Sunday, September 5, 2010

Lost Voices From The Titanic - The Definitive Oral History  by Nick Barratt
This new book about the world’s most famous shipwreck confirms unpleasant truths about the 1912 tragedy, which was vividly portrayed in James Cameron’s 1997 blockbuster film ‘Titanic’ starring Leonardo Di Caprio.

Nick Barratt focuses almost entirely on the words of those who designed the ship and built her and on accounts from passengers who survived the sinking.

The material from the survivors is rivetting, although the first part of the book is too heavily laden with statistic material.

Believed to be ‘practically unsinkable’, Titanic was the biggest and most luxurious vessel afloat but sank on her maiden voyage within a few hours of scraping an iceberg in the north Atlantic.

There were insufficient lifeboats and only 706 of the 2,223 people on-board survived. Many women and children died.

Contrary to the ‘stiff upper lip’ legend about Titanic, there was hysteria on-board once it was realised that the ship was doomed and there were no more lifeboats.

However, the captain, whose carelessness had caused the whole disaster, went down with his ship.

Winterland  by Alan Glynn      
When her brother Noel dies in a car crash on the same night as her gangster nephew of the same name is shot dead, Gina Rafferty refuses to accept that the double tragedy is mere coincidence.

Despite the ambivalence of the authorities and even her own family and friends, Gina begins to unravel a sinister web that includes big business, Dublin’s underworld and one of Ireland’s major political dynasties.

Gina, a decadent twenty-something, must overcome her self-doubts if she is to claim justice for her brother, but ultimately her struggle is to convince others of the validity of her claims as well as gaining information whilst avoiding the attentions of those intent on keeping her silent.

Dublin-based writer Alan Glynn’s second novel is a fast-paced thriller that brilliantly, and subtly, introduces a number of plot strands before intelligently bringing them together ahead of a dramatic finale.

Road Dogs  by Elmore Leonard  
No-one writes crime novels like Hollywood favourite Elmore Leonard, and he has returned with a typical tale of colourful hoodlums on the hunt for another scam.

Leonard - the man behind Quentin Tarantino’s ‘Jackie Brown’ and the George Clooney movie ‘Out Of Sight’ - digs up some old cons for his new novel, with Clooney’s Jack Foley character, opening the novel back in the slammer.

The prolific bank robber has pretty much given up on freedom and accepted a lifetime behind bars, but that’s until the arrival of new room-mate Cundo Rey, whose crack lawyer gets him out pronto.

While he should be in the Cuban hustler’s debt, Foley subsequently shacks up with Rey’s wife Dawn on his release, and the two lovers contrive to pinch the jive-talking midget millionaire’s assets.

Great dialogue, great characters, no contrived plot, no portentous, po-faced writing - the 84-year-old Leonard, releasing his 47th novel, never fails to thrill.