Bloody White Baron review in the Economist, NYTBR

The Bloody White Baron, by James Palmer
9780465014484 | $28.95 hc | available February 
Basic Books / Publishers Group Canada (Raincoast)

The Economist reviewed The Bloody White Baron on Feb. 14 ("James Palmer’s account of his brutal and ill-starred life is elegant, waspish and evocative."), and the New York Times reviewed the book on Feb. 22 (“Uncomfortable but fascinating reading”). Full Economist review below:

Mad and bad
Feb 12th 2009

A PSYCHOPATHIC Buddhist warrior-king hardly sounds plausible in fiction, let alone in modern history. But the story of Freiherr Roman Nikolai Maximilian von Ungern-Sternberg, an Estonian-raised, ethnically German, tsarist officer, who became the last khan of Mongolia amid the chaos of the Russian civil war, has so many bizarre elements that the reader will soon believe almost anything.

James Palmer’s account of his brutal and ill-starred life is elegant, waspish and evocative. It starts in Estonia (then a Russian colony) where Ungern, as the author calls him, was born into a harsh family of Baltic Germans, the feudal masters of the region. Ungern was an obnoxious child; he tried to strangle a neighbour’s pet owl and was expelled from school. His career in the Russian military gained him no distinction, only hideous scars, from duelling. He was almost uniformly detested.

As the “whites” (monarchists) lost the civil war, Ungern’s star rose. Other leaders were dead or in exile. In 1920 Ungern and a ragged band of men struck south into Mongolia, hoping, ludicrously, to use it as a base to reconquer Russia and restore the Romanov ancien régime (though in fact the Romanov princeling he backed had long ago been murdered by the Bolsheviks).

Unlike some Russian nationalists, Ungern liked the Mongols, seeing them as the “scourge of God” to punish a sinful Russia. The “yellow race”, he wrote, was “more vital and more capable of state-building” than the decadent whites. His beliefs were bolstered both by confused references to the more lurid bits of the Bible and by some firmly held but shakily understood Buddhist beliefs. He liked the ceremony and ritual of Buddhism, and particularly its respect for tradition: “its purity, the preservation of the old and correct order of things”, as Mr Palmer puts it.

Good Parents in the NYTBR

The Good Parents, by Joan London
9780802170576 | $19.50 pb | in stock
Black Cat / Publishers Group Canada (Raincoast)

The Good Parents was reviewed in The New York Times, Feb 22, which says that the novel “explores the questions of sexual trade agreements, generational patterns and others, with subtlety and intelligence." We are also expecting a review in the Globe and Mail online, Thurs, Feb 26.

From the New York Times:

Kept Women

By ROXANA ROBINSON

Published: February 19, 2009

What is the nature of erotic thralldom? What sort of secret pact does it imply? What power drives it, and what will cause this power to abate? How will such an intimate treaty affect parents or children?

Joan London’s shimmering new novel, “The Good Parents,” explores the questions of sexual trade agreements, generational patterns and others, with subtlety and intelligence.

“The best time was always afterwards, alone, in the Ladies’ Restroom on the first floor.”

So the novel begins, quietly arresting, full of elegance and mystery. There’s the promise of “the best time,” the subtle warnings of “afterwards, alone,” the semi-comic “Ladies’ Restroom.” And so it continues, offering bright gleams of insight and observation, delivered in rippling, exquisite prose.

London, who’s Australian, recalls celebrated British stylists — Elizabeth Bowen, William Trevor — and another Aussie native, Shirley Hazzard. Like theirs, London’s language is so lovely, her tone so gentle, that the sadness of her truths is somehow shocking.

The story is told from different perspectives, mainly those of an 18-year-old girl, Maya de Jong; her parents, Toni and Jacob; and her brother, Magnus. Maya has left Warton, her small hometown in Western Australia, to start her adult life in Melbourne.

The book’s emotional dynamics largely hinge on this move, which echoes an important theme in London’s work. Migration and displacement played a central part in her first novel, “Gilgamesh,” and here in her second she continues to explore the notion of what it means to be a stranger, a foreigner.

Cormorant title nominated for Commonwealth Writers’ Prize

Silver Salts, by Mark Blagrave
978-1897151242 | $21.00 pb | in stock
Cormorant Books (UTP Distribution)

Mark Blagrave’s novel Silver Salts is one of seven books to be nominated in the Best First Book category for the 2009 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize (Canadian/Caribbean region).

Decoding the Heavens on CBC Radio’s Dispatches

Decoding the Heavens, by Jo Marchant
9780306817427 | $29.00 hc | in stock
Da Capo Press / Publishers Group Canada (Raincoast)

Author Jo Marchant was interviewed on CBC’s "Dispatches" this week. The interview is available online as streaming content or as a podcast.

Professor Stewart’s Cabinet of Mathematical Curiosities reviewed on G&M online

Professor Stewart’s Cabinet of Mathematical Curiosities, by Ian Stewart
978-0465013029 | $18.50 pb | in stock
Basic Books / Publishers Group Canada (Raincoast)

Martin Levin has posted an online review of Professor Stewart’s Cabinet of Mathematical Curiosities on the Globe & Mail website:

The numbers games

REVIEWED BY MARTIN LEVIN
Globe and Mail Update
February 20, 2009 at 10:33 AM EST

When one of my sons was in Grade 10, he had a mathematics teacher who spoke little English, and thus was able to convey only — and that barely — the structure of the math, and never its underlying meaning, never mind its beauty, one might even say sublimity.

It’s all too common a story, and a major reason why so many people are arithmophobic, falling into fear and trembling at the very mention of the M word.

Which is why I devoutly wish that there were more math teachers like Ian Stewart. Stewart, a professor of — fittingly — mathematics at England’s Warwick University, has written more than 70 books, many of them popular, accessible, even breezy excursions into math and science.

He’s also written extensively for major magazines in the field (Scientific American, New Scientist) and for newspapers, including this one.

My own favourite among his books is The Annotated Flatland, a masterful introduction to and analysis of Edwin A. Abbott’s 1884 metamathemagical classic Flatland, an enchanting novel that is at once a look at how we perceive dimensions and a pointed satire on Victorian society.

I cannot say that Cabinet of Mathematical Curiosities is a sure cure for arithmophobia; it is, after all, replete with numbers and equations and brain-bending problems. But if you’re not afraid of, say, shapes that one expects not to recognize during intelligence tests (to wit: the dodecahedron, with its dozen pentagonal faces, 20 vertices and 30 edges), you will find here an extensive and varied miscellany of all things mathematical.

Other than those you studied in school, that is. For Stewart, who began collecting mathematica in notebooks at the age of 14 (eventually his collection spilled over into a filing cabinet; thus the title), it is precisely extracurricular math that’s so seductive. His enthusiasm is contagious if you give it half a chance.

Michael Muhammad Knight on CBC’s Q

The Taqwacores, by Michael Muhammad Knight
978-1593762292 | $16.95 pb | in stock
Soft Skull Press / Publishers Group Canada (Raincoast)

Impossible Man, by Michael Muhammad Knight
978-1593762261 | $20.50 pb | available March
Soft Skull Press / Publishers Group Canada (Raincoast)

Michael Muhammad Knight is now also scheduled to be on CBC Radio’s Q on Tues, Feb 24th, along with appearing on The Hour that night.

Ali Velshi on The View

Gimme My Money Back, by Ali Velshi
9780981453569 | $16.95 pb | in stock
Sterling & Ross / Publishers Group Canada (Raincoast)

It has just been confirmed that Ali Velshi will be on The View next Tuesday, February 24th.

Milk, Sulphate and Alby Starvation an editor’s pick in the NYTimes

Milk, Sulphate, and Alby Starvation, by Martin Millar 
9781593762278 | $18.00 pb | in stock
Soft Skull / Publishers Group Canada (Raincoast)

Martin Millar gets a great review (and an editor’s choice) in The New York Times on Feb. 15. From the review:

"Milk, Sulphate, and Alby Starvation falls almost exactly between a young adult novel in the vivid, visual quality of its sentences and a grown-up one in the desolation of its setting. While at least one person has compared it to the work of Irvine Welsh, Millar was there earlier, along with Flann O’Brien and William Burroughs."

Full review below:

Fringe Dwellers
by JIM KRUSOE

If religion is the opiate of the masses, then surely paranoia must be the treasure trove of the downtrodden, a way to discover in the coincidences of a mostly bleak life a golden map of connections where everything sparkles with meaning. Not that there aren’t enough opiates and amphetamines floating around Martin Millar’s “Milk, Sulphate, and Alby Starvation” to keep the masses fairly happy, too.

First published in Britain in 1987, when Millar wasn’t yet 30, the book is finally appearing in its first American edition — a development not only welcome but ages overdue.

The sometime narrator, Alby Starvation, is a down-on-his-luck amphetamine runner whose main triumphs in life thus far have been to amass a large collection of comics and to cure himself of the ailments brought on by a serious milk allergy. As word of his cure spreads and others also quit drinking milk, it’s easy to see how the Milk Marketing Board would decide to send a Brazilian-­trained hit woman to kill him.

That’s just the main part. There are also dueling Chinese video gamers, a grocery manager trying to catch shoplifters so he can afford a pool a person can swim in without actually going anywhere, the lost crown of Ethelred the Unready, various doctors, a psychic nurse, murder victims, a hamster and more, all of whom fit in seamlessly.

Possibly more to the point regarding comics, Millar’s book comes about as close to a nongraphic graphic novel as anything I can imagine — a plus for a person like me who is not a particular fan of graphic novels. But Millar’s bite-size chapters and the mini-sections within them have much the same effect as the frames of a traditional comic. The form allows for incredible mobility and action; we have to jump with the narrative or we’ll fall out of it. The pleasure here, as in video games, is the rhythm and timing of those leaps. The downside of such a technique is, not surprisingly, that it’s tough to be deep and intro­spective when you’re so jittery. “Milk” is a giddy journey, an amusement park ride, an enchantment like “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” but it’s not the kind of book that inspires brooding. I rather doubt Millar is big on brooding.

Choosing ME Before WE in National Post Valentine’s Day roundup

Choosing ME Before WE, by Christine Arylo
9781577316411 | $19.50 pb | in stock
New World Library / Publishers Group Canada (Raincoast)

The Valentine’s Day book roundup in the National Post on February 13 included Christine Arylo’s Choosing ME Before WE:

Author cred Arylo is a former brand marketer whose fiancé dumped her hours before their engagement party. Now married (to someone else), she works as a life coach inspiring women to "break free from limiting self-images."

The gist Arylo emphasizes learning to understand the "real" you, and then determining the core "essences" – not standards or qualities – that you are looking for in a man.

Sample chapters Knowing ME: Who is This Woman Called ME?; Honouring ME: Who Said Settling for Less and Sacrificing are Mandatory?; Getting Wise About WE.

Opening passage "Have you ever felt that you walk the path of your life alone? That you are the only woman to ever make painful, stupid mistakes? To settle for less? … Or found yourself rejected by the person you love, and figured that something was wrong with you?"

Two Anansi Authors Shortlisted for Commonwealth Writers’ Prize

The Spare Room, by Helen Garner
978-0887842245 | $24.95 hc | in stock
House of Anansi (HarperCollins)

The Withdrawal Method, by Pasha Malla
978-0887842153 | $29.95 hc | available May
aHouse of Anansi (HarperCollins)

 

Helen Garner has been shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for "Best Book" in the South East Asian and Pacific region for her internationally-acclaimed novel The Spare Room, the story of two friends facing illness and death together, one as patient, one as caregiver.

Pasha Malla, author of the Giller longlisted short story collection The Withdrawal Method, has been shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for "Best First Book" in the region of the Caribbean and Canada.

Winners will be announced in Kingston, Jamaica on March 11, 2009.

Established in 1987, the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize promotes outstanding literary talent, and encourages wider readership, thereby increasing appreciation of, and understanding between cultures. Regional prizes are offered for "Best Book" and "Best First Book" in the regions of Africa; the Caribbean and Canada; Europe and South Asia; and South East Asia and South Pacific. The eight regional winners move on to the final phase of competition, two of which will emerge as winners of overall "Best Book," and overall "Best First Book." Last year’s winners were Lawrence Hill from Canada for "Best Book" for The Book of Negroes, and Tahmima Anam from Bangladesh for "Best First Book" for A Golden Age.

To view the complete shortlists, visit the official site of the Commonwealth Foundation.