Irish Times reviewers cast a critical eye over the latest batch of paperbacks.
Charles Darwin: The Power of Place. Janet Browne, Princeton, £14.95
This is Volume II of Janet Browne's superb biography of one of the great scientific figures of the 19th century. It opens in 1858, when Darwin is at the end of his 40s, living at Down House in Kent, a haven of solitude and peace - his wife and helpmeet, Emma, née Wedgwood, is given her full due - after the years of wandering across the face of the globe, during which he amassed the wealth of naturalist material that was to be the scientific foundation of the theory of evolution. Although The Power of Place is an enormous work, it is as brisk and fascinatingly detailed as a novel by Trollope, a name that Janet Browne repeatedly invokes. Her account of the controversies that Darwin could not help stirring up, and of his skill as a puppeteer in handling them, makes for a thrilling read. A masterpiece of the
biographer's art. - John Banville
Nobody's Perfect: Writings from the New Yorker. Anthony Lane (Picador, £12.99)
When Britisher Anthony Lane wrote his first movie review for The New Yorker, of Indecent Proposal, readers knew the heir to Kael had finally arrived. Indecent Proposal is the laugh-a-thon in which Robert Redford offers Demi Moore's husband $1 million to sleep with her. "It's just my body. It's not my mind," Demi assures her hubby. Observed Lane: "It does raise an interesting question: how much would you pay for an evening with Demi Moore's mind?" That review, along with some 100 more, and various features and profiles, is reprinted in this collection. Lane's opinions often surprise: he perceptively champions the oft-derided likes of Titanic and Lolita while savaging critics' darlings such as Pulp Fiction. And though his humour can be overly punny and obvious, more often it's hilarious. - Kevin Sweeney
The Crimson Petal and the White Michael Faber (Canongate, £8.99)
Weariness with his ailing wife and the lamenting of his debauched youth has led miserable William Rackham to apathy and little else. Heir to a potential fortune, he is too lazy to do anything about it and merely exists - until he meets Sugar, a willing young prostitute with an intellect plus an excitingly vast repertoire of sexual tricks. It's true love, as long as he doesn't have to leave his unloved wife, who now faints at the merest hint of contact. Set in a sprawling, uneasy 19th-century London of dark alleys and big houses, this dazzling cautionary cartoon is big, bawdy, burlesque, highly entertaining and black as night. Faber's collection of ordinary misfits, trying to survive amid the conventions of a Victorian novel, itself reflecting the hypocrisy of a brutal society, prove a believable crew. Replete with ambiguities, this is a seriously witty, multi-sub-plotted romp that spins on its several ironies and human emotion run riot. - Eileen Battersby
On Not Being Able to Sleep: Psychoanalysis and the Modern World. Jacqueline Rose (Vintage, £8.99)
Shame and guilt are central themes in Jacqueline Rose's exploration of society's revelation junkies. Using essays written over the last 10 years, Rose asks: what do we gain or lose when people reveal themselves? In reviewing biographies of Plath, Rich, Rossetti and Sexton, she highlights the biographer's ethical difficulties when faced with subjects who parade their most intimate experiences explicitly or loosely veiled. In her piece on psychoanalysis she traces the birth, history and institutionalisation of psychoanalysis while also providing valuable insights into the cult of the celebrity and the apathy, shame and guilt that envelops South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission. In essence, a valuable contribution to modern psychoanalysis that tempts the reader towards further study. - Paul O'Doherty
Militant Islam Reaches America. Daniel Pipes (Norton, £11.95)
Daniel Pipes is one of the few Middle East experts who was not shocked by the events of September 11th, 2001 - in fact he was warning us that militant Islam declared war on the West for years before that. Pipes, a scholar of Islam and director of the Middle East Forum, offers a question as the lynchpin of this sometimes prescient book: "In the war against terror, who is the enemy?" He is quick to make a distinction between Islam as religion and Islam as ideology - viz militant Islam as opposed to Islamism. A number of interesting insights into the militant Islamic mindset are analysed. Many of the problems cited by Pipes of the dangers associated with Islamists to the West are well-formed and authoritative; however, the proposals put forward for dealing with militant Islam are questionable and tend to be based on an aggressive and secular US policy towards the Middle East. - Mark McGrath