The Nature of Monsters is the new historical novel by Clare Clark, author of the award-winning The Great Stink. A rich psychological drama set in 18th Century London, Clare’s new book is a fantastic page-turner.
In a review for The Guardian newspaper entitled ‘How to Beget a Monkey’, Hilary Mantel, author of A Place of Greater Safety and Beyond Black, had this to say about the The Nature of Monsters:
“It is bracing to come across a writer who is mistress of such unrelenting Swiftian nastiness. She meets the 18th century on its own terms: knocks its wig off, twists its private parts and spits in its eye.”
Reviewer Stephanie Merritt drew similar conclusions in The Observer:
“Clare Clark’s debut novel, The Great Stink, was acclaimed for its vivid portrait of Victorian London. Her follow-up is every bit as carefully rendered and confirms her talent as a historical novelist able to conjure a world vivid in every sensory detail, peopled with characters whose follies, ambitions and disappointments are uncomfortably modern, even when cloaked in the spirit of their age.”
So Misguided’s Monique Trottier also finds much to admire in Clare’s writing:
“Clare Clark is the author of two very fine novels, both of which deal with elements of the underground and unsavoury human behaviour… Both novels are visceral. There is the putrid smell of the sewers in The Great Stink, the descriptions of cutting and the horrors of murder. In The Nature of Monsters it is the monsters of the novel--Grayson Black, his wife and the apothecary’s assistant, along with Eliza’s lover and her mother--who act as monsters. Betrayal and sacrifice for science are the elements of horror here.”
As with The Great Stink, the historical detail in The Nature of Monsters is incredibly evocative. A Trained historian, Clare Clark describes her historical research and the modern relevance of her work in this fascinating article for the Independent newspaper:
“The first thing that struck me about 18th-century London was how much the period had in common with our own. It was capitalist, materialist and market-oriented, driven by acquisitiveness and opportunism. The London population went into regular paroxysms over the drawing of the national lottery which made millionaires of ordinary folk. What was more, frantic speculation on the new stock market ended, much like the dotcom bubble, in a sensational crash in 1720. The famous English stiff upper lip had yet to be invented and life was noisy and violent, compensated by the aggressive pursuit of pleasures and passions. Drunkenness was endemic and sexual prowess a matter of public pride. Foreigners found the English extraordinarily politically well-informed and assertive, as well as jaw-droppingly frank. In one newspaper, a married woman advertised for a young man “endow’d with a good Carnal Weapon [...] to perform Nocturnal Services”, her husband being temporarily incapacitated.”
Brilliant.
Read Hilary Mantel’s review for The Guardian
Read Stephanie Merritt’s review in The Observer
Marisa Handler, author of Loyal to the Sky: Notes from an Activist, is a remarkable person. Born in South Africa, but living in San Francisco, she’s been actively involved in the global justice movement, the anti-war movement, and the movement for a just peace in Israel-Palestine. She’s written on issues related to her activism: grassroots politics, the effects of U.S. wars on Indo-Pakistani politics, Hindu-Muslim tensions within India, and indigenous resistance to oil exploitation in the Amazon. Her articles have appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, Earth Island Journal, Salon.com, Alternet, and Tikkun and Bitch magazines. Somewhere along the way she found time to record an album of her music ‘Dark Spoke’.
Marisa has just been interviewed by Celina De Leon, editor of Feministing.com, over at Wiretap Magazine:
I think there’s this concept of activists as these holier-than-thou people who stand in the streets yelling. That’s really not true. I think activism can be cliquey and exclusive, and that’s really a downfall. I think as activists, we really need to look at the kind of culture we’re creating and whether it’s open—whether people feel welcomed, because that’s the only way we’re going to build it.
It’s a matter of figuring out where you can take a stand, how you can take a stand, and how you can try to do good even when things begin to look a little murky. So, in that sense I want to inspire people who may be wondering how they can make a difference.
You can also find out more about Marisa, her book, and her music at her website www.marisahandler.com
ADDITION
Marisa Handler’s publisher Berrett-Koehler have made an excerpt of Loyal to the Sky available online from their website.
The Associated Press ran a touching story about Gili Bar-Hillel the Hebrew translator of the Harry Potter series last week:
JERUSALEM - Israeli Harry Potter fans elbowed their way in for autographs and photos - not with the author of the best-selling books, but with the Hebrew translator.
More than 100 devotees of British writer J.K. Rowling’s series about a young wizard sat and stood for an hour Wednesday listening to Gili Bar-Hillel discuss the process of translating the six Harry Potter books, hoping for a hint about the upcoming seventh and last book.
“It’s ridiculous, this is something that never happens to translators,” Bar-Hillel said after speaking at the Jerusalem International Book Fair. “The attention I’ve received is because I’m translating Harry Potter. It’s Harry, not me.”
The six Harry Potter books have been translated into 64 languages and are such a huge hit that even their translators get a slice of the fame.
Let’s hear it for the translators!
Interior design bloggers Design to Inspire have posted some of the beautiful images from a new book from Chronicle, Florence Broadhurst: Her Secret & Extraordinary Lives by Helen O’Neill.
Florence Broadhurst was a prominent Australian designer, best known for her groundbreaking, flamboyant wallpaper patterns. Her life was equally flamboyant: much of her personal life was enigmatic and she maintained several aliases. She was murdered in 1977, and the case was never solved.
Florence Broadhurst: Her Secret & Extraordinary Lives is the first-ever authorized biography of the design icon, both her life and her work.
Broadhurst’s wallpapers have been out of circulation for nearly 20 years, but are now available again through Signature Prints.
You can see more samples of Florence Broadhurst’s wallpaper designs on Design to Inspire.
I know, it’s short notice, but here’s a fun event for any Vancouverites at a loose end this evening. Thanks to Charles Montgomery for the heads-up!
The Second Annual First Line Awards Spectacular!
A benefit for PEN Canada
On Thursday, February 22, come on down to the Billy Bishop legion for an evening of non-fiction sport and Very Serious Thoughts about writing.
Featuring...
* A Tribute to Literary Journalist Ryszard Kapuscinksi.
* Appearances by award-winning doc filmmaker Nettie Wild and adventure author Derek Lundy.
* The world’s most efficient readings of non-fiction: only one sentence per author!
* Prolonged drinking, yelling and heckling by some of Vancouver’s writing elite, including you!
* A chance to be photographed with the Golden Monkey award for best first line from a recent work of non-fiction!
About the first line contest...
We proved last year that we really could judge a book by its first line. Now, whether you’re a J-school student or a celebrated scribbler, we challenge you to show up with the first line of a recently published story. We’re going to let a crowd of well-lubricated idiots decide who wrote the best first line. Rules?
It’s gotta be non-fiction, it’s gotta be published within the last year and it’s gotta be yours. Shy? Don’t worry: we’ll have bestselling scribe Derek Lundy read your lines. The winner gets his or her photo taken with the prestigious Golden Monkey.
About our cause…
PEN Canada supports freedom of expression around the globe and we support PEN Canada. We entertain for free, so please donate generously!
The Second Annual First Line Awards
Thursday, February 22, 7:30 PM.
At the Billy Bishop Legion, 1407 Laburnum (at Cornwall), in Kitsbrought to you by Emily’s Monkey
Raincoast’s announcement poster for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is now available.
There are two versions of the poster available to download: a low-resolution PDF to be viewed on-screen and a high-resolution PDF can can be printed out on 11” x 17” paper.
I am unashamedly a fan of the art of Jim Flora and so I’m overjoyed to see one of my favourite websites Drawn.ca review The Curiously Sinister Art Of Jim Flora by Irwin Chisud:
He was a master of contorted shapes, colors, and figures, all done with a mid-century deconstructive rebel mindset; an iconoclast in every sense of the word, never bowing to the usual editory convictions. I thought that one book on the master would be enough for anyone—even for diehard fans. But, no. After going through page after page of beautiful long-lost Flora art and reading the breezy and insightful words of Chusid, Curiously Sinister is a must-have for anyone who loves wildly imaginative imagery and unbridled character design.
The review also has some interesting links on Jim Flora including a blog devoted to the artist. Well worth checking out.
John Ghazvinian, author of the Untapped: The Scramble for Africa’s Oil (Harcourt Inc.), has written an article entitled ‘The Curse of Oil’ for the winter edition of the Virginia Quarterly Review. Available online, the article is a snapshot of the forthcoming book, revealing how the discovery of oil on the African continent has been, at best, a mixed blessing:
The problem, in a nutshell, is that for fifty years, foreign oil companies have conducted some of the world’s most sophisticated exploration and production operations, using millions of dollars’ worth of imported ultramodern equipment, against a backdrop of Stone Age squalor. They have extracted hundreds of millions of barrels of oil, which have sold on the international market for hundreds of billions of dollars, but the people of the Niger Delta have seen virtually none of the benefits. While successive military regimes have used oil proceeds to buy mansions in Mayfair or build castles in the sand in the faraway capital of Abuja, many in the Delta live as their ancestors would have done hundreds, even thousands of years ago—in hand-built huts of mud and straw.
Untapped: The Scramble for Africa’s Oil is published in April.
Recorded at the bar of Bathurst Street’s The Paddock on a bleary Sunday morning after the International Festival of Authors in October, Alison Brachman of CBC’s The Hour talked to artist and author Ralph Steadman about his latest book The Joke’s Over, GONZO, and Ralph’s turbulent and tumultuous friendship with the late Hunter S. Thompson. That in-depth interview will be broadcast tonight at 8pm on Newsworld and 11pm on the CBC.
Links:
The Joke’s Over - Bruised Memories of GONZO: Hunter S. Thompson and Me (book detail)
Profile of Ralph Steadman in the Georgia Straight (Vancouver)
Ralph Steadman interview with Eye Magazine (Toronto)
ADDITION:
Available from the Hour website: THE INTERVIEW and STEADMAN UNCUT!
Justin Cartwright, the South African born author of the forthcoming literary novel The Song Before it is Sung, was profiled The Guardian newspaper on Saturday:
A few years ago Justin Cartwright responded to Philip Roth’s description of writing as “self mining” by developing the idea to claim that the process of writing a book was similar to “what goes on in a kebab shop: you carve bits of yourself away and present them in envelopes of pitta. The lettuce and the tomato and the hot sauce are style.” It has proved an appetising combination, especially to critics and prize juries. Cartwright’s nine novels have enjoyed positive reviews, he has been Booker shortlisted, five times Whitbread shortlisted - winning it once - and his last novel, The Promise of Happiness, picked up the Hawthornden prize and, far more lucratively, a place in the Richard & Judy book club.
The Song Before it is Sung, available in April, is a fictional account of the 1944 plot to assassinate Hitler explored through the friendship of a Jewish academic at Oxford University and a German aristocrat who tries to ‘save’ his native country.
Maple Tree Press has been popping up on quite a few awards list recently. Here’s a round-up of the good news…
The Ontario Library Association recently selected Helaine Becker’s Secret Agent Y.O.U. as one of their “Best Bets” for 2007. A guide to secret codes, disguises, surveillance and more, this is a great book for young James Bonds.
The Saskatchewan Young Readers’ Choice (SYRCA) has nominated two Maple Tree Press titles for Willow awards. Small Wonders by Marilyn Bailie is nominated for a Shining Willow Award. Part of the Canadian Geographic Kids series, Small Wonders is an adorable look at 14 baby animals that are famously Canadian, from a polar bear to an orca whale.
Crazy About Canada by Vivien Bowers is nominated for a Diamond Willow Award. From the creators of Wow Canada!, this new book answers all your Canuck questions, from why there’s a maple leaf on our flag to why some polar bears are green. (Did you know about green polar bears? I didn’t.)
Congratulations to all the Maple Tree authors!
Pogo lives on! Fantagraphics confirmed today that they’ll be re-publishing Walt Kelly’s classic comic strip, Pogo. The first book (of approximately 12) hits shelves this October and the entire series will be designed by Jeff Smith, creator of Bone.
“I am very excited that Fantagraphics has chosen to publish Pogo in such wonderful books,” said Carolyn Kelly, Walt’s daughter. “For many years people have been telling me how much they want to own this series, and I am thrilled that Pogo will now be so carefully compiled and available to us. Ol’ Walt would be proud."
Pogo is the latest is Fantagraphics’ reprint series, which includes Krazy Kat, Peanuts, Popeye, Dennis the Menace and others - all available at bookstores everywhere!
UPDATE!
Our good friend Robin “Dirty Bird” McConnell has just posted his interview with Jeff Smith, wherein Jeff mentions his work on the Pogo project - podcast available here at the Inkstuds blog. Inkstuds ("the radio show about comic books") broadcasts live on Vancouver’s CiTR (88.5FM) every Thursday from 2:00pm - 3:00pm and streams online here.
If you’re one of the millions of Anthony Bourdain fans out there you’ll know about his love/hate (mostly hate) relationship with the Food Network. Here’s a full-on rant courtesy of Michael Ruhlman’s blog, where he appears as a guest blogger every once in a while.
“I find myself riveted by its awfulness, like watching a multi-car accident in slow motion. Mesmerized at the ascent of the Ready-Made bobblehead personalities, and the not-so-subtle shunting aside of the Old School chefs, I find myself de-constructing the not-terrible shows, imagining behind the scenes struggles and frustrations, and obsessing unhealthily on the Truly Awful ones."
Can’t get enough Bourdain ranting? Click here for a full list of all of his books and here for his official website. Oh, and don’t forget the Boudain Podcasts, available here.
As 3AM Magazine points out, “Tom McCarthy is everywhere at the moment”. The paperback of Remainder has just been published by Vintage in the US and apparently the media are just waking up to its genius. WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN FOLKS?
Anyway, if you still need convincing about this book, 3AM Magazine has a link to a new website called Surplus Matter which is, you guessed it, all about Tom. There is a lot of McCarthy material on the site, but interestingly no mention of our extensive interview with the author last year…
It just remains for me to point out that the lovely hardcover of Remainder is still available, and that Tom’s new novel Men in Space will be available from Raincoast in Canada in Fall 2007.
ADDITION: As if just to prove my point, Dusted Magazine has posted a list of Tom McCarthy’s top ten musical choices. Is Loveless by My Bloody Valentine the best album ever? Maybe… (via the excellent Ready Steady Blog)
Could you forgive someone who killed a member of your family? Katy Hutchison did the unthinkable when she reached out to Ryan Aldridge, the young man who killed her husband, Bob, as he tried to break up an out-of-control house party.
Since then, Katy has worked tirelessly to promote restorative justice, wherein forgiveness and acceptance - not punishment - is the key to rehabilitation. Next week, CBC will be premiering a documentary about Katy and Ryan: Embracing Bob’s Killer. You can catch it on your local CBC channel on Thursday, February 22 at 8:00pm.
Read Katy’s story in Walking After Midnight.
Raincoast podcasts are available from iTunes by searching for "Raincoast" or the RSS feed is available from Feedburner at 
Check out our NEWEST Podcast for Clancy with the Puck, a hilarious tale of hockey hubris.