A LONG WAY FROM HOME
Peter Carey (Faber & Faber, £8.99)
In rural 1950s Australia, Irene Bobs and her husband Titch take part in the Redex Trial, a gruelling 17-day race which tests drivers and their vehicles to the limit. They’re joined as navigator by their neighbour, Willie Bachhuber, separated from his wife and growing rather fond of Irene, and together they immerse themselves in the imposing Australian landscape. Carey harks back to his childhood here, of growing up in Bacchus Marsh, where the characters live, and avidly following the Redex Trials. But this novel also marks the first time he has confronted the issue of Australia’s indigenous people, indirectly at first but explicitly in the final third. After the Trial, they spin off in different directions, Willie staying in the outback teaching Aboriginal children and finding that his beloved maps aren’t up to the task of making sense of their Australia. The breakneck pace slows and the mood turns more sombre, but there’s a vitality to this novel that is vintage Carey.
OREO
Fran Ross (Picador Classic, £9.99)
Oreos were hard to find in Britain until 2008, but the addictive biscuit had been one of America’s favourites for decades. The name had also entered the USA’s lexicon of pejoratives, referring to someone who was black on the outside but white inside. Almost completely ignored on its original publication in 1974, Fran Ross’s feminist satire has acquired the status of a neglected classic, telling the story of Oreo, a girl born to a black mother who sets out to find her white Jewish father when she turns 14. A picaresque trek across New York City, Oreo sings with linguistic inventiveness, subverting and sidestepping the tropes that would have been expected of an African-American novel of the 1970s. It’s also hilarious, Ross (who went on to write for Richard Pryor) seemingly loath to let a paragraph slip by without inserting a joke into it. Oreo marks the emergence of an original and singular voice who, sadly, never wrote another book.
GIVE PEOPLE MONEY
Annie Lowrey (W.H. Allen, £12.99)
In recent years, the argument in favour of a Universal Basic Income has been steadily making its way from the margins to the mainstream. It seems self-evident to many people that such a system would be too counter-intuitive, too radical, too immoral even, to gain ground in the current political climate. But evidence is emerging that UBI should at least be given serious consideration. In this book, Annie Lowrey, a contributing editor to Atlantic magazine, argues that there are ways UBI could be a practical solution to the challenges faced by the labour market in an increasingly automated future. Alongside interviews with economists and entrepreneurs, she examines pioneering projects in Iran, India and Kenya and hears that, far from disincentivising people from working, UBI can stimulate economies. Rather than advocating a blanket policy of UBI across the population regardless of wealth, she presents a persuasive argument that there are circumstances in which it can be an appropriate tool to combat poverty.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here