THIS WEEK’S NEW BOOKS REVIEWED | FEATURE
DEATH DRIVES AN AUDI
Kristian Bang Foss (Parthian)
The title’s metaphor makes sense as the plot unfolds. In a bleak world where glamour is absent – set during the economic crisis of 2008, no less – Death, the ever-looming figure, drives the vehicle of a capitalist giant.
Protagonist Asger is a sorry figure: tasked with picking up his girlfriend Sara’s daughter Amalie, he goes over his bicycle’s handlebars, puts himself in hospital and knocks Amalie’s front tooth out. It serves as a reminder of his dwindling relationship. He’s then fired from his advertising job after a misunderstanding, and takes employment as a carer. Needing a place to stay, his friend Stanley is happy to have him, if only on his sofa. As he hits rock bottom, Asger discovers Waldemar, the sickest person in Denmark. An elderly man? No, a 22-year-old with the longest plausible list of ailments. Waldemar has a wish to visit a healer in Morocco who he reckons could help him, and so they embark on their absurd journey.
Death Drives An Audi is unreasonably comical: such a bleak road trip involves forgotten everyday acts hardly mentioned in fiction. It is obstinately dark, too, and makes no apologies, its humour pushing stubbornly against the grain of our own existence and leaving you searching for the fun of the everyday. The ending serves up an unexpected twist, to boot, as we are left with more questions than answers.
Price: £10. Info: here
words BILLIE INGRAM SOFOKLEOUS
FRAMERS: HUMAN ADVANTAGE IN AN AGE OF TECHNOLOGY AND TURMOIL
Viktor Mayer-Schoenberger, Kenneth Cukier & Francis de Véricourt (Ebury)
The ability to frame is an essential part of what distinguishes us, even as infants, not just from other species but also from artificial intelligence. It is this which keeps human beings invaluable in a technological world, and according to the authors of Framers, encouraging a wide variety of frames is essential to our survival in the future.
This all sounds great on paper, but the author’s integrities fall down in the final two chapters, ‘Pluralism’ and ‘Vigilance’, which read as a veiled criticism both of safe spaces and of surrounding oneself with likeminded people. This comes from a trio of white male businessmen and professors who are perhaps less likely than others to feel deeply uncomfortable in an ‘anything goes’ environment of discussion. Uncritical references to Bari Weiss – critic of #MeToo and the Women’s March, denouncer of safe spaces – throw the authors’ intentions into deeper suspicion.
Framers is at its best when providing pop-psychology explanations of the book’s subtitle. Where it fails, though, is by overshooting in its ambitions, claiming to revolutionise how we approach 21st century challenges. The authors fail to see outside of their own neoliberal pro-pluralism-at-all-costs frames, which is quite ironic, really.
Price: £20. Info: here
words ISABEL THOMAS
THE RULES OF REVELATION
Lisa McInerney (John Murray)
Following the success of Lisa McInerney’s The Glorious Heresies and The Blood Miracles, The Rules of Revelation is another fascinating piece of fiction. This third novel from the Irish author [pictured, top – credit Brid O Donovan] follows a host of recurring characters who are all linked in some way to the protagonist Ryan – who featured in previous McInerney novels, and in trying to escape his past has been spending time in Berlin and Seoul.
Now back in Cork and singing in a band called Lord Urchin, Ryan’s timely return to a different Ireland than he left behind sparks a mix of reactions from his family and past acquaintances, including those from his criminal background who manage to resurrect the ghosts he has been trying to abate, threatening to derail his plans for the future. Cork plays a pivotal role here, inasmuch as it appears like a character in itself, influencing many of the decisions made by the cast of characters and impacting on their lives. The use of the local dialect is a powerful addition, adds to the atmosphere and providing a contemporary twist.
As with its two predecessors, McInerney’s latest provides a gritty account of different lives, with memorable characters and a humorous outlook. An impressive and immersive work: I hope we can continue to follow Ryan’s journey in future episodes from Cork.
Price: £14.99. Info: here
words RHIANON HOLLEY
SLUG
Hollie McNish (Fleet)
Award-winning poet Hollie McNish is the kind of friend everyone needs. The kind that isn’t afraid to start a conversation about subjects that have been brushed under British carpets for decades. In her latest collection of poems and essays she talks about such subjects as masturbation, death, and tampons so matter-of-factly that you wonder why everyone isn’t discussing these topics daily. Her depiction of childbirth in all is gruesome glory is so real you could be in the birthing suite with her. Yes, there is a lot of cursing.
Slug is divided into seven sections and McNish’s voice bounces off the page as she gives the reader an insight into her feelings about love and loss and being told off at the age of five. Her poems are accessible with hidden depths and her essays – especially those about her grandmother – emotionally taut.
At 482 pages this isn’t a short read, and its honesty could offend the fainthearted. The collection opens with seven ‘how to read this book’ suggestions. I’d like to add an eighth: savour every word.
Price: £14.99. Info: here
words LYNDA NASH
THE TYRANNY OF ALGORITHMS
Miguel Benasayag [trans. Steven Randall] (Europa Compass)
Part of the conclusion to this compact but densely cerebral book posits that a question central to its subject matter – what actions can citizens take against contemporary systems of oppression, whoever may be driving those systems? – is one which must be considered by people with leftist or libertarian politics. This arguably hints at the inadequacy of such descriptive terms, in that I’d say there’s a sizeable strain of libertarianism which would be intensely relaxed about the coldly rational, hypercapitalist modern methods of policy-making, marketing and so forth.
Miguel Benasayag, an Argentinian philosopher settled in France, appears to make his arguments and observations from the approximate left. The Tyranny Of Algorithms is structured as an extended Q&A session, in which Régis Meyran, an ethnologist, feeds Benasayag questions or jump-off points. The book’s first half has little to do with algorithms, as such, rather cycling through an obstacle course of theories, models and belief systems intersecting philosophy, science, theocracy and technology.
In part two, the discussion becomes exponentially more focused, and lays bare the author’s aghast take on the excesses of maths-based politicking: “Economists [and] bankers take the death of human beings for granted and deliberately delegate decision-making functions to the machine.” Real-world examples, both relatable (GPS systems in cars) and in upper echelons, come thick and fast. The one that might end up staying with me – for better or worse, as it’s relatively benign – is this: “Google has set up a system of observation such that when someone uses a credit card for a year, it is able to predict with 85 per cent certainty whether that person will get divorced within the next three years.”
Price: £9.99. Info: here
words NOEL GARDNER