Rock's Backpages Writers' Blogs » Leyla Sanai

Patrick Ness: The Crane Wife

Leyla Sanai — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 13:59:39 +0000

My review of Patrick Ness’s charming new adult novel from today’s Independent on Sunday:

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/review-the-crane-wife-by-patrick-ness-8581419.ht ml

Julian Barnes Levels of Life

Leyla Sanai — Sun, 14 Apr 2013 09:40:53 +0000

Not sure what’s wrong with this, but last few times have tried to paste a link to a review, the link has jumped into the title section. often, I can’t get the link to come out in this main space at all, even when cursor is fixed here. And sometimes even when cursor here in main space, nothing happens when I type. All v strange. Anyhow,

Here’s my review of Julian Barnes’s Levels of Life from today’s Independent on Sunday:

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/review-levels-of-life-by-julian-barnes-8572000.html

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/review-levels-of-life-by-julian-barnes-8572000.ht ml

The Diaries of A Fleet Street Fox

Leyla Sanai — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 11:47:22 +0000

Constable £8.99
The artist formerly known as Fleet St Fox has left the building. In her place is her alter-ego Susie Boniface. Fleet Street Fox is the acerbic journalist who who built up a huge following on social media sites and in the real world with her incisive, sharp tabloid column in the Mirror. Fleet St Fox is a commentator of the Julie Burchill mode – unflinching, fearless, outspoken.

Her public unveiling came weeks before the publication of her book. Her name is not the only aspect of herself she has revealed: The Diaries of Fleet Street Fox is a frank account of her divorce, although after telling us in her dedication that identities and chronology have been fudged, she adds that the book is a blend of fact and fiction. But as she also says, it’s not difficult to spot when she’s writing from the heart.

And write from the heart she does. Readers of her newspaper column will know her as a strong, assertive woman unafraid of being caustic. They may assume from that that she is confident and tough. Her book, though, reveals her vulnerability in the face of her ex husband’s infidelity and their subsequent separation. She was totally devastated, and her friends, colleagues and family supported her through the dark months.

Like many independent women who undergo misfortune, she is loath to whine and wail, so her story is related in her trademark witty style. There are many laughs at other people’s expense, and they are wickedly funny. Whether it’s her ex (capable of terrifying her; stingy; fickle and feckless), her ex’s new girl (about whom everyone’s first comment seems to be how fat she is), or her colleagues, the descriptions are acidic or hilarious, and frequently both.There is the frenemy who temporarily housed her ex and who pretends to be Foxy’s friend while secretly reporting back to the ex. There is Elliot, a nasty, humourless editorial colleague. There are also affectionate portraits – the Welsh Fifi, a tiny, gregarious blast of energy; the northern News Editor Bish, whose blunt views and colourful language can’t hide his kindness.

I did wonder at times what her ex’s account would be of their relationship and divorce. Memories are by definition our own subjective versions of the truth. While Foxy may have found her husband frightening at times, he might retort that he found her episode of plate smashing while married, or her shattering his mistress’s window with a flowerpot, or her hurling of his possessions out of the front door, equally disturbing.

The backdrop to the personal story is life as a tabloid reporter. This is vividly described, from the door-stepping, through the fruitless trips in search of a story that deflates, to the contentious stuff like phone hacking. Some of it is genuinely revelatory – who knew reporters scrabbled around to pick up discarded receipts that they could charge as their own expenses? And of course, some of it isn’t pretty – the liberal use of un PC language like ‘wop’. But a lot of it is brilliantly funny. My favourite section was the one on the games bored reporters play in the office when there are no stories to chase. These include ‘our own office version of Buckaroo’, which involves piling random objects into the jacket of an alcoholic correspondent who leaves it hanging on the back of his chair while ‘ ‘ meeting a contact’ in the shape of a bottle of Pinot Noir’, often for days at a time. When he eventually returns to the office and dons his jacket, untold numbers of drawing pins, biros and micro cassettes were flung in every direction, scattering across desks and whirring over reporters’ heads.’ Also worth a mention is Bish Bingo, which involves each reporter choosing several of his stockpile curses from a hat, then waiting for Bish to erupt into his usual expletives over some minor matter and seeing who scores most hits.

There is also some of Foxy’s usual polemic, against targets such politicians who abdicate responsibility for their mistakes, celebs who use the press to gain exposure and then complain when the press infringe their privacy, and on people who condemn tabloids but then hoover up prurient details of stories covered by the red tops.

Very rarely, Foxy loses her unique voice by using cliches: ‘…Bridget, by now more than a couple of sheets to the wind – screamed ‘CHESNEEEEEEEYYYY!’ and began whirling like a dervish.’ Apart from that, the only quibble I had was a joke on p 149 which seems to suggest an actor’s wife is a widow, which made me furrow my brow while I tried to work out how that was possible.

This is an accessible but intelligent book that is both funny and moving, and reveals the post break-up emotional despair that most of us have experienced at some time.

Carol Honore – The Slow Fix

Leyla Sanai — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 06:33:02 +0000

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/the-slow-fix-by-carl-honor-collins-1899-8531577.html

Quick fixes ( in politics, health, business etc) don’t work. My review of Carl Honore’s book in today’s Independent:

Maggie O’Farrell Instructions for a Heatwave

Leyla Sanai — Sun, 24 Feb 2013 07:11:28 +0000

My review in today’s Indy on Sun of Maggie O’Farrell’s new novel. Brilliantly perceptive but slightly marred by a saccharine Hollywood ending.

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/review-instructions-for-a-heatwave-by-maggie-ofarrell-8508090.ht ml

Stephen Grosz – The Examined Life

Leyla Sanai — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 01:06:31 +0000

My review of Stephen Grosz’s book about some of his case histories from his career as a psychoanalyst is in the Independent today:

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/the-examined-life-by-stephen-grosz-chatto–windus-1499-8501676.ht ml

Sherman Alexie – Blasphemy

Leyla Sanai — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 06:40:12 +0000

My Independent review of Sherman Alexie’s latest short story collection about life as a native American Indian in the US:

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-en…9-8480624.html

Nadeem Aslam – The Blind Man’s Garden

Leyla Sanai — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 05:28:07 +0000

Here’s my review from Indy on Sun of Nadeem Aslam’s wonderful new novel: http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/the-blind-mans-garden-by-nadeem-aslam-faber-and-faber-1899-8478234.html

George Saunders – Tenth of December

Leyla Sanai — Sun, 20 Jan 2013 00:26:58 +0000

Here’s my review of George Saunders’ brilliant new collection of short stories…

The American writer George Saunders was eulogised by David Foster Wallace, whose irreverence and humour he shares, and Jonathan Franzen and Zadie Smith are also fans. In Tenth of December, Saunders’ fourth short story collection, his sharp satire and visions of a dystopian future are tempered with warmth and humanity.

In the title story, a terminally ill man wishes to avoid imposing on his family the fate he suffered when illness transformed his beloved stepfather into an irascible stranger. But his plans are waylaid by a bullied boy who takes refuge in childish fantasies. Saunders illustrates the stresses of the friendless child and the dying adult without ever indulging in misery.

He uses teen argot with panache in “Victory Lap”, in which a girl is poised between the worlds of childhood and adulthood, dreaming one minute about fawns and the next about boys. Her vernacular is spot-on: malapropisms; poor syntax; a self-conscious sprinkling of French and archaic English words. Poignancy and mordant humour are added by her former friend, whose life is rigidly controlled by his domineering parents. Somehow, Saunders forces the reader to consider our dysfunctional world without ever preaching.

Every page is packed with laughs; astute observations with deep implications are never far away either. In “Sticks”, the children of a miserly father grow up and find “the seeds of meanness blooming also within us”. The father desperately seeks redemption, but in vain. “Home” is about an Iraq war veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder.

In “My Chivalric Fiasco”, a boss at a medieval theme park tries to buy his way out of a rape case, but his attempts are thwarted by a male employee fed a drug, KnightLyfe, which promotes courtly behaviour. “Escape from Spiderhead” seems ostensibly to be about medical trial volunteers, but morphs into an Orwellian nightmare when it becomes apparent why the drugs are being tested, and on whom.

More hints of the sinister arise in “Exhortation”, a memo from an employer to his employees which initially seems to be encouraging a positive outlook, but is a veiled threat to workers to dump any morals. “Al Roosten” is an incisively witty tale about a bitter, self-deluding failure whose own anger is his greatest obstacle.

The masterpiece here is “The Semplica Girl Diaries”, in which a harassed man logs his efforts to do the best for his adored family in the face of mounting debt, unscrupulous big business, and a materialist society. His youngest daughter is the only family member to understand the horrific fate that their society thrusts on its most vulnerable members. The story took Saunders 12 years to write. It would have been worth it if it had taken 20.

This is a brilliant, trenchant and hilarious collection.

Laleh Khadivi – The Walking

Leyla Sanai — Sun, 20 Jan 2013 00:04:17 +0000

My review in The Independent of Laleh Khadivi’s The Walking, a novel about two boys escaping from the Iranian theocrat Khomeini’s Iran:

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/the-walking-by-laleh-khadivi-8456220.ht ml