_Literary Genius
_By Graeme Allister
S
eptember is when all the big books Meanwhile Bush’s
come out to play and the excuse for other confidante, his
reading garishly covered beach-reads wife Laura, is under
is over. To aid the transition from scrutiny, though it
frothy to worthy is Zoe Heller’s The takes the form of
Believers. A British-born, New York- a novel. American
based journalist, Heller had huge Wife tells the story
success with her last novel, Notes on of Laura (or Alice
a Scandal, even before Cate Blanchett as she appears in
and Judi Dench replicated it on the the book), from the
big screen. The Believers follows the traumatic car crash
Litvinoff family in Greenwich Village, which saw her school
a former hotbed of friend killed to her falling in love with
political radicalism the scion of a Republican dynasty, and
which has become his subsequent bad behaviour. Casting
as non-threatening, Laura as a woman at odds with her
gentrified and eye- husband’s political views, this book
wateringly expensive has caused ripples of excitement and
_Pr
as the rest of New outrage throughout the American media,

York. The Litvinoffs not least because of the smatterings

ofile of a see themselves as of sexual intrigue and scandal in the
Legend:
the last bastions of novel (which may be where the fiction
liberal values, only comes in but there’s nothing like a few
gradually becoming ruffled feathers to shift some books).
aware of their howling hypocrisies
and the gulf between their ideologies This year also sees
Mary Ellen
and their true beliefs. Set in 2002, the final season of
the book mixes family strife, religion the critically-adored
and politics to create a novel more series The Wire and
entertaining and genuinely funny than Canongate are acting

the subject matter might suggest. on the hype by
Mark_

re-releasing a book
As the race for the White by the show’s
House enters the brutal creator, David Simon.
final furlong, the current Entitled Homicide:
residents are being A Year on the Killing
scrutinised for the Streets, it’s a non-fiction guide to
A
s one of America’s most accomplished and revered photographers, Mary Ellen Mark
last time. Despite the drug and crime problems in
is undeservedly overlooked outside the US. Her passion, curiosity and dedication
all the books about Baltimore, as seen by the police. Grim and
to exploring the depths and heights of humanity have made her one of the most thrilling
George Bush, there’s grisly and hugely engrossing, it inspired
photographers of all time.
been little about the Simon’s first TV show, Homicide: Life on
man said to be the the Streets, and gives a good name to the
Focusing on a diverse myriad of social subjects, Mark’s prolific career has covered film, real power behind the otherwise maligned genre of true crime.
literature, art and most importantly, photography. Her early 1980’s work, Streetwise, throne, Dick Cheney.
became a cult documentary, filmed by her husband Martin Bell. In it, she explored and So little is known about Cheney and his And finally, one for the
became a part of Seattle’s trodden and wretched community of street kids. Among influence that conspiracy theories are toilet readers; Why Not
those street kids was 12 year old hooker, Tiny, a child who has been a consistent source given a chance to breed until the Vice Catch 21? The Stories
of fascination for Mark, who has photographed her throughout her life, documenting President has been cast as a Svengali Behind the Titles.
her gradual slide into the inevitable. figure who doesn’t suffer from the Covering everything
shackles of accountability. Examining from Ulysses to The
It is this dogged curiosity that defines Mark’s work. You can’t help but feel that the truth of these allegations is Pulitzer- Great Gatsby (or
you’re seeing something private, and at times, illicit, in every photograph. winning journalist Barton Gellman. His Trimalchio of West
The main body of her work is in black and white, but her series on the prostitutes reports into Dick Cheney have been Egg, as F. Scott
of Bombay’s Falkland Road bursts in a riot of sumptuous colour which seems to expanded into a biography, rather Fitzgerald originally
eradicate all feelings of shame about what you’re seeing. She has a talent for making cryptically called Angler (the Secret envisioned it) it’s
you see beyond. Service’s code name for Cheney) which packed with trivia and
threatens a lifetime of being stocked in anecdotes and a humorous reminder of
Visit www.maryellenmark.com for a full biography and gallery of Mary Ellen Mark’s the wrong section of bookshops but it the evolution and curious history of our
work. I promise, you’ll be captivated. remains a book well worth seeking out. favourite books.
Substance_26_
www.scotcampus.com_
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