Allagash, a rich wastrel who takes narrator Seymour under his wing and thence on a wild ride through fabulous riches, devious misadventures and general rite of passage stuff.

The story is…

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Book Review I Curse The River of Time

by Per Petterson

Per Petterson’s new novel, based in 1983, centres around a middle aged Scandinavian named Arvid as he attempts to repair relations with his dying mother. A rift opened between the two 20 years earlier when Arvid, an idealistic young communist, dropped out of University to work in a paper factory, an action which coincided with the sudden death of his younger brother.

Petterson depicts these two storylines simultaneously, masterfully flicking between the two yet avoiding the confusion that can sometimes occur with this technique: we always know where we are through Arvid’s behaviour.

The isolated, apathetic voice of the narrator…

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