FICTION
The Age
Saturday September 26, 2009
The Fate of Katherine Carr Thomas H. Cook Quercus, $32.95 THOMAS H. Cook's The Fate of Katherine Carr is a writerly gothic mystery that embeds narrative within narrative. George Gates used to be a travel writer with a focus on haunted places. He himself is now haunted, by the loss of his eight-year-old son, kidnapped and murdered years before. Reduced to writing squibs for the local rag, Gates meets a retired investigator, Arlo McBride. McBride piques his interest in the case of Katherine Carr, an amateur poet and fiction writer who disappeared after penning a series of grisly stories that seemed to foretell her violent demise. Gates can't resist probing the mystery and together with Alice (a young girl with progeria €” an incurable illness that leads to rapid ageing), becomes obsessed by it. This novel isn't one of Cook's best but readers with a palette for literary horror in the style of Poe or Lovecraft will find The Fate of Katherine Carr an intriguing read.Stand Up Strummer Russ Harris Exisle, $24.99 A DOCTOR who moonlights as a stand-up comedian, Russ Harris has another string to his bow, writing a comic novel. Max Strummer is a doctor dealing with other people's sex problems. He spends his days showing patients how to inject their penises with Prostaglandin, and on occasions removes vegetables from bottoms. But he is unprepared for trouble in his own bedroom. When he walks in on his partner Sarah in flagrante with a woman, he goes into a tailspin. Immersing himself in his work, he soon takes up with Orlanda, a sexually adventurous photographer, to distract himself from the pain. His efforts to keep up with Orlanda in the sack lead to embarrassment. Meanwhile, Sarah isn't coping with the break-up, and she and Strummer must eventually face the fallout from their relationship. Harris is a garrulous author. This is less a novel than a string of stand-up comedy routines grafted onto a Nick Hornby-like romantic comedy template, but that doesn't stop it being entertaining.Dancing Backwards Sally Vickers 4th Estate, $27.99 VI HETHERINGTON has found more than her share of disappointments in love. Following the death of her second husband, a shy, middle-aged Vi steps out of character and embarks on a trans-Atlantic cruise. Her destination is New York for a reunion with Edwin, an old friend from her university days at Oxford in the '60s. On board, Vi meets a cast of eccentric characters, from exotic anthropologists to depressive theatre critics, but the one who makes the deepest impact is Dino, a sleazy dance instructor. Vi isn't that into Dino, but finds liberation in learning to ballroom dance. As she rumbas and foxtrots through the present, the past looms large in her remembrance. And the strongest parts of the novel are in flashback, with Vi as a young, unconfident poet, drawn into love affairs that prove psychologically damaging. Dancing Backwards draws its central character €” a woman led to quiet disaster, overshadowed by the men in her life €” with a light, empathetic touch.PICK OF THE WEEKGood to a Fault Marina Endicott A&U, $27.99 CLARA Purdy is an isolated insurance agent in early middle-age. Since the break-up of her marriage and the death of her mother, she hasn't had to share her life with anyone. A moment's inattention changes all that, when Clara crashes into a speeding car. The occupants of the other vehicle €” the Gage family €” have been living in it. Fortunately no one is harmed, but the Gages are now homeless. Worse, at the emergency department after the accident, young mother Lorraine Gage learns that she has advanced-stage lymphoma. Guilt-ridden, Clara offers the Gages a place to stay, and her life of solitude is soon transformed by the intrusion of three children, their parents and grandmother. Clara faces a difficult adjustment to her instant family, but this pales in comparison to the trials that await Lorraine and her children. Good to a Fault won this year's Commonwealth Writers' Prize for its region (Canada and the Caribbean). It's a quiet, warm novel that pulses with effortlessly drawn human drama.
© 2009 The Age
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